How to Blog. A Lot.

On September 24, 2009, In Comm, By Tac Anderson
Playing with the TypeDrawing app.
Image by Tac Anderson via Flickr

I get asked a lot lately how I’m able to blog so much. If you look at the bottom of my right hand column you’ll see I’ve had this blog for ~2 1/2 years. You’ll also see that as of the first of this year, my posting went up dramatically. Here’s how dramatically:

  • For the first 23 months I posted 242 times. That’s just over 2 posts a week
  • For the last 9 months I posted 293 times. That’s about 8 posts a week

What happened? I got serious about blogging.

The first step is to decide to blog every single day and then do it.

The best advice I ever received about blogging came From Jeremiah Owyang. He told me to take the first hour of my day and before I do anything else to read blogs and then blog. He also told me that a post should only take twice as long as an email of the same length.

Some days you may not feel like you have much to say. Some posts will be better than others. But over time you will get better. This is the only reason I watch my stats. If my visits, subscribers and number of times people share my posts goes up, I’m doing a good job.

Be a collector and use the tools.

I use Google Reader w/ Feedly, Twitter’s Favorites and Diigo to collect interesting things I find as I read throughout the day. I also use my Posterous site to collect things when I’m mobile. Then when an idea reaches critical mass I use ScribeFire or Windows Live Writer to pull it all together when I’m ready to write.

Zemanta then helps speed up the process by recommending links and pictures to use.

Remember: I am not advocating that popular blogs have to post everyday. The goal of posting every day is not quantity. The goal is consistently good content. But in order to get there you first have to blog a lot.

This is the short answer. Every blogger has tools, tips and tricks that work for them and there are probably hundreds of blogs dedicated to blogging. But until you make the commitment to start blogging regularly all the tools in the world won’t help you.

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  • jillanderson
    Very timely advice for me as I am just kicking off a local neighborhood blog. I think some of your tool recommendations will come in handy. Thanks
  • Always happy to help.

    On Thursday, September 24, 2009, Disqus
  • MichelleRafter
    Tac: Thanks for this. I normally post 2 or 3 times a week. But every May I host a blogathon where I and a bunch of other writer-bloggers commit to posting every day of the month. Traffic always spikes during that month and then drops down again - though not quite to the previous level - when I stop. Gee, you'd think I'd get it and keep blogging daily. But as you pointed out, sometimes that's hard to do, especially since big-idea posts can take (me) hours to put together. Moral of the story: not every post has to be a big idea. Little ideas are good too. Look at Seth Godin. He's a blogging god and some of his posts are like haiku.

    Blogging is a lot like writing for a daily newspaper: the more you do it, the easier it gets. If you know you have a daily deadline, you'll rise to the challenge. The trick is making yourself stick to a daily schedule without a cranky old editor breathing down your neck.
  • jillanderson
    Just downloaded Zemanta - very cool indeed. Thanks so much.
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