Shanghai Tech WriterTechnical Writing, Technology, Web2.0, Google, Shanghai, China

I don’t know how some bloggers do it. There are quite a number of part-time bloggers (people who have full-time jobs and maintain an active blog or two on the side) who write several posts a week! As for me, I’m inconsistent. There are weeks when I write almost every day and weeks I don’t write at all. This month (June) is a good month for me because I’ve published a post almost every day! I’ve found the solution to keeping a blog alive and active!

Keep the creative juice flowing by writing down whatever ideas that come to mind.

Some people struggle with finding the time to blog while others don’t have interesting topics/ideas to write about. For me, I have lots of ideas and topics that I want to write about. I don’t always have the time to write. Throughout the day, random ideas flow through my mind but I forget them when I actually have the time to write. Or, when I do sit down to write, I don’t always have the time write an entire post. A good post could take several hours, days, even weeks to write!

So the vicious cycle goes something like this: I have a great idea I want to write about. I don’t have the time to write. I forget what I want to write about. What could have been an otherwise great post is now lost in mental-space. This is probably one of the biggest reasons why many people give up or stop blogging altogether. Blogging is hard work!

To address this problem and keep the creative juice flowing, I’ve come up with a few tips to keeping a blog alive and active.

Tips to Adding More Posts to Your Blog:

1. Write down every idea that comes to mind. Whenever an idea about a post comes to mind, write them down! If you don’t, you’ll forget about them! Use Google Docs, Gmail, notepad, scratch paper, PDA, cell phones, your palm, or whatever you can find to write down these thoughts. This could be as simple as jotting down a few keywords so you’ll remember the idea(s) later.
2. Manage your ideas online. Whenever you have a moment, enter these ideas somewhere online, like on Google Docs, Gmail, or WordPress post (draft). The advantage of transferring these ideas online is so that you can access them wherever/whenever you have internet access. If you have a Blackberry, iPhone, or PDA with WiFi access, even better! You can work on your ideas and posts anywhere!
3. Come up with a title for each idea. Whatever ideas and random bits you’ve written down, come up with a title that describes each topic/post. Keep a separate file/document/draft for each topic. This helps you to maintain one topic or focus per post. It is okay to have a bunch of incomplete drafts but filled with ideas. Eventually when you do have time to write, you’ll have plenty of ideas to work with.
4. Use bullet points to list ideas. Formulating sentences take time. Some people are natural writers while others need more time to write in complete sentences. When ideas come to mind, use bullet points to jot down ideas. Don’t spend too much time writing in complete sentences. The key is to write down all the ideas that come to mind. Bullet points help you group ideas together.
5. Add references and links. Whenever you come across a relevant post, article, or website that relate to any of the topics or ideas you have, copy these references and links to the online drafts. When you read other people’s blogs, skim through RSS subscriptions, read the news, and so on, you’ll find resources and materials to add to your posts.
6. Take your time. One of the reasons why people feel frustrated and stop blogging is because they don’t have time to start/finish a post in one sitting. All the tips I’ve mentioned so far take only a few seconds or minutes to do. This could be done anytime during the day. When you do have time, write as much as you can. It is okay not to finish a post in one sitting. Some posts might take days and weeks to finish, and that’s okay. You have plenty of ideas, topics, and posts to work with and eventually, you’ll have lots of articles to post on your blog.
7. Find chunks of time to write. During the work week, you might not have much time to write so you write bits and pieces as I’ve suggested. However, do find time on the weekends when you have a couple of hours to focus and work on all the ideas, topics, and drafts you’ve accumulated over the week. You’ll be surprised to find that writing is so much easier when you have all the ideas in place. When you’re stuck on one post, work on another post!
8. Schedule your posts. In the beginning, you might have lots of drafts and not be able to publish anything. It is okay. Eventually, all these ideas and drafts will come together and you’ll have lots of articles to post to your blog. There will be days when you finish 5 posts in one sitting. Don’t publish them all at once. Schedule each post to publish throughout the week, preferably one or two days apart. Pacing your posts help keep your blog active as you continue working on other drafts/topics throughout the week.

As I write this article, I have about 10 posts scheduled to be published and 15 drafts/topics to work with. The point I want to really emphasize is to write down every idea that comes to mind. However long or short these ideas might be, jotting down keywords takes only a matter of seconds.

I started following my own tips several weeks ago so as you can see, all the ideas and topics I have scattered between my Gmail draft, Google Doc, WordPress draft, and notepad are finally coming together. When I do have time to write, I only have to focus on the writing part and not so much coming up with interesting topics or ideas.

Happy blogging!