How to blog when you’re too busy to blog

One of my golden rules for blogging is ‘consistency is key’. I like to use the Pringles analogy of once you start, don’t stop!

I have a confession to make.

I’ve broken my golden rule.

I haven’t blogged since August.

I feel bad (and a little bit hypocritical).

Possibly the best (and worst) thing about running a small business are the unpredictable peaks and troughs of workload. Over the summer, work was unusually quiet for me as regular clients took their holidays and told me they didn’t need me until the end of the hols.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself so I took a well-earned break from copywriting and enjoyed some downtime.

In hindsight, what I should’ve done was take my laptop outside in the sunshine – just for one day – and write a few blog posts. It’s a clever way to get ahead of the game and stockpile your blog content for busy periods. By doing this you can post consistently and keep your readers entertained when your mind is elsewhere.

Create a content plan

To forward plan successfully you need to have a good content plan. I’d recommend creating a simple spreadsheet to plot out key dates/events for your business and consider your audience’s mindset at those moments in time. Delegates at my blogging masterclass receive a content planner template to help you plan your posts. One of the secrets of engaging content is coming up with ideas for posts that match seasonality and mindset with the issues that are important to your reader.

Consider reinventing old content

If you know you’ll never be organised enough to create a bank of content, another way to keep your blog alive during busy periods is to reinvent old posts. Some people will think this is cheating. I see it as an opportunity to bring already useful content up to date.

Once you’ve been blogging for a while, you’ll soon generate loads of useful content on your website. Take a look through old posts and identify those that could do with a few tweaks to make them relevant all over again. Make the changes, amend the date and repost – voila! - a new blog post in a few minutes.

Repost relevant seasonal content

Is social media is a key channel for you?

When editing posts is not an option, repost old blog posts on your social media feeds. Before you do this, take a couple of minutes to check that the content is still relevant and valuable. By this I mean scan the post for any time-sensitive information. If you’ve referred to an event, news story or used specific dates, think twice before re-sharing. Relevant and valuable are the key words to keep in mind.

A good example is my own ‘What to blog about in September’ post from a couple of years ago. Most of the content is still valuable but I have referred to dates and events throughout that may now be irrelevant.

If I were to re-post this, I would check the dates and update the detail first.

Once you learn how to write blog posts that stand the test of time, it’s that little bit easier to cheat every now and again!