How to Blog Consistently (+ What Happened When I Started Doing it)

If you’re reading this post, you’re likely here learn how to hit that publish button on your blog a little more frequently, right? Maybe you write a few posts per month and you’d like to increase that. Maybe you publish a new post every few months. Or maybe you only write when inspiration strikes. Regardless of how often you currently publish new blog posts, this post will help you organize your blogging life and teach you how to blog more consistently than you already are.

Just to level set with you: I didn’t start blogging consistently until March 2020 and I’ve had this blog (and others) for quite some time. I started blogging about my travels simply because I wanted something to look back and read when I’m 80 years old and I forget about all the fun things I’ve done in my life.

Then I went on a blogging retreat in Italy in May 2019. I went because I wanted to see Italy. Well, I saw Italy, but I also got bit with the writing bug after meeting so many successful travel bloggers and seeing where it can take you in life.

Now remember, this trip that inspired me so much was in May 2019 and I started blogging consistently in March 2020. I sat on that inspiration for 10 months. It was probably a mix of nerves, imposter syndrome, and a million other excuses, but I eventually committed to writing one blog post per week, every week.

And here’s what happened:

First, I want to answer a question that might come up right off the bat. The reason you don’t see any info before November 2019 is that I switched my domain and blog name at that time. My blog used to be called Era of Sarah and I wanted to niche it down to travel content. So, I changed it to She Travels at the end of last year.

I look at this bar graph in the WordPress app at least once a day. Now, I’m fully aware that these page views aren’t stellar compared to some bigger bloggers out there. My goal each month is to just get more views than I did the previous month.

It hit me this past week that there is a huge, abnormal jump from April 2020 to May 2020. This corresponds almost exactly to the point where I started blogging consistently.

I’m a realist, so I know this likely isn’t the only cause for the jump. I also started getting more serious about posting on social media about my blog. This is usually on Instagram, Pinterest, and occasionally Facebook. BUT I still believe this was a ripple effect from blogging consistently because I consistently had new things to post about on social media.

I had one abnormally high month in there which was June 2020. This is because a blogger with hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers shared my blog post to her stories with a swipe up link. Other than that anomaly, I’ve steadily been increasing my traffic each month while still posting to my blog once a week.

Why Does It Matter?

So, why does posting to your blog regularly matter? I could come full circle and say “Look at the results I showed above! That’s why!” But I want to take it a step further.

Why does posting consistently to your blog help increase your traffic?

I think there are a few reasons:

1. You constantly have something new and fresh to tell your social media followers about.
2. You have new content to make pins for on Pinterest which is now prioritizing new content over anything else.
3. Google also seems to like new content.
4. People start to trust you. If you don’t write anything for months and then all of a sudden have a new blog post, your readers might start to question your credibility in whichever subject you like to write about.
5. You gain more confidence in yourself. Just like your readers trust you more, you start to trust you more, too. I became a lot more confident posting on social media once I started blogging consistently.

How to blog consistently

Okay, so we know what happens when we start to blog consistently. We also have a hunch as to why that is. Now, how the heck do we do it? I know just as well as anyone how hard it is to go from writing whenever you feel like it to writing consistently. Here’s what helped me along the way:

1. Write Every Day

Bold ask, huh? I’m not suggesting you sit down and write for hours every single day, but maybe 30 minutes first thing in the morning or before you go to bed at night. Even if you tell yourself you’ll write for 15 minutes straight, you’ll probably get on a roll and keep going. This practice will help you become disciplined with writing.

You also don’t have to do it forever. I don’t write every single day. At this point, I usually write two or three days each week, but I make sure I have my blog post ready to go and published by Tuesday.

This is also how I wrote my ebook, Free Travel Formula, in a month! I set a goal to publish the ebook one month after starting it. I spent about 1-2 hours in the morning writing every day and was able to meet that goal without a problem.

2. Post on the Same Day Every Week

I think this is the one that helped the most. I decided back in March that Tuesday would be my new blog post day and I’ve been able to stick to it thus far. If you know you have to finish your blog post by a certain day each week, it’ll give you an idea of when you need to set aside time to work on it.

For extra accountability, tell your social media followers and email list subscribers when they can expect a new post from you each week. You’ll know people will be counting on you. That extra accountability can go far with getting yourself to write consistently. It’ll also help build trust with your audience when you say you’re going to publish new posts on a specific day of the week and you actually do it week after week.

3. Create a Content Calendar

The most frustrating thing about blogging is sitting down at your computer and having nothing to write about. I know all my fellow travel bloggers felt this in the middle of the pandemic we’re still swimming our way out of. It helps to have a brainstorming session every once in a while. Then, organize your blog post ideas into a content calendar so you know exactly what you should work on next.

I used to use Google Calendar for this, but I recently switched over to use Tello because it’s easier to throw ideas onto a board whenever they come to me. Find what works for you and stick to it! You can even add social media posts into your content calendar to keep everything in one place and stay on top of your content. Katie Steckly has a lot of information on her YouTube channel about planning social media content which can definitely be applied here!

One piece of advice that seemed like a breakthrough to me is the fact that you are allowed to start working on a new blog post before you publish one that’s already done! So, if my publish day is Tuesday and I finish my blog post on Thursday for the upcoming Tuesday, I can start working on my blog post for the next week before Tuesday! This is how we get ahead and is definitely something I need to work on implementing more.

Just give it a try!

I promise, once you get into the habit of writing and publishing blog posts consistently, it’ll come much more naturally for you. It took some time for me to become comfortable with it, but now, it’s second nature. I know I need to get a post out every Tuesday and I’ll do what it takes to get that done – especially after putting these pageview results into perspective!

How often do you post on your blog right now? How often do you want to post? Let me know in the comments below!

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