Where Next? Maintaining a Blog for the Long-Term

Blogs are an interesting medium. In one sense they are a great way to provide insight and value to your audience, and in another they are a beast that is never satiated. You only need to miss a few weeks and new people think you’ve stopped posting and its all gone a bit stale. This requirement to stay “current” can create a unique sense of pressure. When launching the blog back in June, we were adamant that we would not become part of the graveyard of blogs that writes two to three posts and then just gives up. I am pleased that we have met that goal and have produced a weekly blog for (I think) every week bar one since then. We’ve written about renovations, gardens, guides on viewing property and even reviewed artwork that was kindly sent to us. It’s been great and the audience response has been one of the key things that has kept us going. However, I would be lying if I said I hadn’t been spending some time before and over Christmas thinking about how this looks in the long term. I am extremely wary of just regurgitating content in different iterations whilst essentially saying the same things over and over again. The key question, therefore, is how do we produce regular, interesting content whilst also remembering that this isn’t our full-time job or focus. Below are some of my thoughts on that question.

Current events

Having written about a vast number of the foundations of property, there is an opportunity now for us to focus a bit more on the current events that are going on in the world of property. For example, I am keen to write pieces on the future of workspaces given the shift to working from home caused by COVID. In a similar vein, there is potential to provide a bit more detail on how current events are affecting the property market. An example being that, so far, COVID’s biggest impact on the property market has been pressure on the conveyancing system caused by demand being pent up due to the shut-down in March. A slight concern I have on this front is that, at the moment and likely for a while, COVID consumes everything and I want the blog to act as a bit of an escape for people who want to learn about property and not simply read this week’s piece on how COVID is affecting things. So there will be a balance. We won’t ignore the biggest news stories of the day; however, we’ll also work to make sure we’re not writing about the same thing every week.

External contributors

This one I am extremely keen about. Some of my favourite articles that we have published have been ones that have no actual link to Henley Real Estate or House of Henley beyond them being written by people we respect and believe to have interesting insight. These include when Becky wrote about her experience living in a Listed Rectory or Folu wrote about Interest-Only Mortgages, or James wrote about what we can expect from the property market this year. We are lucky now to have a relatively healthy following on Instagram and on here and so it would be great to use this to find more contributors who have interesting stories to share. This may be interior designers who wish to write about trends they like, small developers writing about a project, or a young couple writing about their first steps on the housing ladder. These perspectives will provide insight and information we never could due to the breadth of lived experiences they would draw on. To help make this a reality, I plan on seeking out potential contributors over the next few weeks and months. If you think you have a story to share, please do drop me a DM on Instagram.

Audience-led ideas

Even if you may not feel confident enough, or have the experience to write an entire blog for us, we would still love to hear about any ideas you have for us. Another one of my favourite posts came from exactly this source. One of our readers asked us quite simply how they could add value to their home. I am therefore excited to explore this type of idea-generation too. I can sit here all day and think up angles on various property aspects I find interesting; however, I’ve been humbled by the number of times I’ve spoken to people and their question or query is just a far better, more valuable thing to write about. It also strikes me as a good way to build further connection with our audience. If we’re answering questions you’re asking and building a conversation around those topics, that seems to be nothing but a good thing in my book. In that spirit, if you have any questions, ideas or queries, feel free to DM me on Instagram or fill out the form on our Contact page.

Final thoughts

This post has been a bit different to the norm. However, I thought it might be fun to provide a bit of a behind-the-scenes update on what I’ve been thinking about and the challenges posed by running a blog in the long-term for someone who’s day job has absolutely nothing to do with running a blog. I am hopeful the ideas I’ve had will work well and, of course, if you have any insights or feedback you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you too.

Here’s to 2021.

Chris