If you love and want to dedicate your days to content creation, social media outreach, and working in the online sphere, you should start a blog for sure! Now an often overlooked format, but writing a few posts and growing an audience can soon turn into a business!
Design your blog, sign up to social media, start marketing yourself and your work. Being consistent pays off in the online world. You can develop new ideas, connect with an understanding audience, and start making money through affiliate programs, sponsorships, and selling products like an ebook or an online course.
For anyone interested in a career like this, getting started is also super easy! Various website builders exist, you can use online graphic design programs to create interesting social posts, and then you just need your own brain. But keep one thing in mind: it’s going to take time to reach the successful point you’re dreaming of. Blogging will keep you very busy over the months ahead, and even when you reach your goals, if you want to continue, you need to already be thinking about the next big thing. That’s how the online world tends to work these days!
If you need some time management and blog structuring tips, check out this list for hints and tricks to help.
Note Down an Idea Whenever One Occurs
We all get ideas at the most random moments! When we’re in the shower, about to sleep, driving to work, or when we’re shopping for weekly groceries. These are all common places inspiration will suddenly strike.
You should pay attention to these thoughts and write down (or in the case of driving, use a speech to text tool!) whenever they occur. You can do this on the notes app on your phone, or download Word for Android or iOS. If you get an idea, even when half formed and a bit watery, write it down and come back to it later. Or if you’d prefer, you can carry a little notebook and pen and write things down old-style.
With either method, you won’t be sitting there in the evening in front of a blank page with a blinking cursor, and simply have no idea where to start. You’ve done all the work in the moment and now it’s just time to expand on your previous thoughts.
You might take the approach of writing one post at a time, allowing you to focus your time and attention on this one piece and turning it into the best it can be. And that way definitely works! You’re likely to come up with some quality pieces working away like this. It can however be a slower way to work and can feel like you’re lagging on content creation.
Write More Than One Post at Once
If you find yourself in this position, try working on two pieces at once. This will allow you to publish something today, and then have something ready to go in a couple days or ready for next week. You don’t have to put in any extra effort and you might find this method saves you time. Even if you just get down two blog ideas and then go back and build on them, that might help you get content out quicker.
Use Your Calendar Liberally (and keep it in view!)
If you struggle to keep track of what blog posts need to go out and when, and what social media posts need to accompany them, and when you need to have a Zoom meeting with that network contact, it’s best to keep your calendar in view. Not being organised can rush you off your feet and make your days very hard to keep structured. This can also impact your overall life and wellbeing, so having a plan can be important.
Keep your calendar accessible at all times. Make sure it ‘lives’ in a prominent place and is routinely updated. You can also buy a physical calendar if you prefer something more physical and tangible.
Say No From Time to Time
Saying no can prevent you from taking on too much, running out of time, and letting people down when you promised them you’d deliver amazing results. Sometimes you need to say no, just to make sure you keep a balanced lifestyle and not impact your health.
You won’t always be turning down a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You’re going to get more in the future if you keep going in a more maintainable way. You’re always going to have something else in the pipeline, whether off your own back or because someone has reached out to you. Don’t trick yourself into thinking it’s now or never – a writing career takes a lot of steps forward and quite a few back, but it is always advancing.
Take Frequent Breaks
Frequent breaks prevent burnout. This allows you to refresh your mind and come back feeling focussed. Make sure you take a break at least twice a day if you’re having a full work day. Do a bit of a digital detox – maybe for lunch or late afternoon to focus on yourself and have a break from your screen.
You could even try napping when you’re on the clock! Research has found that it’s actually a great thing to sleep at work, so give it a try if you’re feeling tired and totally worn out. If you can fit in a 20 minute Netflix session, you can fit in a 20 minute power nap on your office sofa! Or head back to bed for a bit; you work from home and it’s right there, there’s no issue with catching up on a bit of sleep.
Use AI Tools to Help
AI tools can be incredibly helpful when you’re solely focused on online blog creation. You can save a lot of time collating similar ideas and points to expand on, or at least come up with an outline within 5 to 10 minutes. But be careful here! I’d try to avoid a totally unedited AI piece of content, but you can use AI SEO tools to help you put together new blog posts, image captions, and product copy.
Google is pretty strict when it comes to ranking websites on a results page, and if you’re only publishing AI written pieces, you’re not going to get near the top any time soon. That’s because AI often just regurgitates anything it’s found from elsewhere on the web, according to the prompt you’ve put in.
There’s very little value for a reader in duplicated (and often poorly written) content – that’s not the kind of website a search engine is going to recommend. So use tools like these to help round out ideas and give you a general sense of where to take a post as it draws to a close. Outside of this purpose, try to keep its involvement to a minimum.
Take Time Off From Emails
As a blogger, you’re going to get a lot of emails. Some are going to spam, sure, but most will be participation offers, people sending in questions, and sometimes you’ll have some admin reminders to get on with.
As such, at least two hours of your day are going to be spent answering emails and messages as they come in. That’s too much time in my book! That’s why I’d recommend only checking your inbox 5 days a week, and then taking 2 days off. You don’t have to be constantly available, especially when you can use an out of office reply.
If you want to structure your day as a blogger in the most productive way, try using some of these tips. Your time and attention matter in a career like this, and the more you focus on setting out your day in separate blocks, the easier it’s going to be to keep up with the constant demand. The online world is always online, but you don’t have to be! You can take a break, schedule something for later, and build your business in your own time.
LL x
*This is a contributed post. As ever, all opinions are my own.
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