I’ve been blogging for about seven years or so and my process has changed a lot since those earlier days blogging on sites I’m happy to forget about. Whether you’re just getting started or are a blogging pro, it’s always interesting to see other people’s processes. I’d love to know about your process in the comments so I can learn how to better mine!
After so many years my process has become second nature. Usually I start off by hunting for inspiration if my content calendar is sparse and needs some post ideas. I follow a lot of lifestyle blogs who write content that’s vastly different form mine. Just reading blogs can spark a ton of new, unique ideas. More times than I can count I’m reading a post about someone’s weekend trip to New York city and I suddenly have an idea for a planning related post. Inspiration hunting is more about getting into the mindset of blogging than anything else.
Once I have a healthy list of post ideas, I get to content scheduling. Since I run this blog and a YouTube channel I like to try and get my posts and videos to lineup. So if I have a video about how to stay organized working from home on the schedule, I may add in a blog post about the topic as a supplement. I put all of my posts down into my Google Calendar and move them around until they’re in an order that makes sense.
Then comes bulk blog photography. Tuesdays are my filming and blogging days so I create all of the content I need for the next week or so that day. Bulk photography is the best way I’ve found to make sure I get all the photos I need.
Next up is editing the photos which is always a lot faster when I take bulk shots. Since I’m using the same settings on my camera, I’m able to apply the same edits to all of the photos. Then I go in and tweak things here and there for specific photos. My favorite program is Lightroom since it’s so easy to do a bunch of photographs at once.
Once I have all my photos figured out, I create a bunch of draft posts and add in the photos. I’ll add in blog post titles as well and save them for the next step. I usually find that I have to be in a certain mindset to write posts so I try to do as many as I can once the inspiration strikes. Since all the posts are already drafted, I just open up whatever post I feel like writing and start typing. If I happen to finish the post, I’ll schedule it to go live when my content calendar says, or publish it to go live immediately.
The final piece is social media. I always make sure to share the post on my Facebook page and Instagram. I often have more than one photo for a post so I’ll choose a couple to spread out over the next few days to keep referencing back to the post. Social media is also the part of my blogging process that I want to improve on. I have so many old posts that I need to work better at referencing. That way my content doesn’t vanish to the archives after a few days.
My process isn’t overly complicated, but I find that it works best to keep blogging consistently. It’s a tried and true method but I’m always trying to hone it in to be even better.
