It doesn’t really matter why you started blogging – whether for business or personal reasons. What does matter is that your blogging is productive on whatever level you need it to be. While the initial set-up of your blog can be time consuming, the real work comes later, when you’re trying to consistently create great content while marketing your work. Here are 20 tips for maintaining a productive blogging career.
1. Reduce Your Distractions. While writing blog posts you should be doing just that – writing. Checking your email, following Twitter trends, looking at Facebook updates, and even texting need to take backseat to the task at hand. The more focused you are on your writing, the easier it will be to complete your post. The rest can wait.
2. Write in Bulk. Have you considered writing a series of posts for your blog – 2 or 3 articles on the same subject set to continue each other and publish automatically? Writing posts that are related will save you research time and will ensure you’re always ahead in terms of your posting schedule.
3. Scheduling in Advance. You don’t necessarily have to write in bulk in order to schedule your posts in advance. Setting a day or two each week to write all of your posts for the coming days or weeks will ensure you never fall behind. Writing an extra post or two to keep in your queue will also ensure you have something to post even when life gets in the way.
4. Create a Calendar of Ideas. Are there certain topics you’d like to cover at certain times of the year? Are there certain blog events, writing events, or conference you’d like to cover? Set some time aside each month to map out your ideas so that you have a clear idea of where you’d like to take your blog. You can then fill in the gaps with your other creative ideas.
5. Decide on a Posting Frequency. Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to write a post for your blog every single day of the week. What you do need to do, however, is decide how often you’d like to post – daily, multiple times per day, 2-3 times per week, weekly, or otherwise. Once you choose a schedule, you’ll need to stick to it so your readers know what to expect – and you’ll be better able to plan for your own needs.
6. Morning or Night? Are you a morning person or are you a night owl? Don’t force yourself to sit down and work at your worst time of day. Determine when you are usually at your best and block out some time to do your writing. Your writing work will become much easier to cope with.
7. Put Your Inner Editor in Check. You are your own worst critic and if you let yourself get out of control you’ll spend more time than necessary on each post you write. Once your post is finished, check it for spelling and grammar errors and make sure you didn’t leave out any pertinent details. Other than that, leave it alone.
8. Schedule Time for Interaction. Once your blog becomes more popular, you’ll want to spend more time responding to the comments your readers leave behind. Don’t get caught up in checking every comment the moment you get a notification. Block out a bit of time each day (or twice per day) and address all of your comments in bulk.
9. Keep a Notebook. Carry a notebook everywhere you go. A tiny, pocket-sized piece will do. Jot downany idea you could potentially turn into a blog post, whether it really relates to your niche or not. Sometimes we can make real-life stories relate to our work in ways we didn’t originally anticipate.
10. Read Less. Ouch! Read less? What I mean is that you should spend less time reading the blogs of others – especially if it is taking away from your work time. Add all of the blogs you want to keep up with to your RSS feed reader and then scan the titles once or twice per day, at a predetermined time in your schedule. Only read what you find relevant. You don’t have to keep up with every single word.
11. Autopost to Facebook. Marketing is just as important as writing but you don’t want to spend a ton of time on these tasks, either. Go to Facebook and find the NetworkedBlogs application. Add your blog to the list and then edit the settings so that new posts on your blog automatically to your site’s fan page. The rest will happen automatically, saving you tons of valuable time. There are Facebook plug-ins you can use, but why install a plug-in when Facebook can do the work automatically?
12. Autopost to Twitter. The same goes for Twitter. You should have an automatic there everytime a new post publishes as well. The WP to Twitter plugin is free to use and allows you to add a custom Tweets for each post.
13. Set Up Google Alerts. Everyone has a bad day – a day filled with writers block or a lack of ideas. Set up your Google Alerts with some keywords that relate to your niche. You’ll receive either RSS updates or emails letting you know when news articles or posts on that subject are published on the web. You may just find some great blog topics this way.
14. Try a Desktop Editor. Do you write and publish to more than one blog? A desktop editor like Windows Live Writer, BlogDesk, or Ecto will allow you to set up accounts, write posts, and automatically upload them to your site from the editor.
15. Schedule Networking Time. Don’t spend a ton of time on social networking sites, responding to comment after comment. Use tools like TweetDeck or HootSuite to manage your posts and block only 15-20 minutes, once or twice per day, to check your accounts and respond to comments.
16. Schedule Marketing Time. You do, of course, need to market your blog. Set aside a certain amount of time per day for blog commenting, forum posting, and even article writing. Blocking out this time will make it easier for you to build your blog’s reputation.
17. Learn to Outsource. Do you simply feel like you don’t have enough time in your day to get it all done? Consider visiting sites like Craigslist, oDesk, Elance, and others for help outsourcing some of your work. This could range from writing copy to creating graphics or marketing your site. It’s really up to you.
18. Try Dual Monitors. If you spend a ton of time online, you may want to consider setting up dual monitors. Most newer computers and graphic cards support this type of functionality. You can do your research on one screen while you write on the other, eliminating the need to open and close screens while attempting to sort through info.
19. Write without Formatting. This goes hand in hand with shutting up your inner editor. Don’t worry about the way your post looks. Simply write it and then special fonts, colors, headings, subheadings, and images later on. Worrying about formatting will destroy your productivity time.
20. Have Fun. If you aren’t having fun, or enjoying your work, it will take longer than anything else you do throughout your day. Find a niche you love and enjoy and you’ll never run out of cool things to say.
Creating a blogging schedule for writing and marketing can be a bit cumbersome. Take your time and focus on the important tasks – like awesome content creation – first. The rest will follow naturally!
