The definition of blogging has significantly changed over time as the idea has advanced. I have heard many things about the future of blogging. I have heard it is dying, it is dead, and of course it’s nothing that it used to be.
Blogging, in many cases has become a more passive activity over time. Many new bloggers out there who want to earn from their blogs all write content to just get by and may not understand the effort that needs to be put into posts.
Of course, blogging has been labeled as an easy way to make money online by these people, so that’s where this idea of passive blogging comes along.
Passive blogging is basically writing a blog post just for the hell of it. Whether or not you teach someone anything, or even provide anything useful is not what a passive blogger is worried about. As long as you figure out a way to get traffic flowing to your blog and put as little effort as possible into what you do — you see yourself as a good blogger.
But I feel like writing just to write is giving blogs a bad name. While it may not be such a very large issue now, I see it being a bigger problem later on when the reputation of blogging is at stake. Do we let all of these passive bloggers give those who actually care about our blogs a bad name? Absolutely not.
Everyone can be guilty of throwing out a few posts that really may not be very useful, I know I am. But I don’t let that habit turn into a permanent one, I always do my best to deliver the best content I can on my blogs.
Don’t Let Your Blog Content Sink to the Slumps — Do Something About it!
A major challenge for any blogger is time management. I think time management is the reason why there are so many passive bloggers out there. If you don’t have a lot of time to write a great, quality article — how can you expect to write your best?
Recently I have created a calendar for myself on what I want to do and when to do it. A calendar is useful for anyone, especially a blogger who has a lot to do. I have a crazy work load for myself every day and every week that I didn’t know what to do and when. I would literally sit there for 10 to 15 minutes debating to myself what I should work on first. I just had no idea where to start!
With my calendar, I think I created something that is very easy to manage, I get all of my work done, and I can actually take breaks away from my computer!
If you layout all of your tasks, I promise you you will be more effective at what you do. provided you stick to the schedule of course!
Recommended App: iCal
iCal is the default calendar app for Macs. The interface is easy to use, and you have a ton of great features. There are some other alternatives to it, but I use it because it works.
Tips for Choosing an Effective Schedule
Just because you have a schedule laid out doesn’t mean it’s something that can get you working. You have to start using your schedule for a couple of weeks to get into the flow of things, and that is what I am still in he process of doing since I just recently created a calendar for myself.
There are four main things bloggers who care about their blogs do each day. That’s learning, writing content, marketing and developing. Maybe you have other things to do besides blogging, like freelancing for example. That obviously makes fitting everything into one day hard.
The idea for success is to work hard every day. That idea pressures all of us to try and fit everything in one day so we can do it the next. That’s not necessary, you can split up your schedule and have a blog that performs perfectly fine. The secret to effective blogging is not to rush everything until you’re burned out, but to work at it over time.
Below, I am going to breakdown my schedule into three part of my week. If you need help building your weekly schedule for your blog, try basing it off what I have done for myself.
Start of the Week
Monday — Tuesday
On Monday and Tuesday, I write my blog posts. I only have to write two posts a week for Blogussion because I am lucky to have a blogging partner. It may be harder for you if you’re not bless with an awesome partner to take half of the post schedule, so you may want to take an extra day.
But I always hate to be bothered with a post when I am in the middle of working on a freelance project. I just feel so rushed, especially if I forget about it, to start writing up a post. That’s when the time management factor comes in, and that’s where a passive blogger is born.
So my first two days of the week are dedicated to a task that takes up so much time. It feels just fantastic to get writing out of the way in the beginning and then taking off to work on other activities!
Middle of the Week
Wednesday — Thursday
On Wednesday and Thursday, I catch up on all of my readings. I read some eBooks and read my favorite blogs. It is important for me to read about a variety of things and learn new information. If I don’t learn new things, I can’t keep writing and teaching people new things! So I dedicate two days of my week to reading and learning new information.
The second thing I do on these days is blog marketing. I hate doing this, but it’s such an important thing to do for my blog. Again, I am lucky to have a partner, and I am even luckier he loves marketing. But I know I can help by doing some marketing of my own.
End of the Week
Friday — Sunday
Friday through Sunday, I only worry about developing for my blog. Right now there is so much to work on for Blogussion development wise, it’s best for me to keep my mind focused on development for new features here.
What’s your secret to effective blogging?
I have shared my secrets that will keep me going strong blogging, now what are the things you do to keep your blogging processes efficient?
