Well, everybody says you must post at least once a day, or two days, but you can’t seem to keep this up. Here’s some of my tips that may help you to keep up your blogging consistency.
Why should you post consistently? Readers would have plenty to read. They also expect when your articles should be posted.
Anyways, here are the tips.
1. Give it the highest priority, if possible
Give writing the post the highest priority, which means making it the first thing you have to do. This would keep you from doing other things that are quite unnecessary.
Sometimes, when my teachers give homework, I thought, “I can do it later…”. And when the ‘later’ comes, I thought, “There is still a lot of time left,” and when the ‘a lot of time’ flies away, I have to sleep, leaving my homework undone. If I had finished my homework earlier, I could be homework-free and wouldn’t have to worry about it.
Similarly, if you have finished writing your post, you would be post-writing-free; you can relax as much as you want…until tomorrow, when you have to write another post.
If you do not want to relax, write more posts, if you want. After that, you can schedule them to be published tomorrow, and the days after. If you do this, you could stop writing for awhile and relax 8) … Until you have to write more posts again.
In conclusion, give writing the post the highest priority, unless there is something more important and urgent. After you’ve finished doing the ‘something more important’, write your post.
OK… Now we know we have to give writing posts the highest priority. But how do you make yourself to make writing the posts the highest priority?
1. Tell yourself that if you finished writing the post, you would be post-writing-free and do not have to worry about it!
2. Tell yourself that if you don’t write it, your readers would have nothing to read.
3. Tell yourself that if you post frequently, your readers would return for more.
2. Close other programs; avoid distraction
One of my mistakes on writing posts is leaving Tweetdeck, the best twitter client ever, on. You see, twitter is very interesting, and people share cool links and stuff there.
Every time my twitter friends update, Tweetdeck, by default, notify me with a notification message and sound. I then open Tweetdeck to read the updates, which distracts me from writing my post.
If you are writing a post, it is best if you close other (distracting) programs, so that you could quickly finish writing your post. That is, unless you are a person who never gets distracted.
Oh, and here is my twitter account if you wish to follow me.
3. Just write it!
So, you have thought of a ‘great’ topic on which you could write your post. But later, you realized that it isn’t such a good topic to write on.
Never mind! Just write the post! Though you may not know much about it, write about all you know! Perhaps your post topic may change later. Who knows?
4. Blogging Without Your Computer
Guess what? You do not have to be on the computer to blog. When you are out somewhere, you can still blog! All you need is a paper and a pen to write the post.
For more tips on this, click here.
5. Know that the hardest part is to get it started
If you have problems starting writing a post, tell yourself that the hardest part is to get started. When distracting programs are turned on, such as your internet browser or Tweetdeck, you wouldn’t be able to concentrate on writing your blog post.
So, force yourself to close all the programs that keeps you from writing your post, and start writing it! Minutes after you’ve started writing, it would be easier for you to keep on.
6. Take a break
Sometimes, you need a little break in the middle of writing a blog post. Maybe it’s because it’s getting boring, you feel like doing something else, or need a little rest,
If you do not take breaks when you need them, you might make mistakes in your post.
Furthermore, if you take a break, you come back and see the post with ‘new eyes’. When we see the post with ‘new eyes’, we improve the post, correct some mistakes, and/or remove unnecessary parts. Why you see the post with ‘new eyes’ after you took a break is because your brain is refreshed, or you have learned something new.
But remember – you have to continue writing after your break, or not you wouldn’t finish your post.
7. Find a guest poster
Ah, this is the alternative way to keep up your consistency easily. Guest posters are people outside that are willing to post on your blog, usually something interesting and helpful. Click here and here for tips on finding a guest poster to post on your blog.
8. If you do not know what to blog about…
Sometimes, we don’t write due to lack of inspiration and ideas. Click here and here for a post that would help you solve this problem.
9. Note that there is actually no right posting consistency
It’s not like there is a fixed consistency where you have to post every single day or not you will fail. Every blog has its own rhythm. Most blogs post a post a day. Some blogs even post once a month. Some on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Some even 20 times a a day!
But it is important to keep up your consistency because your readers would be expecting new posts.
Do you have anymore tips? If so, please feel free to leave them in the comments.
P.S. Don’t forget to bookmark this post (Ctrl +D). If you have blogger’s block, you can read this post again.
In short, avoid destruction. I think I should try blogging without a computer. 🙂
You have some very good ideas here. I personally have the opposite problem though – I think of posts more often than I have time to write them. But I think that will change soon, as I catch up with other things. When I get ideas for posts and I am at the computer, I usually stop what I am doing to either jot my idea down, or to write down a few sentences/paragraphs of my post, if I know it won’t necessarily “come back to me” later, in those terms.
Not exactly the same problem as bloggers block, but still kind of related.
Its important to post consistently so that readers have plenty to read. It depends on the blogger whether posts should be published once a week or 5 times a week but being consistent is the key to keep the blog fresh. Also, as a reader I feel that along with being consistent its even more important to write quality posts.