Blogging Business

Robert Stacy McCain has addressed a problem that plagues me, sort of.

I blog part-time during the school year because teaching English to 10th graders is my full time job. During the summer I can blog full time. When school started this year, I had just started my blog, so I only had about three weeks to blog full time until my real job started for the semester.

I blog all day in my head, but can't blog at school. I can't even get ON my blog at school because we have filtering software and I'm not a big enough geek to figure out how to get around it. So I have a little notebook where I can jot down blog ideas (otherwise I'd forget them) and I do some research in between teaching, grading, planning, and meetings.

Stacy addresses the need for speed, and that's not my problem so much. I can punch out a post in anywhere from ten to 45 minutes, depending on what the topic is, how much research, and how many links I put in. Like RSM, I proofread my post, then I read it again on the blog after I post it and always find a typo or some goof that needs to be fixed.

I don't have a problem writing long posts; in fact, writing long posts probably IS a problem for me. Everything I read tells me that people don't read long articles on the internet "so keep your blog posts short and pithy!" But I can't always do that. Some topics require more elaboration.

No, my problem is just no time to blog. At the end of the day I have about 2.5 to 3 hours to write and that is squeezed in with cooking dinner, cleaning the kitchen and other duties around here that must be done. Weekends are a little better for blogging. I'm working on perfecting the concept of writing posts and scheduling them for throughout the day, when I'm not here. That way my blog updates more than once a day.

Stacy's advice is sound and you should check it out! He's an old-school writer and by that I mean he probably has a copy of Strunk and White in his back pocket. He's written for publications besides the internet. Also, if you are a blogger and haven't checked out his Rules, shame on you. And if you've never read his blog, more shame still.

(Time on this post - 15 minutes).