Becoming a productive blogger is easier than ever, but takes some work in the beginning.
We have access to hundreds of online tools and services to make working online easier and more efficient.
I recently wrote a post on the many things I do as a blogger, but I've saved hundreds of hours from using these tools below.
Below is a list of 10 ways to save time when blogging that will help you save time to work on other important things! 🙂
Take action now: Before we begin, join the Free Resource Library to get access to fun and helpful resources to achieve financial freedom or grow your online business. Included for free are downloads like the income thermometer (to push you to grow your income) or the monthly budget planner. 🙂
1. Schedulers
Roughly twice a month I will schedule everything for my blog.
I set a goal of getting this completed in under an hour.
You can schedule:
- Facebook posts
- Twitter posts
- Pinterest pins + Tailwind Tribe posts
- Instagram photos
- many other platforms as well
For scheduling, I like to use:
- Tailwind (which is an approved Pinterest publisher, VERY important)
- Hootsuite (for Twitter)
- Facebook Scheduler (Facebook's scheduling service)
I have been using Tailwind Smart Loop to schedule my Pinterest pins and I've been an active member of Tailwind Tribes for years.
2. Work when you're most productive
If I told you I get the most work done at night, would you think I'm lying?
I recently read a book called “When” by Daniel Pink and it talked about the different personalities and productivity times of people.
I was surprised to read that there were other people like me.
There are studies that recommend working in the morning because your brain is more readily available to tackle on the difficult tasks.
This doesn't come as a surprise to me, but then it made me realize I'm the exact opposite.
I love working at night.
I say work when you are truly the most productive.
That may be in the morning, mid-afternoon, or late evening.
3. Editing
When editing your blog posts, use Grammarly.
It's not perfect (I use it and I bet there are a few grammar mistakes in this post somewhere), but it's better than nothing.
I personally use the free version of Grammarly, and it's been tremendously helpful and a huge time saver.
I still recommend going through your posts a couple of times before scheduling or hitting publish.
For major projects, such as eBooks or courses, I have someone edit all of my work for me, which I highly recommend.
You can also find editors on Fiverr or Upwork.
4. Invest in a blogging course
I often hear people ask why they need to buy a course if they can get the information online for free.
And I always reply with this – You totally can.
You can (usually) find what you get in courses online at no cost, but it would take you foreverrrr.
This is similar to going to college, you could find what those people teach you online, but it would take you years and years and you probably wouldn't want to do that.
This is why I recommend 1 course for people who want to create a 1-year plan for their blog.
This is also perfect for people who are working full-time.
Blog With A Full-Time Job is the course to take to get you started with a strong 12-month strategy to create a profitable blog.
This is my #1 recommendation for new bloggers or bloggers who are not making any income off their website.
You can read my full review of Blog With A Full-Time Job here.
If you are only creating a blog as a hobby to share with your friends and family, and do not have plans to monetize it, I don't recommend buying any courses.
5. Content Calendar
At the beginning of every year, I encourage creating a content calendar that gives you ideas and topics to publish every month.
Doing this ahead of time is crucial because you can make sure you're publishing content before a major holiday hits.
For example, I would publish posts at these times for these specific holidays:
January – Publish content related to taxes, having the best 2019, Valentine's Day, etc.
February – Spring break related content.
March – How to save on summer travel, getting ready for graduation, etc.
April – Publish Mother's Day and Father's day related content.
May – Graduation content, moving to a new state or home, etc.
June – Free summer activities, staycation ideas, etc.
July – Publish back to school content, getting ready for college, etc.
August – Back to school recipes, saving money at school, etc.
September – Publish Halloween-related content.
October – Publish content related to fall, holiday shopping, gift guides, etc.
November – Publishing content around taking control of weight loss, fitness, finances, etc. New Years resolutions are approaching.
December – Similar to November, start pushing out similar content related to New Years.
The above is just to give you a general idea of what kinds of things you should be posting during specific months.
