How to keep your blog alive when you don't have a time to write

I am so busy these days that I barely find time to sleep properly. And that affects my blog, of course - I haven't posted anything since last week and that is really annoying for me as well as for my readers. Here are three simple tips on how you can avoid this.

1. Prepare your topics in advance

This is a must. You know what you are blogging about and you should always have a prepared list of topics. This way you can easily write an article when you have an inspiration or simply when you find some free time. I always have a list of at least 30 subjects. I just don't have time.

2. Write articles when you have free time

Even better, write a few articles in advance. Then you can post them on regular basis and keep focus on work without worrying about next article. But I don't do that on regular basis :(.

3. Write down something interesting you did at work

But if you can't prepare anything in advance, you can simple drop a few lines about something new/interesting/useful that you do at work and make a nice post out of it. It doesn't have to be anything pompous. A simple tip on how to solve some problem would be just fine.

Do you ever have similar problems? How did you overcome the crisis? Or if this never happened to you, than what is the key to your success :-)? Share your thoughts!

More articles in Blog archive or elsewhere

Anne 22 Sep 2008 #

I usually follow these steps - write posts in advance when I'm inspired with them or have the time. It helps when I forget or when I'm pressed for time, just pick one of my pre-written articles and publish it!

Jin 22 Sep 2008 #

Well, I can't say I've reached a success yet with my blog

But I can relate to your article. I normally take advantage of the very little time i have. For example, during my metro commute, I'd write blog topic ideas on notepad. Then mentally elaborate on these ideas. I always have a small notepad with me, to capture whatever's on my mind.

Also, I think most blog authors feel the need to publish a long essay posting all the time. I think this mounts to self-imposed pressure. When time is tight, a short 'n sweet post is just as good.(very much like this article).

Kevin Pang 23 Sep 2008 #

I often find myself in the same predicament, but tend not to worry about it much. Readers, in general, will forgive you for your absence. Most won't even notice or care, so long as the stuff you publish maintains its quality. What readers won't stand for are filler posts like "sorry I haven't blogged for awhile, I promise to have a post soon!". It wastes their time to parse this information and after awhile they'll tire of it.

I reckon that the vast majority of tech blog readers find articles through their RSS subscriptions and links from other blogs and aggregators like digg/reddit/dzone. Because of this, a slowdown in posts really isn't visible to them. It would be a different story if your visitors are manually checking your blog each day, only to notice you haven't updated, but something tells me this is not the case for most readers.

Webdesign Grafische Vormgeving 23 Sep 2008 #

hehe, I know this problem... I started my blog about 5 months ago and everytime I run into this same problem... no time!! Got my word file with subjects and thoughts... but just NO TIME to write!!!

Dainis Graveris 23 Sep 2008 #

I always write down on paper my latest ideas for topic articles, that I lately use. For me the problem also is to find time to create new good article - good article creation for me usually takes 3-5 hours. I feel even now You haven't got much time because article topic is good, but it takes time! As always! Keep up, Janko!

Dmitry 23 Sep 2008 #

What I do is keep a folder called Post Ideas. Inside, I make text files for individual post ideas, give them a name, and start jotting down notes inside. Sometimes I don't even jot notes inside, just give the file a title — something interesting that I thought about that could be a good post.

You can then come back to these files and add more notes in the form of bullet points or go on to flesh out the post by proceeding to write it. This gives you an opportunity to think through your ideas on these topics, and also time to build up their content.

RyanOC 23 Sep 2008 #

I need my fix Janko! Give me more of those killer development blogs!

Muhammad Mosa 23 Sep 2008 #

As if you are speaking my mind. Yes I face that a lot. But I didn't follow guide line No 1, I don't know why! I don't have ideas, just the ideas that jump upto my head while having a shower or while reading something. Or maybe an inspiration idea that comes after reading interesting posts like those I read on http://encosia.com and http://mattberseth.com .
few times I write on advance, but not usually. But I really need to combine ideas 1 and 2. Because if I have a list, and got time then I can make it. Write 5 posts in advance, and then post one every week.
The last one is similar to jumping ideas I mentioned earlier. And this is my writing style most of the time. However sometimes I am dumb, no ideas so I have to sort that out with some hard work and creativity.
Thank you Janco for sharing those points.

Janko 23 Sep 2008 #

Jin, I agree that having an idea that only essays are good might get you into the trouble.

Kevin, yeah there is no need to apologize to your readers.

Dainis thanks!

Dmitry, this is exactly what I do. I just don't have time...

RyanOC, don't worry I have a plenty of development topics awaiting Laughing

Muhammad, blogging is indeed hard when you have a lot of other work to do Smile

Free Wii 24 Sep 2008 #

This is all good but, surly everone can spare five minutes here and there. Just jot things down as you go. then put it all together at the end of the day!

Kris 24 Sep 2008 #

If you've got a big enough site, ask your visitors to answer some kind of poll or their response on some controversial topic. Get them talking...

Since I don't have that many nor time to prepare articles in advance, I just have to deal with traffic hits when I can't update as often as I like to.

I do have a huge list of topics that I want to cover though... which I add to more than I take off.

When I do a code example/tutorial, those are almost always code from either work or a personal project that I did... rarely do I do an example of something simply for the saking of doing an example.

Gerardo Contijoch 17 Dec 2008 #

Well, I created my blog about two weeks ago, and i already have 7 posts and 10 more waiting to be published. I find it really hard to keep all that stuff there without being published. I keep it in case I don't have more time to write but it seems I always find something to write about. On one hand I want to publish those posts, but on the other, I know it would be wise to keep them. I don't know what to do!

casino docomo 05 Mar 2009 #

Blogging is time-consuming. And, it’s also a viable mechansim for reaching an audience. I don’t think there is a staffer or contractor on our team that doesn’t read at least a few blogs regularly.I’m a notebook and pen kind of girl. I have one in the car, one next to my bed and one in the kitchen (for some reason, I get lots of ideas while cooking).Since I’ve committed myself to a three-days-per-week publishing schedule on my blog (I don’t want to burn myself out with daily blogging), right now I have more ideas than I can publish. By the time I get to some of them, they don’t seem as fresh anymore.