10 Tips to Save Time Blogging

The best things happen this time of year – my kids perform the cutest song/dance routines, I get to dress them up, the pine needles cover the unvacuumed carpet, and I get to indulge in a little eggnog and grown-up drink as we call it in our house.  With a little down-time over the holidays, I also spend more fun-time online; doing a lot of extra reading and commenting.  I cruise around getting inspiration for my latest creative attempt, learning new photoshop tutorials, sourcing new recipes for sugar-substitutes.   Just because its the holidays doesn’t mean your website gets to take a break!

Here’s some tips to speed up the writing time online so you can get to your own grown-up drink and fun-time.

1. Press This
   While you’re cruising around the internet, you can immediately publish the link or page you’re on to your own blog.  Save it as draft for later editing.
   
   How To:
   Find the Press This tool under the “Tools” tab on the left hand side of your WordPress admin.  Drag the link to your toolbar or save the link to your bookmarks.  When you see something you want to save – just click “Press This”.
   
2. Quick Press
   Have a great idea while you’re sitting at your desk?  Jot it down in Quick Press.  Save as a draft for later editing.  The more ideas you have in your arsenal at writing time the faster/easier writing out your posts will be.
   
   How To:
   Always leave a window with your WordPress admin open while you’re working on your computer.  When that brilliant idea hits you, jot it down in the Quick Press window in the Dashboard tab (the landing page after you login).  Save as a draft for later editing.  The more ideas the better here.
   
   

3. Sticky Notes
   Where ever you are, always carry an extra notebook or sheet of paper in your purse or pocket.  Use napkins, use your hand if you’re desperate.   You need those ideas when they come to you.   My best tip – keep a notebook by your bed or the bathroom.  The best ideas come at the worst times.
4. Get it done!
   Schedule time to get it done.  Once a week, once a day, it doesn’t matter.  But schedule a chunk of time when the email notifications are turned off, and forward your phone(s) to voice mail.  Turn off Skype and write.   The most common advice that comes from really good authors is to write often.  Sounds like my piano teacher – practice, practice, practice!  And did I mention – uninterrupted?  I don’t know about you, but I can get a million other things done during my writing time.  Don’t even get me started on Groupon (or Etsy, or Amazon) shopping!
5. Post Schedule
   Whether you are posting once a week or once a day, you can schedule your posts.  Write them when it works for you, publish them ahead of time.
   
   How to:
   Find the “Publish” box on the right hand side of the Add New Post screen; next to the calendar icon, Publish immediately [edit]. Click on the edit, and select the publish date.  After a time, you should be able to get several posts out at once.   Which will save you oodles of time.
   
   

6. Streamline Comment Moderation
   You have several viable options for moderating comments.  The fastest is not to.  Then there’s moderate new commenter’s only.  Or you can moderate everything.  No matter which method you choose, be sure to have Akismet working properly (the anti-spam plugin that came shipped with WordPress).  And keep the moderation to a specific schedule.  Moderating each comment as you get notified of it, is a waste of time.  Also, you’ll want to turn off notifications if you require moderation but receive too many notification emails.
   
   How To:
   Set up your moderation in the Settings tab – Discussion subtab.  Check the “Email me whenever” and “Before a comment appears” settings. Some of you will notice various IP addresses (e.g. 123.12.1.1) in the Comment Blacklist – we have added these as part of your monthly maintenance plan (Retainer Clients only).
   
   

7. Do some stuff on the go
   Specifically, I can see reading your feeds, moderating and responding to comments coming in handy while you’re on the go.

   Download iPhone App (or visit iTunes from your device)
   Download Android App (or visit the Market Place from your device)
   Download Blackberry App (visit this link with your device to download)
   
   

8. Clean out the clutter!
   It seems there are SEO options everywhere nowadays.  If you have a modern theme, it has its own options for SEO in a separate theme – based page and on every single post!  Add to that any SEO plugins or link cloaking plugins and you have a lot of options and fields in your Add New Post screen.  Most of which are completely unnecessary.  If you have a modern theme(a StudioPress theme, Thesis  & others) chances are your links are already search engine optimized – meaning the title of the page comes first, and the website title comes afterwards.  Tags and comments are used as meta keywords by default, so extras are rarely necessary.  The slug (link) is editable by default. 
   
   

   How To:
   While you are in the Add New Post screen, look directly under your login name at the top of the page to find the “Screen Options” tab.  Pull it down and you can remove any of the boxes listed there.  You’ll love your neat and tidy ‘desk’.  To edit the slug, you can click on the [edit] link directly under the post title.

9. Upload stuff all at once.
   A little known but handy tab is the “Media” tab found directly under the Posts tab on the left hand side.  You can use that to upload all your images at once for your posts.   As you’re writing each post, grab the image through the Insert an Image button, but use the “Media Library” tab to the right of the window.
   
10. Don’t think!
    Sound counter-intuitive?  The most important factor to getting some writing done quickly is not to have to sit idly in front of your computer wandering what to write about!   Do you need ideas on what to write?  See Tip #1, #2, #3.   Another simple idea is to have a posting schedule.  For example, Wednesday is “Works for Me Wednesday” for thousands of bloggers.  Mondays are “Menu Mondays” for hundreds more.   Fridays have become popular for shopping tips, link love, or fashion posts.   Don’t let writer’s block get you – simply write.  Write, write, write.  (Notice, I didn’t suggest you publish whatever comes off your fingertips!)

Take the extra time to enjoy this Traditional Eggnog Recipe!