Creating a Blogging Schedule that Works for You

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Let’s talk about anything bookish!

I am perhaps what one might call a seasonal blogger. It does seem like a blog more often or not depending on the season. I am a mood reader and apparently, this also means I am a mood blogger.

Also, I have seen quite a number of bloggers say how they want to post more or how they don’t have time to post. YEAH, THESE ARE EXACTLY MY PROBLEMS, TOO!

Anyway, because of my faults, I have set-up a blogging schedule that works perfectly for me and I hope, for you as well!

TIP: Create a schedule that works for you and tweak it constantly to meet your needs.

Full disclosure, I started this blogging schedule sometime this February and it has worked for me – for the most part. This doesn’t mean I actually stuck to my schedule 100% (because who EVEN DOES that?) but it helped me 1) organize my posts, 2) schedule my posts, 3) lessen my blogging anxiety, and 4) actually get to post more (or seem to post more).

 

Number 1: Create a Calendar – digital or paper

I use Google Calendar (but you can use any digital calendar). It syncs with my phone app so I can access it at any time.

TIP: I set the alarm 24 hours in advance as a reminder. This is very helpful especially since I almost always forget what day of the week it is!

My Google Calendar only shows the BARE BONES of my schedule. I don’t go into detail here. Basically, this calendar only acts as my daily alarm. I actually have a different calendar for that (which I will share later).

As you can see, I don’t post the details, i.e. what each discussion topic is, what review I will be doing, etc. This is because I use my blog Editorial Calendar plugin (for paid WordPress only).

TIP: If you use Google Chrome, download the Google Calendar Extension.

 

Number 2: Use the WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugin

This plugin is only for paid WordPress blogs and you can download it for free on the WordPress plugins directory. This is VERY helpful for me because I can directly create the blog posts on the calendar page. This is not FULLY formatted, though but it really helps me see the drafts I created and when they are supposed to be posted.

 

With this plugin, you can 1) directly create a new post on this page, 2) drag and drop the posts to dates you will be posting, 3) edit the posts, and 4) schedule the time the post will go up. This plugin is SUPER helpful and helps make scheduling and planning my posts.

Number 3: Don’t stress out if you can’t post as scheduled

I work full time and for those of you who live in Los Angeles, you would know how crazy traffic is, so basically I spend a total of about 3 hours a day in traffic commuting to work. So, for the most part, I’m pretty much done when I get home and don’t want to blog.

TIP: It is TOTALLY OKAY if you can’t create a blog post as scheduled.

But since this is my schedule, I can decide IF I want to post for the day. Sometimes, the Top Ten Tuesday theme of the week doesn’t resonate with me so I don’t post for that week. And that is TOTALLY OKAY.

Number 4: Space out your posts to create an illusion that you are pretty active

Because I am a mood blogger, there are times where I am creating post after post after post, and then there are those days (or weeks) where I don’t EVEN post at all. To avoid this, I created a schedule. I promised to post ONLY ONE YA review and ONE ROMANCE review per week. So in the times where I have written a lot of review posts, I don’t post them on the same day, or multiple times in the same week.

So say you wrote 5 reviews in one day because you were soooo productive (I can only dream of this), you can space these reviews out and you will have 5 weeks covered. The same can be done with discussion posts and weekly memes.

Spacing out your blog posts also helps with the variety of your blog so you are not posting 5 reviews in one day or multiple days. I mean, UNLESS you are so productive and can write a ton of reviews and posting multiple reviews in one day is a MUST, then I bow down to YOUR GREATNESS!

Number 5: Rules CAN be broken

Forgetting to post has happened to me a number of times. Which is TOTALLY OKAY. To be honest, there have been times that I chose not to post. And again that is OKAY.

The thing with setting up my schedule is that I have the flexibility to post or not to post and also to play around with the types of posts that I am planning. This may not be for everyone but it works for me.

Do you have a blogging schedule? Do you schedule your blog posts months in advance?

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