I have been blogging at CobJockey.com since December of 2009, which seems crazy to me, but it's true, this blog is almost 12 years old! Over the years I've developed a lot of tricks to make blogging easier on myself, and I want to share them with you all to hopefully make your own blogs easier to manage.
Blogging is hard. Blogging takes time, effort and mental energy, but it's worth it. For me, I've met some of my very best friends through blogging. It gives me the mental space to process things - it's one thing to ride in a lesson and react to what my trainer says in the moment, but it's a whole other thing to understand the lesson deeply enough to explain it to you all. And it gives me a chance to see what others' journeys are like. Through blogging, I've come to realize we're all working toward something and we're all bound by our own particular set of circumstances that make comparing yourself to others totally meaningless.
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| Babies! From 2012, when this blog was 3 years old |
So hopefully these tips help some of you re-start old blogs, or get back into the habit with current blogs. And please throw your own tips in the comments if you have some!
Stay in the habit, even if it means doing quickie posts
Blogging is a self-perpetuating habit, and the longer I go without posting, the more insurmountable drafting and publishing a post feels. Some of my posts take hours and weeks to draft, but some of them I throw together in 5 minutes just to stay in the habit. Sometimes going through the motions of blogging is more important than the content I share.
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| August of 2011, showing Connor for his breeder before I owned him |
Draft a pile of posts on the weekend
Sunday is my blogging day. I sit down with a cup of coffee and bang out a bunch of posts at once that I then schedule to auto-post for the rest of the week, so that I'm not trying to blog during my hectic workweek schedule.
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| Goofing off in college, probably 2009? |
Draft post ideas even if you won't publish them anytime soon
Sometimes I'll have an idea for a post knowing it will be a while before I have the media for it or the time to do it justice, and I'll hit the new post button in Blogger and write just a title, a few ideas, or a few sentences before saving it as draft and closing it. Then when I have time, or when I'm struggling to think of things to blog about, I can go into my drafts folder for some ready made writing prompts.
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| The best picture I've ever taken of Connor, August 2012 |
Learn what topics take the most mental energy and don't write about them every day
My biomechanics-oriented riding/training deep dive posts take the most mental energy out of anything I write. If this blog was entirely riding/training posts, I think I'd lose half of my readers (not everyone likes them and that's okay!) and I would also blog half as often. Fluff posts, product reviews, Wordless Wednesdays, Foal Fridays, all of those topics take less mental energy and serve to round out my deeper, more time-intensive content.
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| October 2011, again before I owned him |
Make adding media easy
I have a system for adding pictures and GIFs to the blog that is almost completely automated, and that's important, because media REALLY matters to readers. Subconsciously, it gives your brain a place to rest in what would otherwise be a wall of text, and consciously, it helps your readers connect to you more. I also use my easy media system as a writing prompt reminder - I'll go through Google Photos and see those GIFs I took of the Smartcarts six months ago and realize I meant to write a post on that and never did (true story!).
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| Both of our first Dressage show ever, June 2012. Austen probably took this picture. |
Split up big topics
Not everyone will agree with me on this, but I think it's better to split up big topics into multiple posts. For one, readers tend to check out in long posts unless they're REALLY juicy, and two, it gives you more content, which, to the point of this post, makes blogging easier.
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| The day Lisa delivered him, November of 2011 |
Do not beat yourself up for skipping
You may notice that sometimes I blog five days a week and sometimes I blog one day a week, but I almost never go an entire week without blogging at all. I try to get at least one post out every week because it helps me stay in the habit, but I don't beat myself up about missing days. It's a personal blog, not a monetized side hustle, the world will not end if I skip a day.
How about the rest of you? What tips do you have to make blogging easier on yourselves? Are you going to give any of these a try?
Thanks for this post! I definitely need to look into auto scheduling posts. I've started some posts at work on overnights, but that's not my best time for writing coherently and clearly, which means I need to plan a time to clean up and edit before scheduling the post. So funny too, the longer I go without doing any one specific thing (writing, strength training, etc) the more energy it takes to get it rolling again. Very good point on just getting short and sweet posts out in order to shorten that time.
ReplyDeleteYou're so welcome! If you're on Blogger, auto-scheduling posts is easy, you just click "Published On" on the right side and change it from "Automatic" to "Scheduled" and put the date and time in. I like to auto-post at 7am Eastern, that way it's sitting there waiting for anyone in any time zone as soon as they sit down to their desk or whip out their phone in the morning.
DeleteI like having a kind of set schedule for what/when I write to keep me motivated and consistent. If I have anything I want to talk about that doesn't fit into my sort of blog formula (Truthful Tuesday, What's up Wed., or Thursday's Threads) I'll use Friday for a bonus post.
ReplyDeleteI like your drafts method too. I have a list on my phone of potential blog topics, but maybe starting drafts would make more sense.
That's a great tip too! And that's why I asked for more tips in the comments. My style of blogging doesn't work with that much structure, but my way is not the only way.
DeleteAll excellent advice. I did a lot of this back in my blogging hayday. Now it's interesting to see how I feel/treat my blog differently than I did back then. Still figuring that part out.
ReplyDeleteI'm just glad you're writing again in any way! This post was more aimed at the folks that clearly want to blog more and can't quite get there, the ones that write one post every 6 months that starts with "I'm a bad blogger, I have so much to catch you up on, when I last left you..." I want those people to blog more too!
DeleteMy best tips are to draft early, especially monthly or annual posts that you know are coming up. I start my Year End Review post every year on January 1st and write my 1 paragraph for each month on either the last day of that month or the first day of the following month. It really helps to not be scrambling at the end of the year to write that behemoth of a post.
ReplyDeleteBirthdays, Anniversaries and Holiday posts can always be drafted and scheduled way in advance since we know when they are happening. Same thing with quarterly goal updates etc etc etc. I actually keep a paper schedule (shared here:http://suenostomanvuelo.blogspot.com/2016/01/viva-carlos-blog-hop-planner-peek.html ) to keep my blog on a schedule, though I used to write a lot more and stuck to the strict schedule a few years ago, I really do enjoy the flexibility and sometimes quiet days I have learned to have now.
Thanks for this post! I really admire everyone who blogs regularly while also keeping a full work/school/family schedule and a full horsey schedule - I keep trying to figure out how everyone manages to do it. (Maybe everyone can please blog about how they manage their time?) I also think it helps to be a well-organized writer. Your posts are so well-organized and thorough, whether it's about your lessons or shows or product reviews or a list of important points like this post - that really helps as a blog reader!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I've been in a rut from a combination of feeling a little burnt out, plus also most of my rides have been steady but uninteresting.
ReplyDeleteWhat fortunate timing! I have wanted to start a blog for ages and finally started to draft my first post yesterday. I want to stay anonymous though, because I wouldn't feel safe putting identifying details or photos online so publicly (assuming anyone reads it at all, lol). Plus it's not going to be a training focused blog so much as a way to explore issues and themes in the equestrian world that I think a lot about. I'm going to have to figure out good sources of equestrian media to use!
ReplyDeleteGood tips! Totally need to follow these to get myself caught up and posting regularly!
ReplyDeleteAs someone who literally just got back into blogging after a year's hiatus, thanks so much! I love these!
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