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Photo Credit : www.opticgroove.com.au
Are you blogging for your home-based, small, or solopreneur business? Blogging consistently is an excellent way to generate traffic to your small business website, build your ezine or mailing list, position yourself as an expert, and serve your target market by providing them with consistently helpful content.
It can be a challenge though to stay consistent in blogging, especially if you’re a home based business owner juggling your business and family. So, what can you do?
Plan your posts out and schedule them in advance! You can write 2-3 posts on one day and have WordPress make them appear on specific dates throughout the week. If you use a plugin like Twitter Tools or connect your site to Networked Blogs, they will also save you time by automatically notifying your followers when the new posts go live.
So even when life’s a bit crazy and you don’t have time to blog daily, or several times a week, if you write in advance and schedule your posts, your blog can be making new content available to your readers and fans.
Here’s how to schedule a post in WordPress:
- Create your new blog post like usual (enter your title, post, keywords, categories, and anything else you usually include)
- On the right side in the publish box look for the “Publish immediately Edit” text and click on “Edit”
- Now you can enter the date and time you would like your blog to publish the post, then click the OK button
- You’ll notice when you do this that the blue “Publish” button switches to “Schedule” – click on “Schedule”
That’s it! Now, instead of publishing immediately, your blog will make your post live on the specific future date and time you set it for.
Scheduling your blog posts is a great way to save time. You can write several posts at once and schedule them to go live over several days. I tend to do this on weekends and write up anywhere from a couple of posts to a full week of daily posts, then I schedule them to appear throughout the week so that my blog content stays fresh without requiring me to sit down and write every day. By writing several posts at once I only have to get in that “writing mood” once (instead of once for each post) and once I’m focused I can knock out a couple of posts much quicker. Works great!
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Twitter: lisbethtanz
says:
As always, Michelle, an insightful and relevant post. I think keeping up with blogging definitely stymies people – not having ideas on what to write about is another.
Lisbeth Tanz\’s last blog ..The Myth of Duplicate Content
Twitter: SmallBizMuse
says:
Yes, that one is a challenge, too, and scheduling only helps if we’ve got posts written. LOL
I love this feature. I usually write 3 posts and at a time and schedule them to go out at different times. I love this WordPress option for posting on week-ends. It frees up more time for me to be with my family.
Twitter: SmallBizMuse
says:
Great way to use it, Kathryn. I do similar but I blog on the weekends and schedule my posts for during the week so I’ve got more time with the kids during the week.
Twitter: melaniekissell
says:
Awesome tip!
And thanks for offering the Ultimate Blog Challenge a second time. I feel like I’m back in my “zone” again.
Pre-scheduling your blog posts is a great time-saver and an even better stress reliever. No one enjoys scampering around at the last minute to come up with ideas and trying to beat the clock to hammer out a post. I know I don’t.
Write On!
Melanie
#blogboost
Melanie Kissell\’s last blog ..Promoting Invisible People
Twitter: SmallBizMuse
says:
I know, I missed it in September! I blogged but it wasn’t as much fun. :)