Blogging Tips || How I Juggle Blogging with a 9-5

I only really started my blog towards the end of my final year at university. Over summer I was interning but it wasn't too bad as there was time in the evening to take photos and looking back it doesn't seem as though I put as much into my blog as I do now. So the past 3 months have been a big change; my blog has become a lot more popular and I'm holding down a permanent 9-5 as well as trying to have a life! These are my top tips of how I personally make time for it all...

Plan Ahead

This is super-important. Instead of having hundreds of drafts saved and no idea of when they'll become posts, I make an event on my 'Blog Schedule' iCloud Calendar. It means I can pick things up, move them around and access my schedule on my iPhone, iPad and MacBook. The calendar view also means I can clearly see the distribution of my posts over the month and see when I need to get the photos done for them. Having an idea of when a post is planned in for helps to turn your ideas into pictures and words.

Schedule, Schedule, Schedule

One of last week's Twitter chats got a bit heated over scheduling. Without it I wouldn't have time to blog, let alone as consistently as I try to. I think it's absolute nonsense that your posts won't be passionate or spontaneous if you use scheduling; it just means it goes live a little later. I schedule tweets throughout the day, once every 2 hours between 10am and 6pm then once every hour 7pm-9pm. It's a really good way of driving traffic to some older posts. I schedule my posts because I often don't have time to write them on the day I want them to go live and I like them to go up at the same time every day. I think consistency is good; people know that posts go up at midday and if they tune in every other day there'll be a new one! I always leave space for a random post if I'm just feeling a bit inspired. I mostly keep my weekday blogging activities to putting the finishing touches on posts, commenting on other blogs, Twitter chats and replying to emails as I often can't face writing entire posts from scratch after work.   

Bulk Photos

In winter, daylight is scarce so I take my photos well in advance! I'll have a photo session around once every fortnight on a weekend  (usually a lazy Sunday!) during the daylight hours. I think some things you can definitely get away with using lighting but I always include swatches, which I think are best done the old-fashioned way. I also do just prefer the look of my photos in natural light. Make sure you pick a spot that has good lighting; most of my photos are taken in my conservatory.   

Lists

I find lists really useful, as there's nothing worse than taking the perfect photo then realising you forgot to add a product that's supposed to be featured in the post! So if I'm doing a collective haul or favourites post, I'll make myself a list of the products I need to include in case my mind goes blank when I have limited time. 

That's how I do it! I find that these allow for me to have a life, knowing all my blog stuff is still running consistently in the background without me having to 'force' my posts out.

What are your top tips that help you make time for blogging?

 

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