Keeping a blogging schedule is a challenge for many. Not just keeping a schedule, but also coming up with new ideas, creating the post, and of course, remembering the photos. The thing is, there is motivation and inspiration all around us. That’s what you need to remember.
I’ve been blogging for a pretty long time. Long before I was a food blogger, I was a freelance writer and I had blogs that went with several of my more popular topics (including Frugal Living and Scrapbooking). Some days, I have to repeat topics or recipes or projects because I have nothing else. Sometimes that just happens.
Here are some tips and tricks to keeping a blogging schedule.
Utilize an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar can be digital or paper. It can be one page for each month, a notebook with sections or however it works for you. It gives you the opportunity to stay organized, be prepared and plan ahead. You can record upcoming holidays and events that you might want to blog about. If you’re a crafter, you might want to set up June to have lots of red, white and blue to get ready for July. If you’re a foodie, you might want to put up plenty of BBQ recipes in May to get ready for Memorial day and summer activities. Using an editorial calendar allows you to plan the post, and what day you plan to post it. It can allow you to see where you might still want to add something, or where you have too much planned. Here’s a great site for creating an editorial calendar.
Set aside time. Setting aside time every single day to work on your blog is the key to keeping it on schedule. Consistancy is key. Even if it’s only five minutes one day, you can utilize this to plan, write for a few minutes or edit a photo or two. Just make sure you do something every day.
Keep a To Do List. Blogging has a lot of different components to it. From planning, emails, social media, marketing and so much more, there is so much to keep track of. Keep a running to do list with daily tasks, weekly tasks, monthly tasks and even yearly tasks. This site has a cute printable. This site has a whole planner you can print for free.
Stay Organized. Honestly, the best advice I can give, is to stay organized. Write everything down, use google documents, calendars, to do lists, planners or whatever works for you. When I accept a campaign, I immediately print out the directions and at the top I print out all the pertinent info for the campaign. Draft due, post due, Social Media requirements and whatever else seems important. I then have a folder I organize by month, and file them in there. Then every couple of days, I go through, pull them all and record any new ones in my planner or editorial calendar complete with what I am doing for that campaign. Staying organized is the difference between a sucessful blog, and a blog that will always struggle for traffic. You CAN do this!
This is letter K for the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Keeping a Blogging Schedule is an important component to keeping your blog running smoothly. Do you have any tips? Feel free to leave them in the comments!
