3 ways to make blogging a habit.

Confession. Up until 6 months ago, I had pretty much abandoned my blog. Eeek, right?

As a copywriter by profession, it might not surprise you that sometimes I just don’t have any more writing juju left to give. And while over the past 3 years, I made a small effort to publish something good for my tribe, I more often than not failed or lost interest mid-sentence.

Blogging for myself felt hard. Not only because I was already busy writing for my clients, but because I wasn’t sure what the heck to even write about.

You see, my blog originated as a place to share my thoughts about life, health, and love. But my business focus shifted so quickly—from health coaching to copywriting and branding—that I hadn’t given much thought to how that would change the content I shared. And since business was going well without it, I figured a blog didn’t need to be a priority anyway.

While I am glad I gave myself space to rediscover what this here blog is all about, I do wish I made more of an effort to connect with my list consistently, even if it was just via email. Then, I would have been building relationships instead of losing them. Not to mention, I wasn’t following my own advice. Practically every client I worked with started a blog because I recommended it. Content marketing is essential to growing a community of loyal followers and customers.

ESSENTIAL.

It’s the one thing that allows people to get to know you and try on your stuff to see if it fits for free. And most of all, it’s what allows you to showcase what you know and why you’re awesome.

I didn’t realize how important this effort of loving up and sharing helpful info with my audience was until I launched Your Wellness Brand back in March.

Here I was, launching an online course having barely given my list the opportunity to know AND trust my expertise.

Ever since, I’ve committed to blogging once per week and to stop hiding all of the marketing, branding, and writing stuff I’ve learned since becoming an entrepreneur. Some of it’s simple and some of it’s more evolved. But all of it is gold.

I know some of you have expressed how much you look forward to these posts, and how helpful they’ve been. And, well, that couldn’t make me happier!

So today, I wanted to share how I’ve built blogging into my already busy schedule so that you can too. Because sharing free content consistently is something we all need to be doing.

Collect your ideas. One of the biggest blogging barriers for me was not knowing what I wanted to write about. So I started making every effort to collect each and every idea that popped into my head as I worked one-on-one with clients or handled a business challenge or victory of my own. It’s so much easier to sit down and write when you’ve got a list of great topics to pick from.

Decide when your posts will be published and commit to that day of the week. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to bail on blogging. However, there is a part of me that is deeply committed to publishing a post every Sunday even if I’m tired and even if it’s going to be later than it should be.

Schedule blog writing into your calendar. Somehow I’ve gotten into the routine of writing my blog posts every Sunday and then publishing them Sunday night. I do eventually want to have things done further in advance, but for now, this is what works for my schedule and I’m sticking to it. Blocking off the time on my calendar gives me a standing date with myself and my laptop.

BONUS TIP: Forget perfection and keep it simple. Not every blog post needs to be a detailed piece of art. Simple, quick tips are just as valuable and probably more digestible. So if you ever have a moment where the ideas have dried up, think of one tip that would help your audience and send that their way instead.

Now I’d love to hear from you. How do you feel about blogging? Do you keep a log of ideas? Do you have a routine or ritual? Let me know in the comments below.