The Argument for Posting Ahead
Whenever I talk about posting ahead, the biggest argument not to is time. "I don’t have that kind of time, Deb. I only have time to do my daily allotment each day." I’m here to tell you posting ahead can be a huge time saver, and can also save you from having to play a catch up game later.
Let me explain…
Recently I accepted a lucrative offer from one of my clients. The money was such that I couldn’t refuse, but my workload, of course, grew. And by grew I mean more than doubled. Though I made some minor adjustments (dropping a difficult client, for instance) I kept all my network blogs. The problem is that it’s hard to post once or twice a day when you’re working almost full time for someone and maintaining your own busy blogs. So I took a few hours over the weekend to post ahead to my b5 blogs ( I have four of them). On Monday there was no denying the benefit of this as it enabled me to fulfill my other obligations without having to worry about finding the time to post to my other blogs. By Tuesday I was learning another major benefit to posting ahead.
Expect the Unexpected
The flu caught me by surprise this week. I started feeling slightly under the weather Monday night but by Tuesday morning I couldn’t function at all. Tuesday and most of Wednesday were spent on the couch or in bed. Though I probably would have taken a sick day today if I worked in the real world, the truth is I can function in the blogosphere. Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t post ahead of time. Trying to catch up on four blogs for two or more days would have put me far behind. Taking the time to post ahead proved to be a very good investment.
Now before you bombard me with comments and emails telling me there’s no time for posting, I have a few suggestions. Perhaps one will work for you?
Finding the Time to Post Ahead
Wake up an hour earlier or go to bed an hour later: You know why I get so much work done? Because I wake up a couple of hours before the rest of my family. I know waking at four doesn’t appeal to everyone, but for me it’s only temporary. School is a full day next year and then I won’t have to wake so early. My partner Jennifer Chait likes keeping very late hours, by the way.
Switch off with a spouse: My husband and like to switch off on the weekends. I’ll take our son to the park so he can get some work done around the house, and he’ll take him for a hike so I can work as I need to. This also frees us up to spend time as a family.
Make a sacrifice here and there: Give up on that hour of reading or tv watching one day a week to get a little extra work done. When you see how much time it saves during the long run, you’ll be happy you made the effort.
Posting ahead saved me this week. If I didn’t do this on Sunday I would be in a panic because I’m so far behind. Even one or two posts can save you in the event of illness or an emergency. Do think about it…
Spend Less Time On Email & More Time Blogging
The other day I posted my personal biggest time wasters while blogging. Today I’m posting some solutions I’m considering for email and moderating blog comments. I’m tacking these two time wasters together, because blog comments are one major source of email for me.
How I already save time on email:
Have decent email: I use Gmail for my major email account. I.e. anyone that matters gets my Gmail account. Gmail is very good about clearing spam (knock on wood) and so far I’ve never had an issue with them, like I have with other email providers. At first it was tough for me to get used to the whole forum-like thread on Gmail, but now, I really like it. If you have an email account that passes too much spam through, consider changing providers.
I don’t respond to everyone: I used to respond to everyone, even if it wasen’t that useful to me personally, like a PR person with a tip I couldn’t use. I’d email to say thanks anyhow, but no thanks. Now I’ve pulled back a bit on email etiquette. I respond if it’s important, if you’re a friend, and often if it’s someone with a question about blogging, but that’s it.
New ideas I have to save time on email:
Don’t answer every email right away: There are some people who say that you should only check your email if you’re ready to respond. I used to do that. Problem was I’d check my email 3+ times a day. Now I don’t answer all my emails right away. I’ve been saving them up. I still do check my email maybe 3 times a day, in case there’s some sort of client emergency, but I’ve been trying to answer the bulk of them at night.
Check your email once a day only: This is too hard for me to do, but I’ve been considering bucking up and trying it. The issue is that on weekdays I’d have 100s by nighttime if I didn’t do a sweep a couple of times a day. What I do currently is fly in, and scan for unimportant emails , which I delete, and toss everything else into labeled folders.