44 Discussions
I find that the mac application Scrivener helps me be an effective blogger. I have a single project titled “Adventures of a Barefoot Geek” and have 4 separate folders:
– Ideas
– Drafts
– Published
– Guest Posts
When I have an idea I create a document in that first folder. When I start planning and writing it it goes in the Drafts folder. Once it’s done (and ready to go into Wordpress) I put it into the Published folder, and all the posts that are going to be on external blogs go into the Guest Posts folder.
There’s also a built in, customizable full screen functionality that lets me stay focused when writing. Overall, it’s just a brilliant app.
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I have actually found Scrivener to be a very useful tool and I am using it for all of my blogs now. I love the organization behind it man, it really works great for planning out blog posts.
Great post, I just try to get more organized myself
One thing you might want to add to the list is “technical maintenance” especially back-ups! SY
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Good point, but backups can be done automatically no problem. I have all of my blogs backed up daily and sent to my email address, it’s saves a lot of time.
I just started realizing how important to have a schedule. You are right, there are 4 main things about blogging : learning, writing content, marketing and developing.
I am lucky to have a job where I just sit for 8 hours and do my blogging. But since I don’t have a set schedule, often I find myself just browsing the net – email-rss-twitter-facebook. You want to do it all, and often you end up not doing much.
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I sometimes find it hard to commit to a schedule. I set myself up for working on my freelance business Monday-Thursday for about four hours and sometimes I’d rather be working on my blogs or some other activity.
Sounds like a good idea to schedule it a bit more. Since I quit my job I have the whole day to work with this so I usually spend one to two hours each day reading and commenting on others blogs. I also spend about one to two hours writing content for my own blogs. Monday to Sunday.
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Wow… I am sure your blog will continue to succeed then. If you ever need any help… let me know!
Seth´s last blog ..The Secrets to More Effective Blogging
Thank you Seth. I sure will.
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These are great ideas. I recently started printing the productivity calendar found at Productive Flourishing. These are great because they break down projects and tasks and force you to pen down a time for each one.
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I have tried both electronic and paper planners and their is just something about using paper that works so wonderfully!
Seth´s last blog ..The Secrets to More Effective Blogging
Instead of breaking my weak into 3 parts, I break my day:
1. 40% of time is spent on traffic generation
2. 30% of time is spent on content creation
3. 30% of time is spent on customer support/relationships
Igor
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It sounds like you have a plan Igor, and that’s step one to figuring out a perfect schedule!
Very good post Alex! Sadly I’ve never taught myself to use a calendar I just wrote down my tasks on a notepaper and crossed them out as I go. But now that I hear of this idea I’m definitely encouraged to manage my time more better. By doing this I beleive i can target more traffic to my site, deliver better posts, and finish my other projects more effectively.
Thanks for the awesome post Alex.
I think it does not matter how you organize your day, just that you have got it organized. For some a calendar or planner is perfect. For others a piece of scratch paper with your days tasks work. So finding what works is really important.
Seth´s last blog ..The Secrets to More Effective Blogging
Yea very well point. Today actually, I grabbed a notepaper and a pencil and made me a weekly schedule along with monthly / weekly goals. I’m interested to see how it goes.
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I see tons of “passive” blogs each day. I read a lot of blogs but the main ones I hit every day are ProBlogger and Blogussion. I think the key to not becoming a passive blogger is to really inject yourself and your own experiences into your blog posts. I feel I’ve recently “come into my own” in the blogging world and since then, I’ve noticed all sorts of traffic just appearing on my blog. That’s a sign that you have something good doing on. Now, the key is to keep it up.
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I agree with you Chris. Tying in your everyday life to blog posts really make great articles and usually do very well here.
I’m glad you found a positive result of being more open with your readers!
Well, I wrote something about your post, but anyway, planing ahead is still a great way to know what you are going to do rather then day by day finding, “Hell, what I’m going to do now.”
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I’ll read the post right now and put in my comment there as well.
Great article there Alex. You post is even organized! Making an effective program can be a great help for us to organized our blogging activities. It can also be a great tool for tracking our blogging deviations.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the post!
I would like to say my productivity has gone way up ever since my schedule was created. I now do what I need to do, and am happier to do it since everything is well organized.
Sometimes, when I’m just not in the mood for writing, I do marketing instead – or, I read other blog posts to learn and I leave a comment if I have something useful to say/add, and that way I do a little bit of marketing at the same time – specially if the blog has CommentLuv.
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16! Did I read that right? The article’s great, the time management supreme and the fact that you’re doing all that so young truly inspirational. I can’t even remember what I was doing when I was 16, it’s too long ago, but nothing as useful as you guys. Fortunately, I have the excuse that the Internet hadn’t been invented yet so I just put all my writing in my lockable diary. I’ve still got it and I still keep it firmly locked:)
Keep up the good work!
