BJ has decided that with the start of October comes the start of a new routine for her as a working blogger.
It’s got me thinking about the time in my own blogging journey that I made similar decisions to put a routine together in order to become more productive as a blogger.
I started by setting myself posting goals but also added a variety of others including:
– clearing inbox goals
– goals on how many other bloggers and contacts I wanted to network with each week
– setting time aside for non blogging projects
– setting time aside to read newspapers, magazines and other sites
– goals on starting new sites – adding features and tweaking ads on established ones etc
Out of the goals emerged a new routine that I developed to get the goals achieved.The result of this approach was that my blogging slipped into another gear – my blogs grew and I was slowly able to put more time aside to blog as the income increased.
So what is your blogging routine like? I write a day in the life of a ProBlogger which described mine back in April (its changed a bit since) but what is your blogging workflow/day like? You may or may not be full time – but share your routine.
I spent a busy (but typical) day blogging my routine last month. Not only was it my standard day, but I tried to highlight the technologies and tools I needed and how they helped get through the hellacious day. Of course, every day is just as busy as the last one! It’s ironic to me that folks who don’t blog think that’s not a very time-consuming activity. My goal was to change their minds! :) I’ll let you decide if I suceeded.
I read voraciously, and when I find something worth blogging about I use a wordpress shortcut that creates a link to the article for me and that I can save as a draft. When I have spare time, I will reread the source (where appropriate) and describe and comment on whatever the issue is. I also set time aside (usually in the evenings) to work on things that are completely original and do not refer to other sources. Evenings and weekends are when I tweak layouts and what not.
I do not spend as much time as I’d like on it, but so it goes. I really need to find time to get adverts back on my site (they haven’t made their way into my wordpress theme after switching over from b2evolution).
“goals on how many other bloggers and contacts I wanted to network with each week”
This is my main goal I need to work on. Especially ways of contacting and discussing issues/ideas/crap besides emails.
When I wake up I check my feeds. Since I use Newsgator in Outlook I can flag posts I find relevant/interesting. I found that once I’ve read everything I sometimes find one or two views/articles on the same thing (giving me more to write and think about).
Sometimes in class (thanks wifi!) I’ll check on the news and post news. Then at night I go ahead and try to post a few things later at night (giving early risers something to read).
1 Read around 400 RSS feeds on Bloglines
2 Check e-mail and answer anything
3 Check statistics on my site, and other blogs
4 Open spreasheat
5 Start researching topic
6 Blog
7 Input information into spreadsheet
8 Repeat 5-7 for each topic
9 Save spreadsheet
10 Relax
I believe in original contents so I spend relatively less time reading than writing.
I keep a left window on my blog for links so that’s where the interesting news/articles go.
I devote at least 3 hours a night to write up original contents on every weekday.
I take Sat and Sun off every week to resume my normal life
I write down ideas whenever they strike me even when I am climbing rocks 12000 feet up.
And I check my stats every 13 mins if I have a live connection.
I’m at the point where I need to get more serious about my writing habits, and am searching for the “right” routine.
As I flight attendant, I travel for work, and I’ve found that I tend to do most of my work on the road. That option gets displaced if I’m somewhere that doesn’t have wi-fi access. I can’t imagine trying to do all this work and depending on dialup!!! I have the proverbial Hobson’s choice: My work gives me something to write about, but also gets in the way of having time to write.
Since I don’t have much of a technical background, it takes me quite some time to master that end of things. But I try to spend time learning about, and trying out, new technology options.
I’m a LONG way from giving up my day job — but I’m learning, writing, increasing my readership, getting positive feedback from readers and friends, and having fun. Not bad for about six weeks.
My routine is the same as David’s
How long does it take you to read all 400 rss? Geesh, I thought I had it bad with 105!
1. Check and reply to e-mails.
2. Check news sources/other sites and see which tidbits I want to blog about
3. Tweak layouts, decide on additional content to place in
4. Plan new sites
The main things I have to work on is organizing my time better and to network more. How do I go about doing that? Do I just e-mail other bloggers?
I get up and get my kids fed/bathed/clothed/teeth brushed and they start playing. Between 9am and Noon I read/research or if I am not feeling creative, I do site-maintenance. In that time I probably get interrupted about a dozen times or have to nurse the baby. Noonish is when I break to make lunch and get the baby to sleep. I usually do housework (literally) and sitework if I have time then and at 2 I homeschool my kids. I’m done at 4 and I get another hour or two catching up on my inbox and bloglines. I don’t get to write at this point because this time in my house is pretty chaotic.
I don’t get back online until 9pm when all the kids are in bed. I am usually up until 2am (not because I have to, but because I really love writing and this is the time when I am not interrupted so much.
I am finally able to do this full time now, so starting Monday I will have in-home help for the afternoon hours with my kids.
We should all have a posting routine. A benefit of a posting routine is that in times of apathy or laziness you have a routine to follow. With no routine it’s easier just to do nothing.
My routine is to ahve a notepad (paper) and notepad file for jotting website of interest or thoughts to flesh out. I keep a desktop file of photos of interest to blog.
I look over my notes daily. I compose and edit the first drafts in my head. I use WordPress and always have half a dozen to a dozen posts in the kiln to massage into place when the subject appeals.
I post every two days, trying to balance heavier posts with posts with a lighter positive energy.
Another aspect I didn’t mention was to gear more public-oriented posts towards the weekend and more in-depth posts for earlier in the week because on weekends, people generally like lighter reading and on the weekend I sometimes play a meet-and-greet blogger game at Michele’s (http://www.micheleagnew.com) and people tend to have shorter attention spams so need a shorter and/or lighter post.
In Germany, the law states that employees are allowed to take a 5-7 minute break every hour. While others go for a cigarette break, I check my RSS feeds and store all the interesting links in one email. When I get home around 6pm, spousal and parental duties take center stage. At 10pm, I start reading the content of my chosen links, look for photos and then, blog.
I have 5 blogs (3 on travel and 2 on parenting).
Oh yea, I also make it a point to participate in forums (related to my blogs) and answer emails.