5 Ways To Organize Your Blogging Life

Let me tell you some of the things I do to stay on top of my blogging schedule…

…or shall I say I do them most of the time! 🙂

1. I Write Safety Posts.

Keep a safety backlog of posts for those mojo-loss days. Four or five should do it. It can happen to us all so prepare for it! Or equally you might have kept your mojo and just be too busy, so just dip into your safety backlog and don’t forget to replace the ones you have used soon after!

HNTSO edit top image

 

 

2. I Know Upfront Where I Want My Blog To Go

It doesn’t matter if the direction changes in 3 months time but as a newbie to get a car going you have to engage a gear and head to a set destination or you’ll stall or simply get lost along the way, ( which might be fun too of course). Same with a blog. Without engaging, putting your foot on the peddle and aiming for a destination it is too easy to get bored and shut it down or just abandon it.
Also as a non-newbie, if you are struggling to find topics to write it’s probably time to sit down and decide what you want your blog to look like in 6 months time, which will help you work towards it.

If you’re heading for a ditch, here’s a list of some superb questions to ask yourself, redefine your goals and get back on track:

What audience figures do you want?
What topics do you want to talk about?
Do you need to hone in on one specialist subject or become more general?
Are you bothered about having a lack of audience? No? The world is yours – go have fun! 🙂 Yes? Think about why that might be happening…no seriously, ask yourself!
If posts and stories are not flowing from you have you picked the right topic?
If it is a chore to blog, again, have you picked the right topic?
What would need to happen to make blogging more fun and pleasurable?

3. I Decided Upon A Schedule

Again, it doesn’t matter if you change this later a little to fine tune it, but fixing on a schedule allows your audience to know roughly when to expect a post. It also focuses your writing time to accommodate the schedule and becomes a firm habit. I have a post schedule. Do you know what it is? Occasionally I miss it or purposely skip it because of work load, or I’m experimenting and trying something out or various other reasons. But it is generally not from lack of things to post, but a choice that I’m (usually! 😀 ) in control of making and I usually get right back on the horse after a missed day because it is now engrained as a habit in my weekly schedule.

Even y’all busy parents can do this. You know what time the kids will be out of your hair and gone to bed so schedule around this. You’re not alone! Many a busy working / parent blogger has stuck their blogging hours after 9pm to accommodate the munchkins. Of course the level of energy and commitment you put into your blogging depends on what you want from it.

4. I Split My Time Carefully To Manage All Aspects Of Blogging

Blogging for results is not just about writing, posting and sitting back and waiting for the audience to pour forth…I’ve learnt that a lot of you think it is!

Here’s some of the things you should be doing to build a decent sized audience for sales or for pleasure:

Researching

Planning

Writing

Editing

Marketing

How many of these do you do currently?

 

5. I Schedule Posts

Use your WordPress scheduler. Then you can relax. As I said in point 1 I have a safety cushion of posts that I can slot in at any time I’m too busy to write and I can schedule these sometimes a month or more in advance. When I see more month than posts in my schedule list it’s time to get writing to beef up the safety cushion again! Sure I’ve run out of posts before! But I set to re-building them soon after.

Also don’t be afraid to swap scheduled posts for highly current topics and just re-schedule them again.

 

6. I Know Why I’m Doing This

Apart from knowing where your actual blog is going – or would like it to go, it might help if you know WHY you are blogging.
When you have good reasons you can usually find good answers. One of my Blogging Caucus students said ‘I gave up because I kept posting and no one came to read my posts.’ So I asked her why she had started a blog in the first place. It was to support a cause that she felt very strongly about. With that information we could go back to the beginning and I could point out all the possibilities for her, knowing that she was already highly inspired by her cause but had just forgotten the ‘WHY’ and couldn’t join the dots to make it make sense with her goals. This re-grouping also allowed me to show her a direct path to her audience.

 

SO SCHOOL ME FOLKS!

What ideas do you have to share that lets you stay on top of your blogging routine?

 

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121 thoughts on “5 Ways To Organize Your Blogging Life”

  1. My biggest challenge is the marketing part. What I realized when you activate facebook to share with WordPress, your published article doesn’t reach as many people as you paste the link into facebook yourself.

    1. Hi Ece, the thing is also your Facebook post will also only reach however many people Facebook allow it to reach, based on how important or unimportant they deem you, so don’t forget whilst you are reaching out to your social fans to continue to build on your own turf.

