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Have you started your blog yet?
Do you have a blog?
Why don't you have a blog?
Seriously, get out there and start blogging.
Raise your hand if you've heard or read at least one of these phrases today.
It's not even 6 am yet and I've read this at least five times. (slight exaggerationto get the point across)
Alright, so you've started a blog and if you're here reading this then that means you might just be sitting at your computer staring at a blinking little curser that seems to be mocking you with each and every annoying little blink.
Or maybe you're at work, working your buns off or you're chasing your three kids and five dogs around the house trying to put diapers on all of them.
Regardlessof your situation, you're here becauseyou started a blog but have quickly realized its not the simple, write a little bit here and there scenario that you thought.
It's frankly, time-consuming as all heck and you need help.
Just like you have a schedule for your full-time9-5 job or your full-time running around the house diapering your kids and dogs job, in order for your blog to run smoothly, you need a schedule.
A blogging schedule is what is going to switch your mindset from hobby to business.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you want to take your blog to the next level, create a successful blog that pays more than your day job, then you have to treat it like a business.
1. Be Extremely Clear on your Blogging Goals
Before you even sit down to decide what days and times you're going to blog, you have to have a clear understanding of what you want from your blog.
If your goal is to make money, then your focus will be on how you're going to make that money and how to drive that traffic.
If your goal is to write to build a community or show off your knowledge, your main focus would be valuable, in-depth content.
The clearer you can be about your goals, the easier it's going to be to schedule.
Think about where you want your blog to be in three months, six months or even a year. What is it going to take to get there?
More traffic?
More email subscribers?
More affiliate commissions?
These are all important questions to ask yourself when thinking about what the goal is of your blog.
>> Read more about these tips in my blogging for beginners section.
2. Add Blogging Into your Daily Calendar
Once you have a clear understanding of your blogging goals, you need to add some time for blogging into your daily calendar.
Take a look at what has to be done such as work or family prioritiesand set aside 30-60 minutes to blog.
If you think about it, you really only need to be posting a new blog post maybe, two times a week, once a week if they're super in-depth.
If you set aside 30 minutesfor five days and it takes you 11/2 hours to get one blog post done, then that week you can get two blog posts published.
There will probably be weeks with more time and weeks with less time.
For most of us, just the act of putting a task on our daily calendars is enough for us to stick to it.
You can even add a set number of words you would like to hit for the day for your blog.
If you want to write a 2500 word blog post then you would need to write 500 words a day. (ugh math..)
Chances are you won't be writing that long of a post right off the bat but you get the idea. This can also help you get an idea of how long it takes you to write so you can schedule times accordingly.
3. Have a List of Topics Ready
One of the worst things you can do is have a solid hour to write but realize you don't have anything to write about…whomp whomp.
I wish I could tell you the words just flowed out of me onto the page as I'm writing out this blog, but they didn't.
I planned, I outlined, I researchedAND then I wrote.
There's probably going to be one day where the kids sleep in a bit more, your boss lets you leave a bit early or your lunch date cancels.
These are the times when you can sit down and list out a whole bunch of topics to blog about.
This way you won't have to waste your “only comes around once in a while” one hour staring at that mockingblinking cursor.
4. Batch Work
The world of blogging isn't this blissful life where all bloggers sit down and magic simply flows from their fingers onto the keyboard like a glowing rainbow…(that got out of hand)
No.
This is where batching comes in and it has the potential to save you a massive amount of time.
Traditionally, batching is when you create multiple pieces of content like a whole year worth or even 10-15 pieces of content in some amount of time like a day or even week.
But you're busy so we're going to break batch working down just a bit.
Let's say you know for this week in your schedule you actually an hour or more to work on your blog and you have this time available for Monday through Friday.
On Monday instead of writing an entire post for the hour you would batch researching topics to blog about.
You would then have a solid list of topics for the week and even into next week.
Your hour on Tuesday comes around and you spend your hour creating a template for your blog post(s).
Writing out the main focus, setting up your headlines, writing out your title and picking a keyword or keywords and laying out the main points of your blog post(s).
Then by Wednesday or even Thursday, you have two-three solid hours to work on actually writing out your posts.
And because most of the legwork is done it won't take nearly as long to write those posts.
You will then have a nice cushy library of posts to be published built up for those weeks where life got a little crazy and you just didn't have time to work on your blog.
5. Get Those Distractions Out of Here
We already know that our phones are one of the biggest distractions we have and they're always around us!
So, yes, I'm telling you to literally put your phone in another room.
Yup, I said it.
When we finally get an hour to sit down and write we cannot be tempted by other things around us, this includes comfy couches or beds.
There is always that temptation to sit in bed in your pjs and blog but you just might fall asleep and/or be less focused and neither of these scenarios is going to help you grow your blog.
Whatever distractions you have laying around the house, just put them away or deal with them before you begin writing.
6. Evaluate & Assess
The whole goal of creating a blog schedule is to help you grow your blog and turn it into a thriving business and in order to do that, you have to get a feel for what's working and what isn't.
When you have a clear understanding of what you want out of your blog it will be easier to evaluate and assess.
Every few weeks take a look at your stats in Google Analytics.
Your traffic numbers, how well your posts are doing on Pinterest, where your traffic is coming from.
This will help you understand where you need to improve.
Maybe you need to put more effort into writing fewer posts during the week but more in-depth and valuable posts, maybe you need to work on your Pinterest graphics and marketing.
Doing an assessment can help you decide where the focus needs to be placed to help your blog grow and for you to reach your blogging goals.
I don't recommend looking daily or even every single week.
Most things on the internet take a bit of time to work and it may take a few weeks for you to see if you've improved is working yet or not.
The bottom line is, your time is valuable.
Use it wisely.
Your Blogging Schedule will Grow as you Grow
Remember, the schedule you create today isn't set in stone.
Maybe three weeks from now your schedule completely changes and you'll have to change everything around.
Or your goals will simply change.
And that's fine. The whole point is to make blogging fit into your schedule and make sure you are making time for it because it's a priority.
Now it's your turn.
Go out there and create a blogging schedule that not only helps you reach your goals but gives you peace of mind.
Don't forget to pin this post for later
