How I Stay Consistent with Content Creation
This month, I celebrate 15 years since I started a little blog named Daisybutter on Blogspot. It’s been a magical time and, until this summer, I’d actually never taken a proper break from regular posts.
Content creation, blogging, influencing… It’s changed a LOT since 2009. Our community was once a bedrock of unique everyday outfits, chatting about our days in the comments, and excitedly talking about our new favourite products because our IRL friends didn’t share those same interests.
In 2009, I wrote weekly and then daily every weekday. Soon, as I stepped into full-time employment, I transitioned to scheduling posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. My point is, I have always managed to regularly create content and write posts that’ve helped me grow an enormous yet close-knit community over many years. Consistency is key, especially since readers – and fellow bloggers – began branching out to other platforms: if your readers know when to expect newness, they will return. As a quick example, my daily views blow up by +400% on Sundays, since readers expect I’ll publish a Sundaze post by 7am in the morning. In a similar vein, views spike in the morning because my target audience is young professionals, and my blog may serve as their morning commute read.
These days, I share fortnightly ‘Open-hearted joys‘ posts like clockwork and write weekly personal essays on Substack. And it never feels like a chore.
So, how do you stay consistent with content creation?
Find your content pillars
Although this isn’t essential, particularly if you write a lifestyle blog with an autobiographical approach like me, establishing content pillars can help with remaining consistent. For example, a beauty blog might take on Mondays that are all about posting your skincare hero, Wednesdays are devoted to round-ups of new products, and a Sunday is for talking about routines.
My content pillars are books, joyful living, and the autobiographical approach, which I tap into by sharing book reviews and round-ups, Open-hearted joys, and my ever-popular Sundaze series. Since I know exactly which categories I’m hitting up, it becomes easier to generate post ideas and streamline them too – I often fall prey to having 50 ideas but only seven days in a week.
Turn it into a habit
Next, turn content creation into a habit. I firmly believe that we all have it in us to do something if it is a priority. Is there a spare hour or two in your week that you can devote to blogging?
I reserve a weekday evening to hang out at my laptop and write a weekly Substack essay plus any blog ‘stuff’ I want to do. I’m a writer girlie through and through, so I probably write three or four evenings a week, once dinner and cleaning up is taken care of. I might have no idea which series is trending on Netflix, but I personally get more out of spilling my thoughts and ideas on paper.
Create in batches
I also tend to create content in batches. While this takes the freshness and immediacy out of things, I think it helps me to stay consistent and to create more meaningful posts. I’m also mostly referencing long-form content here too: committing to writing an essay a week, plus a cosy Sundaze round-up is more than manageable. I just do them in the same evening. Set aside the time and it’ll soon become a habit to shoot photos and write copy on a slow Tuesday evening. Then, schedule it to go out whenever you like. Staying a week or two ahead helps to take the pressure off as well.
Take the pressure off
… which leads me to my final point: take the pressure off. I would never continue blogging if I didn’t enjoy it. (Hence my long break over the summer!) Instead of thinking about where you want to be, or what you want out of this whole escapade, or who might see your content, simply create. Pour your efforts and creativity into whatever you’re writing or shooting.
