Be A More Productive Blogger

Posted May 24, 2005 —

People often ask me how I’m able to keep my sites moving forward and updated with (hopefully) good content as often as I do. I’ve actually talked about this several times over at my “flagship” site, Asterisk and I’m thinking about a book/site dedicated to the idea of successful content creation.

The thing is, I go to great lengths to keep my sites up-to-date, interesting and moving forward. My off-the-cuff answer is that I “write fast”, and that’s true, but there is a bit more to it than that. To be a productive content provider (blogger) you need to be organized, do your best to hold on to good ideas and know when to work and when to wait.

Here are a few quick tips that might help:

  • Set aside time for writing (or podcasting, etc.) and stick to it. Sounds simple, but life (and work) has a way of intruding on these times. You need to hold on to your creative times at all costs!
  • Create (and stick to) a publishing schedule. I used to do this quite a bit when I was first getting started. It really helped keep me on track and motivated. Now I’ve got a loose schedule I use, but there are times when I try and plan out something more solid to help make sure I don’t fall too far behind.
  • Keep an Idea Journal. I’ve taken to having one by my bed, one on my person and if all that fails, I’ve got idea pages set up in Backpack. You never know when you’ll need a good idea!
  • Take advantage of creative highs. This is huge. There are times when I’m literally flooded with ideas, when this happens I drop what I’m doing, if possible, and write, write, write. During these times I can build up a surplus of good content to use when I need some time off. Which brings me to…
  • Take some time off. There is little better for fueling your creative engine than a few well timed days off. As much as I create, there are many times when I just relax and enjoy the fruits of my labor. I need this time to keep me going.
  • Read. A key to being productive is having things to talk about. Spend some time each day reading. And I mean reading, not skimming! This will often times give you small ideas that can lead to big things.
  • Start with a title. Sometimes just coming up with that initial idea and writing down the title for your post will get the words flowing.
  • Adopt a conversational tone and style. This helps your words flow more freely. It might not be the “best” way to write, but it’s served me well and it saves me time.
  • Connect and motivate. I’ve found that community is a great way to keep your energy level high. Talk to people, create content centered around discussion. This leads to more energy and more ideas. As well, it’s very motivating to know that people are into the same things as you and dealing with the same issues.
  • Don’t fear failure. Through failure comes some of the most profound learning. Fear can really put a damper on being productive. I’ve found that it’s best just to keep moving forward and tackle the mistakes as they come. And they’ll come, regardless of how much time you spend worrying about them.
  • Don’t get too hung up on grammar (or pronunciation if you’re a podcaster). People aren’t perfect and while I’ve high respect for editors and hold great value in editing, you need to realize you’re going to let a few (or if you’re like me more than a a few) typos and spelling errors though. Don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s the message that matters most.
  • Stay positive. ‘nuff said.
  • Try something new. If you’re finding that you’re falling into a rut, or talking about the same-old, same-old, get out there and try something new. This is exactly what I’m doing with To-Done and it’s not only opened up a whole new world for me with new friends and new things to discuss, it’s also got the creative juices flowing on other fronts. Write for a different audience, take up a new hobby or learn a new technology. These things all come with ideas and things to write about and they’ll keep your mind sharp, creative and ready as well.

    I’d love to hear some of your tips on being a productive blogger (or writer, or podcaster) so, please, share them here if you’ve got any.

    Popularity: 21%

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Comments

DD on May 24, 2005 said:

Great post Keith!

What are your suggestions as far as putting your blog out there and building up a group of readers?

It’s harder and harder nowadays to make people aware of the content that you are writing with thousands and thousands of blogs out there to choose from when browsing for quality reading material.

vishi on May 24, 2005 said:

I beg to differ from the previous comment. The main goal should be to provide awesome content like you do. All else will follow. Also, make sure that all content is of the best quality instead of best, mediocre, mediocre, mediocre, best.

I empahise with a lot of points you point out. I use onenote to document my creative bursts. My email client is another place where I document my creative bursts. I organize them later just before the deadline and create the best output possible.

Maybe your next post can discuss on the tools and process you use!

vishi on May 24, 2005 said:

I forgot to say one more thing.

You Rock! :)

Darren on May 25, 2005 said:

Top post Keith – I love this list, very helpful for bloggers big and small. Thanks.

eKapa on May 25, 2005 said:

i think it’s important to write about what’s important to you. don’t write for who you think your audience is, because that isn’t your “authentic” self coming through in your writing. your true audience are those who connect with what you genuinely have to share. be yourself and your ideas and readers will flourish.

Shai Coggins on May 25, 2005 said:

‘Just found your blog today, via Micropersuasion. I’m glad I did. I’ll definitely be visiting again. Thanks for sharing this post.

Allen Heat on May 25, 2005 said:

Thanks alot for these tips, really inspiring and helpful! :)

Heat

Keith on May 25, 2005 said:

Vishi—You’re right. I think if you concentrate on the content you’ll have people stopping by. However, there are some ways you can help drive traffic and build a readership if that’s your goal. I’ll need a whole post to talk about that, and I’m not sure if that would make sense for To-done.

eKapa—You make a great point about writing what’s important to you. Thanks for that.

I’m really glad to know this stuff is helpful to people. Having been writing and blogging for a long time now it’s sometimes hard to sit back and realize that there are still so many people new to it and that it can be overwhelming and intimidating.

I feel that in order to do something well, you’re best having fun with it and it’s my hope that, in the end, by making things easier and less intimidating, the fun will flow.

Look for lots more on this subject. I’m in the process of working on a new “channel” (not sure what it’ll end up as) to address the needs and questions of bloggers and writers. And of course I’ll be talking about that stuff here as well.

