Staying Organized While Blogging – Seven Simple Tips

Freelance writer and artist Steff lives in New Zealand with her husband. She has held various jobs over the years including an archaeologist, a museum curator, a novelist, and a roadie for a heavy metal band. Currently, she transcribes braille and produce large print and electronic books and resources.  She also sells her original artwork and Etsy writing packages at her shop on Etsy.com.In 2009, Steff created a blog and has been learning how to balance a blog and other areas of her life ever since.

“I created the Steff Metal blog in 2009 for several reasons,” Steff writes on her blog.  “Mostly, I wanted a blog to ramble on about metal, books, music, fashion and life. I also wanted a place to live-blog some of my epic metal journey (a three month jaunt around Europe and the Middle East with my husband and two friends) so my friends at home in NZ could swoon in jealousy.”

“Although blogging is an awesome hobby and a great way to promote your handmade business, it’s not something you want to spend every day worrying about and preparing for,” Steff told HandmadeMarketing.org.  “You need to spend time with your family, hang out with your friends, design and create you wares, go on adventures, eat delicious food, see concerts and watch movies.”

Steff shared seven ways she keeps her personal and business blogs – and her clients’ blogs – organized and easy to manage:

1. Utilize RSS Readers.  Steff suggests using Google Reader, or any other RSS reader, to stay on top of your favorite blogs.  Learn more about Google Reader in this HandmadeMarketing.org article “What is Google Reader?“
   “I check it once a day and that’s it – no typing in URLs or flipping through your bookmarks wondering if such-and-such has updated today,” Steff explained.  “Google Reader can also be a useful way of collecting links for roundup posts. I “star” items my readers might be interested in. Once a week, I compile a list of interesting links. I do this every week on my Steff Metal blog – it’s called the Linking Horn. I would say using Google Reader saves me around an hour each day. Yes, I’m serious. One. Hour. Every. Day.”
2. Organize Your Bookmarks Into Folders. Steff suggests creating folders in your browser’s “bookmarks” to save time. 
   “I created a folder for each of my blogs, one for submission guidelines for writing markets, one for “real life” (with my bank website, etc.) and one for misc,” she tells HandmadeMarketing.org.  “Whenever I bookmark a website, I add it to the appropriate folder. This really saves time searching through long bookmark lists.”
3. Use a Physical Filing System. “My husband brought me a multi-colored drawer unit for my office, and I designate one tray for every blog,” Steff said.  “In this tray, I keep all my printouts of bank statements for my taxes, notebooks about the blog, scribbled ideas, pictures for scanning, etc.“
4. Develop a Posting Schedule. “If you don’t discipline your posting, you give yourself permission to post willy-nilly, and you get behind so easily. If you’re constantly starting blog posts with “I know I haven’t posted in ages, but …”, you will know what I mean,” she said.  “If you set yourself a schedule, you’re less likely to fall into the ‘oh, I’ll post something later” trap. You must post something, even if you don’t feel you have anything to write about.” 
   For her Steff Metal blog, she posts an average of five to six days per week.  Her posting schedule is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and sometimes Sunday.
   “Monday is Linking Horn day, Tuesday and Wednesday are in-depth articles and Thursday is Up the Irons, a book review, or a guest post, Friday and Sunday are for quick, fun posts like Cthulhu’s Closet (my daily outfit posts) and Metal Mixtape,” Steff explains.  “Having this structure really forces me to write regularly. By spacing the quicker posts at the beginning and end of the week, I have breathing room to write the in-depth articles at a slower pace, which makes for better articles.”
5. Schedule Posts Ahead of Time. “On both my blogs,” Steff tells us, “I try to stay ahead of myself by writing several posts at once and scheduling them, or at least saving them as drafts and reserving them for days I haven’t anything to post. Having posts in reserve allows me to take a break if I’m feeling worn out. I can go on holiday for a week without worrying about the blog. It also gives me a buffer zone if something goes wrong.”
6. Start an “Epic Post List”. Steff suggests keeping a journal to jot down blog post ideas as they come. 
   “My journal follows me everywhere and I’m constantly writing down post ideas – just a title or sentence describing a possible post topic,” she says.  “On days my creativity lapses, I use ideas from your list to fill in your scheduled posts.”
7. Give Yourself a Blogging Timeframe. Many bloggers will admit that blogging and thinking about blogging consumes much of their time.
   “Sometimes too much time,” Steff says.  “You’ll sit at the computer for three or four hours, tinkering with this and that, finishing tasks, creating work for yourself.  How much of that time is actually spent on growing your blog and business? I tell you – not all of it. Probably not even half of it. Focus your time. You should be spending one hour blogging and three hours with your family, not the other way around.”
   Steff suggests setting a time limit and sticking to it.  “30 minutes or 1 hour only, per day. Set a timer. See how much you get done,” Steff said.  “You’ll quickly find the less important activities – checking your Analytics every ten minutes, tinkering with your template and swapping around your widgets – fall by the wayside and you use your time more productively.”

For Steff’s valuable tips on how to write everything from Etsy item descriptions to creating a brochure or leaflet, visit Steff Metal on Etsy.com.  You can also follow Steff on Twitter @steffmetal.

To hear other tips for how to manage your time while selling handmade online, read time-management tips from handmade seller Amy Vander Vorste in her article “Too Much to Take In – Eating a Marketing Elephant“.  Another resource is “Time – Keep Up Etsy While Keeping Your Life” on HandmadeMarketing.org.

Publish your tips and tricks on HandmadeMarketing.org!  Tell us what you have found helps you keep up on your blog.  Do you use a tool online like Google Reader to stay current on your favorite websites and blogs? How do you keep an active blog while still maintaining other areas of your life?

Our team publishes ideas from handmade sellers, artisans, and crafters.  Be sure to include links to your social media sites or handmade shop site in your article.  Sellers receive free press for lending their knowledge, and both new and experienced sellers alike get new ideas.  Share with HandmadeMarketing.org.