Last Updated on August 20, 2019 by Latrice
My last post was about taking the challenge to quit waiting.
For myself, I quit waiting on all my ducks to be in a row before I can start contributing again to my blog regularly.
I’m getting back to why I started this blog to begin with – to write, share my writing, help others, and do something I love while creating the life I want to live.
I’ll still work on my strategy and keep my goals for this blog. But I will no longer allow that process to keep me from writing and hitting publish.
So here I am. Publishing although I don’t have my editorial calendar all together nor my money makers completely set up.
Having the same issue or something similar? Your last post getting older and older too?
These are the 5 rules I’m going to establish in my own routine to keep my blog active while I continue to build, plan, and work on putting together my strategy.
Rule #1: Prioritize writing and publishing Content
For some odd reason, I developed this idea that I needed to finish planning first before I could get back into publishing content regularly.
Likely from some fear that I want to do this blogging thing right. (Insecurity)
To work on overcoming the habit of over planning, writing and publishing will be the first things I do when I sit down.
I will be treating blogging and content creation like they are the most important tasks that MUST get done. They come first and as of today are the first things I get done when it needs to be done.
This is a great form of practice, it keeps the blog looking up to date, the creation gets to continue, and it will build a good chunk of content to serve when traffic increases.
When planning, make sure the tasks that involve things like writing blog posts, creating Pinterest pins, or recording YouTube videos go at the top of the to-do list.
Rule #2: Limit the list of finalized blog post topics to a week of content… during this phase
If you’ve got a habit of planning your blog to death (i.e. no activity) like me, you might find this rule pretty helpful for you as well.
Do we really need a whole quarter of blog post topics before we start writing and publishing them?
I had to seriously ask myself this question as I was on the 6th draft of my TENTATIVE list of blog post ideas for the quarter. With not one blog post published in over a month.
Gurl. When I say I’ve been going through it.
Of course it’s good to know where your content is heading and to make sure it’ll line up with your launch dates and business goals.
But in this beginning phase, when the products aren’t done and the affiliate marketing thing hasn’t been sorted out yet, I can’t wait for some full list of the “best” blog post ideas to start publishing.
Instead, I am chipping away at what I’ve got right now and limiting my finalized topic list to a week of content at a time. Nothing more, nothing less.
It’ll also likely stop that analysis paralysis habit where over thinking blog posts means no blog posts at all.
I mean… come on. Six drafts.
Rule #3: No blog posts (even those written and published without the plan) are a waste of time
Have you ever held out on doing something because you wanted to do it really, really well and get the most out of your ROI?
So you spent weeks doing research, formulating a plan, learning what you can, taking notes, drafting and redrafting that plan, falling off of the planning phase because life happens, jumping back into it and…
Oh damn, those weeks are now months since your blog has seen a new post.
We end up missing out on finding our voice, building a habit of publishing regularly, introducing ourselves and networking, finding our tribes, meeting and greeting, strengthening our skills, and getting ourselves out there.
As I have noticed in my own blogging adventures.
Getting into the groove of blogging consistently and networking is, I’m sure, better to be done during the planning phase than afterwards. It takes action to practice.
Having a sexy plan without the skills to get it seen and picked up by others is a waste of time… now that I think about it.
Rule #4: Short posts, list posts, “just saying hey” posts count
Sometimes I think I overthink this blogging thing. (Haha, I think?)
I get caught into this idea that all my blog posts have to be these well thought out, well planned and outlined, super super informative posts.
But will it really hurt if on some days all I want to do is get on here and whip up a quick post on a concept?
Share a quote or a video?
Type up a ranty post on a comment-section debate that relates?
Maybe I want to just swing by my blog and share what I read out here on the internet this week.
Sometimes I get hit by the spirit and a blog post idea will come to me, but do you know what I usually do with that idea?
Table it for the plan until it eventually dies out because it’s been shelved for too long.
No more overthinking this blogging thing. If I just want to say “hey,” that’s exactly what I’m going to come by here to say.
It’ll also make it easier to post by removing the potential blocker of over planning.
Rule #5: Set notifications
Notifications should help with sticking to a writing schedule, editing posts, researching, prepping and other tasks related to creating content.
This’ll help with learning how to stick with a publishing schedule while gettin
The experiment
I’m going to test these new rules out on myself and see what happens to the number of blog posts I actually get published and share.
The results will show in the activity of my blog over the next month.
Here are the rules again:
- Prioritize writing and publishing content over planning
- This is to handle the habit of blogging INSTEAD of planning by prioritizing blogging over planning
- Limit the list of finalized blog post topics to a week of content during the planning phase
- Instead of trying to settle on a quarter worth of blog post ideas to start on during the planning phase, I’m going to work with a week of topic ideas at a time
- No blog post is a waste of time including the ones done outside of the plan
- All blog blog post serve a purpose. Even those written outside of the strategy.
- Short posts, long posts, just saying “hey” post count
- Taking the pressure off of blogging by being more diverse and not worrying about if the post fits the plan
- Set notifications
- Reminders to work on blogging and other content creation tasks
