How I Organized my Blog Post Writing and Publishing Routine

Are you a routine kind of person? I think I am despite the fact that with my current life situation I find it hard to keep up with my own routines but I love knowing what I have to do each day. That gives me peace of mind and comfort. I like to sit for 20 minutes and at least plan ahead my week for the most important things I have to do. It also happens that I need to adjust that plan and schedules a few times during the week but that still makes me feel in control of how my week goes… Am I a control freak?

How I Organized my Blog Post Writing and Publishing Routine

This applies to my blogging journey too. As a blogger and an active designer if I don’t have some sort of organization, my life becomes hectic, like literally… everything else can be fine and if my blogging stuff gets out of my hands everything else falls apart. I’m crazy in that way, I know!. So, I have outlined some steps I follow when it comes to my blog posts, so I keep sane and in control of my blog and most of the time it works.

The truth is that my main source of income doesn’t come from blogging, but from my design business. So when I’m drowning in design work, I usually sacrifice my blogging routine to keep up and deliver my designs on time. But when I’m on schedule and everything is flowing, having a good routine helps me get my blogging post consistency under control. Of course when this happens I do get more income too. Win Win…wink!.

I’m not sure what your opinion would be on this, but for me the hardest part of blogging is the writing part. Of course, a big part of that struggle is because, as I’ve mentioned in the past, English is not my main language and that means I have to put more effort into my writing. Also because I’m learning about writing everyday and I’m in the process of finding my own voice. I love telling stories but my mind debates constantly if people will care about all my ramblings prior the actual tutorial or recipes. Reading Building a Framework has helped me so much in this journey.

Once I overcome the writing part, I feel like everything else flows naturally thanks to my routine. Click next page to keep reading.

From my idea to my final Product before crafting the post.

When I come up with something I want to make, I just set up my work place and start. I don’t do much thinking because when I do I end up doing nothing, so I prefer to just start, if it turns out as expected, then great, if not, I’ll just try again another day {you have no idea how many times I would have to start over or try something different… wink!}. I take the necessary pictures during the process and in my mind I’m already practicing how I’m going to explain what I’m doing in the post. I’m also thinking about my titles and keywords LOL.

I get so caught up when I’m working on my projects that I might forget there is a world around me. In some cases, that can be dangerous according to my dear hubby LOL {but that’s beside the point}. Even the SEO process is there in my mind but as I mentioned on my post How to Create SEO friendly posts, once we get the hang of it, it comes naturally, so while I’m creating, I’m just planning how to write the post.

When my creation is done, either if it’s a craft or a recipe or even a different kind of project, I stage my scene for the final pics, take a bunch of them just in case and then just clean up and put everything back into their places.

Usually I work on the post the next day or another day. I personally don’t like writing at night, I feel like my mind is tired already and my ideas don’t flow as much as in the mornings. I usually start the writing*, sitting somewhere comfy and with my coffee or tea and let my ideas flow. The actual writing can happen the same day I’m preparing the blog post or days prior.

It’s important for you to find when your mind and heart are more open to let ideas flow for your writing. Once you find it, try to stick with it, even if It’s a few minutes a day. I try to set my timer to 60 minutes and that works great mostly when I already know what I want to write about. Sometimes if my ideas are overflowing I write for a little longer.

Lauren from The Thinking Closet suggests setting a daily timer to write even if you don’t know what to write about, just grab your pen and paper or your laptop, set your timer and go… Write whatever comes to mind for that time set and probably something will come from that. I personally think that’s a great writing strategy to let your writing flow. You can read Lauren’s full post here! I’m sure you will love it her ideas!

*QUICK TIP: I always write my posts on Microsoft word or text pad or any other text editor. I never write directly in my blog’s editor. The main reason is insurance. I have my pics in a folder and my text in a file and if {God! Hope never happens} I lost my entire site or part of it {without backups}, I still have what I need to start again. Secondly, if for some reason the browser crashes, and I have to restart the computer I don’t lose what I’ve written. I have set up to autosave every few minutes on my MS. Word. Call me over-precautious LOL

My Post publishing routine.