Delete all blog comments right away: It’s not always up to me whether I get comments emailed or not; sometimes my clients or networks have them sent to me. However, what I’ve found is that if I read and respond to comments when I see them in my inbox, it wastes a lot of time. My new system that I’m working on is simply reading my comment panels once a day at all my blogs. I’m not too good at this yet. I like to read comments as they arrive, but it does waste more time than dealing with them all at once.
Deal with special groups of emails once a week only: I get lots of emails from people asking me to do product reviews or giving me tips on topics. I’m saving all these in a PR folder that I sort, read, and answer once weekly. I’m also part of a stumble email group, so I’ve been labeling and saving these as well.
I started working on my email problems last week and so far it’s been better. It takes time to develop new habits though, and most days I really want to go comment at my blogs right away, or respond to stuff that’s not a dire emergency. If I follow through, I think the above ideas are really going to help me.
Obviously I’m not the best person to be giving email advice (it is one of my issues) so I decided to search out a few links you can read that address email nightmares:
12 Rules for Getting a Grip on Massive ProBlogger Email - great tips, some I’ll be trying out.
Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload - an older article, but had some nice tips surrounding how to send better emails, and how to let people know that you’re not an email slave.
10 Tips for Managing Email Effectively - excellent pointers about all areas of email management.
20+ Firefox Plugins For Managing Email - extra plugins tend to make my world more difficult, not easier, but these may work well for you.
What’s your best tip for managing email overload?
Wasting Time While Blogging
We all waste time at work sometimes, and usually a little time wasted does no harm. However, I literally have no time to waste. I get two full days to work, period, each week. I’m a single work-at-home mama, who homeschools, so time is tight. My son’s dad has our son Friday evenings through Sunday evenings which is when I do the bulk of my work – that by the way means; I try to get everything done for the upcoming week (currently about 3 articles and enough posts for around 10 blogs). It’s near impossible. Actually it is impossible. I’ve never, not once, had a week where I get it all done on the weekend.
Partly, this is because I’m working with a small amount of time, but also I waste some of my time. Last week I made a list of all the ways I waste time.
- Not knowing what to blog about first.
- Email, or should I say EMAIL!
- Moderating and responding to blog comments.
- Breaks during work hours.
- Getting side tracked while posting.
- Forums.
- Sleep, meals, and exercise.
- Twitter.
Some of these problems are larger than others. I also jotted down some solutions, including some solutions directly related me only having two days to work in the first place.
Over the next couple of days I’ll be posting my solutions – and how they’re working. I put some into motion this weekend. If you’re wasting time in the same ways that I do, or if you’re a single work-at-home parent maybe my solutions will help you to improve your productivity too.
What ways are you wasting time during work hours?
16 Post Ideas for Your Blog - Different Types of Posts for Network Blogs
Sometimes the plain old blog post, seems well, plain and old. Spice up your blog with a variety of posts.
1. The List Post
Nine times out of ten, if my post has gotten a ton of hits, it’s a list post. 10 favorite buildings, 15 ways to eat organic, 100 places to find a deal on sustainable home supplies, ABCs of mental health, and more.
2. The Long Post
Everyone writes a short post. Today, write about something in great detail. Post a long task or idea that will really inform and help your readers like how to install LED lights to gain the most benefit. Just be sure to hit enter. Long is fine. Long with no breaks is torture.
3. The Link Love Post
Create an entire post around other great blogs. Link to people who have linked to you. Link to the people who have linked to you AND brought you lots of traffic. Combine a link love post, with a list post - like “10 top cooking blogs you should read.”
4. The Classic Post
Re-post a popular post from your own blog. If it got many hits call it a, “Classic Post.” Re-visit the topic with some new insight or just let it stand on its own. This is the perfect post for when you’re short on time. A twist on the classic post is the classic list. For example, at my pregnancy blog, I’ll do a list post that highlights the best nutrition posts in the last few months.
5. The Review Post
You can review anything at your blog from products to people. Just be honest because people will take what you say and possible purchase said product. Review books, movies, other blogs, hair care supplies, or any other item you enjoy.
6. The Interview Post
Interview someone cool, significant, or helpful. Interview your 80 year old neighbor who goes sky diving or the 17 year old kid who lived in a treehouse. You can interview just about anyone.
