I just thought I’d give a brief update for all those reading on how my blog process has updated. I’ve got a few extra steps now than what I had before.
Before I just typed it in Scrivener, and copied and pasted it into WordPress. Then I’d make my formatting edits (Scrivener’s formatting doesn’t work with WordPress, so I’ve got to add in returns, bullets, bolds and italics).
Then I’d gotten the SEO plugin, and that became something of a drudgery. Michael Hyatt says it takes him two extra minutes, and he’s right – it just feels like drudgery to enter in the info.
Then I have to go to Upsplash or Stocksnap to get my photos, place that in, put the credits in and change the HTML code to font size = 1. And because a lot of the photos are 3 megs each, I have to resize them in paint shop pro (yes, I still use that!)
Select something quotable, and add it to my “Click to tweet” plugin somewhere around the middle of the page.
Then I can schedule it.
It’s all those last steps that make my eyes glaze over. It’s not that it’s hard. It’s not that it’s really not fun or anything. It just feels like it takes a 2 minute process and makes it 10 minutes.
Here’s what I think may work for me, and should work for you if it sounds like massive drudgery to you also.
- Get 10 blog posts scheduled today a week ahead.
- Edit them tomorrow & do SEO.
- Add in photos and credits, and Tweet this the day after.
This way, you’re not sitting there doing a hundred things to a simple blog post. It will feel more like you’re accomplishing a lot, and those are the kind of rewards that motivate writers. This also leaves you 4 days you’re not messing with the website, instead of “take ten minutes to do a blog post every day.”
Really, since I write these on the weekends, I should be scheduling them all on Sundays. It would be nice if Buffer would do my WordPress schedules as well!
Update… I’ve switched to Open Live Writer to speed up the process! Hopefully it works, to shave off 5 to 10 minutes!
What’s the process you use on YOUR blog to get your posts ready?
