How to stick to your blog upload schedule

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Mar 18, 2016 / by
How to stick to your blog upload schedule

Inconsistency is the biggest killer of fledgeling blogs (in addition to terrible content and a flagrant disregard for your audience). While there are no definitive rules for how regularly you should blog (anywhere from twice a month to several times a week are common), whatever upload schedule you choose, it’s imperative that you stick to it!


It might not matter in the early stages when you have minimal traffic, but as you build a reputation your audience will come to expect fresh content at specific times, and you better deliver if you want to stay in their good books.

Create a content calendar

One thing that really separates the amateurs from the pros is the use of a content editorial calendar. Large marketing blogs such as Duct Tape Marketing schedule their content for months in advance, and if you want to gain tremendous amounts of engagement like them in the long-run, you should too. There are many tools available for content planning and social media promotion should also factor into your content strategy.

Kevan Lee, blogger for Buffer, states that having a content calendar enables you to really see your content strategy from a macro-perspective. This enables you to determine whether or not you are getting closer to achieving your goals, which can be difficult if your constant focus is on churning out content to try and meet a deadline every week. He states:

“You get to examine your updates, sharing, and blog posts from  a 10,000-foot view, where you can’t help but notice the big picture. It’s easy to get lost in details when you’re in the heads-down process of content creation, so having a larger visioning session to create the calendar plus taking regular peeks at the calendar once it’s made can help bring your work into context.”

Consider interviews and book reviews

Consider interviews and book reviews

Consider interviews and book reviews

Sometimes you just can’t come up with any ideas, or your ideas just don’t seem worth expanding in that particular moment. In these situations of weak motivation, it can help to take the pressure off yourself and use someone else as your source of inspiration. Hopefully you’re constantly reading books by experts in your niche (if not, then why not?), so go ahead and review these books for the benefit of your audience. So long as the books are contextually relevant to them, your audience will appreciate this. Reviews also help you to build better relationships with authors and thought leaders when you share the review with them on Twitter (don’t be afraid to ask for a retweet). Book reviews are truly a win-win strategy.

If you’re simply not in the mood for writing, organising an interview with a thought leader to post on your blog can also be highly effective. My personal preference is for conducting interviews via email as this gives the expert time to reflect and include their very best insights in their reply. However, podcasters may prefer to do an interview in the form of a Skype session and upload the recorded audio file for all to see. If a lack of motivation becomes a recurring problem, you may want to consider using one of these productivity-boosting writing tools.

Outsourcing

If you consistently miss your upload schedules, don’t beat yourself up over it, but definitely consider a strategic rethink. As a business owner, it can be difficult prioritising a long-term strategy such as blog writing when there are other objectives that have a more immediate financial return. For this reason, you may wish to consider outsourcing your content. So long as you work with dedicated professionals who are prepared to learn about your business and the needs of your audience, outsourcing enables you to leverage the skills and expertise of these individuals while you work on more pressing business goals.


Because your content strategy is so intimately related to your brand, many business owners are apprehensive of delegating this to a third party. However, so long as you use an agency with a good reputation (and plenty of glowing testimonials), learning to replicate your tone of voice and please your audience is absolutely feasible. Conveying your brand with integrity doesn’t mean you have to do it personally!


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