When I first started blogging I didn’t have a plan other than to document my relaxed hair journey. I didn’t realize how important it was that I consistently produced content to keep growing my readership.
As a result, I didn't have a real weekly posting schedule. I also didn't plan out what I would be posting about. More often than not an idea for a post would come to mind that I would type up and publish the post the same day.
Related read: 8 Tips For Being Ultra Productive When Blogging
Writing and posting on the same day
- Caused some stress for me
- This resulted in me writing short posts with little substance
- Lead to having small, poorly edited images (if I had any images at all)
- Left no time or thought for post promotion
After doing that for a while I realized I had to create a weekly posting schedule and pre-schedule my blog posts.
Since I started pre-scheduling my blog posts, I was less stressed out, enjoyed blogging more, and experienced a few other positives.
1. More quality content
As I mentioned before, my blog posts when I first started blogging were short, devoid of any depth, and had awful, dark images that weren’t Pinterest or reader-friendly. Now that I plan ahead and have started pre-scheduling my content I stopped having to scramble to come up with content or create it.
This leaves me more time to plan out the topics I'm writing about and write out longer, more detailed posts. It also leaves me time to take more quality images, edit them, and create attractive graphics.
Related read: 15 Tools That Make Beauty Blogging So Much Easier
2. Coverage during vacations and emergencies
Once you've started to build momentum with anything, especially blogging, you don't want to lose it. And that can happen if you go for long periods with no new content.
By planning ahead and pre-scheduling posts, you can look active without actually being active. I’ve gone through periods when I didn’t have time to create new content but I had several pre-scheduled posts. Without those, my blog would have felt like it went dark resulting in a loss in engagement from current readers and new readership.
3. More time for other aspects of blogging
Blogging isn't just about writing and spitting out new blog posts. It's also about
- Building community by connecting with your followers and other bloggers
- Making money to support your blogging and perhaps even make a full-time income
Having my blog content planned out and scheduled for weeks at a time allows me to dedicate more time to those two aspects.
How to Start Pre-Scheduling Your Blog Posts
Once you've determined that planning and pre-scheduling your blog posts are the way you need to go, here are 4 helpful tips for how you can get started.
1. Create a posting schedule
Having a posting schedule is so important. I've found that having a specific posting schedule keeps me on track and accountable. It also helps me know how many posts I need to complete within a period of time so I have a couple of months of content.
To make a posting schedule for your blog, think about how often you want posts to go live. Is that once a week, twice a week, or every day? There isn’t any wrong answer, it's just what you can do without burning out.
Once you figure out the frequency of publishing posts on your blog stick to it. Consistency is what brings readers back, increasing your traffic, and helping to increase potential income.
2. Have a content calendar
Also sometimes known as an editorial calendar, a content calendar is a visual representation of the schedule for your blog content. I have a content calendar for my blog because it helps me to generate and house my content ideas, keep my content organized, and my content creation process on track.
Content calendars can be created using Google Calendar, Excel spreadsheets, Word docs, or project management tools like ClickUp which is what I use to create and manage my content calendar.
ClickUp is a cloud-based collaboration and project management tool that has a lot of great features. After watching a few videos from content creators who use it I was sold. With ClickUp I can easily
- Organize my content using the drag-and-drop feature
- Create and follow a process for content creation
- Add notes to my content ideas and scheduled content
- See due dates at a glance
You can give Clickup a try yourself by using my affiliate link.
3. Outline the blog posts
Once you have your posting schedule and content calendar in place, it's time to start writing. I like to start with an outline.
Starting with an outline helps me
- See how long my post could be
- Determine if the post could be broken up into a series
- See where I need to do some research
- Come up with ideas for graphics and images
- Write more quality blog posts in less time
In my outline, I write out the key points I want to hit on that specific topic. Once I’m good with that I start filling in the outline with a little more detail for each of the key points.
If I need to do more research I start finding sources and pulling in that information. Once I have all the info I need I take that information to flesh out and actually write the blog post.
4. Set aside specific time to create graphics and images
Graphics and images can sometimes be a deciding factor for whether someone reads or doesn't read your post. The more attractive the image the better, but it can take time and planning.
If you like to shoot most of your images like me, you probably know how tedious a process it can be. Setting up the shots, getting good shots, and selecting and editing the image all take time. It doesn't happen quickly so I need to set aside a specific time to do shoots and if I don't know beforehand what I need to capture it makes the shoot even harder and longer. I also ran the risk of not getting the shot I needed.
On the graphics side, I use Canva to create my Pinterest images and even organize and lay out the images I use within my blog posts. It’s a free tool that you can use as well.
Do you pre-schedule your blog posts? Why/why not?
This is so important and it definitely hurts a blog when there are spaces between blog posts.
ReplyDeleteIt really does. I've stopped reading a few blogs that post way too sporadically with no reason. I'm talking no posts months, new posts for a few weeks, than no new posts for several more months.
DeleteThanks for reading Tomes!
Taking notes! I'm slowly getting better at planning my posts but I'm glad I read this :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading Karla. It takes time to get there. It took me a while. While I'm better at scheduling my blog posts I stink at scheduling my social media. I'm working on that next.
DeleteTop tips, thank you!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading John! Glad you liked them.
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