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If you go back and glance at the dates of my own blog publishing schedule, you’ll see I know a thing or two about the challenges that get in the way of keeping up with your blog. In my own case it’s the old story about the cobbler’s kids not having any shoes — I’ve been so busy getting my clients all blogged up that my own blog has fallen by the wayside!

I’m a cautionary tale folks: DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!

There are some things I need to do to make updating ye olde Open Book Stategies blog ball:

1. Create an editorial calendar: As a former editor at a newsstand magazine, I know the value of editorial calendars. You do your planning ahead of time and you’re never stuck scrambling. Plus it gives you time to prepare your content like getting the research, gathering the images and choosing your links.
2. Create a blog brainstorm list: I’m full of blogging ideas when I’m out meeting with clients, reading other blogs or brushing my teeth but when I sit down here at my keyboard, I forget ‘em. Lately I’ve been using Jott as my note-taking-on-the-fly tool. (I call Jott from my cell, tell it what I want to remember and it emails it right to my computer. No notebooks to lose!) Remember the key thing about a brainstorm is that it’s all your ideas — not just the good ones. You can weed through them later when you’re setting up your calendar.
3. Listen to your clients with an eye to your blog. The work I’m doing now may be keeping me from blogging but it’s also giving me lots of new material. As I help my clients work through their concerns, challenges and triumphs I’m getting a better picture of what belongs in my blog. So that’s when I call Jott, add to my brainstorm list and eventually it’ll end up on my calendar.
4. Treat it like a necessary part of your job. Ok, this is where I fall down on my good intentions. Because I enjoy blogging for myself I keep saving it for last. Only the world being what it is, it’s too easy to keep shoving it down to the bottom. Somehow when our work schedules get busy the first thing that goes our own marketing efforts but eventually when we hit that slower patch, we’ll be wishing we’d stayed on top of tings. (And when I say “we” and “our”, I mean “I” and “my.”)

Ok, I’m inspired now. I hope you are, too!

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