I finally took the leap and did something that has been on my list for a while now. It seems dumb, but (in simple terms) I took a little more control of my website from the little gnomes inside of WordPress.com and now it’s all on me. I’m being dramatic, and for many this is no big deal…but it is for me! Woo!
I’m excited to start re-doing this site, sticking to a better schedule for posts, and most of all, learning a cool new skill. I’ll be posting about my progress as I make some big changes, but I hope you follow along!
I have been learning about WordPress with Lynda.com, which I’m lucky enough to have a free membership to thanks to my job. But, if you’re serious about learning something, I would invest in a membership! The videos are really nice, and you can make “playlists” to watch later. I have playlists dedicated to UX/UI, WordPress, Pinterest, and Google Analytics. Of course I haven’t watched them all, but it’s easy to reference them when I need to.
Revamping my website also means I need to be more dedicated than I have been in the past, and that part is almost as intimidating as learning all of these new things! So the big question is how to make a blog schedule and stick to it. Here’s what I’ve done, at least:
- Decided how many posts/week I wanted to publish. This part is really important, because it essentially boils down to how much time per week I wanted to spend coming up with blog posts and executing them. I chose twice a week.
- Thought about content ideas. The main “point” of my blog is to share my experiences “going through life,” so of course I can’t plan for that, but I do know some of the things that are coming up in my life that I do want to talk about here. I even came up with a mini-series to be released each Friday. Keep an eye out!
- Created a schedule. In my daily job, I work off of “content calendars,” which are exactly what they sound like – a calendaring system that schedules out what is going to get posted to Facebook, Twitter, etc each day. I plan the posts, and then when the day comes, I look to my calendar and post it. I took my ideas and put them on the calendar, thinking about the days that work best for me to sit down and blog, and suddenly I had ideas for the next month!
There’s two big keys to staying on top of a blog schedule. The first is to be realistic about it. If you lead a busy life, and don’t see yourself sitting down every day, once a week, or anything in between, then don’t schedule that many posts. Or, if you’d like to push yourself, dedicate a time to blogging. I was talking to someone who blogs once a day Monday through Friday, and has been since around 2011. He said, “some people jog, I blog.” The same way people lace up their sneakers every day and run, he sits down to his computer and creates a post (this one, by the way).
The second is to be flexible enough in your schedule to adjust for the unexpected. Especially if your blog is just about “life,” or “things that are happening,” you can’t always stick to your schedule. You may have to move things around, if something better comes along.
If you’re starting out a blog, post it here! I want to see it!