Thanks Annabel, I do what I have to do.
This is what I’ve been striving to, striving to get organized but still I’m finding hard to post at least once a week due to other routine chores. Now may be I have to prioritize things and shed less important ones.
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Exactly Raj! Sometimes when you actually do come up with that schedule, you’ll find yourself to be better at setting your priorities and will start to focus on things you should be focusing on.
Before, I have a strict regimen. Entering collage changed it. Just have too many things to do. As of now, I try to be responsible a lot but I don’t let my blogging interfere my education (by all means).
Schedule or no schedule, my best method right now is to be wise in time-management. Know your prioritize and strategetize as to not waste time and valuable effort into something that might not lead anywhere.
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Exactly… blogging is so important to me, but prioritizing my family and law school are really important too!
Just keep online and you will be knows something about blogging world.
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I totally agree with maintaining a wartime schedule, but, as usual, once it skips it continues like wise. I try to follow the rule of 5 posts/3 days and I try to stick to this. But, being a sw professional most of time gets over by the time I reach home and sit to check my mails.
Don’t even realise when the day has started and ended!!
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I can see how that will happen. It’s like skipping a blog post, it starts as one offense but gets worse and worse over time!
And yes, blogging for a long time all day can really make you lose sense of time!
Great post. Thank you!
It’s perfect timing too. Right before I read this, I was redoing my ideal calendar, and realized that I need to have Monday to complete all of my post for the week (I write draft the week before w/ ideas on what I want to write about the following week.), and other days to do reading, commenting other people’s blogs, marketing etc.
When I have everything set and scheduled on Monday for the whole week, I feel so much better and productive for the rest of the week.
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I can’t even begin to describe how much more productive I am on the days where I don’t have to write! I don’t have any worries of writing a post, which can sometimes break my spirit and cause me to not want to work anymore.
Wow… I am glad to have read this as well. I have just started law school and I am so slammed with work. we are reading over 1000 pgs. a week! Plus 30 hrs of classroom time. Organizing my blogging is so important to maximize my time and get the most out of it.
Seth´s last blog ..The Secrets to More Effective Blogging
That’s harsh Seth! I do hope your calendar has been helping you, though it seems as it has these last few weeks.
Nice Post. Is there any software for windows like iCal, or is the default calendar good enough?
Also, what new features are you’ll working on for Blogussion?
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I honestly don’t know. Don’t Windows computers have a default calendar program?
Windows does have a very functional calendar program by default. It is called creatively, “Windows Calendar”. Or you can get a gmail account and set up a google calendar which offer a variety of awesome features and easily infuse into your email system and task manager. Both options are free and easy to use.
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I’m not sure if I am a passive blogger. Sometimes I care about what I write and other times I rush just to post something. Ive only had my blog for about 2 months, I’m not looking to earn money from blogging yet so I’m not as worried about my posts. I do love blogging though. Good article, I enjoyed reading it.
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Wow man! I was trying to figure out a way to organize my week, you have given me great ideas.
You have a blogging partner so you dedicate 2 days. What if one doesn’t have a blogging partner and 5 blogs to write for? LOL
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Having a proper plan and being organized helps me develop my blogging career.Thanks for sharing your weekly blogging schedule
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Thanks for the tips, I’ll try to implement them. I have to say, unlike me, you are a very regimented individual.
I guess my writing system is like my college experience: (1/Freshmen year)start with an idea of what you would like to do, then do as much (partying, activities, etc.) as possible early on, regardless of the consequences; (2/Sophomore year) stand back and reflect on what I’ve done to myself. Me (hungover from Wednesday to Wednesday drinking): “whoa, I should get my life together, focus, and declare a major”; (3/Junior year) stop throwing-up (pun intended) on paper and clean; (4/Senior year) I am polished, manicured and shiny, but bored with the routine, so I start the binge all over again (i.e. senior-itis) . Me: “Well, I figured all that out. Shots, anyone?”
In sum my writing schedule over the course of month is as follows: (1) Free Association, (2) reflection (see what’s good and what isn’t), (3) polish, (4) nothing left to do, so do more free association (partying). Due to other time obligations, I’m usually only able to get about four to five articles out a month…but I’m happy with the outcome.
The only unfortunate thing is that I don’t have as much time as I would like for layout and media.
Thanks and have a good one (hiccup).
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I posted on this topic myself earlier, and it was great to see your opinion on it mate. – keycutter78.
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