Many authors say they cannot find time to blog. It takes too long, it takes away from writing time, it is too much of a commitment, etc.
My philosophy on blogging – as I've said on this blog many times before – is it should be fun and informative. You can write a bunch of blogs at one time and post-date them. You can commit to a certain number of days per week to blog that fits with your schedule – not someone else's. (Three days a week typically works for me.) You can make it as hard – or as fun – as you want.
Every aspect of blogging is up to you. To really brand yourself and your work, blogging is essential to any marketing plan, so if you are not blogging, I encourage you to throw out the excuses and get started. Start slow – maybe a post a week – then gradually increase until you find a schedule that works for you. During this time, you will also "find" yourself as a blogger. By this I mean you will define yourself and your blog's content theme.
ProBlogger has a fantastic post about how to make blogging work for the part-time blogger. Check out "Advice for Part-Time Bloggers Juggling Blogging with Work, Family and Other Commitments."
Hey Jane!
I am a firm believer in the "batch" blogging tip discussed in the ProBlogger post.
Frequently, I sit down and write out at least a dozen ideas for blog posts, then I carve out time to write out at least half of them and post them.
When I don't do this, I fall behind on my three-day-per-week blogging goal.
The difference between myself and some other is that I don't pressure myself if I miss dates. As long as I have something up each week, I have to be OK with it. I have several client projects coming up, as well as a fiction writing commitment and a nonfiction book commitment. Plus, allergy season is here, so I lose a lot of sleep and energy, which has to go to paid projects first.
It took me a very long time to forgive myself for missing a day to blog. Once I rearranged my priorities and started preplanning, it made blogging so much easier. Without the stress, it was also more fun.
Of course, I'm a former journalist, so blogging to me is like writing a article for the daily newspaper. Without that deadline background, I may see blogging in a completely different light.
I've been blogging for over a year now and still have the problem with it cutting into my 'real' writing time so I'm going to read the How to Juggle Blogging with Life very carefully!
Jane Kennedy Sutton
http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com/