Ken on May 25, 2005 said:

Hi Keith,
Thanks very much for a very helpful guide. Blog Block is one problem I, as a new blogger have run into. However, reading other blogs always seems to get me out of a funk.

One thing I’d like to add is a conversational tone really helps with a medium like blogging.

I was actually going to write about a book called, “If You Can Talk, You Can Write” talking about how just talking on paper will help you keep writing.

Anyways, thanks again for a great blog and sharing. =)

Scott Randolph on May 25, 2005 said:

it also helps to feel passionately about what you’re writing, for example, it’s much easier for me to keep my personal site fresh than a “moneymaker” site that I might not care as much about.

it’s a shame really, one day, i will find an area that makes money, that I’m that passionate about :)

until then, thanks for the tips!

Chris on May 25, 2005 said:

My biggest blog blocker is the feeling that I should be working on something more productive, like work or hobby projects. Blogging helps me clarify my thoughts and opinions, but there are only so many hours in the day. Like David “GTD” Allen says: you can do anything you want, but not everything.

Giordano Bruno on May 25, 2005 said:

The notion that one should read in order to have things to talk about borders on shallow, if not perverse, and would have been ridiculed by every century up to this one. Reading is not a productivity tool, it is a way of life for the educated person. Read widely, read deeply, read along the curving trails of your obsessions and preoccupations, but don’t make reading a bullet point in a blogging pep talk.

Yannick L. on May 25, 2005 said:

Keith you have done it again. You always seem to post about something that can be beneficial to people just starting out (or even people seasoned in this sort of thing). I am a young blogger and I think this post will help greatly.

I don’t have any tips to offer at this time but who knows maybe another time if this kind of topic is brought up again I will be able to offer some tips.

Have a great day!

FredOnSomething on May 25, 2005 said:

Hello Keith,

First of all, felicitation for this great post. Everything is here and it was a real pleasure to read.

You asked for new tips and tricks? There are some things I blogged about some months ago that I hope could be interesting.
——-

My first trick is to use a Personal Wiki. I use it as my digital idea journal. There is the post that explain what a personal wiki is, which one I use and how I use it:

Personal Wiki: One of the best ways to create your daily journal.
——-

The second trick I use is a “Comments Blog”. This is a place where I put all the comments I do one other blogs (like this one). This is a way to check back at the discussion I had; to find new ideas.

Follow the link read more about the concept.

Fred On Something’s new comments blog
——-

What do I use as my paper idea journal?
A Moleskine pocket diary!——-

I hope these tips and tricks will help you being a more productive blogger.

Salutations,

Fred

Rich Brooks on May 25, 2005 said:

Keith,

Just discovered your blog with this post. (I also followed the Micro Persuation link.)

I’ve found that ever since I fired up a newsreader my biggest problem is that there’s too much to write! I’m seriously considering splitting my current blog into two or even three blogs. (Kind of like when Steven King went all Richard Bachman…but less scary.)

I use Ranchero’s NetNewsReader which comes with a “Sites Drawer.” (Maybe this feature is common among newsreaders, not sure.) Any time I feel that I’m reading the same old blogs, I just pick a new category and start reading.

Thanks for the great list!

Conánn on May 25, 2005 said:

Great Post! I have been reading Asterisk for about a year and have found it very useful when finding my way with CSS, I have a feeling to-done will be a regular stop. Backpack, tadalist and basecamp are amazing for organizing ideas.

Andy Lymburner on May 26, 2005 said:

I would imagine that you’re readership has gotten a nice bump after the article in the WSJ. Congratulations!

I have another useful tip for your idea journal concept. Unfortunately, I can’t take credit for the idea since I found it in a gmail discussion in orkut – but here it is…

Set up an ideas account in gmail (andy.ideas@gmail.com or andy.mybrain@gmail.com, etc.) and simply send yourself any ideas that you may have. Then, using the searching and labeling concepts in gmail, you’ll have no problems accessing, finding and categorizing your ideas when you need them.

John Richardson on May 26, 2005 said:

As a new blogger, I find it frustratingly slow to learn some of the tricks and tips of blogging. When I look at the traffic on some of the blogs I am amazed. Thanks for the tip on being more productive. I set a goal to post to my blog everyday for 30 days. That was an eye opening adventure and one I failed at miserably. I found that meaningful content is much better than short filler posts.

Hopefully some of your tips will help me become more productive.

John

Keith on May 26, 2005 said:

John— I hear that alot and I think I’ve got lots more tips to share. Blogging is still pretty new to many people. I’m actually going to get a site up that is soley focused on Blogging Tips and such. I’m hoping to have that up soon and I really hope it’ll help some folks out. I’ll be sure and announce it here as soon as it happens.

Rio Menajang on May 29, 2005 said:

Can I translate this post to Bahasa Indonesia (my mother tongue)? currently pasting part of it (in english) to my blog translation will help a lot of Indonesian blogger or blogger to be.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Randy Charles Morin on May 30, 2005 said:

You lost me at “Set aside time for writing (or podcasting, etc.) and stick to it.” I go to a job where I pick my nose all day. I’ve got too much time :o

rydel.net on June 3, 2005 said:

This is way too generic. The most important thing is – to be a smart person writing about something relevant that you really know a lot about. That’s it. The rest is just tactics and promotion techniques.

Cary on June 8, 2005 said:

Doesn’t seem generic to me at all : ) This is a great post…I’m fairly new to blogging, and trying to learn to keep up on my posts, etc. Your tips have given me some good ideas about how it’s done. Great blog…but then you knew that ; )

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another generous blog veteran provides much needed post on content. ( my eternal gratitude to the design veterans who provided the knowledge of CSS et al- your time and effort may seem thankless at times, I will not let it pass unremarked)

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