I recommend publishing content at least 2 months ahead so this can get seen on Pinterest and other platforms in time.
6. Google Calendar
Google Calendar is a handy free tool that lets you schedule your day, week, month, or year in advance.
One of the things that have shot up my productivity is setting a dedicated amount of time to a certain task.
I've found if I should just give myself no set allotted time, I'll take much longer to complete a project.
For example, if I want to complete 2 blog posts in 1 day, I will plan to do this in a certain amount of time, such as 4 hours.
If I do not finish it in 4 hours, I move on to my next task.
This is called time blocking.
With Google Calendar, I can set up a time block that will give me 4 hours to create 2 blog posts.
Time blocking is incredible because you produce more results this way.
At first, you will find it uncomfortable to work this way, but eventually, you will create a habit of time blocking and you'll prefer doing things this way.
7. Time management AND pRODUCTIVITY
Creating good time management practices doesn't mean filling your day with more tasks, but instead limiting what you do to certain things to simplify your life.
Instead of working hard, you can work smarter.
Here are tips for better time management:
- time blocking
- creating a calendar ahead of time of your day, week, and month
- answer emails only once a day
- use social media only at night for a limited amount of time
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8. Perfect Post Checklist
Before publishing any post, use my free perfect post checklist to make sure you've hit all major points when writing a blog post.
This free download (which you can print out btw!) is a huge time saver as you'll know that you completed all major tasks when it comes to publishing an article.
9. Hire a virtual assistant
If you find that you are spending too much time on tasks that are minor, and rather spend your time doing things that are producing incredible results for your blog, a virtual assistant is a fantastic idea.
Virtual assistants can save you hundreds of hours.
They can be in charge of the tasks that someone else can easily do, such as scheduling blog posts, creating social media images, and so on.
You can find a virtual assistant on Fiver, Upwork, and blogging groups.
If you're interested in becoming a virtual assistant, my friend Kayla teaches people how to do exactly what she does, which is a virtual assistant full-time from home with $10K VA.
10. Distractions
I have a short attention span and because of that, I need to get rid of all distractions.
I used to work in my living room with the television on in the background.
Now, I work in a dedicated office space in my house that has nothing but my desk in it and WOW I am getting 5x more work done.
A television or radio can become quickly distractive because radios usually have commercials, and television in the background is never a good idea when getting work done.
Tips To Become A Blogger:
1) Choose a niche that already makes money (personal finance, health and fitness, travel, etc.) and subniche from there. This means go even deeper into a niche. Ex. Niche: Personal finance > Subniche: Personal finance for college students or personal finance for moms.
2) Take a comprehensive blogging course. My #1 recommendation for new bloggers who want to build a profitable blog is Blog With A Full-Time Job.
Blog With A Full-Time Job consists of:
- A specific plan for launching, growing and monetizing your blog while working full-time
- The exact strategy to grow and monetize your blog to a six-figure blog
- Learn how to manage your mind, productivity, time management (all VERY important for working at home and running a successful business)
- How to set up a beautiful looking blog that is completely customizable
- How to write blog posts specifically for monetizing
- Sooo much more + tons of bonuses, templates, worksheets, etc.
If you've never taken a blogging course and aren't sure which one to choose, Blog With A Full-Time Job is IT.
3) Learn and absorb as much information about blogging as possible. Pinterest is a gold mine for this. Type in “blogging tips” in Pinterest's search bar and hundreds of helpful articles will come up. You can check all of my popular blogging articles here.
4) Figure out what outlet you want to use for blogging. Do you want to have your own blog? Or do you want to create a YouTube channel? Find out where your audience is and go from there. If you don't know yet, don't sweat it. You'll learn as you go.
5) Create a blog with this easy tutorial.
I had so much fun writing this post and sharing my top strategies for saving time as a blogger. 🙂
What do you do to save time when blogging? Let's share in the comments.
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