How to blog regularly?
Blogging has great benefits for developers. But in order to build a successful blog, you have to blog regularly.
Why should you blog regularly?
So, you’ve read my article 10 Reasons You Should Blog As A Developer and now you want to start? Great! However, it’s always easy to start something new: You are very excited and it’s very easy to write a few blog posts in the first days. But then it will become difficult.
I’ve seen it on many blogs: After a few weeks the post frequency will become much more irregular. And then, eventually, the blog dies. So consistency is the key for a successful blog! At least one post a week should be possible. This blog gets updated twice a week (Monday 3 AM CET and Thursday 3 AM CET). In order to have a regular posting schedule, you should follow the following six rules:
#1: Commit yourself to a schedule
You have to commit yourself to a schedule, for example “I’ll publish a blog post every Tuesday”. You REALLY have to commit yourself to this schedule. Let it rain or shine, you will stick to it!
#2: Create a lot of posts in advance
Let’s face it: There will be times when you’ll have not so much time, for example, if you have a huge work load. For such situations you need some blog posts, that are ready to be published. So create them and schedule them.
Instead of publishing two posts every day at the beginning of your blogging journey, build a blog post stack. It will be easier to create further blog posts, if there’s not such a big time pressure.
#3: Don’t wait for inspiration
There are a lot of people who say: “Just blog when you are inspired!” Well, if I would have followed that advice, then there wouldn’t be so many posts on this blog. And for sure I wouldn’t stick to my schedule. So there is just one way to get inspiration: Sit down and write. Or, as Dan Poynter said:
If you wait for inspiration to write you are not a writer, you are a waiter.
If you are employed, you are also going to work every day. And not only when you are highly motivated.
#4: Have a list of potential blog post ideas
Create a list of potential blog post ideas on your phone and note every idea, that you have. It’s okay, if the idea is just very vague. But the idea won’t be forgotten and someday you could turn it into a blog post.
#5: Read a lot
You should read a lot blog posts by other developers. You will become of course a better developers by doing so. And then, you will become a better blogger as well. It will inspire you for new blog post ideas. Very often you will read something and then you will think “I could write about that little detail!”. Or you could respond to a blog post.
#6: Don’t hold back a blog post because you think it’s crap
The following scenario is very common: You invest a lot of time in creating a blog post, but then you’ll hesitate to publish it because you think it’s crap. Well, the problem is that it’s very difficult to judge your own work. And it’s also very difficult to know in advance how popular a post will become. I’ve published some blog posts that went viral even though I thought they weren’t that good. And I’ve also experienced the exact opposite. So just publish it and see what happens.
References
Title Image: @ alice-photo / shutterstock.com