WHY I CUT MY PUBLISHING SCHEDULE IN HALF (AND YOU SHOULD TOO)
When I first started blogging (back when I was writing about music, fashion and celebs), I was publishing a brand new post almost every single day. There was no plan. No attention to the important things like headlines, paragraph length and word count. I began blogging at a funny time – it was in the middle of a time when everyone was treating it as an online diary, but some were learning how to use it as a marketing tool.
Now that I’ve learnt a lot about blogging and my purpose is to not only grow my online presence but help others do the same, I’ve cut my publishing schedule down drastically. This is why.
WRITING TAKES THE LONGEST TIME
If you’re anything like me, you’re not a full-time blogger and you’re doing this on the side. That means you need to make a decision: loads of short posts or a couple of longer, more in-depth ones. For me? I was the first but now I’m the latter, and that’s what Google prefers too.
Sure, I get the whole short and sweet posts about a new outfit or a new sofa, and I love those too. But I’m starting to think they’d be better saved for Instagram captions and YouTube videos, which is exactly what I’m going to do.
By writing a fewer amount of posts but making them longer, readers can find out all the information they need to know about a certain topic in one place, instead of jumping from blog to blog looking for more tips. If I was to only provide a portion of the information (in this instance, stop after this first section), it would hinder my chances of becoming the go-to person for certain things.
There’s also the issue of Google - I used to work in SEO and I still like to keep up with all the industry news. So I know that Google has the aim of putting content with the most accurate information at the top. It also ranks shorter posts lower down than those with more words and value to them.
Plus, blogging has changed. You used to be able to stick a photo at the top, write a few paragraphs and hit publish. We never thought about email lists, a promotional strategy, branded images and generating community through social media. By spending the majority of your time writing content, you’re missing out on other valuable growth methods. If you don’t promote your content, who is going to see it?
PEOPLE READ MORE THAN JUST YOUR BLOG
Something I really struggled with about a year ago was that I was consuming so many different posts, emails, e-courses, podcasts - and I never found the time to actually put any of them into action. In fact, I’ve still got a folder in my Gmail that’s full of unopened free e-courses from so many different bloggers, purely because of the big ‘t’ word…TIME.
So now, I’ve drastically cut down how much content I consume, but I still read a fair few blogs and your readers will do the same. Give people a chance to take your content in, especially if you’re sharing posts that have a lot of information in them. If you’re throwing up tutorials or DIYs every day, it’s unlikely that even your most loyal readers will be able to keep up.
The best thing to do is start slowly (if you throw yourself into it you’ll end up burning out), and only give yourself what you know you’re capable of handling.
When you first start blogging readers are few and far between and it can be like that for a while. Don’t overpower them. Engage with them. Ask them what they’re interested in, get to know them like it’s a new friend. The more you talk to your audience, the better the content ideas you’ll have and the more you’ll grow. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have one post that my readers absolutely LOVE and want to share, rather than 10 they just flick through and don’t do anything about.
But this doesn’t have to mean that each post gets thrown to the bottom of the pile never to be seen again. Blogging has changed so much. Now, it’s not just about the post you publish on each day. You can create foundational content that lasts a lifetime and promote all your old content on social media too. Here’s a good promotional schedule to follow for Twitter:
- 3x on day published
- Next day
- Next week
- Next month
Then you can carry on sharing it every month, depending on how many posts you’ve got in your archives (which, if you’re anything like me, is a lot!).
YOUR IDEAS WILL LAST LONGER
For my first year or so as a blogger, I had such a hard time finding my niche when it came to my content and that really made me struggle with ideas. I know I’m not alone in this. When you first start out, you have this whole host of ideas and you’re so pumped to start creating content. Then all of a sudden, your path changes and all your ideas disappear.
This isn’t a bad thing to worry about and is something that happens to every blogger – including me. Every so often, I’ll have a content inspiration session where I’ll create a backlog of ideas which will last me for a while. But the more you publish content, the more you’ll run out of ideas.
I’ve got a post coming up soon with plenty of blog post ideas for you, something I’ve been meaning to create for ages!
YOUR CONTENT CAN BE REPURPOSED FOR EMAILS OR SOCIAL MEDIA
If you’re one of those people that is always coming up with ideas, or you’re worried that you’re not getting through your list fast enough, why not use them in other places? For instance, you might come up with an idea and think, that would be SO much better in an email, or this would be perfect to talk about on Instagram, or even in a Twitter chat or YouTube video!
Each idea doesn’t necessarily have to become a ‘big’ blog post. Content doesn’t just mean text. It means everything, from your emails to your social media posts and more.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an email to my community about the tools that I use to run my blog every single day. This started from social media, with a conversation I was having in a Facebook group about useful tools. I thought, instead of a huge blog post, I could summarise this in an email and it would be SO helpful for my subscribers. And that’s exactly what I did.
YOU NEED TO DO OTHER THINGS THAN JUST CREATING CONTENT
I’ve been there. Posting five to seven times a week and feeling so pressurised to make each blog post look amazing. But what does that lead to? Burnout. And it’s the real downside of running a blog, because we all end up facing it at some point. Your creativity and determination is replaced with wanting to curl up on the sofa doing nothing. And then you feel guilty because you’re not getting any work done.
Sound familiar?
Like anything you do in your life, you need time away from it. This gives your mind and body time to rest and refuel. To actually live your life and make some memories instead of spending your weekend in front of your laptop. You need to talk to people, watch your favourite TV show, go for a walk, listen to music, anything that gives you some time to refresh your creativity.
With all the noise out there, it can seem like you have to be so competitive to make it in the blogging world. It can feel like you have to be working 24/7 to be the biggest, the best and the first to do everything. But it’s not like that. Take time to go at your own pace and do things that are important. That is how you’re going to get the best results and reach your goals.
How do you manage your publishing schedule for your blog? Have you ever thought about creating less content?