Thursday, May 20, 2010

A Quick Blogging Tip - Schedule Blog Posts In Advance

Here's the automatic time and date the computer entered when I wrote this post:


...And Here's the NEW time and date for when I scheduled this post to publish.




One of the important things to consider is that while inspiration doesn't arrive in consistent bursts, it really helps a blog build a following if there is a consistent pattern of posting.

So, in general, it's better to have one post a week for four weeks than four posts one week and nothing for the next three weeks.

Life, though, can make keeping that kind of schedule a real challenge in the long run. And it is the consistency and quality of your blog posts will build your audience.

Enter a little technological trick:

Scheduling your blog posts to go up in advance.

I'm actually writing this post at 6:04AM Wednesday. It will go live tomorrow morning. But I have time now.

There have been times when I've scheduled posts a week in advance!

I blog here at The Zen of Blogging blog once a week, every Thursday.

And I blog over at I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read? Five days a week, Monday through Friday.

Scheduling lets me be consistent as a train schedule with my blog posts, yet flexible as an artist in the time I put into blogging.

In blogger (the host for my blogs) you click the little triangle "Post Options" under the composing window and adjust the "Post Date and Time" to whenever you want it to go live. Then, when you hit "Publish Post" it won't go live right away - it will wait and go live when you've scheduled it to.

Scheduling posts in advance is a great tool for any blogger, and can really take a lot of the stress out of blogging.

Namaste, and remember to keep it Zen,
Lee

4 comments:

  1. I agree completely!!! My biggest problem with blogging is, my ideas come in spurts. Using the scheduling feature in blogger allows me to write and write and then just breath!

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  2. Thanks, Lee. The idea has been with me since the beginning, but with your how-to tip, I might just get to it!

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  3. Thanks--I tried to follow your advice today and was working on a post to put up Monday when I accidentally hit "publish" instead of save! Oops--and I wasn't done writing it. Oh well, I finished it before anyone saw it, I hope...a good lesson for a newbie like me!

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  4. fourth Musketeer,
    that's totally happened to me, too. Once it's published, just changing it to a future time and date won't unpublish it - the secret is to hit "save as draft" - that will put it back in your list of draft posts, and you can fix/re-set the time/date for the future.
    I completely freaked out the first time it happened - but really, it's okay.
    Namaste, and remember to keep it Zen,
    Lee

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