Reader Question: How do you blog?
8 Oct
The other day I received this question from my lovely friend Laura:
How do you blog: write every day or write a lot then schedule? Also, how do you manage to upload everything, everywhere, all the time? I am dizzy: flickr, blog, twitter, FB, etc. GOOD HEAVENS.
I think this is a really interesting question because it’s the kind of thing I like to know about other people. I’m always just as interested in the process and the methods behind things as I am in the product themselves, at least when it comes to any creative endeavor.
I post to my blog every day, and I know that might seem overwhelming to some and certainly blogging like that isn’t for everyone. When I first started I struggled a bit with the rhythm and trying to figure out what I liked. Did I want to take the weekends off, or just one day? Did I want to commit myself to any regular schedule at all or just post when the spirit moved me? Answering these questions came down to one simple thing: I have a lot of ideas.
I’m left-handed. Did you know that? I have a theory about this. I read one time that the right-handed person’s brain operates by process of elimination while the left-handed person’s brain operates by generating possible solutions until one fits. I really don’t know how accurate my assumptions are but this is what I tell myself to explain why I think the way I do. I have a lot of ideas and I think anyone who has lots of ideas will tell you that plenty of them are really bad ideas. This is why we have a lot of them. Some of them turn out to be not so bad and even fewer of them are actually interesting. I have a lot of ideas for posts and that is why I post blog everyday. I can’t bare wasted food and I can’t bare wasted ideas.
It should be noted that I love what I do. I work on this blog so much because I truly enjoy it. It’ s fun and it’s one of the things I choose to do when I have free time. But I don’t work on it every day and I keep my work time limited and as separate from family time as much as possible. I still manage to post daily because I’m faithful to my calendaring, scheduling, and time management skills.
I’d be lost without my binder and my calendar to keep all of my posts in order and I have a little notebook just for jotting down post ideas when they come to me. I really couldn’t blog at all without the calendar and careful time management. I tend to outline my ideas a month at a time though I don’t stick to it very strictly. It’s just helpful for planning. I really like the posting schedule I have for themes. The structure it gives me is like a trellis for my ideas for posts to grow along.
I try to write in batches and I complete each post in stages. At any given time I’ll have several posts cooking at each stage. I try to be as efficient as possible and have come up with ways to streamline my work. I usually write posts while Isobel is with my mom or Anthony, but occasionally I can get stuff done while she plays contentedly on my lap.
Social media is weird, because often it seems like you can be everything everywhere, but it’s all an illusion. The secret is to limit social media to what you can handle. I cannot, and never have been, able to manage Facebook, so I don’t even try. It’s too, too much information. I’ve posted links to my blog there maybe three times and that’s about it.
This is why I love Twitter and IG. I can pop in and participate and pop out again. I gave up trying to keep tabs on everyone at all times and letting go of that guilt feels goooood. I used to be really active with the social aspect of Flickr, but that’s just too hard to manage on my phone so while I still use it every day of my life it’s primarily for photo hosting, storage, and organization. IG and twitter are easy to use from my phone so that’s where I am most often. Basically, I try to keep things as simple as possible and while I’ll use Goodreads or Ravelry or Pinterest for their functionality I don’t engage in the social aspect because I don’t have the time.
Do you have a question for me? I’d love to answer it! You can leave your question in the comments, @-reply me on twitter, email it to me at alittlebigblog@gmail.com or send me a messenger pigeon. Don’t actually do the last one, though. My cat will eat it.
Great post! It’s cool to see behind the scenes a bit. And your cats are adorable.
Michelle recently posted..What I wore:: to be cheered up
Thank you so much, Michelle! And it’s a good thing they are cute, what with all the barfing and stuff.
I also found this post helpful. I love the idea of keeping a calendar to outline a month’s worth of potential posts. I just have to figure out how to hang on to ideas that I think of in the car or shower or in a business meeting! Also, I am new to blogging, so sometimes it feels lonely out there. How do you get folks to subscribe to your blog/website?
Thanks, Pam! I can give you my best advice though in truth this is a complicated question. I think the most important thing to focus on is producing good content. Find your voice or your niche and really focus on producing posts you are proud of. Write about something you are passionate about. Write to please yourself. Don’t compare yourself to others because you will always find someone more successful or talented. I honestly believe that the best way to attract an audience is to be very passionate about your niche and to produce the best content you can.
Other than that, there are the traditional ways of getting the word out there: Advertise. I did, and still do and others advertise through me. I’ve heard that you can get a big jump in views if you attend blog conferences and network, but I haven’t done that so I really don’t know. Find other blogs in your niche and get involved. Support the community and in turn it will support you.
All I can say is that it will happen. If you keep writing stuff you are passionate about people will find you, or search for you, or link to you. It takes patience and hard work, which is why its important to love what you write about.
Good luck!
Calendars and having an idea of what’s to come and huge head-starts is so important. Lately I’ve been swamped and sometimes I end up writing the posts the day-of, and it’s shows. They feel rushed, incomplete, and have typos. As writers we can’t see the flaws immediately after writing it. We need to write, shut off the computer and forget that draft, then come back to the it the next day. Better ways to phrase things seem natural. Typos scream at you and are easily fixed. I too keep a notebook of ideas and always add to it, I can blog frequently because I’m never out of ideas, and I bet I will be blogging twice a day every day someday…I fucking love doing it
Just like it’s obvious you do, too.
Also, ever noticed the longer you plan and blog, the more you have an internal calendar and the less you need to plan pedantically? Furthermore, I agree on social media. It’s better to be really good at maintaining a couple than trying to maintain all the popular ones badly. I don’t instagram or pin qith pintrist and stopped keeping up with Flickr, but my Facebook and twitter stays very active and continues to grow. I’ll add new social media slooowly as I can keep up with.
Van recently posted..How to Make Big Bad Bucks Reselling: New Name. New Chapter.
Here’s to doing what we love!