7. The Careful Rant Post
Got issues? Blog it. Tell the world why you’re angry, why they should be angry, and what everyone should do about it. The “careful” is there to remind you to rant on topic. For example, bad dates are rant-worthy, but not if your network blog is about soccer.
8. The Guest Post
Put out an email to blog pals saying you want guest bloggers. I love guest posts because I get a day off and my readers get to hear from someone new and cool.
9. The Series of Posts
Write a series for a week – or each week. Example, for a while I did a weekly green audit series at one of my green blogs; each week a new room. It gave me something solid to write about each week and was useful. Plus people come back for the next post. You could also do a series on a project like organizing your kitchen; start to finish, each day a new task. Or count down to back to school.
10. The Quick Question Post
This is the ultimate post for lazy bloggers. It works best if you already get good blog traffic. Ask a question, just one. Say, “What in the heck do you make of global warming?” Ask more eloquently than this of course, but, you get the picture. Give a very quick answer yourself, and then tell everyone to leave their thoughts in the comments.
11. The Poll Post
If you have a poll on your blog, make it a poll you can use. For example, in your poll ask, “What room do you need help organizing?” As people vote, you’ll have something useful to blog about; something that you’re sure people will want to read.
12. The Unfinished Post
For some reason people love it when I have no idea what to do about something. I always get more comments on posts where I say, “I have this issue – I’m lost. What would you do?” People like to help. Just make sure it relates to your topic.
13. The Reader Question Post
If you’ve got comments, instead of answering them all in the comments, you can pull one and answer it in more detail in a post.
14. The Video Post
A video that pertains to your topic can almost stand alone; just add some thoughts, and post the video. In my experience video posts don’t get great page views too often, but if you’re dealing with quotas, one here and there is useful.
15. The Weekly Review
Once a week round up all your posts from the week previous and post them as a, “In case you missed it” deal. Personally, I like reading weekly round-ups (I do miss stuff) so I’ve been trying it out at one of my blogs. However, the jury is still out on how successful these posts are at directing traffic to other posts.
16. The Fun & Creative Post
Once in a while do something totally different. One of my most favorite network posts ever was written in free hand. It was such a nice break from typed text. I never forgot this post, and to me that’s a sign of a great one. Today, why not try something that will make people remember your post for a long time to come.
What other kinds of posts work well at network blogs?
How to Take a Break from Your Blog
It doesn’t hurt to take a break from your blog every now and then, especially if you’re in a blogging rut. I know sometimes I’m not sure what I want to say some days, or I have blogger’s block. After blogging about the same topic for months, even years, you might want to step back or take a break from your blog. What follows are some tips for doing just that:
- Bring in some guest bloggers - One thing I learned is how other bloggers are more than willing to step in for you. The good thing about guest bloggers is how they give you a break, but they also bring in a fresh perspective. Read their posts for new ideas.
- Take a day off - Yeah I know. We’re supposed to blog every day or we’ll lose traffic. While I agree with that to some extent, I also believe that one day with no post won’t scare anyone away permanently.
- Post a week’s worth of posts ahead of time and take a week off. It’s difficult to take a week off when blogging, but if you schedule a week’s worth of posts ahead of time, you can take some time off.
- If you’re having blogger’s block offer up a link love post. Visit your favorite blogs in your niche and discuss what’s going on there. Don’t forget links!
- Post a fun video or funny cartoon - Who says blogging has to be nothing but words. If you can’t think of anything to say, find something else that will do!
There’s nothing wrong with needed to step away from your blog, even for a day or two. You talk about the same thing day in and day out, it’s easy to see how one can suffer from burnout. Don’t be afraid to ask a guest blogger to step in or even blog off topic for a day. It might do a world of good.
What do you do when you need a break from your blog?
Hear it from Jennifer’s Co-blogger
Jennifer did a great job covering the pros and cons of having a co-blogger, so I won’t add much in that area, but how does it feel to join an established blog as a co-blogger?
Arriving at an established blog with an overall theme you didn’t pick can be a strange experience, maybe a bit like moving into an already-decorated apartment. Plus, I was very aware that Tree Hugging Family was Jennifer’s creation from the beginning. I didn’t want to stomp on that, but I had to find a way to add my stamp as well.
