Blogging is fantastic. It’s a great hobby, an excellent way to find your voice and make friends, and it can even be a brilliant career if you are committed to making it work. But, it can take a lot longer than people might imagine. Many bloggers go into it thinking that they’d write a quick post whenever they’ve got the time and that people will read it, without them having to put in any extra work. 

The more they learn about blogging, however, the longer everything seems to take, as their to-do list starts to get longer and longer. It doesn’t take long to realize that just quickly writing a post won’t get it read, and that to get noticed, you need to put in a lot more work. Suddenly, each post takes hours.

There’s research, photography, graphics, SEO and layout to consider. Your writing needs to be clear and free from error. Then, once a post is published, it needs to be shared and promoted. At the same time, you need to promote old posts, update plugins, look after your admin, and keep things clear back of house.

Blogging can easily become a full-time job, which is fine if you are making a full-time income.

But, if your blog is just starting out, or not yet making enough money for you to give up work, or perhaps you are blogging around other commitments, you might not have that much time to give. You might have started to wonder if you’ve got time for a blog at all. So, instead of throwing in the towel, why don’t we look at some ways to save time, while growing your blog. 

Get Help

Blogging can be quite lonely. You might feel as though you have to do everything for yourself. But this isn’t the case. There is plenty of help out there. Use search engine marketing experts to help with your SEO, read guides written by other, more experienced bloggers, ask for advice and help where you can.

If you can afford to, employ a VA to help you with day to day tasks or hire freelancers to tackle the jobs, such as design work, that you might not be as comfortable with. This could free up your time to do other, more important things. 

Automate

Automation and scheduling are powerful tools for bloggers. It can save you time, help you to get organized, and reduce your stress levels. You can schedule your blog posts, your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest updates, and even your emails.

Some of these services come with a small cost, so to begin with, you might want to only invest in those tools which will be the most beneficial and save you the most time. Once everything is set up, try to get into the habit of sitting down for a few hours at the end of each month, scheduling as much as you can for the next. 

Learn

The more you learn, the easier and faster things become. In your early experimentations with CSS, it might have taken you hours to change the color of a menu or border as you looked for the right symbols or codes to get the look that you were after. But, the more you learn and practise, the more confident you become.

Suddenly you know color codes and common changes by heart, and you can do them in seconds. Even if you want to change something that you don’t know, you’ve got the skills that you need to find the information. 

A great way to learn more about different aspects of blogging is by taking courses and reading guides.

Many experienced bloggers spend time sharing tips and advice, but if you are keen to learn more about a specific area, look for an online course which could help you. Some courses can be costly, but there are plenty of free alternatives to give you a great start. 

Find the Best Time to Work

We don’t all work to the same schedule. Some people are up early, they are wide awake and alert first thing in the morning, and so that is when they work more productively. If they tried to work late at night, their work would be lower quality, and they’d get less done in the same time. Other people are night owls. They hate mornings and work best in the evening. 

To an extent, when you work will depend on your lifestyle and other commitments, so experiment. If you work at 9-5, you might find that after a long day at work, you are too tired and that fitting an hour in before you go works best for you. Find the best time for you, and try to stick to it as much as you can.

Create a Calendar

One of the biggest ways that we waste our time is wondering what to write. We spend ages planning posts, and many of us have countless drafts, that there never seems like a write time to publish.

Creating your own content calendar can be a tremendous help. Spend some time writing down all of the events that happen in each month.

For example, if you are a food blogger, make a note of things like national pizza day, as well as all of the main holidays. Use this calendar to plan your content for the year. 

Make a Checklist

Having a checklist, or even a few checklists can help you to manage your time and get more done. Make a list of all of the things that you do when you write a post, all of the elements that you include, but also all of the things that you check and do before you hit publish.

Another checklist could be everything that you do after you’ve hit publish, and another could be all of those small day to day tasks like commenting on other blogs and posting to social media. Keep these lists on your desktop, or desk, and use them. They could make your life a lot easier. 

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