Every soloist or small business owner that blogs about their business and industry knows how hard it can be to fit it in with the daily tasks involved in being a business owner. There are things you can do to help you become a more productive blogger. Here are the 6 things that I think can have the biggest impact:
1. Have an ideas notebook
Use whatever format suits you best, programs like Evernote, OneNote, Asana or Trello are excellent. Or if you prefer, use a notepad and pen plus a folder for images. It doesn’t really matter how you do it, just have somewhere to store ideas for future posts, store images that you think might be useful at some stage and jot notes for things you’re currently working on.
2. Use themes
Sit down at the start of the year, quarter or month and set themes for your posts for the upcoming period. I post weekly, and set themes for each month and also have themes for individual posts. So I have an overarching monthly theme (Branding, Finance, Documents etc.) Then in each month, I do a post about Customer Service, a post of Hints & Tips, a How a Virtual Assistant could help with post and a “why should I” post. It makes it much much easier when I sit down to write because I don’t have to come up with an idea, I just need to start making notes around the topic.
3. Set a timer
I find I often don’t really want to sit down and write, so when that happens, I set a timer (I use this) and set it for 30 minutes. Then I commit to doing something blog related in those 30 minutes. Often I’ll only make a series of notes on ideas for posts, but most times, once I get started and make a few notes, I totally get on a roll and often end up writing until I finish a post.
4. Write in advance
If you’re using the timer method, you might find you get a bit ahead of the game and end up finishing your posts early. When that happens, don’t stop and get out of the writing rhythm, start work on your next post, or the post after that. Soon, you’ll end up with a couple of posts that are ready to go and boom! you’ve got a bit of wriggle room for if you have urgent jobs come in, or for some other reason can’t get posts done.
5. Set deadlines
This may sound contradictory to #4 but having a set deadline (I must post by 5pm Friday each week) makes it easier to keep on track. If you have a deadline you’re more likely to get started and you get a far greater sense of achievement when you get ahead. An added bonus is that your readers come to expect your post and if you’re producing quality content, they’ll start making time specifically to read your posts.
6. Outsource
There’s a lot involved in creating a blog post. You have to research your topic, write the content, find appropriate images, find hyperlinks where necessary in the content, format the post for whatever platform you use, share it on social media sites then monitor comments and respond where necessary on both the blog and social media. All that can easily get exhausting and distract you from your next post. Outsourcing some of these functions can give you time to create more high quality content.
If you spend a little time organising yourself and putting some or all of these into practice, I’m sure you’ll find you not only become a more productive blogger, but that the process becomes less stressful and more enjoyable in the whole.
If you’d like some more ideas on how to become a more productive blogger, check out my previous posts about blogging
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