Next Sunday we will be discussing Blogging Time Management, as suggested by Patrick Phillips. Patrick noticed that over the past week or so that several people in #Blogchat were talking about how to find time for blogging, when they preferred to write, etc. So we’ll go with Patrick’s suggestion, and here’s the link to follow him on Twitter.
I wanted to try something different this week. Typically, 30 mins before #Blogchat starts, I ask everyone to share a link to their blog so we can connect. But I thought it would be educational (and fun!) if instead we each talked about how we manage our own blogging efforts and writing, and then on Sunday we can share our posts and compare notes. So that’s what I wanted to do here, and I encourage you to do the same on your own blog!
Now for the past month or so my blogging has taken a bit of a backseat as I’ve been working on writing Think Like a Rockstar. Currently I’m writing about 1-2 posts a week, where before I wrote 3-4 a week. I plan on going back to that schedule soon.
So here’s how I manage my blogging. First, I do most of my writing either late at night, or first thing in the morning. Ideally, I will write my post the night before, and set it to publish the following morning at 8am. If I haven’t come up with a post idea by the end of the day, the following morning around 7am or so I will check my Google Reader and scan the blogs and sites I am subscribed to. If I can’t find any inspiration from reading those blogs and sites, then I go about my day. One thing I learned the hard way is that if I don’t have anything to say that day, then I DON’T PUBLISH A NEW POST. It’s far better to go a couple of days without posting and then run a great post, than it is to run three straight mediocre posts. If I’m not feeling it today, then I won’t blog and we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.
Now I typically only focus on blogging from Monday through Thursday. Occasionally I will post on Friday, and sometimes on Sunday, but almost never on Saturdays. I follow this pattern because in watching my traffic patterns I’ve learned that the best days for traffic on here are in the middle of the week, Tuesday through Thursday. So I focus on blogging on those days first. If I can write a 4th post, it will typically go on Monday, then a 5th post would be on either Sunday or Friday.
So that’s how I manage time for my blog. Typically, I will invest about an hour for writing a post. If I can’t come up with a great post after about 60 mins, I move on. Finding ideas for posts is usually the hardest part for me, after I have the idea, the post pretty much writes itself.
What about you? When do you spend time writing for your blog? Every day? Morning? Evening? Weekends? Please share what works for you on your blog, so we can all share our results this coming Sunday at the next #Blogchat! And if you do write a post on how you manage your blogging and want to share a link in the comments, feel free!
BTW if you’ve never joined #Blogchat before, here’s what it’s all about!
With new twin baby girls, my blogging became more & more sporadic, until I finally gave up & just stopped blogging altogether. I should have kept the blog going, but I shut it down completely & lost all of my work. But now that the babies are almost 8 months old, they are slightly less time-intensive, and I have started a new blog. I have only made a few posts so far, but I usually write late at night when everyone else is asleep. Hopefully I’ll be able to write on a more consistent basis from now on.
Ah Mike, we all have our priorities, don’t we? I will be interested to see what others say, but from what I can tell, very late at night or very early in the day seems to be most people’s favorite blogging time.
When it comes to finding time to blog (especially with a full time job!) weekends are a godsend!
I tend to write late night either on Friday or the weekend. With a day job, I normally spend about an hour or two each day looking for ideas through reader & other channels. That’s what I wrote in the last post :). Looking forward to #blogchat to see how others are doing.
Thanks for the mention, Mack. I appreciate it and I’m definitely looking forward to the chat this evening.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned involves not blogging when I really don’t have much to say. Part of that was learning to give myself the grace to not meet a “deadline” once in a while. It relates to something I wrote a while back about that “rule” many writers quote that you MUST write every single day. All that really does is make a writer nearing burn-out move toward it even faster. We all need those periods to recharge, even if it’s only for one day and involves only one post.
But what a difference that one day can make!
Patrick you are very right, I finally learned that it’s far better to post one GREAT post a week than 3 average ones. If you don’t have anything to say, then give yourself permission to shut up until you do 😉
I wish I could keep a schedule like Mack’s!
I try to post 3-4 times a week, but I pretty much write when I’m inspired and have a really hard time holding posts back and scheduling them for later in the week. I do agree with the “one great > three mediocre” but if I don’t have a great post, I still try to be consistent with my posting so I’ll throw up a goof or a shorter post just to keep content fresh.
I like the google reader idea tho; other blogs are a great way to get ideas for my own posts.
I think the key lesson I’ve learned, the hard way, is that when what I’m writing becomes boring or stressful for me, rather than grit my teeth and press on I should put that aside and do something else. Sometimes the problem is that I haven’t thought the idea through clearly enough and if that seems to be the case I find it better to come back to it via some mind mapping, or by doing a bullet point list, usually in another medium (remember pen and paper?). That usually helps me get back the initial enthusiasm I had for the idea or story.
Funny thing: Part of the reason I’m not getting any blogging done this afternoon is that I’m clearing the decks for #BlogChat!
But seriously folks, I think this is an important topic and I look forward to the discussion.