I’ve spoken about the foundations of blogging, other people’s blogs, apps and social media but how exactly do I plan out my own? I’m going to talk you through my process from idea to publishing (and beyond!)!
Firstly, I have a folder where I write down all of my little brainstorms and blog post ideas (I tend to get inspired by other people’s blogs or things that I feel I want to talk about!) and I make a rough plan of the content of each post and when I plan when I might post it. For instance, in December I knew I was going to be doing ‘The 12 Days of Blogmas’ from the 13th until the 24th, so I drew myself a calendar and filled in my Blogmas posts into the correct dates. I then thought about which Mondays and Fridays were remaining and decided which posts I liked best out of my ideas and slotted them in accordingly! Any posts that I’ve decided I wanted to do in this year (2018), I wrote in the corresponding date in my new diary!
I like my diary because on each double page, there’s one page with the week on it (eg 1-7th Jan) and then a whole page for notes! I tend to write an overview of the content of the post(s) on my notes page so that I remember what to write about at a glance.
Next I go into my blog’s admin site where I draft, write and publish posts from (among other things). I look at all my post ideas of things I definitely want to talk about and I make a ‘draft’ of each one. By this I mean that I write the title of the post in and maybe the potential date and click save! This means I can see all the posts I have planned to do. I then find the next post I am going to publish and write as much of it as I can. I try to write as much as I can in advance (I wrote this post on the 2nd January, for instance) because it gives me time to make it exactly how I want it to be. I’m going to try and do a lot more of this in 2018 because my ‘Blogmas’ were really quite tragic, and that is because I rushed writing them on the day that they were meant to be published. I kept forgetting to write them in advance and I had so much college stuff to do! I’m working on time management now (can you tell?).
More often than not, after I’ve written a few posts, I take my photographs! Sometimes I do this before I’ve written it but it depends what else I have going on at the time. I always try and take my photos on my camera, and I tend to give them a little tweak in Photoshop or Lightroom before placing them on my blog! I hope that my photography on here will start improving, especially as I got an A in my last assignment in my A Level Photography!
After this, I wait until publishing day comes. Sometimes I read over posts and tweak them slightly. I can never get the scheduling thing to work from my blog so I always have to publish them manually, but occasionally I schedule tweets and Instagram posts so that my post is promoted instantly! I then try to promote it several times before publishing my next post!
As you can see it’s a never ending cycle of hard work, and it can be quite a big commitment. Make sure you’re aware of that before you become a blogger, especially if you want to make it your job as you’d definitely need to make sure your posts are on time and top quality, every time! I’d love to earn a bit from my blogging, alongside a career, but I don’t think I’m really good enough, just yet, and I definitely do not have enough page views, readers or followers! But it’ll get there if I keep at it!
Tomorrow is the last post in this week long series, and I am going to give you several blog post ideas to kick start your blog! Or inspire you if you have writers block!
See you then!
Leave a Reply