    1. This is going to sound really stupid…but take it to a point where it’s not a struggle and work upwards from there.
      If you have just started blogging and it’s already a pressure and a chore you’ll drop it very soon and won’t experience the best bits of it.
      Do you get what I’m saying?

      If you don’t, answer me this question:
      How often do you blog at the moment?

      If you DO get what I’m saying…carry on! 😀

  4. I agree with you and thanks for all this tips. I believe I need to fine tune on some of the topics I guess I am still finding where really I wan to go.

    1. Oh yes Silverio, that’s most important! Can’t get there if you don’t know where you’re going!
      The other thing is, regarding your recipes, it would be great to see YOUR recipes and not someone else’s pics – I think you did it with the marinaded chicken – was that yours? I just think someone like you could really connect with other men on the issue of health, but they need to see that what you are saying is genuine and can be achieved by someone like them.

      1. Hi and thanks for the reply back, really much appreciated. All the pictures in the recipes are mine, probably they look more as a restaurant but this is the way I Meal Prep since I like to have the meals ready for days. Do you have any other tips or suggestion that I could implement? Once again thanks for the feedback!

      4. This is just my humble opinion – take what you like, leave what you like.

        I think your site would do great appealing to men. I’d change it to ‘Health and Weightloss, or Lifestyle, or Whatever…For Men.’
        For one thing you don’t do beauty for women so it’s slightly incorrect and ‘beauty for men’ doesn’t even sound right regarding your title ‘Health & Beauty For All.’

        Women are more likely to listen to a non famous or famous woman about weightloss and fitness before a non-famous health and fitness man, so why not go for the male niche which is not as saturated as the female one?

        You would appeal to men who are looking for fitness, nutrition and cooking help but aren’t built like Thor. There’s kabillions of them out there. I have some ideas.

        Love the recipe aspect. I read a ton of blogs daily and men cooking for other men (for fitness and healthy living) is not as common as men cooking for everyone or women cooking in general.

        However, to compete you’ve got to make the food look irresistible (and frankly Silverio it will appeal to everyone, male or female).

        For example, the one you call your ‘Favourite Snack’ – see a problem here? I don’t know what to call it. If it’s a Silverio Special give it a name!
        Anyway, you see the top pic unmixed? Looks nice right? The bottom one not so much. Looks gunky right? Might taste delicious but looks like gunk. Think presentation – especially as you mention an upcoming recipe book.

        Check out some great recipe and food pics (and videos) and see the level you should be aiming at. Find some here:

        http://www.tinterwebs.com

        There’s more on page 2 etc.

        To get this sharp clarity of image on your top blueberry pic (lol I’m dying to give it a name – Silverio’s Blueberry Surprise / Silverio’s Blueberry and Honey Fitness Something) – anyways you need to buy some decent lighting and play around with it until you hit the spot.
        Probably one lamp will do it. Doesn’t have to be an expensive photographers set up either – I bought a very bright lamp from a DIY store for filming.
        Just use the sunlight (open your curtains) and move the lamp about, take images, check them, move things around some more until they look great and mark the positions you used to get the perfect pic for next time.

        When out shopping, grab some large white paper sheeting as background to put the food on. Or if you have a great kitchen spot you can take pics there.
        When you take pics in a natural setting without lighting help they often look a bit dull, badly-lit or fuzzy. And by lighting help I include natural sunlight if you can see enough of it to use it. Midday will be your brightest light source. Lighting is everything!

        Of course some shots can be off the cuff and imperfect but the main shots that represent your enterprise should absolutely make the mouth water. It should garner comments like the ones on Tinterwebs ‘I would kill for that pie right now!’ etc.

        Your roasted thing (again I don’t know what to call it or what’s in it apart from broccoli and is that rice? – is really almost there. For one it looks delicious, but I’d get rid of the tablecloth and what is that…a tomato sauce jar in the pic? – It’s just distracting. Again put the meals against white.

        Your blog is already really nice, your story is interesting, you’ve got Instagram and Facebook hooked up so now just kill ’em with OMIGOD food and an honest timeline of your weightloss story and pics. i.e if you have a tummy let your audience see it and don’t hold it in so they can see the before and after improvement!

        Be warned though, getting the presentation right is about 30% of what it takes to have a successful blog with enough visitors who will buy your books. Marketing too is everything. But you have a great solid start.

        PS When you get the images right get your posts up on Tinterwebs and their food galleries. Tell them I sent you. That would be a great start to your marketing campaign.

        Ps 2 I did not do a full consultation I just checked a number of posts and your Instagram.

