on blogging…

Over the weekend I inquired of the Elegant Musings Facebook fans whether they would be interested in a post on setting up a blogging schedule the the “practical” side of things. While this is not my normal topic here, I seem to get an awful lot of emails about the mechanics of blogging, so I think an occasional post on the topic wouldn’t be out of place!

One of the things that has taken me awhile to get a handle on is setting up a blogging “schedule” or some sort of plan. If I were left totally to my own devices, I’m sure there would be large gaps between posts, and I’d suffer from the same creative “ADD” that I do with sewing and knitting. Blogging is something I enjoy, but need to schedule into things so it doesn’t get pushed aside in favor of other commitments. Basically, I’m one of those people that needs a to-do list to stay on target! Last year I started planning out posts on a weekly basis–outlining what I wanted to post on what days, and topics I’d like to cover. This worked up until I’d forget to pre-plan a week, or something would come up and the tutorial I planned to have up on a certain day wasn’t completed when I needed it. So I switched over to a monthly plan.

Yes, that probably does sound intimidating! But considering I’ve cut back my posting to 4 times a week (I was posting nearly every day for a short time)–if nothing else to preserve my sanity and keep my husband from thinking I’m married to my computer instead of him–it’s a lot less hassle than it sounds. To start with, because I am a very visual/tactile person, I created a little printable calendar to write all my plans on:

Download this pdf here.

I start by scheming about any upcoming, important holidays in the month and whether I have any posts I’d like to tie-in with that. If I have any series planned (such as my Nana’s sewing patterns series), I decide on what day I want those to go up each week; the same goes for the weekly inspiration posts. That already has taken care of two out of the four days I post, which makes deciding on what else to blog about a lot easier and makes me focus on what I really am excited about sharing! For me, since this blog is a bit of everything, I try to alternate between outfit posts, tutorials, beauty how-to’s, etc. on those remaining two days.

One thing the calendar also helps with is setting up a schedule that works with how my weeks go. Mondays are not good days for me in general, so I try to start the week with something easy that I can pre-write days before and don’t have to think too deeply about. This is why generally I post things like finished sewing projects at the start of the week, and leave tutorials towards the middle to end (though I break my own rules constantly!). It just gives me time to start my week offline and slowly work up to catching up with all my online stuff on Monday and Tuesday, without the added pressure of an intensive blog post.

The biggest advantage of this system has been that it saves me a lot of time. Along with this calendar, I also have a little list of post ideas for times when life happens and plans must go by the wayside (but I don’t want to abandon the blog). These can usually be anything from inspiration posts I’ve pre-scanned/pre-written, or outfit posts that I’ve been hoarding for just such an occasion. Even posts like this that are more practical/technical! (Yes, this post was because a sewing project I worked on was a total bomb! Not through my error or the pattern’s–the fabric decided to shred completely. Teaches me to make sure vintage fabric isn’t dry rotting in spots…) Between the two it means I save time and can focus more on what I like doing and sharing here, rather than scrambling to get a post up!

I know there are probably many who already implement such systems, but I hope this was of a little help to a few! I’d love to hear how you plan out your blogging schedule–or if you prefer a different approach.

February 13, 2012 · 52 lovely thoughts
posted in misc · tags: blogging