Blog Consistently // 8 Weeks to Improve Your Blog

Welcome to 8 weeks to #ImproveYourBlog, week 6. During this 8 week course, we’ll be focusing on one thing per week. Every Tuesday, they’ll be a…

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blog schedule

Welcome to 8 weeks to #ImproveYourBlog, week 6.

During this 8 week course, we’ll be focusing on one thing per week. Every Tuesday, they’ll be a new post for you to read, go away and do some tasks that will hopefully enable you to improve your blog.

If you want to see what’s coming up in future posts, then check out the introduction post where I go through each weeks topic.

If you want to get this post sent to you via e-mail, then sign up to the newsletter either in the sidebar or below the post. Alternatively, you can keep up to date with me on Bloglovin‘, Twitter or Pinterest.

 

Today we’ll be looking at how to create a blog schedule that suits you and stick to it.

The previous weeks:

If you’ve missed the previous four weeks, check them out here:

  • Week 1: Check Yourself an audit of your blog and social media accounts to make sure everything is up to date and ready for the new year.
  • Week 2: Learning From Othersanalysing other peoples blogs to see how you can improve your own.
  • Week 3: Figuring Out What You Wantbeing clear about your blog goals and what actions you need to take to achieve them.
  • Week 4: Improve Your Images how to improve your blog images, use props, make graphics and where to grab free stock photos. 
  • Week 5: Improve Your Contenttips and tricks on how to improve your writing.

How to blog consistently and stick to a blog schedule #improveyourblog

Blog Consistently.

People are always shocked when they find out I blog every day. I actually put publish 10 blog posts a week, seven on this blog, three on my fitness blog and one on my tech blog. Well, apart from last week, when one of my fitness blog posts just disappeared into thin air. WTF?

On the March 1st, it will mark 2 years since I started blogging every day.

I’ve not got any special secrets to blogging so consistently, nor am I am some blogging superhero. I never set out with the goal of daily blogging, or even starting more blogs – it’s just something what happened.

Here’s how this section of the course is going to be structure:

  • My blog schedule and how I got here.
  • Should you blog daily?
  • How to figure out your blog schedule.
  • Tips to sticking to a schedule.

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My Blog Schedule.

So, as I said, I blog daily and this isn’t something that I aimed for. My blogging schedule has changed over the years.

When I first started my blog at the end of 2012, I posted almost daily. I didn’t have a schedule, I just wrote the post and them published it there and then.

After a while a while, I got into the habit of posting every 3 days. I did this because it suited me at the time. I was doing mostly outfit posts and it would been impossible to do one every day!

Around November 2013, I started posting every 2 days. This was when I started posting different types of blog posts – reviews, lifestyle and beauty posts so hard more ideas.

I got to the point in around February 2014 where I basically had my content planned for the new two months on the every other day schedule. Which is great, as I love being so planned – but the problem was, some of the posts would be irrelevant after so long. I also like to get reviews and posts out where I’m working with brands within 7 days and was struggling to do this on this schedule.

After a bit of internal debating, I decided I would post daily until I had got my backlog sorted out. And I never looked back.

Almost two years later, I’m still posting daily and I still have my content planned over a month in advance!

Should You Blog Daily?

Let’s get things straight, just because I blog daily doesn’t meant I think EVERYONE should publish a new post every day. Some people swear by daily blogging, but others upload less for a variety of different reasons.

Here’s some pros and cons to posting daily.

Pros:

  • More content means more page views.
  • The more you post, the more ideas you get.
  • Your build your blogs content quicker.
  • It’s believed to help SEO.
  • You become disciplined.
  • Sticking to daily blogging and make you have the good feels inside.

Cons:

  • It’s time consuming.
  • Each post may get less views and comments if readers only view your latest post.
  • You run the risk of posting low quality content just to get a post out daily.
  • You might burn out.

How to figure out your blog schedule.

As I’ve already said above, I tweaked my blog schedule shit loads before settling with daily blogging and I think you should play around with a different schedule, too.

There isn’t a set about of blog posts you should aim for, the trick is to figure out what works to your based on your lifestyle, blog and other commitments.

You want to get balance between regularly updating your blog, but not feeling overwhelmed or burnt out. Remember that you can amend your schedule at any time – it’s your blog, your rules.

Work out how much time you have free on average each week to blog. Do you have a couple of hours a day after work? Or do you have other commitments so only a couple evenings a week? Be honest with yourself so you can be realistic about what you can do.

Work out how much time it takes you to complete one blog post. This includes taking photos, proof reading, SEO and any other things you might do when creating a blog post.

Think about other blog related tasks you do. Blogging doesn’t just stop at the publish button – there’s commenting on other peoples blogs, promoting your posts, managing e-mails, getting involved in the community and more.

Think about how committed you want to be. Just because you have 4 hours a day after work free, doesn’t mean you have to spend all that time blogging. You may have other things you want to do with your free time, like playing computer games, watching TV, exercising. If you force yourself to spend all your free time blogging, you might end up resenting it!

