A writer I know is thinking of starting a blog and asked me how I fit blogging into my regular work day. Good question, and one that’s relevant to anyone who writes full time but wants to improve how they’re marketing their business either by blogging or joining a social network like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, which are worthwhile but take time. Here’s my answer, which I’ve edited slightly for clarity:
I’ve committed to posting on my blog Monday through Friday, an activity that takes 15 minutes to an hour a day depending on how ambitious I am about writing the post. Days like today I cobble together a post based on interesting posts I’d read on a topic elsewhere. Original writing takes longer, but sometimes I’m inspired and then the writing goes quickly.
I’m an early riser and I work on my blog first before starting the rest of what I have to do that day. I’m eight months into it and it’s become part of my work routine. But I’d have to say that some weeks I’m more into it than others. This week I have some major deadlines so the blog will get a minimum of my attention.
If you’re going to blog the most important thing is to pick a schedule and stick to it, whether that’s once a week, twice a week, etc. If people subscribe to the blog through a reader they’re going to expect posts on whatever schedule you’ve determined and if you don’t stick to it it’s easy to lose them. I know this because I subscribe to a couple blogs and when old posts sit in my reader after I expect to see new stuff I’m disappointed. It’s like seeing headlines from last week’s newspaper: boring.
As for social networks, I’m most active on Freelance Success, then LinkedIn, then Facebook, which I just joined and haven’t really spent much time on.
I’ve become a big fan of the LinkedIn’s status report, which is LinkedIn’s answer to Twitter. The status report is that little box on the Home page that lets you answer the question: What are you working on? The number of characters you can use is finite so you can’t ramble. But it is enough to say “I’ve just updated my profile, check it out!”
More about time spent blogging: In a 2006 study, the University of Massachusetts found that 65 percent of bloggers spent an hour or less while the rest spent up to four hours. Read more results from the study here.
For Tim Ferriss, less is more. The blogger and author of the best seller The 4-Hour Work Week, advocates in this post, The top 5 uncommon timesavers for bloggers for blogging only a couple times a week so your posts have time to percolate and get picked up around the blogosphere – definitely food for thought.
Time spent on this post: 30 minutes. How much time do you spend blogging?
Michelle,
I’m addicted. I spend about two hours–and sometimes more–on most days working on some aspect of my blogging life…posting, researching, reading, filing photos and ideas, etc.
I blog six times a week on my travel blog, but I’m paid and it’s required. My BIKE blog takes a lot less time, more like the half hour, five days a week you mention.
But it’s so much fun to search and find new blogs and build the network that relates to your own. I have two blogs now, as of July, and though they do take up a lot of my time, both fit in with my overall business plan. I think of working on them as strategic to my succes as a writer and for building my platform.
You can visit them at:
http://bikewithjackie.blogspot.com
http://www.thephoenixtraveler.com
Keep letting us know over at FLX what you’re doing here. I usually learn something new that’s really helpful. And the links you’ve posted above I’m forwarding on to some speaker friends of mine who are relatively new to blogging.
All my best,
Jackie
That’s very interesting. I’m in the building phase, so my blog is taking up more of my time right now–closer to the hour+ range.
Also, that’s good food for thought re: the less is more philosophy. On my blog, Atlanta on the Cheap (www.atlantaonthecheap.com), I post leads on freebies & deals for exploring the city on a budget.
Right now I’m trying to build up some content, so I’m posting 2-3 times a day. I’ve been thinking of myself as a service provider, so I’ve been approaching it from the more is better viewpoint. I’ll have to revisit how I post the content to trim the volume down a bit once I get a little further along. Within the next couple of weeks, I plan to drop down to 5 or so posts a week, maybe 30 min. or so each.
Best,
Jenn
As Jackie and Jenn have pointed out, there’s a definite difference between the amount of time writers spend on paid blogging gigs v. blogs they use as marketing vehicles for their work. As you’d expect paid blogs=more time but more $$$. But sometimes the line gets blurred, especially if you’re blogging to build a platform, like Jenn is.
I too am rethinking my blogging schedule after reading Ferriss’ opinion that fewer posts a week might be better. Since May I’ve posted every weekday, but come September I might shift to three or four days a week and use some of the time that I’d spent writing into promoting my blog and updating my social networks.
Michelle Rafter
It takes me sometimes under 5 minutes to post a photo with a blurb, tag it properly and categorize it and post it.
Other times it could take me up to an hour to form my thoughts into something others can try and comprehend.
It really varies for me. I like your answer much better.
I post entries at least 5 days a week at .
I set aside Monday afternoons (or sometimes Friday s) for blog writing, and I write all 5 entries back to back, then each morning I give the post a quick edit before posting first thing.
I find that I’m MUCH faster if I do them all at once. Sometimes I can write all 5 in a couple of hours vs the potential for fiddling with each one every day for an hour or more.
Early on a fellow blogger told me that you need to blog at least 5 days per week to be taken seriously, so once I got over the learning curve, that’s what I’ve done.
Shoot … my blog link didn’t work above … Trying again.
http://www.championofmyheart.com
I pre-wrote a week’s worth of posts before going on vacation earlier this month and have to agree that although it took a couple hours, it was nice to get it out of the way all at once. Not sure I’d want to do that all the time, however, because I like being able to respond to events as they happen.
Michelle R.
I use social networking like a builder uses mortar. I have my foundational blocks of time scheduled throughout the day: write this article, interviews at 10, 11 and 2. So that time between hanging up the phone at 10 and picking it back up at 11 is too short to drag out notes and concentrate deeply enough to write an article. I fill the gap with checking LinkedIn, FLX, TwoPeas, LA-Story.com, and a host of other blogs I keep up with.
As for writing my blog entries — mine is to promote a second business, so I chose an essay style. They write themselves in my head in the shower or on the treadmill.
I blog five days a week and typically, I’m working no more than a day or two in advance. But I’ve also found it helpful to keep a file of more broad topic posts, so that on days when I don’t have a lot of time to write or I’m not feeling particularly inspired, I have something fresh to post.
I’m on LinkedIn, although I don’t do too much with it and I’ve yet to venture into the world of FaceBook.
I post two to four times a week at Music Road. I’ve just passed the two year mark keeping the blog going, and that pace seems to to suit my readers, my subject, and my schedule. I have a syndication contract which requires twelve posts a month, which fits in with that fine. Spend maybe half and hour to an hour on each post, usually. Sometimes write in advance, many times not.
I have a number of contacts on LinkedIn but haven’t determined a really good way to make use of it, probably spend about an hour or two a month on there. I’m on the music side of MySpace, as I write about music, and I’ve found making connections and comments there to be helpful. Visit there briefly every week or so. I’m not on Facebook.
Michele,
I enjoy reading your blog, but don’t comment often (I’m an FLXer). I have a cooking blog, so it’s not very newsy at all. I try to post twice a week, but if I’m crazy busy or all my cooking involves developing recipes for work, I might only post once a week. I probably spend an hour per post on average. After over two years, I’ve gotten into a rhythm, and I enjoy doing it.