I have now completed two weeks’ worth of blogging under the rules I set out at the beginning of autumn. I received feedback from multiple people, and I experienced a different blogging schedule. Just as some school children are now receiving their first progress reports, let’s review the first two weeks of Autumn Blogging.
What worked:
- Defined publishing times and days
- Categories of Looking Back, Looking Ahead, Random Ruminations
- Defined word count
What didn’t work:
- Posting 3 times per week
As fall progresses, so does this blog. It continues to evolve by keeping the good and minimizing the bad.
The new structure will be as follows:
- One weekly post on Mondays, published at 6 am CT
- The post will be written in advance and auto published
- The post will be short: 200 – 500 words
- The post will primarily be a story of love, nature, or adventure either Looking Back or Looking Ahead.
- Occasionally, there will be a Random Rumination
Thanks for your feedback so far. What do you think of this proposed structure? Let me know in the comments below.
*Photo credit: Dave Shafer (shaferlens on Flickr), Creative Commons license
To me, this sounds simple and manageable. I appreciate your outline of what worked and what didn’t. I’m curious how you get the auto post thing to work. Have fun on this fall blogging adventure!
Hello Kate,
Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to comment. Life must be busy indeed with a new baby and two book launches.
Manageable was what I was going for. I like to blog, but I needed more time to do the “real” writing.
As far as auto posting, I see you are using WordPress.org like me. It is a fairly simple process. When you are drafting your new post, there is a box in the upper right of the screen (or below the main entry if using one column layout) labeled “Publish”. Most of the way down that box is “Publish immediately Edit”. If you click Edit on that line, you can pick whatever day and time you want. Set the time and day, then click “OK”. The “Publish” button will then read “Schedule”. When you are done with all your edits, click the “Schedule” button. From there, it will auto post at the time you specified.
I love scheduling posts. It puts pressure on me in a good way, while removing the bad pressure. Good luck if you want to try it out!