- Go to your WordPress dashboard
- Draft a post
- Schedule the post for 2am
Scheduling posts can be helpful for many reasons. Here are mine:
A World of Difference
The people who read your blogs literally come from different parts of the world. While the sun is shining where you are, the moon is glowing where they are. While you are bedding down, someone is getting up. While you are making coffee, someone else is pouring a goodnight scotch….we get the point. Scheduling posts to publish all hours of the night (OK, maybe not all hours) gives others an opportunity to see them early on who live in a different country. You may say, “They’ll see them anyway won’t they?” Not necessarily. It depends on how many blogs they already follow. We’ll all see it at some point, but there’s no guarantee. Keep your posts fresh by considering those who are not where you are.
Consistency
Consistency is difficult when you first start to blog. Even if you manage to go ahead full steam, at some point there’s going to be a burn-out. At the same time, you know that consistency is something that is needed to grow a blog and to keep it running. If you’re super busy, it helps if you create a schedule where you’ll have posts being published even on those days when you’re not at home. You can blog when you’re sleeping, when you’re driving, or when you’re flipping burgers! Plus, people will think your a superman or woman, which is somehow relevant.
Vacations / Breaks
If your addicted to updating your blog and you really don’t want to miss your regular posting days, schedule posts to go out during your breaks and vacation times. For instance, I enjoy writing / blogging, but it’s not the most important thing in my life. I, like many of you, actually have one outside of this blog. That said, I don’t blog on Saturdays. This doesn’t mean there’s nothing being published on Saturdays! If there’s something that needs to go out on Saturday, I schedule my Saturday posts so I don’t have to log in and focus on that during my break time.
Backfire – Of course, all things come with a fine print don’t they? If you’re really trying to break, stay away from the blog. The reason is because though you scheduled a post, you’re still likely to get feedback such as comments that will draw you back into the blogosphere. Though, if your really smart, you’ll just turn off your phone.
Goals
It may be good to schedule posts when you’re seeking to establish yourself as a blogger. When you first start a blog, you may have a goal that is different than when you have been blogging awhile. For instance, when I started The PBS Blog, my goal was to publish at least 3 posts a day. This was because I was, as a newbie, seeking to reach a certain goal. Right away I knew I wanted variety so my schedule went something like this:
- Article
- Poetry
- Inspirational Quote
Every night I’ll draft my articles for the day (which ranged from Self-Publishing stuff to general life stuff), my poem, and an inspiring quote. My goal was that though I love writing, I didn’t want this to be a strict writing blog which means I wanted to attract readers beyond that niche. I have a life outside of writing and things to share outside of it too. Right away I wanted to showcase variety to build a readership that included a wide range of people. Yes, weird people need love too.
When you first start to blog, you may also have a certain goal that, after blogging for awhile, may indeed change. After blogging for about a year, I didn’t schedule posts in this way anymore but it did help me to:
a. Get into the habit of blogging
b. Reach my goals
I wanted to exceed the 300 follower mark in the beginning at a nice pace. By nice pace, I mean within the first 3 months so I was reaching for 100 new followers a month. It sounds like a lot now but it really wasn’t hard thanks to scheduling posts! After reaching your goal, you may not have to post so much because your foundation is under you. For me it was important to reach that follower mark to establish myself as a serious blogger and it was something I obligated myself to. I thought, as someone no one knows anything about, I have to get a good foundation under me. After this it was important to create new goals because obviously, I wasn’t trying to stop there. So I started to incorporate special themes into my blog (Like Movie Night Friday and Black History Fun Fact Friday) and participate in blog challenges (Like Writers Quote Wednesday and Writing 101). All in all, like starting anything new, it’s going to take work in the beginning but afterwards you’ll find your groove and settle into a more natural schedule.
The PBS Blog 