How I Began Blogging on 90 Minutes-a-day
Read more about: Business Blogging, Newbie Blogging, Productivity
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Recently, Ben Yoskovitz asked the question, how much time does it take to blog? Ben says he spends 15 minutes to an hour writing his posts. But he adds that, “ultimately, it’s not the writing (and editing) time that’s significant - it’s the thinking time.”
Since this is a question that friends, colleagues and clients all ask me, I thought I should give it some thought.
I used to be able to get all my blogging tasks accomplished in 90 minutes. 90 minutes?, you might say. Does that seem like a lot? Does it seem unrealistic?
Remember, the key phrase above is ‘used to.’ Now, I spend closer to 3 hours a day between all my blogging and social media tasks. Why so much time? Well, I’ve clearly seen that my blog and my use of social networks like Facebook, MyBlogLog and Twitter, can lead to relationships that lead to business. So the most important marketing effort I make around my business is through social media.
But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. My current blogflow (as I call it) evolved out of a 90-minute program I established in the first few weeks of blogging. In the beginning, it gave me enough time to do the things that I needed to begin growing my blog’s reach. Here’s how it went:
- Step One: Read the Feeds
If we’re blogging, we’re all doing this. I had about 50 feeds I tracked the first couple of months I blogger (eMoms was one of them). I had them ordered in three folders based on importance to me and my business niche. I spent 15 minutes looking at headlines. When I found a post that either inspired me writing a post or that I wanted to comment on, I clicked it - which opened it in a new tab in my browser. But I didn’t read it yet. And when my 15 minutes were up, I marked the rest of the feed posts as ‘read’ and moved on. - Step Two: Write my post
After looking at my feeds, I was often inspired by a topic to write. The key for me, however, was that I could write a post in 60 minutes or less. For me, post writing was the most important part of this process. If someone visited my blog, I wanted to have high quality content for them to read. My hope was that they’d become long-term readers. - Step Three: Commenting
Once my post was published, I pulled up my browser window with all the links I’d opened when I was viewing my feeds. Now, I went tab-by-tab through those posts, read them quickly, and commented on as many as I could before the end of my 90 minutes. Sometimes I’d have 15 minutes left and would only get to a few comments. Other days I’d have 40 minutes or more and could comment on a ton of posts. I tried to make my comments always engaging.
That was it. That’s how I blogged on 90-minutes a day. I’ve taught a number of clients to work in a similar way - some exactly as I did, others four-times-a-week for two hours each day. What’s important is finding a routine that works for you - especially in the beginning.
What is your blogging routine? What do you try to do each day or each week around social media?
Hi, I’m Dawud Miracle. Professionally, I’m a blog and marketing consultant, business coach, educator and web developer who helps people use their websites to grow their business. I’m also a devoted husband and father to two, soon to be three, children. Please let me know if I can help you in any way.
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Excellent - thank you. I have really struggled with focus and scheduling my time appropriately… it helps to see how others manage their time for specific tasks. As I’m just getting into blogging more - this is incredibly helpful.
Excellent article Dawud! It’s a great piece to focus on what’s really important to be successful as a blogger. I always love what you write around here.
That’s not a bad system. I can only manage to squeeze out 90 minutes from my schedule, so this is really good advice.
I think the best piece of advice, at least from my perspective, is to limit the time you read the feeds, and mark everything as read when you are done. I know I could probably spend all day doing reading the RSS feeds I subscribe to.
On other thing may be to limit the amount of time you spend reading blogs about how to blog, at least if your site’s content doesn’t center around blogging that is.
Thanks for the advice.
If you can, pick a day where you can write a bunch of posts. This might only work for some types of blogs. For example, I’ve been able to do this with my classic movie blog.
But even with blogs where it’s good to stay on top of the news, it’s nice to have a few blog posts pre-written in case of a “slow news day.”
I’ve learned through this process that it doesn’t take that much to get some momentum building. More strategically placing your comments and your post topics than anything else.
Going with Mike…not only limit the time, limit the number of feeds you watch.
I find that I spend so much time reading other blogs and creating my own posts, that I’m actually scared to get very involved in social networking. I mean, if I’m already reading so many that it’s eating up my day, what’s going to happen when I start getting sucked into more and more? I have got to figure out how to balance it all out!