No worries though. It became apparent pretty quickly that Jennifer didn’t really care if I added new categories or new weekly features and discussed topics she didn’t cover before. Besides getting the post count and traffic up, that’s exactly why she asked me to join. She wanted a new perspective, just not one that was crazy different from the existing theme and tone of the blog. And since she’d been reading my other blog, she knew my writing meshed with her own.
If you join an existing blog, you may not know at first exactly what different qualities you’ll bring, but this is something that will naturally develop as you post. And, as Jennifer mentioned, the different perspective for your readers is one of the pros of having a co-blogger. Jennifer and I think a lot alike. Sometimes it’s scary. But we’re actually very different. I live in on the other side of the US with a cat in an apartment. So, while Jennifer can write about her home gardening adventures with her son, I can write about greening my cat and apartment I share with Michael, my husband.
There are many questions that will gradually surface when you have a co-blogger.
At first, I never moderated comments on Jennifer’s posts. I assumed she didn’t want me to do that. Turns out she didn’t care as long as I didn’t let any angry “you’re crazy for believing in global warming” comments go up. Plus, we don’t want 10,000 pings on a contest post. Once a few basic guidelines were established, we could moderate each other’s comments as they came up. If there’s ever anything I think she needs to see, I’ll e-mail her about it.
At first I thought that maybe we should discuss ahead of time what topics we were going to blog on so we didn’t have duplicates. But I decided to wait and see how it would work. Coordinating each post would be kind of a pain since I sometimes come up with a topic at 1 am and have the post written within the hour. As it turns out, our topic is broad enough that Jennifer and I very rarely plan posts on the same topic for the same day. I think we wrote on the exact same topic one time since February, and the posts weren’t so similar that one had to be deleted.
But don’t we coordinate some things? Sure, and maybe that’s one of the small cons of having a co-blogger since it takes some of your time to coordinate. If there’s a channel-wide post that needs to go up, we’ll discuss who does it. We also try to look at the times that the upcoming posts are scheduled so we can spread them throughout the day. And we take turns changing up the poll. We discuss sponsors for contests and overall goals for the blog. Sometimes I clean out the spam folder and sometimes Jennifer does it, but this isn’t something we discuss. The relationship reminds me a lot of having a roommate.
If you’ve ever had a roommate you’d know that there are times when maybe one of you does more of the cleaning or shopping, etc. And that’s fine. Co-blogging isn’t a competition any more than having a roommate is. There will be times when one of you posts more on a given day or week than the other one. If the co-blogging relationship is good, there shouldn’t be any guilt or hard feelings. It’s teamwork.
And since I’m comparing co-blogging to having a roommate, I might as well go on and say that being able to choose your co-blogger probably works best. The roommates I had in college that weren’t my choices are the ones that didn’t last long. To me, it’s important that you actually like your co-blogger. Otherwise, you may end up resenting sharing your space. So, while it’s possible that a network editor may choose a co-blogger for you, I’d say you might be better off if you had a say as well.
There’s no way to know if a co-blogging relationship will work until you try it. But what I thought was cool is that Jennifer was really upfront about what she wanted in a co-blogger. And that’s good since goals must mesh. If one of you is working overtime to build traffic and the other is humdrum about the blog, it’s not going to work. Goals should be discussed and agreed upon before setting out on the co-blogging adventure.
Another pro I should probably mention is that it can be easier to get your foot in the door at a network by first coming on board as a co-blogger. Starting a new blog can be a big investment for a network, but adding a co-blogger to an existing blog isn’t much of a risk for them. Plus, since joining in February as a co-blogger on Tree Hugging Family, I’ve also gained a new blog of my own at b5media, Junk Creation. Someone was leaving and I was able to take over.
So, what was I most nervous about? Maybe it was wondering if traffic would increase enough to justify the co-blogging relationship. It’s not really something I worry about, but at the same time I was happy when traffic did increase. If it didn’t, would it make sense to share the pay on a network blog? You do share the work, so it could make sense, but most likely not. However, traffic usually increases quite a bit with co-blogging, and that’s been the case at Tree Hugging Family.
In case you can’t tell, I’ve been really happy with my co-blogging adventure.
