This month I participated in a blogging challenge, where I had to blog daily, Monday-Friday, for 4 weeks. When I told some of my friends I was going to participate in the challenge, they asked me, “how are you going to do this?” I couldn’t answer their question, because I was unsure how I was going to get it done as well! One thing I did know is I was going to have to batch my blog posts. You may be asking, what is batching blog posts? This is when you set aside intentional time to focus on a specific task, in this case blogging, for a period of time.

Related: 6 Ways I Balance Blogging and Motherhood

I knew I had to be strategic. Prior to the blogging challenge being announced, I had 4 posts I had planned to write for the month of July, which would fulfill my personal monthly goal of 1 blog post per week. Four blog posts was only 1/5 of what I needed to be successful with this challenge! I came up with a plan! We are nearing the end of the challenge–the home stretch and I have been able to write 20 blog posts in just 4 weeks! Here are the 6 easy steps I used to batch my blog posts!

1. Brain Dump

On my blog I have four different categories– natural hair, blogging tips, lifestyle, and beauty. I made four columns and I started to do what is called a brain dump! This is simply the act of dumping all the ideas for your blog posts onto paper. When you’re in brainstorming mode, just go with it! I usually type all my ideas in the app called Asana. I brainstormed and wrote ideas under every column. Again, I knew I needed at least 20 post ideas, but I made sure to come up with a total of 3o ideas, just incase some of the ideas wouldn’t pan out the way I wanted. Usually, this takes me about 1-2 hours to complete.

2. Outline

After I came up with what seemed like a gazillion of blog post ideas, I took 5 of those ideas to write about for the week. I did quick little outlines on each post idea. Outlining helps you to organize the blog post. It also allows you to see if certain post ideas will work. For instance, if you are having a hard time coming up with points about a specific idea, you can either toss the idea, or tweak it so that you can have a great blog post. For me, the outline process usually takes about 1-2 hours.

3. Write

After the outline, it is time to WRITE- the fun part! On a good day, I set aside 3-4 hours to just write. I write as many blog posts as I can within that time frame. Usually I can crank out about 3 posts during this time. For the blogging challenge, I had to use two days to batch posts in order to come up with 5 posts for the week.

4. Graphics

I highly suggest adding graphics to your blog! It is aesthetically pleasing and it adds value to your blog. I also want to point out that you should show up on your blog–meaning use pictures of yourself! I think it is important to appear on my blog, so I usually take 1 day to shoot multiple images for my blog. In addition, I make sure to have at least 3 different outfits and shoot in different locations. I also use stock photos from a website called UnSplash! They provide great high quality photos for free!

5. Editing

I am so happy I have stopped trying to edit as I write each post. Instead, I make editing a separate task. During this time, I read carefully to look for grammar mistakes and how I can jazz up my sentences. I also turn on my YOAST SEO Plugin so that I know that the post is SEO friendly and the readability of the post is good! (I highly suggest using this plugin!) This is also the time I make sure to add all of my links, tags, and pictures. Editing five blog posts usually takes about 2-3 hours.

6. Schedule

Lastly, I schedule my posts! I use WordPress and there is an option to schedule and auto publish my blog posts. This is the EASY part!

I hope you found these tips for batching blog posts helpful! Happy Blogging!

Let me know how you batch your blog posts! Tell me in the comments!

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