Hi Dawud,
In the last stage which is commenting, do you answer the comments of your own weblog or post comments on other weblogs?
Best regards,
Vahid
http://www.weboma.com/
Dawud,
I have come across one of the fastest ways of browsing blogs on a particular topic.
http://www.netreputation.co.uk
I have seen your blog at their page
http://www.netreputation.co.uk/personal development
I should start following your advice! I schedule in my Outlook the days I need to write a post (3x a week). But I find it hard to devote more time to my blog given that I also run Egg Marketing. Once I’m rolling in it from my blog, I’ll be able to put more time into it (yes, I realize the Catch 22 of that!)
Thanks Dawud!
Susan Payton
Egg Marketing & Public Relations
http://www.eggmarketingblog.com
Great post! I wondered how long others took on their blog. 1-2 hours per day is about what I spend reading my feeds and posting. Thanks for the article!
Wow, Dawud… Great Post!! You have not let me down with your articles yet. This one is especially terrific for me as I’m always looking for ways to better manage my time.
Thank you Dawud.
Shana Albert, Owner
http://www.abchomepreschool.com/
http://www.abchomepreschool.com/PreschoolEducationBlog/
@lornadoone - I can’t stress enough how important I feel it is to find a manageable workflow for blogging. One that meets you needs and lets you expand as opportunities arise.
@Vahid - comment on other’s blogs.
@Rita - thanks
@Susan - do what you can - but do it well and do it consistently. That’s the key to blog success.
I really need to work on this one. I spend too much time doing too little.
Thank you Thank you!!! Being new to this world of blogging I needed some advice on time managment. I have my blog set up with a daily schedule as to what I write about but this has given me good advice on how to manage my actual time. Now I really need to tackle the social networking.
Creating a workflow, I’ve found, is key to blogging success. Otherwise you just spend the whole day blogging and don’t get any work done - and sometimes little blogging done as well.
I really need to implement something like this. I have no real plan and sometimes find I’m spending all day reading blogs and getting nothing else done. Sometimes I don’t even post anything because I spent so much time reading. Then I’m running to catch up with all the stuff I should’ve been doing - in real life.
Maybe I should set some kind of timer in the future.
Dawud - I like the approach. No question almost everyone struggles with finding a good routine that works for them.
Lately, with the craziness of my life, my routine is largely shot, but the more people can get into one, the better.
Two things stood out for me:
1. How you twigged to HEADLINES of interest and dug further, showing how important headlines really are; and,
2. How you tried to put as much effort into commenting RIGHT THEN AND THERE. I think that’s great; you didn’t comment willy nilly, later on, whenever you felt like it. It was a concerted, time sensitive effort. That makes a lot of sense to really get comments out the door.
These are some great ideas, D. I know you’ve shared them with me before, but thanks — this is really pithy.
I’m taking a long, hard look at my routine, since posting usually takes a lot longer for me. I’m questioning some of my choices, and this template you’ve given us helps me evaluate what I’m doing (and what I should stop doing).
You da man!
I wish I could cut mine down to 90 minutes a day. Just about the time I free up a bunch of time, I find other ways to fill it up again
Ben brings up a great point at the importance of headlines. They are huge…
Gayla…I don’t spend 90 minutes any more. Now it’s more like 3 hours a day - plus my client load. I wouldn’t expect you, with all your success, to be able to spend so little time blogging.
Very interesting blog you have here, and some equally interesting pointers. I’m still new to the whole socialization of blogging and your article will aide in the quest to get things organized and get moving forward. Recently laid off, I’m balancing work searches with blogging and raising two teens. Any advice to steer one in the right direction on time management is always a plus! Thanks for sharing and continued success!
Wow…I don’t know how you get all that done in 90 minutes…it takes me hours each day to accomplish all of my blog related tasks!
- Raymond
@Raymond - it’s not about how much you get done in the time frame as much as holding to the time frame and being okay with what you do get done in it.
And, as I said above, I do take more time now between writing, linking, social media and commenting on blogs I have relationships with. But I can justify the time because it’s my sole source of marketing my business.
This was an interesting post. I don’t know that I’m at a point in my blogging that I could structure myself in such a way, but I really like the concept and in the future I may try to implement a similar blogging structure. Thanks for sharing!
Mike Wiltons last blog post..The Parts Play Out In Your Head