Are you thinking about becoming a co-blogger?
You can visit Peggy at Tree Hugging Family, Junk Creation and Light Green Stairs.
Balancing Post Count
Reader comment / question:
“It annoys me when a blog has 15 or 20 posts a day. To me, it feels like the friend who forwards 15 chain emails a day and also sends 2 or 3 personal emails… I won’t name names, but I subscribe to a couple of blogs that do this. When I get too far behind in reading the posts in my reader, the first thing I do is go to those blogs and mark all their posts as read without reading them. I also tend to skim their posts more often than other blogs because more often than not there is only one or two good quality posts a day from those blogs and a whole lot of stuff that is uninteresting. The blogs I am thinking of all have many co-bloggers and appear to be network blogs.
Do you think there is a point where a blog posts too much in one day? If so, do you think this is usually a function of having too many co-bloggers? Of not exerting enough editorial control? Of…?”
What I think:
First this is a really good question, but I wonder why you’d have blogs in your feed that offer “a whole lot of stuff that is uninteresting” - that sounds dull. I’d delete blogs like that. Not knowing the background of the blogs I can’t say why they offer dull content. It could be too many bloggers, or bloggers who don’t know the topic well, or it could be any number of things. Their editor may be telling them what to write, or the bloggers hate their topic so they write garbage just to get posts out of the way. One way to know for sure is to ask - most blogs have contact pages. Jot off a quick email that says, you’d like to keep them in your feed but…
I don’t think a blog’s interest factor has to do with post count, because every post has the potential to be interesting. For example, The Blog Herald and Performacing both sometimes post often in one day, and I find the posts interesting enough to read; or I at least skim them all. There are other blogs that post much more than these two, like many celebrity blogs - for the people who like celebrity blogs, a lot of posts are a bonus. For someone like me, it would be torture to have them in my feed.
I think it’s more what the bloggers bring to the blog then the actual number of posts. They bring lots o’ junk, well, you end up with a junky blog. If they bring seven or two nicely done posts a day, you still end up with a nice useful blog either way.
Post count in general:
There’s a downside to too few posts. I’m currently working for a network that wants one post a day at each of their blogs, and in some cases less. I’ll be shocked if this blog network grows at even a normal pace. With one exception, I’ve never seen a blog grow well on less than two posts a day.
While I don’t think the number of posts alone can ruin a blog, I do think there is one potential downside to too many posts. Once you get past six posts a day, it’s hard to follow a blog. If a blog is hard to follow, it seems unlikely that you’ll connect with your readers. I like when I can easily keep up with a blog. For me personally that’s about five posts tops.
Post count is variable though. You have to find the perfect balance for each blog you write. Most blogs I write for seem to have a traffic cut-off, as in traffic stalls once you get past a certain number of posts a day. That number, in my experience is four or five posts per day. If you consistently receive the same amount of traffic when you write four posts or seven posts, then why write seven unless you have something magnificent to say? You can save it for tomorrow.
Good post content - no matter the post count:
I think that as long as you follow the “So what” rule that I wrote about at FWJ, then you’ll be fine. Some bloggers really can write endlessly and interestingly about a topic, some can’t. But that’s dependent on the blog’s topic, and the blogger’s knowledge base. If you’re only churning out mindless posts for the sake of a higher post count, and not because you actually have something to say, you’re not going to keep a good reader base for long. People do want to read something interesting at your blog.
I think we should open this question up though. Maybe a blog does look way worse to folks if there are too many posts.
What do you think everyone? “Do you think there is a point where a blog posts too much in one day?” If so, why do you think this is?
My Blog’s Stats After Adding A Co-Blogger
My previous two posts about co-bloggers covered the potential positives and negatives of having a co-blogger. Today I’ll share some results.
Background:
The blog I’ve been discussing in the last two posts is Tree Hugging Family. It launched in August 2007, so it’s somewhat new. Being a green family blog, it’s in a smaller niche, then say, pop stars or tech. Being in a smaller niche was one reason I was worried about getting a co-blogger; I wasn’t sure a co-blogger would reap large enough traffic benefits to make a difference.
I blogged at THF solo for about 5.5 months and then decided to find a co-blogger. Peggy has been co-blogging with me since February.
