How to Write Blog Posts in Advance

This is a scenario familiar to most bloggers--you are on a regular publishing schedule, rocking out content, and sharing on social media.  Your overall page views are on an upward trend.  And then something happens inyour life.  Suddenly, you can’t keep your regular blogging schedule.  And the longer your blog stays quiet, the more dramatic the downturn in page views. 

You can prevent this kind of situation by having extra blog posts ready to go in drafts.  You may wonder how to write blog posts in advance when you’re already busy with your regular work.  Luckily, there are some simple tips that will help you create an emergency stash of blog posts.

How to Write Blog Posts in Advance

Ideally, you should have at least two weeks’ worth of blog posts written in advance.  Four weeks would be better.  That number should cover you in case you have a personal emergency or take a vacation.  

Here are some strategies to build up extra content:

Reduce Your Current Publishing Schedule

Let’s say you publish three blog posts a week.  To have a month’s worth of content, you’d need 12 extra blog posts.  Temporarily, for the next 12 weeks, reduce your publishing schedule to just twice a week.  The key is that you’re still writing three blog posts a week, but you’re only publishing two of them a week.  In three months, you’ll have a month worth of blog posts in drafts.

Write an Extra 15 Minutes a Day

Another option is to write an extra 15 minutes a day.  Maybe that means you get up 15 minutes earlier or you forgo your favorite TV show at night.  Of course, you won’t get an entire blog post written in 15 minutes, but you’ll have a start, and each day you can continue to add to that post until you have a completed one.  This strategy is an easy one because everyone can find an extra 15 minutes in their day.

Polish an Old Post and Republish

If you’ve been blogging for five or more years, your archives are likely a rich treasure trove of content.  Look back at some of your strongest posts, update them, and spruce them up with new pictures.  When you need content, publish these.  Or, if updating old posts takes you half the time you need to write a new post, spend the other half of the time creating a new post.

Block Write Your Posts

If you’re not already doing this, consider block writing your posts.  Take one afternoon or day a week and earmark it specifically for writing blog posts.  Have a list of brainstormed topics and write as much as you can.  Most of these will be in the rough draft stage, but you can use other time during the week to polish them and get them ready to publish.

Final Thoughts

Creating a month’s worth of extra content may seem overwhelming, but if you utilize one of these strategies, you should slowly be able to create an additional two to four weeks of content.  Once you’re done, you’ll be glad that you invested the time, especially when an emergency strikes.