Tips for Bloggers 1—Retooling Astrology Posts to Keep them Fresh

©2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 Current astrological events are valuable blog posts and newsletter material in that they excite people and make them want to read what you’ve written. However, I’ve always resisted writing about transiting astrological conditions, especially the ephemeral ones that last only a week or a month.  That would mean hundreds and maybe thousands of words that could never be used again. For someone who primarily writes books, it seemed a waste of precious writing time.

 When this blog opened around Christmas, though, I found myself writing about them because both the transiting combinations and the history-making events they heralded were so unusual. There was a long stellium of planets in Aquarius, a killer New Moon, and a two-week Mars-Pluto conjunction, as well as the slower-moving Uranus-Saturn opposition and Saturn-Neptune quincunx.

 The events that coincided with these conditions in the early days of the Obama administration were so ground-breaking that I couldn’t help but see them in stark astrological terms. Now, some six months later, I’m taking inventory so that I can upload a few posts to article collections as a way to bring more traffic to my blog. Those seemingly fascinating observations have become embarrassingly dated and irrelevant.  I never junk anything I write, so what could be done with them?

 Fortunately, I’m not only an author but a long-time editor of  journals like Vibration Magazine — educational journal on flower essences, so I tweak my writing and that of others quite quickly and seamlessly.  It would be a simple matter to delete references that were limited by the fast-moving aspects and plump up the references to slower-moving transits and natal aspects between the same combination of planets. 

Within a half-hour, I was able to convert two articles that focused on the short-lived transiting Mars-Pluto conjunction into pieces that would endure for a number of years.  If you’ve been writing time-sensitive pieces for your blog, website, or newsletter, here’s how it was done so you can re-purpose them. 

 In reworking an article about constructive uses of the transiting Mars-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn, I broadened the scope by adding a list of the ones that are coming up in the next few years.  I also added more about natal Mars-Pluto aspects and a plug for my book Outer Planet Aspects to Venus and Mars (Volume 2 of The Outer Planets and Inner Life), since it has a chapter devoted to this aspect. (See Mars-Pluto Aspects? Use your Manifestation Mojo!)

 Another piece with good potential was one written during the conjunction in Capricorn, but that in reality was a metaphysical primer on clearing out thought forms that get in the way of our goals. It was simple to remove those few sentences about the Mars-Pluto conjunction and change them to more general observations about Pluto’s long stay in Capricorn. I also removed a brief plug for a writing course that started and ended this winter. Then I saved it with the “update post” button. Now, it’s an ever-green piece suitable for a more broadly metaphysical website or journal. (See Seriously Stuck? Blast Those Thought Forms!)

When I did a survey of my top posts after 8 months of blogging, I was puzzled why an article on the Mars-Uranus conjunction in Pisces in April, 2009 consistently stayed up on top of the list, even though that conjunction was over and the next such conjunction was 2 years away.  I kept watching its rank and wondering why, week after week, it got a respectable number of visits and stayed on top.  Finally I accepted the fact that there was something that drew readers and wondered if I might make it more relevant to the long haul. 

One explanation was  that, even though the conjunction was long gone, the children born with the Mars-Uranus conjunction in Pisces during its 4 recurrences over a 6-year period weren’t gone–in fact they were starting kindergarten and bedeviling their teachers and parents with their spunk and high energy.   I retooled the piece for longer-term use.  (See it here: The Transiting Mars-Uranus Conjunction, Last of 4.)

 So, that’s a glimpse of the process of adapting my writing.  If you’re a blogger or newsletter publisher, try reviewing some of your own transit write-ups and tweaking them to make them more permanently relevant. (If you have any tips, share them in the comments section.)  Recycle, recycle, recycle!  there’s an excellent article on how to update blog posts in general here: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/12/09/updating-old-posts-on-your-blog/

MORE TIPS FOR BLOGGERS ON THIS SITE:

• Can U Blog? What to Look for in the Birth Chart 
• Free Advertising—How to Create Email Signatures
• The Best Marketing Tool for your Astrology Blog–An Effective “About Me” Page
• How to Add Impact to Your Site with Pictures
• Internet Find of the Week–Compare Blog Tags and Website Keywords for Visitor Appeal
• Tips for Bloggers 1—Retooling your Astrology Posts to Keep them Fresh
• Tips for Bloggers 2—Backlinks and other Tactics
• Tips for Bloggers 3–A Promising Anthology on Blogging
• Testimonials that Work: Promote Yourself with Integrity, Credibility—and Class!
  Writing Tips–10 Dos and Don’ts for Astrology Blogs
•  TWO TIMELY RESOURCES:  ASTROLOGICAL FORECASTING: If you’ve been wanting to write astrological forecasts for the day, month, or year, but don’t know how, a online course about exactly that is about to begin.  Chris Turner, one of Australia’s finest astrologers and teachers, is repeating her excellent series on how to write forecasts for the media at the International Academy of Astrology (formerly The Online College of Astrology). It couldn’t be more timely, because it starts October 21st  at 8:30 PM Eastern.  Read about it at  http://www.astrocollege.com/academic/course.cgi?COURSE_CODE=1057355708-11978. If that link doesn’t work, try http://www.astrocollege.com and go to their continuing education division.

A PLACE TO POST ARTICLES: My Mercury Retrograde project this past time was working on a collection of articles to post on internet sites).  Soon after starting work on it, I was contacted by The Esoteric library, asking if I’d like to contribute articles to their growing collection of some 2200 pieces on astrology and an impressive array of other topics. For the past several days, I’ve been uploading articles there, and I’m well impressed with their high-minded desire to simply spread knowledge about esoteric topics. They are actively seeking new authors, take pains abut respecting copyrights, and welcome suggestions.  As with all article collection sites, you are advised to read and heed their writer’s guidelines so that your material will be accepted.  

I didn’t expect to go on at such length, but there it is. It started out as a brief email to a few of my writing buddies.  My editors at The Mountain Astrologer and I joke that I couldn’t write about anything other than the weather in less than a thousand words, and then only if it were a really mild day.  (Oh, and by the way, TMA now has a blog of their own, publishing new content each Monday.)

MORE TIPS FOR BLOGGERS ON THIS SITE:

• Can U Blog? What to Look for in the Birth Chart
• What Website Visitors Need to Know First
• How to Add Impact to Your Site with Pictures
• Internet Find of the Week–Compare Blog Tags and Website Keywords for Visitor Appeal
• Tips for Bloggers 2—Backlinks and other Tactics
• Tips for Bloggers 3–A Promising Anthology on Blogging

FREE EBOOKLET FOR SKYWRITER SUBSCRIBERS ONLY:  a 50-page excerpt from my out-of-print book, The Moon in your Life, also known as Being a Lunar Type in a Solar World.  Read more about it here: NEW: FREE BOOKLET FOR SKYWRITER SUBSCRIBERS!   If you’re already a subscriber and want a copy, forward the most recent email post to me at moonmave@spiritone.com. To sign up for a subscription, go to the top right hand corner of the blog and click on “Subscribe.”  Then send me an email with your subscription confirmation or an email post.

Art credit:  Like most clip art on this site, the greek gods on computers came from clipart.com.  I added the stars on a graphic program.