Stats:
THF is a network blog, so I won’t be giving away exact stats, since it doesn’t belong to me. That said, I figured the best way to illustrate the difference between me blogging solo vs. the co-blogger addition was to create a graph. I only included unique visitors and page views to keep it tidy.
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Positives of Having A Co-Blogger
Yesterday we looked at cons of co-bloggers. Today; the potential positives of having a really good co-blogger. In case you missed it, I’d read yesterday’s post first, or you may start wondering who Peggy is.
You finally… FINALLY can take a sick day: Since Peggy came on it’s not like I’ve taken days off - maybe one or two. What I like, is that the option is there now. The same goes for posting amount though. If I can only write one post a day for a couple of days because my son is sick, traffic won’t slow, because I know Peggy posted at least once as well. It’s really nice to have an extra blogger on bad days.
Chores are split: Tasks like blogroll upkeep, moderating comments, contests, and other blah tasks you need to do to keep a blog rolling, are split up. My most favorite thing to do is send Peggy sponsor emails! Now I’m not alone in dealing with them. It’s a huge relief.
You can sign off topics: At Tree Hugging Family, it would be nice to have a post about animals once in a while. Animals are actually a big green issue - one that bores me to write about. Animals are so not my thing. They are however Peggy’s thing. If you have a co-blogger there’s a good chance their knowledge base is different than your knowledge base and it can really round out your blog.
You don’t get stuck anymore: I love green issues. It’s rare I get suck on what or how to write about a topic. However, we all have an off day. When I do, I can email Peggy for advice. Since I know she knows the topics, I trust her judgment.
You know more people: When you start a blog, and you’re already an established blogger, one big perk is many of your readers will follow you to your new blog. Get two bloggers you’ve got 2 sets of readers. It’s not just old school readers either. There may have been people reading Tree Hugging Family who just plain didn’t like me - but, they might like Peggy. Sponsors and other bloggers also relate to each of you differently. You could end up with a wider range of pals, readers, and sponsors.
Your post amount, traffic, and pay can soar upwards: I’ll leave my actual examples for my post tomorrow, but I will say that two bloggers make for much better traffic than one blogger alone. It’s insane the difference Tree Hugging Family has seen.
It’s fun: This was not a perk I expected. However, having the right co-blogger is a lot of fun. We can laugh about the anti tree-hugger emails and chat about green issues and other stuff. For me talking to any blogger is fun - but having another green blogger to talk to is super keen.
It’s supportive: It’s really cool to have someone around who gets the blog like you get the blog. You can discuss ways to pump traffic, rant about mean emails from the loony folks who love global warming, and vent when no one comments on your (assumed) brilliant post.
What are some pros you’ve seen related to co-bloggers?
Co-Bloggers - One Cure for the Lazy Blogger
Deb’s last post was a good one. Did you miss it? Well, here it is - Why I’m a Lazy Blogger - And How I Can Improve.
Deb noted issues with the blogroll, minimum post schedule, and time to visit other blogs. I’m big time into blogrolls so no issues there. However, I totally get her deal with scheduling to increase posting quotas and finding the time to visit other blogs. Most network or client bloggers I know do have time issues; as in there’s never enough time, not ever. There’s always something you can do to improve your blog, and often it comes down to you vs. the clock. Sadly, the clock tends to win, especially when life gets fun and tosses you a sick kid, your network shuts down due to technical issues, or a storm kicks off your power.
One thing that can help is a co-blogger. Co-bloggers don’t relieve you of all your duties, but having an extra set of typing hands can help. A co-blogger is an especially efficient way to pump up post quotas.
Recently I took on a co-blogger myself at a network blog, Tree Hugging Family. My new co-blogger was, well is, Peggy. Based on this experience, I can give you some actual examples of how this has improved my blog, along with some pros and cons you may encounter. This is a longish topic. So, first in this post I’ll cover co-blogger cons. Then in my next few posts we’ll look at pros of co-bloggers, how to find a good co-blogger, and example results of having one.
Hopefully this co-blogger series as a whole will help you decide if a co-blogger is right for you.
Negatives of taking on a co-blogger:
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