Oct 2, 2014 / General Advice & Pro Tips

Three Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers

Pro tips for blogging success!

Image by <a href="http://pixabay.com/en/colored-pencils-colour-pencils-star-179170/">stux</a> <a href="http://pixabay.com/en/service/terms/#download_terms">Creative Commons Deed CC0</a>

It happens: you resolve to blog regularly, but life gets in the way. Now is always the best time to recommit to a blogging habit.

In that vein, here are a few tips for how to organize and support your blogging efforts for maximum efficiency. Think of it as your back-to-blogging prep list. 

Create an Editorial Calendar

The best way to maintain a regular blogging habit is to come up with a plan and stick to it. Creating an editorial calendar is a great way to commit yourself to regular content for the next however many months. Plus, it’s a lot easier to sit down and write if you already know that you planned to post a photo essay on the second Monday of November, then if you just know you really ought to post something sometime.

An editorial calendar also helps you establish regular features — for example, maybe you post a recipe every Tuesday and a DIY craft project every Thursday. This takes some of the guesswork out of what to post, and it also gives your readers an idea of what to expect.

And if you’re in the zone on a snowy Sunday and knock out five or six upcoming posts,  you can schedule them according to your planned calendar, and they’ll post themselves when it’s time.

Use an App

Ideally, every time we sit down to write, we’re seated in a well-appointed library overlooking the beach of a private island, in complete silence, a steaming cup of perfectly brewed coffee at hand.

In reality, though, if we waited until our surroundings were ideal to sit down and write, we’d be waiting a long, long time.

Phones and tablets make it easy to blog from wherever you are, whether that’s on your commute, at your kid’s music lesson, or in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. With the WordPress mobile app, you can blog on your mobile device anywhere. This frees you up from the ‘must be at my desk to write’ mindset, and you might find it also extends your creativity in new ways.

For example, maybe you typically write long, thoughtful posts, but you notice a funny sign or an interesting painting while you’re out and about, so you snap a photo and dash off a few lines about it right there. If you look for inspiration wherever you go, you’ll notice your surroundings more, and honing your observational skills will enrich your writing overall. Plus, you’re less likely to forget about an idea if you jot down a few lines about it when it first strikes you.

If you’ve never tried out the mobile app, download it at home and get familiar with it. Then, next time you’re not at your desk when the muse arrives, you don’t have to tell her to wait.

Follow Topics

When it comes to expert blogging, writing is only half the work. For traffic building, it’s just as important to read and comment on other blogs (and just as hard to get around to). To make it easier on yourself, build reading and commenting time into your editorial calendar.

Then, try following some very specific relevant tags in the reader. For example, if you blog a lot about speculative fiction, you could follow books or scifi to find other bloggers with your interests, but you’ll probably get more bang for your buck if you follow more precise tags, like speculative fiction, alternate history, or dystopia.

By doing this, you’re essentially creating an ongoing reading list for yourself, so that when you have the time and inclination, you don’t have to hunt around for what to read. And remember — you can easily use your Reader in the mobile app, so the next time you’re stuck in line somewhere but don’t have the energy to write, fire up your WordPress app and start reading! If you find a post you like, you can like it, comment on it, and follow the blog, all from the app.

I hope these tips will kickstart your fall blogging productivity. If I missed a good one, share it with us in the comments!

Show Comments

214 Comments

Comments are closed.

Close Comments

Comments

    1. I see that you do reviews. I typed in reviews under the Tags section of the Reader then hit explore topics…blogs for other reviewers pop up.

      I search through all types of blogs because I don’t want to be limited to just one topic when there is so much of interest out there. Good Luck!

      Like

  3. Great tips! Thanks for that. I have just started a blog and was wondering how to get the wheels turning and you’ve just told me.

    Thanks a lot!

    Like

  5. Great info. I have a big year-long blogging project under way already, but I will think about what other blogging activities I could also do. (Also, the ability to schedule posts is amazingly fantastically wonderful.)

    Like

  6. Blogging may be my biggest weakness in social media connecting with my book and other works. I probably could use some tips in using this media as a marketing tool. I have set up a blog site but I can’t seem to even add it for some reason to my Amazon Author profile as a feed link. As they say in Baseball a little help!
    Thanks!
    Dan Donahue/Author
    A Glimpse from Christmas Past
    ISBN# 9781481740289
    Web: http://www.dcdonahue.com

    Like

    1. I think your best bet would be to contact Amazon to ask about your site link in your profile.

      Like

  9. I recently went to a writer’s conference called Imaginarium and one of the things mentioned several times about blogging was consistency. This is something I for one have not been able to get a firm handle on since starting my blog. the editorial calender is one tool I need to implement into my life

    Liked by 1 person

  10. I am working on the editorial calandar thing right now. Up until now I have just written whatever pops into my head that day but some days I might not have time and having some ideas or posts beforehand would really help.

    One thing I have learned doesn’t work for me is keeping the calandar on my phone or iPad. A physical planner seems to be the best thing, something I can write in no matter where I am or what I’m doing.

    Like

  14. Love your post, thank you for the helpful hints! I too love going school supplies shopping; no idea why. It just gives me this weird joy to go find things for school, even though I don’t really like being in class all that much. Trying to stay on top of school stuff and blogging is definitely hard… Hopefully I’ll do just fine!

    Liked by 1 person

  16. I have been compiling lovely pictures and finds every Friday for “I Love Series” posts. Love posting on every Friday to match my blog title, “The Friday Rejoicer”. By the way, I found the WordPress app difficult to use. Prefer to blog on my macbook.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Great tips! Love the idea of editorial calendar.
    I just tried the app a few days ago and it brought my blogging back to life! I wish I found it earlier!

    Like

  22. Definitely need to add all this to my list of things to do. Single parent, plus full time student back at university (in my final year) means I’m struggling to find the time to blog. Now I’m doing a flurry of posts at the weekend instead of regularly throughout the week.

    Liked by 1 person

  23. I always had a difficulty in managing blogging and school life then the idea hit me that i can blog about school life! >.<

    Like

  24. Thanks for the advice. I’ve tried saying, “I need to post something on this day and this day of every week,” but then that day comes and I don’t know what to post. The idea of an editorial calendar and figuring out regular times to post on topics sounds more helpful. And taking a picture and writing a quick post is a great idea, too; I’ve most used the mobile app to obsessively check my stats, which probably isn’t the best for my mindset.

    Like

  25. Thank you for sharing this helpful tips on blogging.
    I recently downloaded the WordPress mobile App and it has made approving comments and checking stats easier. However, when I head to the reader, I’m taken to the ‘Freshely Pressed’ instead. How can I rectify this issue and gain access to the blogs I follow? Is this happening to just me or has anyone else seen this?
    http://storieswithoutborder.com/
    Thanks for your help.

    Like

  29. Thank you for these tips! I will definitely take these into consideration since I am a total newbie. In fact I recently expressed how much I wanted to keep my blog “alive” while attending university.
    I’d greatly appreciate it if you or anyone checked out my blog and gave me their opinion on it. http://mellowshellie.wordpress.com/
    thank you and have a nice day.

    Like

  30. This is great. I’m just a newbie blogger whose ambitious enough to dream of becoming ‘Miss Popular Blogger’ (haha)! Kidding aside, I’m really serious about this blogging thing and I think I could get a help with this Editorial Calendar! Such great idea!

    Like