This is a question many newbie bloggers ask when they are starting out – and even seasoned pro’s sometimes find it hard to time manage. It’s a question I’ve overheard on the grapevine recently. As your subscriber count grows, the pressure on you to produce content regularly to keep visitors happy increases. The other side of the coin is that if your writing is speculative in bringing in new business – then when is too much or too little?
Essentially, there are two things that make blogging a struggle, one is coming up with new material, and the other is finding the time to create the material.
Managing Time
Time is precious, and if you are trying to run a business at the same time as keeping an audience happy, it gets tough. Although blogging is undoubtedly one of the best guerilla marketing techniques you can employ, the trade off in time, for reward can seem like an endless uphill struggle. Personally, I’m holding down a 9-5 day job, and blogging at the weekends and evenings, when I get the chance.
For that reason, to put out on average about three posts a week, means I have to be both passionate about what I write and organised with my time. I can’t stress enough that if you are attempting to build readership around a topic, pick something you really want to talk about. I’ve no real blogging goal as such – I just do it because I enjoy watching it grow.
Scheduling Posts
Scheduling posts in advance is a great way to keep on top of things. If you are writing on demand, then if you can, write another post straight afterwards. I find that if Iget “in the zone” – the words tend to flow easier and keeping a few nuts stored away for when you are not in the mood is always a good plan. This gives you an opportunity to build up a backlog of material that you can use to supplement your new posts.
Maintaining Momentum
One of the best ways of maintaining momentum (when generating content ideas) is to write down the content areas that I feel my other posts need, and fill those gaps. I’ve covered this before on generating fresh content ideas. I’ll scribble down the various ideas, then fill in mini drafts – which then are easily turned into larger more comprehensive posts later. This is a technique that the major newspapers tend to use – creating what is known as black holes – i.e. they limit the places they link out to, and generate content pages to “fill the gap in information”.
Creating posts that need a follow up post also keeps you motivated – for example a series on topic X or Y. This can also reinforce your expertease within an area.
Time per post
Some posts take longer than others. Some need research, some need good supporting material – and some just flow off the tongue and into your blog editor. If you can mix up the comprehensive posts, and the short and sweet, then the time you save can help you to work harder on the big posts. Ultimately the time you put it will be reflected on your success, and your visitors. Blogging is not a magic bullet for traffic but with anything, effort in = rewards out.