        Ps 3 Your style of preparing meals for days in roasting pans could be this really cool ‘Silverio thing’ so make something more of it.

        Hope this gives you some things to think about! 🙂

      5. I really appreciate all of this and I don’t know how to thank you enough to have taken your precious time to write all of this, I will definitely make all of this valuable and follow your suggestions. And I guess I need to start with a new blog name as you mention.

  9. Love this post. I’m definitely one for scheduling posts, and that ensures readers get a steady stream of something to read, something to look forward to if they are really keen on what I write and blog about. Planning in advance is also something I do, and so far I have blog post planned for most of the year. Haven’t written them down yet, but at least these ideas give me a sense of direction about my writing and blogging.

      1. Maybe you just need a good dose of inspiration! Those come in waves for me and I do try to make the most of them – more writing, more attention to blogging 😀

      2. No that’s the weird thing! I rarely run out of things to write about! There’s too much going on in the world for that, serious things, fun things…no it’s ‘cos of my other failing which is taking on too much and trying to squeeze out more hours in the day to do it all! So like you I have stuff written but haven’t queued it up yet. It’s all good though. If it wasn’t enjoyable I wouldn’t be doing it! 🙂

      3. Haha! I also am quite ambitous wanting to do heaps in a day…and a lot of the time a lot of writing falls by the wayside 😀 Yes! So long as it’s fun, all the more reason to do it 🙂

  10. This helps a lot, thank you. I’ve just started and still trying to figure everything out and not many answers. Advice and criticism from others is a starting point, for me anyway

  16. Useful stuff. I think it’s so easy to focus on just the ideas and the writing – but without going out there experiencing new things, we’ll quickly run out, and if we don’t tell anyone about what we’re doing, nobody will ever see it! Thank you for sharing.

    1. Me too! I much prefer the fun bits! I try to make the other bits fun so they don’t seem like a chore though, plus they support the fun bits and keep it all going so I get my head down and get on with it.

      I always say what you do in other areas like research and marketing depends on what you want to get out of your blog.

  20. I’m glad I found your blog! 🙂 Very helpeful post. Thank you. I’ve recently discovered Scheduling Blogs and that’s very helpful indeed. How long have you been writing your blog for? If you have time you may want to have a look at mine too – I write about personal growth and positive psychology-related topics mainly – https://mindset4progress.wordpress.com/

    Have a good day
    Aggie

    1. Halloo Aggie, sorry for the delay in returning – very unusual for me but so much stuff is happening at the mo!
      I have been writing for a good few years now, I can never remember the start date!
      Love those topics so I shall have a peek for sure. 🙂

      1. Thanks 🙂 and no problem. I don’t expect anyone to respond my comments/msgs within a day or two – I know how life gets busy sometimes. Have a great weekend! 🙂

  21. Great list! I plan to get back to blogging this year and have been looking at various hints and tips to be more consistent with the content. Thanks for the tips always appreciated. My blog will benefit from having the backlog of scheduled posts for when the new stories slow down, but I need to try to strike with the breaking news to remain relevant.

    1. Oh totally, but remember that ‘breaking news’ isn’t what makes you relevant as a blogger, YOU do! If people love your stuff old or new they will keep coming…unless you are a news outlet of course!… which you might be if you are called ‘pressing content’. I’ll have to wait and see! 🙂

  24. I have never had trouble thinking of topics to blog about and used to post twice a week for a few years. But this post was really helpful because in the last year I fell into the trap of not posting because I was busy doing other things. If I’d had backup posts I could have used those. Instead, I stopped posting then that became a habit. Determined to get back to it in 2018. Thanks for helping to inspire me to do so!

    1. Spot on Alison. “I stopped posting then that became a habit.” That’s a good way of looking at the things we actively choose to make a habit. Helpful things or not so helpful things. And you are most welcome! 🙂

  27. This was awesome. What I struggle with the most is engagement. Despite my several attempts o use Pinterest. Instagram and twitter. Any ideas what I can do to gain traffic

    1. Yes 1. Stick around! 😉 2. Let me ask you a couple of questions Tasha that might unearth what you could do.

      a) What do you do on Pinterest Instagram and twitter to get engagement?
      b) What would you really love to happen re: people coming to your blog?

    1. I know right? 🙂 Try sticking up a visual on your wall or desktop to remind you of the why.
      Try adding blogging to something that you always definitely have to do, eg say you eat at 6pm then add 1 hour or 30 minutes of blogging onto the end of it so it becomes a habit.

