I tweet about blogging a lot. Blogging is my main source of income, the thing I spend the most of my life doing and the thing that makes up the majority of my thoughts on any given day. So I think it’s pretty standard that I’m going to talk about it a lottttttt. A little while ago, I mentioned that I had over 30 posts scheduled for the coming months on my blog and that tweet got one hell of a response from praise, awe and just general disbelief. Not tooting my own horn here whatsoever but as I said, blogging is my main “thing”, it’s not just a here-and-there hobby to me any more, I take it extremely seriously so I don’t think it should be that much of a surprise that I’m so organised with my blog.
And I totally get that we’re all blogging for different reasons and I’m not saying I feel like I’m better than anyone else because I’m a literal Monica Gellar and cannot function unless I’m 4 months ahead of schedule. Not saying that at all. But I know from the responses of that tweet that some bloggers do want to get more organised and blog a bit more regularly. I know having hundreds of posts scheduled certainly isn’t for everyone and some people enjoy just writing as and when and posting as and when but for me, personally, it helps me stay focused and organised and takes a whole lot of pressure off when I know I haven’t got to whack out a post on the quick because hey presto! They’re already scheduled.
So on that tweet, I got a reply asking about my blogging process and I thought I’d share a bit of it today which may help someone who wants to get a bit more organised with their blog and maybe start planning and scheduling content in advance! I’m not saying my way is the right way (no way is the “right” way when it comes to blogging) but this is just what I do and what works for me! If it helps you too, brill! If it doesn’t, well just ignore this post and move on.
Blogging schedule
I never used to have a blogging schedule but I’ve established a nice little one which has been working really well for me at the moment. I always schedule 3 posts a week; Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then leave Tuesday and Thursday open for any last minute sponsored content or product reviews which might come in. I also always try and leave weekends free so I have a little bit of a break from the constant promotion etc!
Since writing this post, I’ve actually had a revamp of my blogging scheduled and from September on-wards I’ll be posting twice a week, Monday’s and Thursday’s instead, with days spare for sponsored content etc. I know this will work better for me and allow me more time to promote the posts I write, rather than just churning out content for the sake of it. Quality over quantity! But it’s another important point to remember that it’s okay to change things up if it’s not working for you!
Coming up with ideas
I simply use a note on my iPhone to keep track of my blog post ideas. I split it into months – just in case there’s a certain post which might bode better for a certain time of the year (e.g a Valentine’s themed post going up in February) and this is a simple but effective way to keep track of your ideas and an accessible way to note them down on the go – because we’re always in the strangest places when we come up with the best ideas.
Related posts:
Practical tips for coming up with blog post ideas
Bookish blog post ideas
Spring and Summer blog post ideas
Winter and Christmas blog post ideas
Autumn blog post ideas
Journal
At the beginning of the year, I created a “bullet journal” which turned into a glorified blogging notebook basically. I’ve drawn up each month and write down when my posts are going up. But here’s the fun bit… I COLOUR CODE them, yes that’s right, I’ve reached peak Monica Gellar status. No seriously, I colour code them by topic so I can see how varied my content is in each given week and can make sure I don’t have too much of one thing (this obviously doesn’t apply to you if you only blog about books or make-up or whatever!)
Writing
I tend to do the writing part before I add the photos because that’s the part I enjoy the most and taking photos can take soooo long and requires so much effort. So yes, I always focus on the writing before anything else. When I have the time, I’ll usually sit down and write out 2 or 3 blog posts from the list on my phone. Add in all the tags, links, categorize it – all that “extra” stuff and then save it as a draft for the time being.
Photos
Then the next day (or whenever I have time / can be bothered) is when I’ll take my photo/s for the posts, edit them, add them to the post itself and get it scheduled. I use aboard with some white wooden-style sticky back on as the background for my blog photos then use a load of random stuff including notebooks, fairy-lights, fake flowers, candles, confetti, pens, quotes and whatever else I can find and arrange them to make a semi-decent photo. My photos are a far cry from the incredible photography we so often see but I’m trying my best! I take my photos with my Nikon Coolpix camera, edit them on the VSCO app on my phone then add my ‘Jenny in Neverland watermark using Canva.
Schedule
Once my post is finished, I’ll schedule it for 8:30am on the morning of whichever day I want to have it up. I’ve always preferred posting in the morning but obviously you don’t have to. If you’re wanting to start scheduling posts in advance, the way I’ve done it before it have a little break from blogging first and during that break, work on your ideas and schedule for the following month. Then as you’re working on new content, you always have content going up!