A week or so ago I posted on the
Anatomy of a Blog Post. That post got me thinking of how I write blog posts - how I decide what to write about, how I organize my thoughts, etc. You can click here to read about my
blog planner & notebook (that's sort of gotten set to the side right now!) and click
here for all other Boost your Blog related topics.
Now that I'm sort of going back to a more simple outlook to blogging I don't really use my blog planner or my blog notebook a lot. I tend to let things develop organically as I get back into gaining my idea & blogging momentum. Sometimes its just nice to keep things simple. But weather I'm using my planner or just typing as a please, I still like to plan a little bit just so I know what's going on for the week.
Currently, I create 3-4 draft posts in blogger with ideas for the next week. Sometimes I just open up a post & write a title & sometimes, along with the title, I make a list of the points I want to cover in that blog post. During the week when Zach isn't home I film these little videos I've been posting lately!
On the weekends I develop the idea more either with taking pictures, pulling in links, etc. Saturdays are usually my making days where I execute any DIY I want to share next week or make something just for me. I'll finish up the body of a few posts as well. When I hit a road block I'll go work on another post or go do something else. I try not to force blogging because I liked the way my blog read much better when I was just sharing things as they happened & not trying to meet some sort of quota for posts a week. If I don't feel like sharing the DIY I won't post a Make it Monday. If I feel like an idea isn't fully developed I'll just let the post sit as a draft for a little while. No need to publish something I don't like.
Once I have an idea developed to it's fullest & the post is done, it's now time add the labels & thent publish or schedule them. Usually I schedule my posts to go up around 10:30am each day that way I don't have to worry about blogging during the week! I can enjoy other things! I take one last look to make sure it meets the guidelines I listed in the
Anatomy of a Blog Post article, then I'm good.
Something I need to get back into is scheduling promotional tweets. I should do this as a last step to publishing a post but I'm lazy! If you use Blogger in Draft you can get the permalink your post will be live at from the sidebar of your post. I like to hop on over to
Tweet Deck & schedule a tweet about the post. I use
Networked Blogs to make sure a tweet & post to my facebook page go live when the post goes live but I should schedule an afternoon tweet about the post as well. I also try to schedule at least two tweets about archive posts - because I have a lot of archives!
And that's it! That's how I currently write a blog post. A little bit of planning, a lot of creativity, and a hint of satisfaction. Blogging is a serious as you make it & right now in my life I need to keep things simple because I like blogging and I don't want to turn it into something filled with pressure.
How do you blog? Do you blog everyday or schedule posts? How do you develop & keep track of your ideas?
xoxo, Moe
