Should You Schedule Your Blog Posts?

This article is dedicated to Dominique who solicited my thoughts on blogging in advance. Make sure you check out her blog, An Unlikely Perspective 2, to find out what is on Dominique’s mind.

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The blogosphere has evolved over the years to where it seems to be much more about marketing or conveying business information than about personal online journaling. Still, blog variety is the spice of life which means that there is enough room for all kinds of writing and publishing styles, with few rules holding sway. I hope that I never see the blogosphere organized to the point where originality is no longer prevalent!

How Often Do You Write?

One question that some bloggers have about blogging concerns their writing schedule. At some point, you’ll discover a rhythm that works best for you – perhaps you like posting on Mondays and Thursdays or maybe you prefer a more frequent schedule which includes Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and the weekend. Or whatever.

Regardless of how often you write, you can probably agree with the following sentiment – there are days when inspiration flows, but there are other times when you’d rather not write. However, by not adhering to a consistent schedule your blog could eventually fall to the wayside, perhaps even die. No serious blogger would allow that to happen to their blogs which for some folks serves as an extension of themselves.

Scheduling Your Articles

An important way to ensure that your blog is always fresh is to write articles in advance and schedule them to appear (drip) at certain times and on specified days. Even though I don’t have to tell you, I wrote this article on Labor Day when things were quiet and slow. I completed the article shortly before noon, then took the rest of the day off. Thanks to scheduling, I have enough articles set to appear on my other blogs for the coming days as well.

What this ultimately means is that I can work writing around my own schedule without being tied down – a measure of freedom I want and crave. Likely, you feel the same way too.

Assuming that your blog platform allows you to schedule articles in advance, developing a schedule certainly makes sense. Even though the calendar says September, I’m already thinking about articles I’ll write for the remainder of the year, including seasonal topics such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. I may write and schedule my Christmas message in November, especially if I feel particularly inspired.

Three Tips For Successful Article Preparation

Of course, there are a few things to keep in mind when writing in advance:

Don’t Date Yourself – You may think it odd to write your new year’s message when the leaves have yet to change, but that’s something entirely up to you. If I’m writing well in advance, particularly for a holiday, I write as if the holiday is in the present or “today” – not the future. That goes without saying that you should never reference the actual date when you wrote your article – your readers don’t need that distraction nor will they care.

Pick And Choose – With several of my blogs, I usually write one or two articles in advance, but with one particular blog I go much further. For example, sometimes I’ll write an article about a special event taking place one or two months out, then I fill in the remaining dates here or there.

Don’t Force It – One bad habit to avoid when writing in advance is to force yourself to write when you aren’t prepared to write. I have a personal policy that works well for me – I write only when inspired. Maybe I have only one article to write; perhaps three or more. If I write when my creative juices aren’t flowing, then I’ll torture myself to complete the task. And, who wants to read tortured writing?

In the end, writing in advance is something completely up to you. Sometimes, I will write in advance and amend the article before it is published. There are other situations where I’ll change the date when an article is to appear. My readers aren’t aware of these changes, but I like to maintain control over the publication process as that gives me the freedom to write and publish as I see fit.

Photo Credit: Maxime Perron Caissy

When You Have To Write That Article FAST!

In my nearly four years of constant blogging, I’ve launched numerous blogs and sold off quite a few. Right now, I manage six blogs which sounds like a lot. But, only three are updated daily with the other three updated 1-3 times per week.

Writing Quickly

Still, that means I’m writing at least 23 weekly articles for my blogs alone, with another ten to fifteen articles for my customers. There are times I need to spend a couple of hours on just one article, but there are other times when I will get an article done in just 15-20 minutes, including this one.

Please allow me to share some tips with you on how to write quality articles fast:

Quick Outline – I’ve grown accustomed to creating most of my outlines in my head. When things are a bit more complicated, I can jot down some notes on a scratch pad to keep everything in order. Fortunately, I rarely have to take the extra step; this doesn’t include my magazine articles which are more thoroughly researched, however.

Killer Headline – I’ve seen people waste too much time on a headline. Instead, think of three or four words related to the article you want to write and then build the rest of the headline around those words. The headline I’m using here is eight words, but to get your attention I capitalized the word fast.

Brief Introduction – Your introductory paragraph should be brief, with two or three sentences being sufficient. One in that group is your topic sentence which will drive the rest of your article.

Use Bullets – If you have three or four points to make in you article, use bullets to separate each point. In some cases, numbered lists are an appropriate way to get your point across.

Conclude Smartly – Once you’ve made your case, conclude your article with a nice, clear wrap up. If you’re trying to sell a product, then include a call for action. Otherwise summarize what you’ve said and leave it at that.

Add Some Meat To Your Work

I’m not a fan of super short articles as I believe those articles which are four hundred words or longer are more likely to get indexed by Google. Thus, if you’re writing fast you’ll want to check your word count before ending your work. Once done, be prepared to include a related photo, links to other articles, the appropriate tags, etc. Proofread your work, tweak a sentence here or there and you should be done.