How to blog consistently even when life is busy
Let me confess to you first. I’ve encountered hard times and bad days learning how to blog consistently.
If you think you are the only one who fails to stay on track, you’re wrong; I also still do from time to time.
The easiest part of blogging is to start, the toughest is to keep running it.
When I first decided to start a blog that generates money, I thought I could easily write and publish one or two posts weekly. I never thought about not having enough content ideas or even facing a blogger’s block.
My original plan was to publish twice a week. Still, I discovered that this was more than I could handle because once my audience gets used to my schedule, they will always expect me to keep my pace, so I changed my plan to publishing once a week in order to blog consistently and please my readers.
However, blogging is not mathematics. There will always be ups and downs.
Sometimes you succeed, and sometimes you lose control.
We are not automated bloggers, we are humans.
Fortunately, there are lots of actions you can take to achieve successful blogging, and the key to that is consistency.
In this blog, I’ll provide the real and valuable tricks and actions that I learned the hard way, and since they worked with me, why don’t they work with you?
What is consistency in blogging?
Consistent blogging is the act of writing and publishing posts regularly, whatever the frequency may be.
You set the frequency.
You may find that it’s more suitable for you and your audience to write and publish once a day, twice a week, or whatever.
The idea here is not about blogging alone, but rather about how to blog consistently day after day and avoid blogger burnout.
READ MORE>> HOW TO AVOID BLOGGER BURNOUT
I don’t want you to quit blogging since it’s the easiest action to take.
I want you to stay focused and organized and turn blogging consistency into a habit.
What is the importance of blogging consistently?
Blogging with consistency is like riding a bicycle.
You can travel endlessly as long as you pedal, but once you lift your legs off the pedals, your pace will go down, and you’ll eventually lose control and fall.
In blogging, the same happens if you are not consistent.
I would like to remind you that in blogging, you’re not the only character who determines whether your blog is successful or not, but also your audience and search engines.
Audience means traffic, and traffic leads to a successful blog that generates money.
If you don’t know how to drive traffic to your blog, I can tell you that consistency is a major key.
You need to always provide your readers with what they’re looking for when they expect you to do so, and the moment you fail to do so, you are giving them a reason to abandon your site and leave your email list.
Always remember that you’re not the only one who has answers to people’s queries, there are millions of bloggers out there waiting their turn to take your traffic.
On the other hand, search engines love fresh content.
The more consistent you are, the more active you are in their eyes (crawlers’ eyes).
This will establish more presence for your blog, lead to better indexing, and increase your chances of ranking.
Consistent blogging builds your authority, which entices more readers and improves your visibility and ranking.
Need to know more about how to get traffic to your blog? read this post
How many times should you blog per week?
It is beyond question that the more content you publish, the more visible your blog will be and the more traffic you’ll get.
But although consistency is a major key to a successful blog, publishing high-quality content is the crown jewel of blogging.
Deciding how frequently you need to write and publish is subject to different factors, including:
- Are you a full-time blogger or not?
- How many free hours do you have per day?
- Do you have extra jobs/exercises to do?
- Do you have a family/kids?
- How much time do you have to promote/update your posts?
All these factors help you know your limits and set your goals. After knowing the time available for you to blog and your ability to make use of this time, it will be easy to determine how frequently you can publish your valuable content.
Set your frequency after you consider your situation, try your best to stick to it, and let your readers wait for your posts as per the schedule they’ve gotten used to.
13 tips on how to blog consistently
All bloggers have difficulties maintaining their blogging consistency.
We’ve all gone through this; you’re not alone, so cheer up!
Even this post does not follow my publishing schedule.
Anyway, I’ve compiled the best tips and tricks that really work, especially for beginners who are prone to failure and making blogging mistakes.
Let’s begin
1- Set a schedule and stick to it
All of the tips mentioned in this post remain wishes until they are put into action.
Think about this example:
Let’s say you’ve decided to post twice a week, once on Tuesdays and once on Fridays.
Great! You’ve scheduled your posting days.
Then what?
Is that enough to say that you’ve achieved your goal of blogging consistently?
As I told you before, dreams are still dreams unless they are fulfilled.
Setting a schedule is only half the game, sticking to it is what matters.
If you want to post on Tuesdays and Fridays, you’ll only have five days to research, write, edit, publish, and promote.
Why five days?
I always avoid promoting my posts on the same days I publish them, with one exception: sending them to my email subscribers.
This is to give more time for search engines to discover my sitemap and index new posts, and to avoid duplicate issues and other technical problems that might occur.
On these five days, you need to set a plan in order to finish on time.
You may choose a day to research and collect content ideas, write your outline, and the day after, select your images, craft your headlines, and write some content.
Trial and error will help you choose the best techniques and tricks to adjust and stick to your schedule.
