One of the biggest challenges for me as a blogger is keeping consistent with my blog. If you are one of my subscribers, you know this is true. I’ll do a few posts a week for months, then disappear for a few weeks. A big part of this is a lack of planning on my part. I’ll have a few good ideas to start the week, then get distracted, lose interest, and not get back to the blog until I’ve missed a few of my planned posts. That leads me to feeling a little desperate to get something, anything up there. Desperation posts aren’t fair to my readers.
I’ve come up with a loose plan for the year, and I think it will really help me to stay on track. If you are a new blogger (welcome!), or an more experienced blogger looking for a little planning help, I’m going to share my new plan.
I want to blog 3 days per week, preferably Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I think that checking in several times per week is useful, but every day is way too much. I won’t beat myself up if I miss one, or if I am late, but it shouldn’t be to hard to plan out my posts and write them up ahead of time. Usually my sticking point is photos.
I came up with several posts that would be good themes to revisit periodically:
- 2018 Color challenge – this is a fun blog hop with a fellow blogger
- Island Batik Ambassador challenges – They have a whole year planned for me, with one or two projects per month
- Pattern release/tutorial – I’ve got several ideas I’m working on, and having a monthly pattern release will spur me to finish them up.
- Quilt blogging tip – this ties in with the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop community
- Class review – I’m really enjoying taking classes, and I feel like writing them up will encourage others to try classes, too.
- Book reviews – I need to start using my quilting books, not just collect them.
- Technique exploration – I love trying new things
- Small, quick project – My pallete cleansers between big projects
- Concept breakdowns – Sharing my thought process from concept to finished quilt
- Client quilts – I like to share my longarming work, but I need to be better about getting permission to share client work. I forget to ask, and I won’t share unless I have permission. These can be an in-depth look at a custom job, or just a group of photos.
This is a nice long list, which gives me plenty to pick and choose from to fill in my calendar. For the weekly plan, I gave some thought to how to work in these topics without overwhelming myself. This is what I have so far:
Monday – Monthly feature
Wednesday – Video or tutorial
Friday – Finish or project update
Obviously, this is all going to have to be flexible, but if there is a week when I feel like I’ve got nothing, I can look at my list and come up with something. I do need to sit down with my Quilter’s Planner* , assign the topics, and then STICK WITH IT.
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My best advice for keeping up with regular posting is to have a blogging buddy. A fellow blogger would be great – someone to bounce ideas off of and discuss ideas. For me, I have my mom. She is my #1 Fan, and quite persistent. I get daily reminders to post on Facebook, and if I miss more than one blog post, I get a nudge.
So, remember – plan, plan, plan, and get a blogging nag buddy.
I blog three times a week (M, W, F) too. Sometimes it’s downright difficult to come up with an idea to write about, so I like your thoughtful list of themes. I need to gather my own list and have that as a resource. I’m trying to get ahead of my blogging schedule, rather than running to catch up. Thanks for sharing your ideas!
Thanks for reading! Getting organized AND doing the work is such a challenge.
Having a goal, like 2-3 posts a week can be super helpful, and for me marking my planner with the dates for posts helps me prewrite content and get the posts scheduled. I hope this planning helps you and keeps you less stressed!
I’m planning for 3 days a week too, but my schedule is Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday. 🙂 and then I have some bonus ones for other challenges that I’m in as well! I keep a physical calendar of tentative plans of blog posts that is separate for my QPs so I mark things off and move these without messing up my pretty QP! Good luck!
That’s a nice idea. I lose papers, so I use my QP. It stopped being pretty on day 2!
I’m lucky if I post once a week, perhaps once every two weeks. But my schedule is dependent more on thrift shop finds, which of course, can be spotty.
Rather than cranking out the quilts, my focus has turned to constructing blocks that are more complex so a bed-sized quilt will take longer than in the past.
Complex quilts are so much fun.
I’ve been toying with the idea of doing book reviews, too. If for no other reason than to help me keep track of where I saw an idea or pattern!
Good point!
I resemble that remark!
I really liked this idea. I have been very inconstant in my blogging …..usually from life creeping in and not from the lack of ideas. I also struggle with keeping up on my photos needed. Lighting is a huge issue for me. It is a goal this year. I have given myself a once a week schedule. Do you think that is too little too late? I would welcome any feed back that would help my blogging to succeed. I love the idea of weekly book reviews …Is there any interest ? hmmmm
I Love your content and always look forward to it. 🙂
The only way to find out if there is interest is to write and sew what the response is. I put up an essay I wrote about my son – mostly because I wrote it for something else and thought it was funny. It was extremely popular. I had assumed no one would care to read it.
I just found a Facebook group called “photography for pdf pattern publishers”. They seem to have good content.
Thanks for the love!