I mentioned in a recent post that I'm a bit of a blog addict. I have my ups and downs - times where all or most of my blogs are updated regularly (like now) and times where they start to slip a bit. All of those "up" times have something in common though - the planning and organization I put into my blog postings. I thought I'd share the simple process I follow that helps to keep me on track when managing multiple blogs today:
Post Lists
Some of my blogs are more evergreen than others (they don't need newsy or time-sensitive content). For these blogs (all actually - for others I mix news content with evergreen posts), I keep a running list of blog post ideas whenever I have them.
I used to keep a large master list in a text file, but found that when the lists became too large I would sometimes feel overwhelmed. So now I keep a large index card for each blog that I'm currently trying to keep updated, and I list my blog post ideas that way. It forces me to not look beyond a week or two - allowing me to plan without putting too much on my plate.
Weekly Blog Chart
This incredibly simple chart is really the key, whether or not I have specific blog post ideas laid out for the blogs. I used to do this on a white board, but lately they're filled with other things, so again I use a large index card.
I simply create a chart with eight columns - one where I list each blog and then one for each day of the week - simple, right?
I decide how often I want to post on each individual blog, and I come up with a post schedule that I'd like to stick to for that week. For some it might be daily. For others it might be daily, but with weekends off. For others still, it may only be three days a week. Let's use that as an example.
Let's say I want to update one of my blogs three days this week. I may decide that Monday, Wednesday, and Friday would make the most sense for me. I'll then go to my chart and "X" out any days where I don't plan to post - so everything but Monday, Wednesday, and Friday here.
Then I sit down and start writing blog posts for the coming week (I try to get as much of this done in a sitting or two as possible, so I'm not constantly facing my own blog deadlines all week). As I complete a post and set it to drip on its post date, I check off that day for that blog on my chart.
Again, pretty simple stuff, but it really does keep me on track when I can see the "big picture" of how many posts I need to do and on what topics.
Do you manage several blogs? How do you keep them updated, keep yourself organized, and most importantly keep yourself sane?
This can be such a challenge. I have several blogs and it is hard to juggle them. Great ideas here – I find that if I make updating one of them a routine then it’s easy to keep adding blogs into the routine.
I have four blogs — two of my own and two of my clients’. My business blog — I aim to update it 3-4 times a week. My personal — I post whenever I can. I don’t pressure myself.
My clients’ — I have them in my Task list as weekly tasks and always get the specified number of posts done. If I have a due date of today and don’t make it (thank you, power outage — I did lose power and could only do three hours of work today), I do it the next day and still make my posts for the week.
I have five blogs – four personal and one network. They all have different schedules and some have no schedule at all.
About Credit/Debt – at least 4 days a week. Two to three posts are newsy so I don’t really plan topics in advance.
Budgeting Daily – sporadic. I started out wanting to do 2 posts a week, but I haven’t been consistent with that schedule at all. I need to do more planning of topics to get it back on track.
Biz Startup Tips – daily (with the exception of the last two days when my internet was out – grrrr). I have topics planned out through the beginning of August. This blog is evergreen, so I can write several posts at a time and set them to drip.
Finance PLR Content – sporadic. I just turned this from a static site to a blog to offer tips on using PLR. I plan to do a post every week or so.
Writer’s Brew – almost never. This is my writer’s blog. Once I started using WordPress, Blogger was so demotivating. I plan to move to WordPress soon. The domain name I want expires in a month and I’m keeping my fingers crossed the owner doesn’t renew. I’d have contacted them to purchase, but the domain’s registered privately.