Three simple ideas to make your blogging life easier

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I often come across blogs where the author starts off well, but somehow loses their way.  Maybe they don't have enough time.  Maybe they can't think of enough good subjects.  Or maybe they just aren't enjoying it all that much.

Here are three simple ideas that should help you to blog as often as you wish with the minimum of hassle.

1.  Write early in the day.

If you have daily commitments then I can understand why you might not be able to blog first thing in the morning.  Because of my full-time job, I can't commit to doing this through the week, only at the weekend.

Since I started writing daily blog entries, I sometimes find myself writing just before I go to bed, and it doesn't work.  I'm tired and it takes longer to write the blog entry.  By the time I go to bed, I'm too awake to sleep.  This totally wrecks my sleep pattern and means I feel tired the next day, which means I am less productive.

If you come home from work and write your blog entry quite early into the evening, you'll be able to switch off once you're done.  If you can blog in the morning or afternoon instead of late at night, that's even better.  Blogging isn't something to "get out of the way", but it shouldn't disrupt your sleep.

2.  Tackle large subjects in logical stages.

Let's say I want to write about how to choose which software to use for your website.  This is potentially a huge topic and it would be foolish to try and write about it in one blog entry alone.

Instead, what I do is break it down into several specific blog entries so I can really get into the detail of each subject.  To do this, I think of the questions that people might ask about choosing software, such as whether to choose free software or commercial software, install on your own domain or just set up an account with someone like Blogger, and so on.

As each blog entry will be quite specific, it should be a lot easier to write, and a lot easier for my target audience to read.  I'm much more likely to do a good job of the smaller blog entries than if I were to write a big sprawling blog entry with loads of general ideas but no real depth to the information.

Write about a very specific topic and you can write in a lot more detail.

3.  Save tangents for future entries.

Sometimes when you're writing a blog entry, you may find that you start to go off on a tangent.  You may forget why you started the blog entry in the first place and what your conclusion was going to be.  Or perhaps some of the comments are really interesting but they're off-topic.

Instead of getting bogged down by subjects you didn't intend to write about in that blog entry, make a note of the subject for a future blog entry.  You can then give the topic a proper airing.  People will be much more likely to read your blog if you try to keep to the topic you're writing about.  Otherwise, it feels as if you're trying to do too much, and it just gets confusing.

What do you think?

What do you do to make your blogging life easier?
What's your No 1 tip?

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