I could say blogging is hard work, but instead, I want to say it is really time consuming.
It takes hours to research a post, write it, edit, re-read, re-edit, find images, optimize it a bit for search engines, publish, promote, be active on social media and so on and so on.
A lot of people just sit down in front of the computer when they have time and start “storming” through their blog and random tasks they think of as they go. And at the end, they end up wasting most of the time practically not finishing any of the important tasks that would help their blogs grow.
Time is money, and you can always get someone to waste time instead of you, but of course that will cost you. So let’s assume your blogging budget is not really high and you simply have to get the most of the time you have at your disposal.
The best thing you can do is make a plan with daily tasks and try sticking to it as much as you can. That way you will create habits and get into the flow of actions you need to move your blog forward.
The plan will depend on time you have every day, when are you productive, how fast can you perform certain tasks, but this example should give you an idea on how to create one.
Monday:
- 30 minutes of research on three topics you will write about this week,
- schedule 2 updates a day for next 4 days on Facebook,
- spend 5 minutes on Twitter thanking for RTs and replying to tweets and schedule a few updates for next 3 days
Tuesday:
- write post #1 ,
- publish post #3 from last week,
- spend 15 minutes commenting on blogs
Wednesday:
- write post #2,
- edit post #1,
- reply to emails
Thursday:
- write post #3,
- edit post #2,
- publish post #1,
- spend 5 minutes on Twitter thanking for RTs and replying to tweets and schedule a few updates for next 3 days
Friday:
- edit post #3,
- pitch post #2 as a guest post,
- send out a short newsletter (offer, link to a blog post, short tip),
- schedule 2 updates a day for next few days on Facebook
Saturday:
- spend 15 minutes commenting on blogs,
- reply to emails,
- write down 5 to 10 ideas for blog posts you can work on next week
Sunday:
- blog maintenance for 15 minutes (update plugins, delete spam comments, reply to comments on your blog),
- find images for blog posts you are interested in doing next week
I need to repeat again that your plan will depend on your time and focus. Some people won’t use Twitter but may use Pinterest, or you may not have a newsletter so you won’t be doing that on Thursday. Maybe you don’t like blog commenting and you will use that time to write an extra guest post.
Bottom line, if you write yourself a to-do list based on time slots in a day and try sticking to them for a month, you will create habits that will come more naturally to you after that.
Don’t just storm through your blog, make a plan and work through it, one of the best ways to reach your goals is consistency!
Do you have a plan like this for your blog?
About Brankica Underwood