  29. #6 I found out why I’m blogging. At first I only wanted to write about the travels I’ve done (you know like in a diary…😜), but overtime I have used it as an outlet. The few people who come to read my blog I think knows all my pains and heartaches in life haha! Just posted recently some of it.

    Thanks Ms Ed. These are great tips. But you already know I won’t market my blog more than I already have. Just don’t want all my colleagues to know what I have written and especially about my feelings. 😭

    1. That’s really interesting…and since you are quite private I imagine you’d feel really weird if one of them found your blog. But aren’t you worried that (even without marketing) they might stumble upon it?

      And by the way having read your blog there is zero there to blush about even if they did ~ EVERYone is going through their own things, so it’s not as if they won’t recognize themselves in the more personal stuff you have written… but again I completely understand that you would prefer what you prefer.

      1. True! But no one really knows how I truly feel. No one knows I’m depressed and suffering from PTSD. And also no one knows about my husband’s anxiety attacks.

        A good friend of mine stumbled on my blog because I accidentally shared it in Facebook and as soon as I figured it out she already has seen it. But she’s one of my best friends so it’s ok. She’s the only one who knows about it among my friends. I just don’t want any of my acquaintances to know about it especially the moms in my son’s middle school.

      1. Well, that is weird–in a good way. I’ve been busy with “real life” for a few months and feel sort of blah about my blogging so I’ve missed your fun opinion posts and your good blog advice (stuff I can definitely use more of). I really enjoy the way you write your posts. Friendly, casual and direct. 🙂 If I don’t see you around, have a happy Christmas.

  31. Love this post. I always go through a period where I’m on a roll with my blog post and then suddenly I have nothing to talk about and no ideas in my head. Sometimes it takes months for me to get myself back on track. This was very helpful.

    1. The funny thing Sydney Reneé is that the stories we can write are all around us and sometimes we need to just chill because we are thinking too hard to see them!

      Especially with a blog as brilliantly titled as ‘The Diary Of She’ – To my mind there are a kazillion stories all hidden up in there! It may take a while, but the more you write you will find you can pull a story out of almost anything.
      Example: The fact that you ‘suddenly have nothing to write about’ …IS A STORY! Lol. 🙂

      There will be hundreds if not thousands of bloggers in exactly the same position and would be thrilled to know that they are not alone in their mind block. You can tell them how frustrating it is / was. You can then tell them how you resolved it, or DIDn’t resolve it, but still love (or hate) blogging! You talk a lot about relationships and dating on your blog – so link the frustration in some way to the dating scene…EVERYthing is a story.

      Here’s a link that also might help:
      https://theeditorsjournal.wordpress.com/2016/03/18/101-writing-ideas/

      1. Thank you!!! You are awesome. I’m starting to realize my main problem is I overthink a lot. When if I just start writing without thinking too much about a story will appear before my eyes.

  32. Great post – much appreciated as I can use all the tips and suggestions there are. I totally didn’t understand #4 at first but then as I read your answers to comments ( love those ) it began to make a little more sense. I tried to like your reply to what PR is as that was super helpful to me. Thanks again for your posts 🙂

  34. These 2 statements struck me big time.
    “If it is a chore to blog, have you picked the right topic? What would need to happen to make blogging more fun and pleasurable?”

    I’m a newbie and as normal as it is, it affects me if my post is being acknowledged or not. Yet, Im doing my very best not to be discouraged. Because after all, as you’ve said, I know where I want my blog to go. Thanks a lot for your tips!😍 These will keep me going. Cheers!

    1. Well that’s great to hear! And consider this your home for beating down any future discouragement! Do not be discouraged! You have no need to be. Your blog is great, nice and simply presented – it’s a great start! Now just have patience and enjoy finding Koi’s feet, Koi’s schedule, Koi’s method.

      How do you do that? You just keep writing and reading and learning. It WILL fall into place more and more for you.

  36. I have a schedule for all ‘writing related’ work so I can keep things moving alongside the day job. This breaks down to blog posts one day, researching new book the next, marketing current book etc. The only way I can keep up. I try to post once a week but even that can be tricky. My biggest pieces of advice are get out and about to find inspiration and try to make content ‘evergreen’ content so you can re-share it easily.