By now, you probably have an idea of how many times a week you are able to post. Now you’ll want to figure out what days you want to post on. Many people have many different schedules and I would suggest you play around with your days a bit and see which days seem to work best for you.

I know that I tend to get less page views on a Friday and Saturday, I guess because my readers are busier on those days. Test out a few different days and see what works best with your audience.

This advice also applies to the time you schedule your posts for. I schedule mine for 7am as this gives people a chance to read the posts during breakfast, on their commute to work etc. Again, it depends on what works for you and your audience. If I had a high amount of US readers, I might schedule it for later in the day.

Tips to sticking to a schedule.

Okay, so now you should have an idea about how often you want to update and when, now here’s some tips on sticking to your schedule.

Have some rocks in your diary.

By rocks in your diary, I mean things that you might post every week or months. For me, for example, I post an an Instagram roundup on the 1st of every month. I also post a #socialbloggers a roundup every Monday.

On my fitness blog, every Monday I post a fitness update where I talk about my previous week.

These are usually quick posts that you can do weekly or monthly and are a way of making sure you have at least one idea covered.

Popular ideas might be:

  • Monthly favourite products.
  • Favourite blog posts you’ve read of the week.
  • Most played songs of the week.
  • Monthly goals.

You get the idea! It can take the pressure if trying to think up new content all the time.

Automate what you can.

There are so many things you can do to automate aspects of blogging. If you can use a tool to do something for you and save time, then use it. I’m all about working smarter, not harder.

Here are some of the things I automate:

  • WordPress posts all my blog posts to my Facebook page, Google+ and Tumblr so I don’t have to.
  • Bloglovin’ sends out a Tweet when my blog post is live.
  • Instagram autoposts my pictures to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.
  • I schedule Tweets using Buffer.
  • I schedule Pins using Ahaolgy.

Take some time to plan. 

This is essential, especially if you work shifts. When I get my rotas, I think about when I’ll have time to do blog posts, take photos etc.

I try to take my photos in bulk, so I’ll plan that in, then edit them and enter the photos into a draft. Next, I’ll plan when I can sit down and write the post.

In an ideal world, by Sunday evening I would have everything ready and scheduled for the next 7 days, then during the week, I’ll start working on the following weeks posts so I can have them all finalised and ready for the following Sunday.

Although this is not an ideal world – so that’s why I have to look at it on a week by week basis and plan when and how I’m going to get each post completed.

Change your schedule if it’s not working.

Picking a schedule doesn’t mean you have to stick to it for the rest of your life.

If it’s not working for you, then be open to change. Whether you want to post more or less, amend your schedule when you need it.

Remember that for most of us, blogging is a hobby and it’s supposed to be fun. If you find your schedule is making it feel like a chore or making you feel restricted, consider changing it or even getting rid of it all together. Some bloggers are more than happy to just stick to a post and publish there and then type schedule.

Get an Editorial Calendar

I use the WP Editorial Calendar plugin to plan my content – this is a calendar that I can drink posts in and out of, move them around days if I need to. Before I switched to WordPress, I used the Calendar app on my Mac and just typed in the title of each post when I planned to have it publish.

I never used to plan like this and had it all in my head, but I found this helps me keep things in order, see what type of posts I have coming up.

The trick is to just find what works for you.

blog schedule

Are you currently on a schedule?

Come back next week when we’ll be talking about how to use comments and social media to build a community!

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21 comments

  1. Right now I feel like I have the content ideas for 5 – 6 posts a week, I just don’t have the time. I loved posting almost daily in January, but it wasn’t easy and I found I didn’t have time for anything else, like catching up on Vampire Diaries. I’ve gone back to 3 – 4 posts a week and though it feels slightly restrictive because I can’t get all my ideas out there asap, it’s a much easier pace to keep up with. Publishing the content is great, but what’s the point when all I do is publish content and leave no time for anything else, blog and real life related?

    It’s defiantly about balance and I still feel like I’m trying to find that! Scheduling as much as possible helps so much and gives me so many little pockets of time back to do other things, like eat, sleep and socialise haha!

    Sarah 🙂

  2. I have decided to blog daily starting this week. We’ll see how well this goes. It is time consuming, but I enjoy it. I am one of those keep-it-all-in-my-head bloggers but I’m looking for a system. I think I’ll try that WP plugin. Thanks for this information, Corinne!

  3. I love following this blog series, your posts are always so helpful and full of great advice. That’s amazing that you post every day!! I find it difficult keeping to a schedule so I just tend to write a post and publish when I have time, uni keeps getting in the way a lot! Your posts are always full of great content and I love the layout you make them easy to read 🙂 in definitely going to keep coming back to this series as it really is helping me a lot 🙂 xxx
    Becky Shannon xx – Life-by-Becky

  4. I’ve always been so impressed you manage to post every day – and I can’t believe you’ve been doing it for nearly 2 years!
    I’ve recently been trying to get back into blogging, so I have set up a schedule of posting 4 times a week. This gives me a chance to balance it with my uni work/social life.
    Olivia xxx

  5. When I started blogging, I also started writing down blog posts ideas, which has been helpful because if I’m ever undecided or I don’t know what to post, I go to my notebook and I automatically have tens of ideas. I find that it really helps my blogging schedule.