2- Write 5 content ideas every day
What’s better than having a long list of content ideas for your blog?
Bloggers always ask where to come up with content ideas in order to guarantee their blogs’ continuity. You can always read questions on the net asking:
- Where can I get topic ideas for my blog?
- How to get unlimited content ideas?
- How do I find SEO content ideas?
- Is there a content ideas generator on the internet?
This is a sample of bloggers’ sufferings when they run out of ideas.
One of the best practices you should follow is to jot down every single idea that pops into your head.
Let’s say a minimum of five ideas daily.
It doesn’t matter whether these ideas are great or silly, write them down.
If you stick to the minimum number, this means 150 content ideas per month.
And after you filter these ideas, you’ll still have a reasonable number of strong ideas to use, and enough remaining ideas to add to your yearly calendar.
Always be ready to jot down a new idea that suddenly comes to your head using a notepad, your phone, or other devices.
Do not let it go because the best ideas come when you least expect them to.
Collecting content ideas will easily become a habit that stops you from asking yourself, “How to blog consistently?”
READ MORE>> 15 EASY PLACES TO FIND CONTENT IDEAS FOR YOUR BLOG
3- Create a content calendar
How many times have you ended up looking at your blank screen, wondering what to write about?
Have you just had that same feeling of frustration and low self-esteem?
Having a content calendar is like having a debit card of previously deposited topics that can be used whenever needed.
It is also an act of productive blogging.
Select your ideas from step #2 and create a calendar.
There’s no need to have a fancy one; just use Excel or Google Sheets.
Fill in with your topic ideas and the days you’ve scheduled to post on.
To be a more productive and consistent blogger, try to create a calendar for the whole year so that you can get rid of your uncertainty and eliminate this time waster.
Related topics:
HOW TO PLAN 1 YEAR OF (52) BLOG POST IDEAS IN A DAY
15 PROVEN WAYS TO BECOME A PRODUCTIVE BLOGGER
4- Think of why you’re not blogging consistently and stop it
I’m sure there are hundreds of tips on how to blog consistently. Some are essential; others have tiny effects.
Even if we mention all of them, there may still be some that are related to a specific person or an unexpected situation.
When you are not blogging, ask yourself, “What am I doing now and why am I wasting my time?”
Whatever you are doing, do the opposite.
For example, if you find yourself watching TV while you are supposed to write, turn it off and go back to your blog.
Sometimes you start blogging and then unintentionally discover that you are watering your plants or playing with your pet.
I know you do a lot of these things; otherwise, you wouldn’t have had to read this post.
Smiling right?
Whatever interrupts your consistency, stop it and get back to blogging.
5- Promise yourself to keep blogging
Nobody respects you more than yourself.
Becoming a successful blogger will only benefit you, and your failure will not hurt others.
On the contrary, you’ll find out that many “so-called” friends and relatives will enjoy seeing you fail.
Don’t you remember when you first started your blog?
How many of them have discouraged you?
Anyway!
The only real promise that someone makes is to himself.
Except for promising yourself to quit smoking, every promise can be achieved.
Promise yourself to blog consistently, and always remind yourself as if you’re under oath that you’ll make it.
6- Dress up as if you are going to work
I admit it.
Before I started my blog, I was imagining myself as someone who sits at his desk wearing his pajamas and slippers, facing some screens, pressing some buttons, and earning a lot of money.
Admit it, you had the same dream.
I totally agree that this dress code is comfortable and gives a sense of a luxurious, less stressful life, but what I discovered by chance was the opposite.
You need to try this in order to be convinced:
When you want to blog, dress up as if you are an employee of a company.
This will add more seriousness to your work and decrease the feeling of sluggishness that may surround you at home.
Believe it or not, it works.
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7- Be prepared weeks ahead
You may lose your words at any time.
Do you still remember when you first met your boyfriend/girlfriend?
Oh-ah- um. etc.
The same happens when blogging.
Having content ideas on your list is a productivity tip that helps you blog consistently, but do you know what’s more productive?
Having some ready-to-publish posts that are prepared for emergency times.
Always keep some posts saved as drafts and ready to get published the moment you face blogger block in order to save yourself and avoid blogger burnout.
By doing this, you’ll always be on time, and you’ll never fail to please your readers and meet them on the same date.
8- Get your brain trained to always be in the writing mode
Compared with other body organs, brains are superior.
Despite the endless tasks they accomplish “in the background,” they are always ready to accept new data and new learning.
Training your brain to adapt to writing and posting habits is something everyone can do.
Once you teach your brain how to switch to writing mode, you can add another tip on how to blog consistently.
Believe it or not, your brain is always ready to serve you, and when it’s in writing mode, nothing can stop it from blogging consistently.
If you want to learn how to do so, I recommend reading:
10 proven ways to turn your brain into writing mode
9- DO NOT OVERTHINK SEO
We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It’s a death trap.
