I’m learning how to be a better blogger, slowly but surely.
One of the things I’ve learnt is to schedule posts - allocating a block of time on the weekend to getting a week’s worth of posts out of the way, and then setting them up to publish once a day. This is a wonderful thing, and one that has saved me a lot of stress. But it has a downside - it takes longer to respond to posts by friends unless I consciously reschedule the queued posts.
This sounds easy, but when I’m tired, or caught up in some afterwork, it is easy to forget that I am not alone in this journey - and indeed, must still take time to share the link love. I’ve noticed that gurus like Darren Rowse and Yaro Starak will add the odd “news just in” or “this is exciting” post to their daily schedule, so I think that this is OK.
It is not as if there is an either/or decision to make - it is possible to both schedule posts and share the love in a timely and appropriate way. Just something else to keep in mind and make into a habit.
What I do is pre-write posts - maybe 3-5 or so for a week - but I don’t schedule them, just save them as drafts. Then if something presents itself that requires timely coverage, I can put something together on the spot. If not, or if I run out of writing time during the week, then I can use one of my pre-written posts.
I’m still working on getting into a writing rhythm but so far this balance seems to work.
Hi Jeri,
thanks for your comment.
That sounds like a great idea - I don’t have the discipline (yet) to do it that way. What works for me is getting a some time freed up and then scheduling a post a day for as many days as I can - then try and organise some more time before the posts run out. This does have a downside though.
I do have a heap of post ideas saved in draft/outline form that I dip into when I need them - and often someone else comes along with an idea that meshes well with it.
Thanks, Andrew