You know those weeks where you’re running around so much you barely have time to breath, much less blog? Where dinner consists of a Luna bar and a banana hastily consumed on the way to the subway? This is going to be one of those weeks for me, so you probably won’t hear much on this blog or if you email me (don’t worry, I’m not dying, I just have a crazy few days coming up). I had this outline saved, so this seems like a good time to use it.
1. Don’t moderate comments. Sounds risky, I know, but I tried it when I went on vacation, and it worked out great. No one left offensive or inappropriate comments, and readers didn’t have to wait three days for me to slog through my email and approve their comments. Of course, the feasibility of this one will depend on the nature of your blog and the number of comments you get. I’ve decided to leave my settings the way they are to make it easier for everyone, but if it becomes a problem, I would not hesitate to moderate again.
2. Bookmark interesting articles for later. I could spend hours blog-hopping, commenting, and reading posts about a myriad of topics, but it won’t improve my output as a writer or blogger. I try to keep the mindless surfing to a minimum by saving articles that look interesting in my delicious links. I can include these in a future blog post or read them later as a reward for finishing a task.
3. Write posts in advance. On days like today when I’m rushing out the door, I don’t have time to wrack my brain for blog post ideas (my muse doesn’t work on demand; she’s fickle like that). You can write a few posts at once when you have the time, and then spread them out for posting later on.
4. Post via email. Yes, I know that all you WordPress users can publish things years into the future, but Blogger users cannot. I get around this by saving drafts in my email folder, then pressing send when I want to publish. Blogger has more detailed instructions on publishing via email here.
What’s your time-saving secret weapon when it comes to blogging? Leave a comment, and tell us about it!
Great advice! Thank you very much. I’m new at this, and every tip helps.
I had no idea we could post to Blogger via email! Thanks for pointing that out, Susan.
I learned something today (and hopefully it’s not the only thing)- Luna bar. I had to google it and found out why I wasn’t aware of this product. I guess it wasn’t something I was shopping for!
Great ideas. I try to work out my post in my head when I know I’m crunched for time, so I can just type it out quickly.
If I get an idea for a blog post while at work I send an e-mail with a few lines on what I want to write about to my home e-mail account. When I get home I drag and drop them into a folder for Blog Ideas until I have time to write on it.
I usually have a few articles written out ahead of time and then just cut and paste into my blog when I am ready to post. I like your idea though about saving them to draft in Outlook and posting from e-mail.
Thanks for that tip about posting from e-mail, I’ve been using it and love it.
Patricia
Great post! I just have one caveat on the comments. I have to moderate mine because I get spam each time I post. This isn’t an issue too much on closed platforms such as Blogger and TypePad; but I definitely experience it on WordPress and Moveable Type.
Christien, You’re correct that you get A LOT more spam using WordPress. You might try an anti-spam like WP-SpamFree or Akismet to screen some of the comments for you. It won’t worked for everyone, but it’s been helpful to me cut out time moderating comments. I did get more spam comments after I posted this tip, but I just went in and deleted them!
Great tips … I particularly agree with doing some pre-writing of posts. Whenever I get some downtime, I work on those posts that aren’t time-sensitive and save them to be published at a later time. Of course, I’m a WordPress user so it’s easier to make this work in my favor I think but it’s a good tip for anyone.