Business blogging tips and news for professional bloggers

Glad you asked Easton. :-)

For me, it's a mixture of the two: I normally have 4-5 advance posts saved (I post only once a day). I try and write 2-3 of these per week to be published the following week or whenever.

I also love the spur of the moment stuff. Those moments you just can't plan for. I think if you get too much into advance posting your posts won't come alive as much - the passion won't show. Nothing beats a post idea you just have to get up onto your blog.

Schedule: For me, it's 2 hours every day to write - 8am to 10am. That's set in stone, as the door sign tells the family. :-)

Monday I spend the full day simply researching - at the end of the day I usually have 30-50 ideas for everything from posts to potential eBooks ideas.

Friday afternoon is Golf day.

The Weekend is kept as blog free as possible.

Hi Easton,
I try to start every day by reviewing my feeds in FeedDemon (a great newsreader.) Hopefully, I will be inspired to post in response to something I see there. At the same time, I will identify items to write about, start a post and then save it in my drafts to go back and work on later in the day or on weekends. Saturday mornings are the best time to post. No pressure. Quiet. Time to think.
Thanks for the good question. I'm looking forward to reading how other bloggers respond.

Thanks a million, Martin! That's a great answer. I think I may have to imitate you for a bit and see how that goes :).

Joseph, thanks for a fine answer as well. I use NewsGator Online, which as you know is a sister product to FeedDemon - both are excellent in my opinion. Your idea of starting some posts as drafts is a great one.

I'm sure there isn't a perfect one-schedule-fits-all answer here, but I do want to learn (and help others learn) ways to maximize blog posting efficiency.

I think it takes a blend of approaches. If I write too far in advance, the style and freshness can suffer. But if I don't take enough time to do original research and/or interviews, then the entries don't feel as complete or valuable in many cases. I keep a list of ideas worth pursuing, and sometimes I'll base the day's entry on one of those, or other times something new and relevant comes up in between.

I do think timeliness is valued a little too highly in the blogosphere. People can come across your work through search for many weeks after the day you publish it, and when you write you should think about making something that will be useful for them as well. That's not practical for all situations, but it's neglected too often.

And it's always worth it to spend more time not just reading feeds but talking to people, making calls, doing active research, and thinking.

Good to hear from you, Dave. Thanks for your comment, especially for that last reminder to get "offline" input for your blog posts. We bloggers sometimes shut ourselves off into a bubble of sorts by limiting our post ideas to what we see online. Some of my favorite (And most popular) posts have been interviews, guest posts, and research-laden posts.

I appreciate all the feedback I'm getting on this question. I get the feeling that a lot of you struggle with the balance between "pre-posting" and posting immediately. So far I think that it's advantageous to be able to do both, and above all to be flexible and varied in your approach.

I'm glad I asked this question! My current system is to write all my posts for the week on Monday and preschedule them. If I have any new ideas during the week, I write additional posts then.
I think I will try a variation of this. I'll still write my posts on Monday (so I don't have to write under deadline stress), but I'll write every day on something; research, drafting ideas, additional posts, etc. so I can keep my goal of being a more disciplined writer.
Thanks to all for sharing your schedules!

Thought provoking post and replies. Thanks all.

I do a few things:
1) I draft ideas, then publish them after fleshing them out.
2) I schedule posts (Quotes n Notes) on days I know a computer won't be handy.
3) I blog on the fly in the early AM and late PM

This conversation is a future hand-out at a workshop!

I wonder how we'll all do this a couple years from now. (Maybe that's a post in embryo ...)

I usually do a mixture. But most of the time, I do the writing on the spot (I usually post once a day). I'll take out an hour at lunch to do research, and perhaps finish the post in the PM. Usually, I try to be really diligent about it, and make it part of my daily schedule.