3 Reasons To Schedule Blog Posts

One of the least commonly used features of WordPress and other Blogging/CMS Platforms that I didn’t start using until way too late in the game is the ability to schedule posts. That’s right, you don’t have to publish immediately or leave a post as a draft. You can specify the exact date and time a post will go live. Why would you want to do this? I’m glad you asked.
Free your mind… It’s no secret that one of the hardest parts of blogging is typically coming up with content. Some days it flows out of you like, well, you get the idea. Other days you sit there with a blank compose screen just waiting for the words to come to you. When you are having a day like the former, write up as many posts as you can, and schedule them to come out later. This way you aren’t blasting a ton of content at once, and you know you will have content coming to your visitors later. It really takes the load off when you get another chance to sit down and write.
Consistency is key Once you have built up a few posts ahead of yourself, you now have a consistent stream of content coming to your users. The more often you post, the more viewers will come back to read your content as you are now a reliable source. What would have been a struggle to write, edit, and post all at once, is now a continuous set of posts coming out a day or two after you have written them, without you having to remember to publish them. There is something satisfying about hitting that ‘Schedule’ button on the post and knowing that you will have a post go live while on your drive to work, or while you are still sleeping even.
Timing can make or break you I’m not going to lie on this one, I suck at timing. Most of the time my blog posts were being written at night, late at night. Well, for those who view your site via a social media plug (Twitter, Facebook, Posterous) you aren’t hitting that target as they probably have missed it in their catchup of the overnight stream. If you can catch these people early in the day, but while they are actively viewing their stream, you have a better chance of a link conversion. Tweet, Facebook, or syndicate your posts between 8 and 9 am and you are likely to get more conversion on your Social Media plugs.
How to Schedule a post Ok, so I’ve convinced you? Good. Well there is a large number of content publishing platforms so depending on what CMS you are working with will make a difference on how you do this. You will want to consult the support pages for our blogging or CMS platform.
I hope this helps you in your publishing process and eventually keeps you more on schedule and prevents blogging burnout. Cheers!