So, I’m ready to create my post, now what?

WHAT I DO BEFORE PUBLISHING

First I would edit my pics and name them accordingly. Remember that you always want to name them, search engines will never find your images if they are named DSC_56435. So make your pics keyword rich. Once they are ready I upload them to my wordpress.

I copy and paste my written content into my blog editor and start styling it as I like. Add my pics to the right places, set the proper tags, categories and also my featured image. Then I set my keywords in the right places along the post and in my SEO plugin.

I read over the post again and see if I find mistakes. Sometimes I even give my text to a dear friend to read it and correct anything that might be off. Once I feel confident that everything is fine {And I still mess it up often} I will schedule it or publish it depending on the situation.

I like to publish in the morning, I usually schedule it to post at 6 or 7 am. Abby from Just a Girl and Her blog suggests in her eBook that also setting up your RSS feed close to that time is a good practice so your readers get your posts first thing in the morning too. So I started doing that as well.

I also like to schedule my social media posts since I have it all fresh in my mind. I don’t ALWAYS do this because it depends on how busy my day is, but I try my best to set this up right away. I schedule my FB posts with FB scheduler and use Friends+Me to schedule G+ posts. I used to use HootSuit but I can’t schedule on my G+ profile, only page, and with Friends+Me I can schedule on both and I can add more social media channels to post as well.

WHAT I DO AFTER PUBLISHING

When I sit down at my computer, the first thing I check is if my post went live as scheduled. I have had this problem a few times and I have to go to edit my post and hit update so it would go live.

Once it’s live, I share it in my FB cooperation groups. This helps get your content exposed and you also get inspired by other bloggers work. Since my time is limited, I usually leave my link, and return at night or the next day to reciprocate. It’s important to know how much you can do and stick with it and let your group know, so it’s always fair.

I also share on my Instagram and Triberr that works with twitter. I love Triberr. It’s a great platform to expand your twitter reach. It works in tribes, you can create yours and join others. The main point is to share each others content on Twitter and get to be seen by many people.

Each blogger has a different strategy and routine which is great because we can learn so much from it. But, what is important is to find what works best for you. For example , when I joined Abby’s community of Building a Framework, I found out so many new strategies that fit my needs and blogging style. I also noticed we had lots of them in common which made me feel that I wasn’t so out of place. Like my publishing routine, it was so reassuring to see that Abby’s routine was similar to mine but with new great ideas. I felt like I wasn’t alone and not so wrong.

After getting her eBook and going through the pages and videos, I learned so much about organization and blogging strategies. Some of them I could put into practice right away and have worked wonderfully so far. Some are not my style. Some others are taking more time for me to catch up on like my mailing list marketing and finding my unique voice. But, it’s great to read through other blogger’s experiences and see what works and what doesn’t’ for them and for me.

Becoming part of Building a Framework community has been a game changer for me and my blogging journey. The ebook was so amazingly easy to follow. I have read it like 3 times now and I still get back to it re-read some chapters to stay in track. I now know that we can grow as much as we want to and that it’s ok to stop for a moment, re-think our strategies and change things in order to find our blogging balance.

Apart from what the eBook and the interviews bring, I also had the awesome opportunity to become part of her FB Group in which I have found so much support, love and help when I’ve needed it. Whenever I ask a question some members come and share what they know. We help each other understand the blogging world and grow as bloggers, and amazingly as people too.

I love it! And if you are not part of the Building a Framework Community I would encourage you to join us. As for myself I can say it’s been the best investment I’ve made.

You can buy the ebook HERE!!!

Now it’s you turn lovely readers! I would love to hear your thoughts. How do you usually do when writing your posts, do you have any routine for your blog post writing???Leave me your tips and tricks in comments bellow!

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