A Writer's Guide to Successful Blogging, Part 2

Today's Successful Blogging topic is all about time management. You can get so sucked into blogging and social networking that you lose sight of what you're supposed to be doing in the first place: writing! Or, you can be such a good little writer, churning out word after word, that you kinda neglect your blog until it has tumbleweeds and cobwebs. How do you find the time?

One of the best features to take advantage of (on both Blogger and Wordpress, as well, I'm sure, as other blogging platforms) is advance post scheduling. You can get your post(s) all set up and ready to go, then schedule them to post at the desired date and time. So if you have a particularly productive day where you hammer out four posts, you can schedule them and have extra time later on. This also helps with my second point:

Pick a schedule and stick to it. Even if it's just "I'll post on the first Monday of every month", that's fine. It gives your readers something to look forward to. I know, I know. Believe me, I know what you're thinking. But do as I say, and not as I do on this one, mmkay? Maybe one of these days I'll take my own advice here haha.

To finish up this post, I've invited Dean C. Rich, writing friend extraordinaire from AQC, to tell you how he's found the time to blog. He's quite the busy man, and he's only been at this blogging thing for about a month and a half, and he's doing well. Check out his blog for a new time management tip every Thursday.

Take it away, Dean!

J. Lea Lopez has become a great cyberfriend. I met her in the forums and Wednesday night chat sessions at Agent Query Connect. I am honored to be a guest blogger on her blog.

I’ve set up a blog of my own, and I have a very full plate. I have three children at home, one is a dancer, two sons in show choir, and all three play instruments. My wife works full time and I am a general manager working 60+ hours a week. So yes, I have a very full plate.

J. Lea and a few others at AQC suggested, no scratch that, urged, well no not urged, insisted on members setting up a twitter accounts, and a blogs. (Oh Dean, you make it sound like we were cracking the whip! *wink*) You must have a platform. I thought no way can I do a blog, twitter, write, and keep up with my professional life and family life.

However, as a writer you need a platform. You need to be involved in a writing community. AQC is a great place to start.  (I will blog about that on my own blog another time.) The community taught me to twitter. They got me to blog. Slowly I am building a following. I was very hesitant to blog, but my friend J. Lea really helped me get started. She suggested I build the blog but not tell anyone about it until I was more comfortable. So I hinted to my friends at AQC that I was working on it, and I even managed to build some anticipation to the “unveiling” of the blog. Twitter went from 10 AQC friends to over 100 followers. My blog now has 13 followers, seven are friends I’ve made from AQC, but the others have just arrived. So I will say I’ve some success with my blog and twitter. I am making some great friends doing this. (And if I may interject again, Dean, with his 13 lovely followers, consistently has more comments on his posts than I did at that stage. Or even now, with 68 followers. Ahem. Just sayin'. :-P)

I know J. Lea has already talked about auto post, (this works great for me!) I like routines. Routines help me get so much done! The ebb and flow of the week gives me a few windows to write for my blog.  It also helps to post a schedule on the blog. This makes you accountable to your readers.  Accountability is important, it introduces self discipline, and forces you to make a commitment to your blog, and your readers. (Eventually you will gain readers.)

My goal is to post at least one item a week. To achieve my goal I decided to be true to the blog's theme, Time. So for me the only thing that is an absolute with my blog at this point is Thursday’s Time Tip. I must post a time tip every Thursday. Although my blog has room for other things I am committed to posting once a week. Eventually I may post themes on other days of the week, but I've left that open right now. I do have plans to expand the blog in the future.  I currently have slots for tips on writing, excerpts on my work, as well as essays from my life, a get to know you type thing.

The important thing is to make up your mind to do something, then build a way to make it work.

15 minutes for twitter a week. 20 to 40 minutes a week to write at least one post for the blog. Auto post will make it happen at the same time every week. Find a rhythm, a routine, stick with it and some level of success will come your way.

Happy blogging!