One of the issues I've had with blogging consistantly is when to do it. It's hopeless for me to try to write anything sort of coherent when the kids are awake. The constant interuptions mean that I have more trouble than usual stringing together a couple of complete thoughts. If I want to write when the'yre both asleep, well, that's hard too, because they're not often asleep at the same time. L wakes up really early, and V takes a long time to get to sleep at night. I've either got to get up at about 5 am, or stay up past midnight to write. Lots of days, it just doesn't happen.
After reading a while back that Kristen at We are That Family did what she called bulk blogging, I decided to try something similar. I'm on my second month, and so far it's really working out for me, so I thought I'd pass along the info to you other time and sleep deprived mommies.
Basically, it goes like this: I print out a calendar of the upcoming month. To the extent that it's possible I plan out nearly every post for the next month, taking into consideration things I ether have already done, or I know I'm going to do.
Then in one or two long late night sessions, I write up all the posts. The posts that are complete, meaning they already have pictures, etc, get immediately auto scheduled. The posts that are for things I haven't done yet are still written to the extent possible, and saved as a draft, until I can go back later and add pictures, my final impressions, or tweak the text. As needed, I go back and add those little bits of info throughout the month, and then auto schedule those posts too.
The result is that I'm able to consistently post, regardless what else may be going on that month. If something new comes up, an unanticipated review, or a project I just can't wait to share, I go in and shuffle things around a little to fit them in. Excepting the long writing session or two at the beginning of the month, I only spend only a few minutes a week on my blog.
Not having to try to fit something else into my daily schedule has made blogging fun again. It's working for me. For more WFMW posts, check out www.wearethatfamily.com.
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How long does your long session usually take?
ReplyDeleteA couple of hours, usually. It depends on whether I'm trying to multi task (ie, play on Twitter,) or not. Also, my posts here aren't usually terribly long, it might take you longer if you were writing really long posts or tutorials.
ReplyDeleteIt's worked great for me though. We were without internet for about a week recently, but I had already scheduled that week's posts in advance, so there was no interruption here. (Not that it would have been a big deal, or your guys would have sent out a search party, you know, but still... ;)
I also can't blog during the day when the kids are so busy...too hard to think straight when I'm interrupted every 45 seconds! Bulk blogging sounds like a great idea, I definitely want to give it a try!
ReplyDeleteI'm constantly struggling with when to blog! Glad to hear I'm not the only one ;) I like to try and do several posts for a week at one time, maybe I'll have to think even more long term!
ReplyDeleteI do the same thing only on a smaller scale with weekly or bi weekly.
ReplyDeleteits nice to just add pics and post! :)
How do you auto schedule? I'd like to try, it sounds like that might be something that would help me!
ReplyDeleteIf you're using Blogger, there's a little tab toward the bottom left of the screen when you're composing a post that says posting options. It you click there, you can change the posting date and time of the post, so that it will automatically post for you at some future time. I'm not familiar with any other plattforms than Blogger, but I know you can do it on Wordpress too.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, I just noticed I wrote "your" instead of "you" on my previous comment here. Guess I should proofread better...