Finding the right balance between Blogging, Design & Promotion
It’s only a week til i set off on my travels for a month. The last week has been hectic for me to say the least and this week is gonna be more crazy:) As well as blog posts i have published this week, i have also written about a dozen more to be posted when im travelling (Infact, im writing this on May 7th and im timstamping it to publish on the 21st!).
First and foremost, the main success of any blog is the content however it’s a cold hard fact that if you don’t promote your blog in some way your good posts will get lost in the archives. You need good content to please your readers but you need to promote your blog in the first place so that you have readers!
Trying to juggle all aspects of blogging can sometimes be difficult. I’ve found it hard the last week trying to write 4 weeks worth of posts and fit it into my usual blogging routine. I have also been messing about with the design of the blog in my wordpress test area a lot to try and get the blog looking the way i want it too. It’s very important for me to do understand all aspects of my blog as i can then pass on this information to readers. A few days ago i had spent about 4 or 5 hours messing about with the css stylesheet, an hour or so checking the blogs i subscribe to and 2 hours browsing reviewme to find suitable blogs to advertise on. I basically did a full days work and then thought - oh damn it, i haven’t even posted on the blog today!
The majority of blogger’s don’t have to worry too much about designing but they do have to worry about promoting their blog and im sure bloggers find it hard to manage time sometimes.
How to manage your time
Time management is a problem i know all bloggers have to deal with. Part time bloggers have got a full or part time job to fit into their schedule and full time bloggers have to juggle all of the aspects i have been talking about so far in this post.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. If you plan ahead you can save yourself a lot of stress :
- Write Posts in Advance - If you are gonna work a little more on promotion or if you think that you might be busy one day, write a post in advance to save you having to write a post that day.
- Manage Your time - Try and work out how much you spend blogging every week and how often you blog - eg 3 times a week. So for example, if you spent 10 hours a week blogging then try and set aside 7-8 hours for posting and 2-3 hours for promotion.
- Don’t be hard on yourself - There will be times when your posting frequency is reduced but dont be too hard on yourself. It isnt the end of the world. If your stressed out your posts you may end you being rushed - relax, theres more important things in life than work!
Summary
Managing every aspect of blogging can be hard at times but if you plan ahead and put a little effort into managing your time you can save yourself a lot of stress.
How do you manage your blogging schedule?
Christian Tietze | May 21st, 2007 at 5:18 am #
Great organizational tips you got here.
Tara | May 21st, 2007 at 6:05 am #
I agree some good tips. I have just started making use of the time stamp feature, but I need to do it more.
Stephen Welton | May 21st, 2007 at 6:27 am #
For now I write before or after work. I try to keep my time available for my family while they have the same time off as me or I ensure I communicate the schedule in advance.
I have yet to build ahead information in advance but that is coming.
Plan to work then work you plan!
Sue | May 21st, 2007 at 1:48 pm #
Thanks for this! It definitely will help me in managing my blogging time.
Tay | May 21st, 2007 at 9:27 pm #
You always some helpful, informative posts. It’s true though - I really need to work out my blogging schedule! I wish I had Wordpress for the timestamp feature, but I don’t =(
StockTube | May 22nd, 2007 at 4:21 am #
it actually depends on the topic that you’re blogging … if the topic is time-sensitive, then you’ve no choice but to squeeze time for it … but if you topic can be published anytime throughout the year, then you’ve the luxury to pre-plan in advance …
just my opinion … cheers kevin
Barbara Gavin | May 22nd, 2007 at 7:56 am #
I was posting five days a week and felt very proud of myself for maintaining that for two full months. Then my life got crazy, experienced some road blocks at work and I stopped. Because I was so bummed about “failing” it took me a full month to get back on the blogging horse.
I have decided to go easier on myself and to aim to post three days a week. In the past, I have written posts ahead and saved them on my desktop. I need to do that more.
I write my posts on the train to work each morning. The ride in one hour long, which is just about the right amont of time. When the train gets to North Station, I close the word doc. Once I get to work, and my Internet connection, I read through the post again. This is essential for me. I always find myself making additional edits, cutting out extra words, re-building a sentence to make its meaning clearer. Then I post.
barbara
TechZilo | May 24th, 2007 at 9:03 am #
Finding the right balance is almost always challenging -
Initially, design should take more time.
Later, promotion should be preferred.
Only when you have enough readership, should you invest time for writing.
That’s probably the best strategy.