Every since starting John Chow dot Com, I have been progressively stepping up the number of posts the blog does each day. So far this month, I’m averaging almost five new posts per day and they’re spread out evenly thought out the day. Some people have asked if I stay at the computer all day long so I can write a new post every 3 to 4 hours. The answer is no. I do all my posts at once, then timestamp them.
WordPress has a timestamp feature which shows when a post went live. Normally, the time posted is the time you hit the publish button, but timestamp is user adjustable. Therefore, I can write a bunch of blog posts in advance and timestamp them to show up at different hours of the day.
Using the timestamp is extremely easy. Just write your post like normal but instead of hitting Publish, you edit the timestamp for the time you want to post to goes live, then hit publish. Your post won’t be on the blog front page until that time comes.
You’re reading this post now, but I actually wrote this over a day ago. I like to maintain a backlog of 3 to 4 posts in the timestamp queue. This way I know I have posts coming up if I enter a period of “OMG! I have nothing to write about!” Generally, by the time the last timestamped post hits, I’ll have something new to add to the queue.
The WordPress timestamp is just one of the tools I use to keep a constant flow of new articles on this blog. Try it and watch how it improves your productivity.