One of the hardest aspects of blogging is sticking to a post schedule. Here are a few tips on overcoming your inevitable desire to say “Not today.”
1. With great freedom comes a desire to slack off
One of the best things about blogging is freedom. You don’t have to ask yourself the nail-biting question, “Could I survive if I couldn’t blog?” in order to be worthy to do it. You don’t have a tenure professorship riding on your ability to publish. You don’t have a teacher looking over your shoulder nitpicking your grammar.
2. Write about things you actually care about
Forcing yourself to write about things you aren’t that interested in doesn’t keep you motivated long.
Your blog is a place for you to write about things from your life that inspire you - things you think others might enjoy. This can be explaining the new recipe you concocted last night when you combined two classic recipes, or posting cute videos starring your cat, Tigs. Choosing a topic that you know and love leads not only to consistent posting, but also to a good blog.
3. Set time to write in advance, and stick to it when it arrives
Set aside a certain time each week that you dedicate to the blog. If you depend on yourself to blog “when you feel like it” you may never write. The gusto may never arrive if you sporadically tell yourself, “Oh, I plan on working on the blog tonight,” and then decide dinner is more important when that time comes. It’s better to have a certain time set well in advance. You will write a blog entry on Wednesday at 7pm, or you will not write one at all.
4. Stop writing for your college English professor, and start writing for real people
In order to become a better blogger, you will need to get rid of old beliefs and fears that you have about writing left over from your school teachers. As a new blogger, I had the assumption I needed to produce essay-length posts with breathtaking metaphors like something out of a college creative writing course. Happily, I learned this is not the case. Otherwise, I am sure I would have given up on the blog because of the sheer anxiety.
5. Keep it short
Try to condense your ideas into shorter posts with depth (though you can certainly go for the longer posts now and then). If you don’t overthink it, this process saves a good bit of time and motivates you to continue posting since the writing is not such a burden. It becomes challenging and fun to think and write in a more precise, condensed way.
Shameless plug: Create a blog with Soholaunch!
Hopefully these tips help you take the plunge into blogging and keep the inspiration churning. Soholaunch has a feature-dense blogging system right out of the box. Not only does our website builder give you the blog system, but also many more features for you to grow into.
For instance, maybe you want to start selling a cookbook with all the recipes you give in your blog posts. Soholaunch already has a shopping cart built-in to make that possible in a short time. Let us know in the comments any of your own tips!