One of the most important keys to succeeding in blogging is being consistent.
You can’t just publish an article once in a while and expect to succeed:
You need to constantly share, engage, brainstorm and publish fresh content.
It’s a continuous process… So how to remain consistent when life happens?
With that question I went to fellow bloggers and here are there tips!
Work During Your Most Productive Hour, Then Rest
There is always something I need to do, even if I have automated certain aspects. So, I do what I need to do first thing in the morning. That’s when I’m fresh and willing to expend some energy on work.
When I’m done, I enjoy the rest of the day. If I relax first thing, then I have much less enthusiasm to do what I need to do later on.
Further reading: How to Stay Productive: Things to Do When Bored
Plan Ahead: Schedule Articles for When You Are Away!
If I plan on taking time off I take time off – Scheduling posts means that I can tune out for a few days, which is essential for my long-term productivity and health.
It is simple enough to write a series of posts over a few weeks about ever-green topics and schedule one every few days.
Plan ahead. Writing your blog posts ahead of time and scheduling them is a big help. You can also grab the URL that will be the post URL and schedule tweets and other social media marketing tasks to promote that article while you are away.
Finally, the same thing can be said about podcasts and videos. When I have events, I pre-record and then I let my audience know that it is pre-recorded instead of a live event and I “air” (stream) the recording for the first time, at that time when it would have been a live event.
Further reading: Here’s a huge list of best WordPress plugins to keep your blogging productive
Block out Time to Focus on Writing
During vacation, I find it next to impossible to keep productive. One girl needs being driven to and from camp, and both have singing lessons during the daytime, instead of the normal evening lessons. And, of course, when they are home they want to do all sorts of fun things. How can a guy cope with that?!?
My only solution is to block out time to focus on writing. When I can actually block out that time. I am doing fairly well with that for blog posts, but having a harder time with the books I am ghostwriting, because they require bigger blocks of time.
Do All the Work Before Going on Vacation
I do all the work before I go on vacation. I draw up a schedule for the time I’ll be away, write all of that content, and schedule it for my time off. Then while I’m gone, new content shows up just as it would if I were working, but I’m free to relax, and just use wifi to check my email and comments once a day or so.
I once did this for a three-month trip. Granted, the months leading up to the trip were extremely stressful with so much content to write, but the trip was fantastic.
Plan Out “Easier” Articles for When You Are Away
While I usually have a blogging schedule of 2-3 times a week, I use my blogging engine (custom) to write a simple yet valued articles and set the dates on my posts for a specific publish time.
For example, if I’m going to take a vacation for a week, I would setup 3 posts (possibly 4 for the Monday returning) for the week in advance.
Each post would have their respective publish date of that Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I wouldn’t have to worry about publishing it while I’m gone. The marketing aspect of those posts would be managed when I returned from vacation.
Also, if I did have access to the Internet, I would continue writing while I had some bandwidth.
Heck, that post could even be about a technology incident while on vacation.
You can also create easy visual marketing tools to quickly put together visual content for when you are away. Tools like Vistaprint which often offers coupons make visual marketing even more effective.
Anna’s note: My one tip here is to use MyBlogU to create those easier article you don’t have to spend hours on. MyBlogU members will send their snippets, so you can put together an original article quite quickly!
My one tip is to stack blog posts. Have posts that you can easily click publish on to put them live in your site. Generally this is usually evergreen content that doesn’t need to be posted there and then.
To prepare this content I usually batch blog posts on a Sunday, to make sure I have one or two posts in draft.
Work Will Always Be There When You Come Back
You’re on a vacation to enjoy yourself, recharge your batteries, and come back to work refreshed. Make sure having fun is your top priority. Work will always be there when you come back. Take pictures of your location, share it on your blog, twitter, and your social media channels..
Show readers your casual side. It’s an opportunity to add a fun element to your blog. Set aside 60 minute slots early in the day, once you’re done, go out get some sun and have fun.
For me personally I find a to do list is solid motivation to keep plugging away even if it’s vacation or a weekend. That said, bloggers do need to take actual breaks away from their blog to prevent burnout.
It’s far too easy to put all your spare time into blogging and grow to resent your lack of free time. There is a reason that most blogs die out within the first year.
Work Less but Smarter…
On a normal working day, I usually spend at least 3 hours to write an article (not including research and planning). But on busier days or on vacation — when I don’t have many hours for blogging — instead of skipping, I’d still work on the article for an hour a day.
An article can’t be done in one hour, obviously. That’s why I’d make smaller goals instead finishing the article at once. For example when I’m writing a listicle: “9 tips for ___”, my goal would be to finish writing at least 1 tips in that 1 hour of work.
It’s not that hard to spare an hour, even if you’re on vacation.
Build a habit
The best productivity tip is to build a habit. Make sure to write every day for at least 10 minutes, preferably at the same time. Within 3-4 weeks you will form a habit and sitting down and writing will become effortless.
Obviously, you want to keep increasing the time you spend writing, but start out with a very small amount of time that doesn’t cause any stress to you, because if you start with an hour a day you will make it so much harder for yourself.
You shouldn’t exclude weekends or holidays, because that breaks the habit. Though on these days you can spend less time writing.
What’s your productivity tip for when life happens? Do you blog on the weekends?