  37. This really helps put things into perspective of what I need to focus on and what I’m doing well on. Currently trying to come up with a better schedule, and exactly what I want to put up! Thanks for the great read! 🙂

    1. Oh good for you! You do that – take the time to find the schedule that suits you and blogging will remain a pleasure.
      Love your quote about quiet people with the loudest minds. I can’t shut my mind off at the best of times – in public I’m the observer! 🙂

    1. You’re most welcome! This blog about 18 months? I’d have to check because I really don’t know – time flies when you’re having fun!
      I have had one or two blogs before this one also.
      Marketing? It comes with the territory! If you want people to see your work you have to market it. It’s kinda common sense really. I did do some PR IRL also, that and an unending thirst for knowledge (i.e nosey! ~ For useful things) helps me see things perhaps in a different light to most.
      For instance your wonderful Confucius quote about the mountain is totally a mindset I make use of, in life and in blogging.

      2. ‘Public Relations’ which is used in the same breath as marketing or promotion!
        Ha! You’re blog’s cool – had to shut it down or I’d keep clicking to read more posts – which of course is a good thing and not that common! I had to be brutal and click off to manage my time! 🙂

      5. Ha!.. just looked at an old post which in fact practically doubles the time I gave you – but as I said time flies eh? – Still feels like I started just yesterday! 🙂
        What I CAN say which might indeed be even more impressive is the 20k was won over about 4- 5 months as I was actively marketing at that time (as an experimental thing) so was particularly aware of it’s growth.

      7. The quickest and easiest way to sum it up is look at what we are doing…we’ve been chatting a bit and I’m very aware of you now and when you pop up again at some point I’m coming over to see what’s new on your blog and hopefully vice versa – time permitting right?

        Well this is marketing …yes it’s fun and enjoyable to meet new people, but it is also marketing.
        And by ‘active marketing’ I simply mean that I was actively doing this to achieve a specific goal. It was part of an experiment and it didn’t happen by chance.

        In blogging regarding marketing you’re also going to hear a lot about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and back linking, ranking etc – this can get all very techy and nerdy but the simplest thing you can do to market your blog – especially as a newb is to get out there and meet people. Interact, make buddies.
        Go meet 20 more of me and it will be a start.

        To put it in the context of your question about PR. PR and marketing is about making people aware of a product or a person. This is why you know about Pepsi or Beyonce – because someone did their PR and marketing.
        PR costs are waaaay out of the average blogger’s league so instead they work on SEO which is a technique(s) that allows them to be found by an audience (on a search engine such as Google).

        But as I said, the other way to try and replicate the same result of making people aware of you is by going and saying hallo and interacting. That’s the simple version of what can be done. Does this make sense?

        Remember what I said on the post:
        ‘Blogging FOR RESULTS is not just about writing, posting and sitting back and waiting for the audience to pour forth…I’ve learnt that a lot of you think it is!

        Here’s some of the things you should be doing to build a decent sized audience for sales or for pleasure:

        Researching

        Planning

        Writing

        Editing

        MARKETING”

    1. Go lady! I want to see results! Lol! No, but you have some great posts such as ‘Cuddle Time in a World Full of Ouchies’ – with some really nice feedback but there’s no reason why even more people should not be reading them!

      1. Thanks! Im in the middle of a redesign and expected to go live in the next week and the technical stuff is seriously sapping every bit of my creativity. Ive been trying to publish while redesigning and i just dont have enough hours in the day!

      2. My tip for what it’s worth is don’t allow it to sap your joy as this may affect your desire to blog.

        Remember that if you have a 2 year plan – let alone a 5 year one for your blog – it doesn’t matter whether you get the designing done this week or next – as long as it IS done at some scheduled point.

        Your template is important and if you are doing this to enhance and grow your audience that’s good – as part of your overall plan to slay in general – but it’s not key, so of course do it, but there’s no need to stress or lose sleep over it.

        Designing / creativity is meant to be fun and if you make it into a chore by pushing yourself too much, you may start to see it as the enemy, not the wonderful escape / side project / income or opportunity booster it could be.

      3. Im in the middle of a website redesign and the technical parts of it are stealing my joy! Ive been trying to blog and work on the redesign at the same time but i dont have enough hours in the day.

    1. It’s always good to hear what others have to say Marlene – but in addition, the real secret is hearing what YOU have to say!

      If I were in blog limbo I would first be sussing out why – if you know why you can begin to work out how to fix it.
      A glance tells me you have fantastic topics, have a warm, easy-to-read writing style and made a sterling good start not too long ago – now YOU tell yourself why you haven’t capitalized on this…

      Don’t rush it, take 20 minutes of uninterrupted space and ask yourself this question and come up with the answer.

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