Anthony Hopkins
Do you want to add more stress to your blogging career? Then always overthink SEO.
Despite the fact that we all tend to find the best keywords that help us rank on the SERPs, we always overlook readers’ intent and focus our efforts on search engines.
You need to address both of them in order to be a successful blogger.
Yes, SEO brings organic traffic when your posts rank, but that is not the only place where you find readers.
Promoting your blogs effectively can drive more traffic than SEO.
Check your Google Console and look at the source of your traffic. You’ll notice that you have organic, social, referral, and direct traffic.
When I want to write, I first think of my readers’ queries, then try to find the best keywords that will help me rank and get more readers.
When I’m not able to escape the competition, I just answer their queries even if I have no or little chance to rank.
By working hard on my blog, frequently updating my posts, and increasing my domain authority, I’ll have many chances to rank these posts later.
Do not let overthinking SEO stop you from posting consistently and prevent you from building your authority.
10- UPDATE AND REPUBLISH OLD CONTENT
How to blog consistently if you are under stress and don’t have enough time to write and post.
Simple answer. by updating and republishing old posts.
The benefit is not that you find a solution for an issue that comes out of a sudden, it goes far beyond that.
Your old posts need frequent updates before they are sent into the dark.
Besides, updating old posts has more pros than getting attention again; search engines love fresh content and don’t favor old ones.
READ MORE: EASY STEPS ON HOW TO UPDATE OLD POSTS
Fresh content always appears at the top of your pages, so why not push some old content to appear there?
As you can see, by doing this, you can solve more than one issue and get more than a good result; you can blog consistently and revive old posts to bring in more traffic.
Change the publishing date (after updating your content) by using the “republishing old posts” plugin.
Quick note: The plugin will not work if your permalinks contain dates.
11- BREAK YOUR BLOGGING PROCESS INTO PIECES
When it’s not your publishing date, you have to work on:
- Keyword research
- Outline
- Title and headings
- Selecting and creating images
- Optimize images
- Writing
- Editing
- On-page-SEO
- Reviewing your final draft
- Publishing
Many bloggers do all of the above in one long session, if you can do this, it’s okay.
But anyone trying to do this needs to be professional and have a lot of helping tools to avoid making mistakes of all kinds.
My advice is to break this process down.
You can, for example, specify an hour for writing the outline. Then have a break and specify an hour for choosing your title and headings.
Apply this to all the steps needed to come up with a valuable, error-free post.
Do not move from one step to another until you are sure everything is complete.
The last step is to gather the puzzle pieces, do the final editing, do one last check, and then boom, press that magic button and publish it.
12- USE YOUR MOBILE PHONE TO BLOG
Mobile phones are amazing.
They’ve always made our lives easier and more comfortable.
Mobile phones are ready to help in different ways when we talk about blogging consistency.
You can use them to save ideas that suddenly jump into your head, or record a voice note that you need to use in a coming post. (I usually use it when I get an idea for post introduction).
This can keep your ideas from being forgotten easily. (It takes me seconds to forget what I was thinking of.)
The best part of using mobile phones to keep blogging consistent is that you can use them to write wherever you are, especially when you have no access to your laptop or desktop.
For example, most of us are used to surfing the internet in our beds. We watch Tik Tok videos, YouTube, and others.
Mobile phones can be used for writing as well.
If you specify some time for writing, you cut off the time needed for blogging on the next day, which in turn leads to more productivity.
How to do this
simply by using Google Docs.
All you need to do is open a document and write. Your work is automatically saved.
Half an hour every night is equal to 3.5 hours weekly; this means that you can add one more post to your drafts.
Try it; it won’t hurt.
You can read this post from Neil Patel to learn how to use Docs.
13- TAKE A LOT OF SHORT BREAKS
Here comes the best part
I recently noticed a big increase in my productivity when I accidentally inserted a lot of short breaks into my schedule.
I used to write for thirty minutes and take fifteen minutes to plant flowers and some vegetables.
Guess what?
I couldn’t believe the flow of ideas that were coming continuously when I got back to my desk.
Today, this has become my habit.
Try to take a lot of short breaks as a reward or an incentive and check the results, it really works.
CONCLUSION
Learning how to blog consistently is the key to a successful blog. Always be prepared and armed with content ideas weeks in advance.
Be organized and create a calendar that shows your coming posts. These posts should answer people’s queries first, then search engines.
Moreover, Do your best to keep your brain active and turn it into writing mode.
Don’t forget to update your old posts and republish them in order to give them new life.
Use your mobile to write, avoid multi-tasking, and finally reward yourself with lots of breaks.
To blog consistently, you need a lot of determination and commitment.
Over to you
Which tip are you going to start with?
Do you have any other tips to add? I’ll be waiting to read your suggestions in the comments section.
Until next time
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