I’m so proud of myself. I’ve been in a writing mood the last few days and I’ve managed to write up several articles for five of my blogs. In some cases I’ve written a couple of weeks worth of articles!
I’ve set up several of the articles to publish on dates in the future. On some of the blogs the articles will be published daily, on others there will be a new article every second day.
The first year or so that I was blogging I always had a few draft articles stored up. I usually tried to complete the articles so I could publish them whenever I had writers block or felt too ill to write that day although sometimes the stored drafts were only outlines or ideas for posts that I could easily complete when needed.
As I got busier and added more blogs to my little network I fell out of the habit or perhaps lacked the time to prepare articles in advance. For me, this was one of the worst things that could have happened. I enjoy writing, but there’s always that pressure – mostly self pressure – to write something new each day and for the article to hopefully be informative, entertaining or both.
When you are juggling several blogs and perhaps a website or two as I am time management is very important. I feel like I’ve been running in circles the last few months trying to answer email, maintain blogrolls and mailing lists, write new posts and visit other bloggers and all the rest of the stuff that goes along with being a webmaster.
As a result I was beginning to have trouble prioritizing my tasks. I was constantly asking myself – should I be visiting other bloggers and trying to comment on their sites? Should I be spending the next hour or two answering the emails that have built up? Answering blog comments? Adding new blogs to the Do Follow list, my Green Thumb Sunday blogroll or the other blogrolls that I maintain? Look for a new way to monetize my site? Change the theme or layout of one of my blogs? Arghhhhh …. With so many websites I could literally work 24 hours a day maintaining them and networking and still not get everything done that I should be doing to promote my sites.
So I’m sure you can see why I’m so happy that five of my blogs have a number of new articles preset to post on future dates over the next two weeks or so. Maybe I’ll be able to finally write a few articles for some of my very badly neglected blogs!
I think that I would be more organized and not have fallen so behind in my site maintenance if 1. I was healthier and 2. if I didn’t have so many websites. Perhaps it’s time for me to think about shutting down my neglected blogs?
How do you blog?
Are you organized or unorganized?
Do you just write a post when the mood strikes you? Or do you write up articles in advance and set them to publish on future dates?
Do you have one or several blogs?
Whatever your answer, do you schedule time to do certain tasks related to blogging? Networking, promoting, commenting on other blogs, writing posts and so on?
If you do have a blogging schedule I’d love to hear what yours is – how you plan your tasks and how much time you allot to each task daily, weekly or monthly.
If you’ve never done so, I’d highly recommend writing a few draft articles when the mood strikes you. You’ll find they come in handy when you’re not up to writing or have no time to blog. It does take a while to get into the habit of blogging in this manner, but once you start doing it you’ll find that you’re able to do other blogging related tasks and likely that the articles you publish are of a higher quality because you weren’t under pressure to post “something” when you were writing it.
I often wish I had the patience/forward thinking to store up blog posts… very organized indeed.
I tried to be organized as possible but still I belong to the second choice blog when the mood strikes me.
A set pattern
Hi!
I found you through EntreCard surfing.
I have one blog and one that I’m a contributing writer for. My personal blog gets the ‘when the mood strikes’ writing treatment.
For the website I have the luxury of a scheduled post date so I can write one day and tweak for a while.
I like your idea of writing when the thoughts are in your head. Load up your library because you never know when the well will run dry, right?
I think it’s interesting to hear about other people’s blogging habits.
I’m pretty organized, I guess. On Sundays, I try to post what’s coming up for the rest of the week. I have a couple of weekly memes I like to do. I try to keep a few posts in draft just in case I can’t get to it one day. I find when I slack off at all – even skipping a day or two – I get totally off track and it’s hard to get back on.
I’ve been developing a system to keep up with EC dropping that also allows me to comment along the way. Which is what I’m doing right now.
Interesting question!
My blog is a hobby, so I blog when the mood strikes me.
Well, having just started a week or so ago, I haven’t set anything up exactly. As it is now I write a bunch of things down and post one or two a day. I do it for “self therapy”. I try to get as much out as possible, helps to clear my scatter brain a little. You definitely have a good point to stock up for days when the creative juices aren’t flowing as well.
Habits.
I try to blog every morning after I meditate. Very Zen-like huh? Reading and writing is a passion of mine; so it’s something that I’ve got to do at least once every day.
Your habits are depending upon your goals for blogging.
I want to reach as many readers as possible; so every day I blog.
I spend about and hour writing my own. An hour perusing relative sites and networking. Sometimes its drudgery; cause there are a gabillion blogs nowadays. But persistence pays off always.
I published one post yesterday after a week of no posts. July is has been a little too relaxed. Organization is good, I really need to adopt an organizational method for my blogging.
Hello, I think that is really smart of you to have articles written for your blog in advance. I have only been writing in my blog for a couple of weeks, but I am going to have to start doing that. Especially, when I have my Internet Security site up and running again. Also, it would be nice to have posts written up in advance for days like today when I don’t feel like writing. I know I should write a post today, but I keep puting it off. Yesterday on the other hand I was in a real writing mode, and I should have written a couple blogs in advance. By the way, I really like your writing style by the way. You are a really good writer.