    As I’m on blogger I use the outlook calendar and like you – I used to have it all in my head, but with so maany things going through and ideas popping in and out, I sometimes forgot what was my original plan, so I started writing it down on the calendar. I’ve been thinking about getting a planner, and I want to order one online, but there’s always other priorities when it comes to money! So I’ve been sticking to that.

    I find these series help me out because they allow me to see what I’m doing right or wrong and they allow me to get better in what I’m lacking. I stick to a three day weekly posts and right now, I think that’s all I can stick to, because like you said, there’s other things to blogging, and I find that the more I do, the less time I have for other things.

    Lovely post as per usual babe!
    Ella x

  6. I used to use the WP editorial calendar but once or twice it automatically published draft posts and it was then a real palaver to get them deleted by Bloglovin’. So now I stick them in my Outlook calendar and move them around when I need to

  7. Right bow I post three times a week, and try to have an idea scheduled in my planner for everyday that I post for two months. I’ve learned to use pencil now haha but it works!

  8. I really love your tips, especially on blogging, I’m finding them so helpful! I started to feel like posting once a week feel like I was limiting myself, so I started posting twice and have done for the last 3 or so weeks: Tuesdays and Fridays at 7pm. I am starting to see that I get less views on Fridays so I’m thinking about whether or not to change that, but I quite like my Fridays because I’ve given myself two days off of twitter chats and it works well for me. You also know I started using buffer and I love it! So thanks for introducing me to it!

  9. I don’t think people release how hard it is to blog every day so big ups to you!! I have been doing that for almost two years and I just changed my blogging schedule to be 4 posts instead of everyday its a huge weight off my shoulders and I finally don’t feel as stressed as I was! Blogging should be fun and not be a stress ball atleast for me

    Candice | Beauty Candy Loves

  10. I can’t believe we’re on week 6 already! I don’t really have a schedule, at the moment I post every day but I guess that’s just because I have a lot I want to say, it might well decrease over time. I try to do most of my writing on Sundays but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. I’ve no idea how you managed to get a whole month ahead, though! I don’t think I’ve ever managed more than a week!

  11. I would still call you a superhero for sticking to it every day! That is actually mind blowing and the fact that this isn’t your only blog! I push myself a lot to post as often as I can but then there is so much uni work to cope up with and weekends are super busy with family mostly. However, I do plan on gradually getting better at it and I agree that when I have a schedule, I am more likely to post in accordance and on time. 🙂 x

    ♥ Jadirah Sarmad | Jasmine Catches Butterflies ʚϊɞ

  12. This could not be more relatable right now! Just as I get round to visiting your blog I find this gem of a series! I need to work out a new schedule as time just escapes me recently 🙁 – I never want blogging to feel like a chore though, so will find something that works 🙂

    x

  13. I’m hugely impressed by how much you post – I’m a two a week girl and find that’s manageable for me at the moment but I would like to up it to 3 regular posts. It’s the photos that I find delay me posting, I recognise that photography is not my strongest point. Really helpful advice again this week – I like the suggestion of rocks in the diary, I think I need to find a few more of those to work into my schedule which will help give a bit more focus to my ideas.

  14. Total kudos to you for posting daily! I do have a schedule of three times a week, but when I first started it was two. Debating at the moment whether to go back down to two because I don’t feel like I’m posting the best content I could because I don’t have the time. Can’t imagine the discipline it takes for you to post every day!
    Amy xx

  15. I try to post 3 or 4 times a week. I’m not sure I could post more, but I do want to start planning out my posts in advance instead of winging it every week 🙂

  16. These are good tips Corrine! 🙂

    I found that I was really struggling with keeping up with my old blogging habits when baby came along so cutting back to only posting 3 times a week was the best thing for me, having set days for posts to go live. I schedule them in advance too, as I can’t always guarantee that I’ll have a naptime to write a post. It makes life so much easier with auto scheduling knowing that I have the next couple of days all planned out 🙂

  17. Omg this was sooo helpful to read. So much. You’re a wizard managing to post 10 a week though haha! I’ve settled on 3 per week, and they’re almost every other day. I do think that have a schedule makes it soo much easier to get stuff out regularly.

  18. I have just come across your blog and I am really enjoying these 8 week improve posts! They are full of useful content. Really helpful, thank you! I am now going back to my blog to write up some posts and schedule them to go out!
    I am going to start reading them from week one, instead of backwards haha!
    I love reading blogging tips. I have learned one thing that the majority of the blog community are so helpful and love sharing information and knowledge with each other!

    Kirsty xx

  19. I’ve really dug all the “8 weeks to improve your blog” posts but this one was the most resonant for me- I KNOW I need to be more productive with scheduling etc, I just never really knew how (apart from the odd Google calendar alert). So thank you for taking the mystery out of it- now to just put it to use x

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