27 Apr Scheduling posts for your blog
By Beth Graddon- Hodgson
It might not be the most interesting component to read about when it comes to getting traffic to your blog, but it’s so often overlooked regardless of its importance that you really should keep on reading. Really, the success of your blog depends upon it.
It may sound melodramatic to say that blog scheduling can make or break blog success, but I’m not kidding. The unfortunate thing is, few bloggers actually think about this element or recognize what a difference it can make so more often than not blog scheduling is breaking rather than making a blog.
I guess before we go any further I should explain what I mean by blog scheduling specifically. It means more than simply using the function in WordPress (or another blogging tool…is my bias showing?) that allows you to input a specific date and time that you’d like your blog post published. What’s important is not that you can use that function; it’s what you put in it that counts.
Decide how many days per week you’re going to be blogging to start, and then pick convenient days to write. Say you’re going to post 3 times per week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday can be your chosen days. If your blog has more than one focal point, pick a day for each. The focus area for each day doesn’t need to be clearly indicated (for example, the trend amongst casual bloggers to post just a picture on their bog for Wordless Wednesday) with a name or category unless you want to. It’s just about setting the standard that each Tuesday on the blog you’ll find a guest post (from me in this case) or that every Friday on a green news blog , you’ll find a “how to” style guide.
Now that you’ve got a grasp of what to do when it comes to blog scheduling, here’s the why that you might still be wondering about. Blog scheduling is about setting a standard and consistency. It’s about attracting regular readers; sure, you’ll still drag in people at random who are interested in one specific article from Google, but you want people to subscribe and visit week after week.
Consider blog post scheduling like the arrival of a daily newspaper or weekly magazine. How annoying would it be to step onto your front porch at 8am to find your favorite newspaper has yet to make an appearance? It works that way with a blog too. It might be tempting to write when you’ve had a specific thought or to comment on something big that’s happened in the news. But use those posts to supplement everything else that appears on your blog. It should be the rule, not the exception, that your blog follows a publishing schedule when you’re blogging for business!
To learn more about how a blog scheduling tool can help you maintain your timeline, check out WordPress Support . If you want to take the whole scheduling aspect one step further, you can also read about how to schedule blog postings to be sent out as newsletters here.
Beth Graddon-Hodgson is a professional writer/blogger and the founder of WriteSourcing a professional blogging, writing and editing service. You can read her posts on blogging for business here at the Wax blog every Tuesday.