I’ve been blogging Monday – Friday (or darn close) for about 18 months now. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.
Here are a few tips based on what I’ve learned along the way:
Sketch out an editorial calendar. Even if you don’t follow it exactly (and I rarely do), it helps you keep on track with the kinds of things you want your blog to be known for.
Get help from guest bloggers. We try to publish a guest post about once a week. It takes some of the pressure off and freshens up the voice.
Come up with some regular features. We publish Mixed Links, a round-up post at least every other Friday. I’m thinking about coming up with some other standing features too. It’s one less post you have to get creative with and it creates things for readers to look forward to.
Get help with the blog admin. Kristina manages our guest posting schedule, formats the guests posts, and creates the first draft of Mixed Links. She also does a fair number of first drafts for me (e.g., when we summarize a report), and sometimes guest posts herself.
Make room to go with what strikes you. The easiest posts to write are the ones that you are emotional about in some way, whether it’s excited, or impressed, or annoyed. When the mood strikes, scrap what’s scheduled and write it!
Make it a habit. I’ll often post late in the day (it’s after 4 pm now), but I’m nearly religious about getting something up on the blog, even if it is a little later than I’d hoped. Here’s how Katya Andresen describes her daily blogging habit:
Around 10 or 11 pm the night before I schedule a post to be published, I sit down and reflect on what meaningful thing I heard, read or thought during the day, and I write about it. It’s that simple and that hard.
Write ahead. When I get a break, or when I know I am going to be traveling a lot, I’ll try to write several posts in advance of when I actually publish them. I can always bump them to a later date if something really timely comes up.
When in doubt, do a list post! Like this one.
What tips do you have for blogging daily?
P.S. Britt Bravo and I will be teaching a Blogging for Nonprofits e-clinic in June.
