As you may know, I’ve been on holiday for the past 8 days. Because blogging is such a valuable part of my communications strategy, it was important for me to be able to maintain my blogging pattern, whilst I wasn’t here.
This post is all about how wordpress’ scheduled posts feature allowed me to have a fresh post here for you each day – even though I was holidaying with my family, and why scheduling posts can be so valuable for business bloggers.
WordPress’ Scheduled Posts feature
Like many people who blog regularly, I often write several blog posts at once and then use wordpress’ scheduled post feature, to publish my posts over the coming days.
This is always a really useful feature, but when you are away from work and, as in my case, away from an Internet connection too, it’s pure gold dust!
Why bother posting when I’m not here?
There are a number of reasons, why it makes sense for business bloggers to maintain the regularity, with which they post. I mention most of them here, in “why some bloggers post every day.”
However, on a very basic level, I have found that just as people get used to visiting a blog regularly, they can also get used to NOT visiting that blog just as easily. This simple, long established feature of wordpress means that so long as you have the content written up, a blogger never needs to have those 7 or 14 day gaps, where they drop from their reader’s radar.
Do you use scheduled posts?
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Do you feel the same way about scheduled tweets?
.-= Eli Radke´s last blog ..Three destructive habits that will kill your trading day, week, month, or career. =-.
Hello Eli.
Good question. I use Twitter as a real-time tool and thus far have never scheduled anything to it.
I know others feel very differently and with Tweetdeck’s new scheduled tweet facility, it may become a lot more common.
I just started scheduling tweets because I tend to read and share a lot of articles early in the morning. So instead of just posting massive links in a short period of time, I schedule them, spacing them out throughout the day.
I use hootsuite. It would be great if seesmic added this functionality.
About scheduled blog posts, I’ve tried doing it before when I went on vacation or to conferences, but on wordpress.com, it never seems to work. Anyone else have problems on wordpress.com?
David, Scribnia
.-= David Spinks´s last blog ..Join the Discussion: Building your Network vs. Enhancing Current Relationships =-.
I see what you are saying about scheduled tweets. Also, now that Tweetdeck offers them, I would imagine Loic at Seesmic will get the guys there working on it too.
Interesting that you too have had problems with the scheduled post feature; though with wordpress.com
Thanks for the feedback David.
Good points, Jim, as you know my absence from my blog has been health-related but it is a good idea from a vacation, travel, or conference standpoint to keep the lines of communication open.
God willing, I will be back in fine form soon and be able to get going on track again… Business has been brisk despite all of this…
Get well soon, Julie!
Hi Jim,
When I tried to do scheduled posts my version of wordpress for some reason or other was not posting ….something to do with the wp_cron file and time lapses.
Bit technical I thought but I did a search and found a way round it.
Now, I do use scheduled posts when I am away or I have a couple of busy days coming up.
Has anyone else had the same problem?
Adrian
.-= Adrian Swinscoe´s last blog ..Video: Customer Retention can be Improved by How You Handle Customer Complaints – Delight From Dissatisfaction =-.
Hello Adrian.
Good to see you benefiting from scheduled posts too. I have not come across that error you mentioned, though it’s good that you managed to get it fixed.
Thanks for the feedback.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Grant Griffiths, Jim Connolly, TheTechNewsBlog, Scribnia, JulieWalraven and others. JulieWalraven said: RT @GrantGriffiths: A simple way to stay on your reader’s radar! http://bit.ly/blRuk9 by @jimconnolly RT! [...]
I have also had the scheduled posts not posting problem, which is *very* annoying as it would be really helpful to be able to schedule.
I did find a blog post which gave instructions on how to sort it (which involved changing the time in the code on the files), but it didn’t work! So I STILL can’t schedule.
If anyone has a solution to this I would be really grateful. For example I have had a 31 days tips series running all this month and I have to make sure that I remember to publish it manually every morning.
.-= Tessa Shepperson´s last blog ..Tenancy Agreements 31 days of tips – Day 28 – pets =-.
That sounds like a real pain, Tessa!
It certainly seems like there are a number of savvy people, experiencing problems with the feature. It’s always worked for me; so I assumed it was a lot more reliable than it may be.
Thanks for the feedback Tessa!
Scheduled posts and tweets are ways to still provide information. Of course your interaction with responses to the posts would be reduced if you are not around but I still think those are valid ways to still stay connected with your audience.
Thanks for the feedback David.
I think different approaches suite different people.
WordPress scheduling is easy and powerful, not only when you’re away, but when you want consistently spaced content. Sort of like cooking a few meals for the week on Sunday and freezing them, I often do two or three posts per blog per week on a schedule. I post news and current event topics in between, but my readers get to read new stuff regularly and I manage my time effectively. I’m not convinced readers need me at the keyboard every minute. They read me because they can do it on their schedule. If they wanted constant interaction or feedback from me, wouldn’t they phone?
Maryan Pelland
http://www.ontext.com
.-= Maryan Pelland´s last blog ..Traditional publishing vs. self-publishing – which is best for writers? =-.
I am taking your advice and trying scheduled posts this week. I think this way I can be more disciplined about the time of day the posts go live and also ensure that I build a bit of a cushion so something gets published every day.
I haven’t scheduled tweets either, but it seems it would have some use for an international company wishing to get information to an audience on the other side of the world. Wouldn’t work so well for relationship tweets, but for promoting a blog post it might have value to send out a tweet in your sleep.
.-= Tammi Kibler´s last blog ..I’m blaming it on the Launch Coach =-.
[...] of our marketplace, so they know they can rely on us. This is part of the reason, why I sent out scheduled blog posts last week, even though I was on a week long holiday. People come here expecting to see something [...]