My updated blogging process

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Back in 2014 I wrote about the steps I was taking when creating a blog post, and you guys really seemed to like my step-by-step walkthrough from brainstorming to hitting publish. A lot has changed since then, from updated technology to preference changes, but the bare bones of the process still remain - just with a few more steps added. Today I thought I'd go through my current process so that you guys can get a better idea of what goes on behind the scenes here at IR. Who knows, you might pick up some tips for your own blogging process, or if you've never blogged before, you should be able to get an idea of how much work actually goes into running a blog in this day and age!

The Process:

Brainstorm → Filter + add to Notes → Editorial calendar (paper) → Confirm ideas → Google calendar → Draft/bullet point ideas → Photograph → Edit and upload photos → Collect any (affiliate) links → Compose post → Proofread/double check → Schedule post → Schedule tweets, Instagram post, and FB Page post.

Here we have the typical steps I take when taking an intial idea for a post and making the final product that you see on your screen. Not every step is taken everytime I create something; sometimes I get carried away with an idea and it will never be added to my notes or even my editorial calendar, and other times I completely blank out or am too busy with work to schedule all of my social media, but these are the steps that I like to take when possible.

The Resources:

APPLE NOTES // EDITORIAL CALENDAR (link) // SHOPSTYLE (link) // HOOTSUITE (link)

When creating a post, there's a few different programs/websites that I tend to use. Apple Notes is great for jotting down ideas wherever I am because it syncs to all of my tech, and I love the new(-ish) checklist feature they've added to it because it makes keeping track of things so much easier.

Next we have a very basic editorial calendar that I whipped up in Photoshop one day. The main reason I made my own is because I find that most of the nice calendar templates I've found online have the week starting on Sunday which drives me crazy because I'm not used to that! I always found myself screwing up my calendar because I would put things on a Sunday that I meant for a Monday (I like to print these out and work out my month's content by hand) which frustrated me greatly, so I eventually made my own so I would stop messing things up. Download a PDF of my editorial calendar here.

Something else I tend to use a lot is Shopstyle, the site where I create my 'Shop the post' widgets that you see in the majority of my beauty posts. This is great because you can keep track of what links get clicked and even make a little money (although not much in my case, still going strong at £4 after using it for 4 months!) I mainly like it because of the widgets which I think finish off my posts nicely.

Finally, I find myself using Hootsuite, a site/app where you can schedule social media posts, a hell of a lot more than I used to before my relaunch. This tool has become extremely valuable to me now that I'm a working girl because I can get all of my posts written and social media scheduled at the weekend and know that when I'm busy during the week that everything will go up when it's supposed to, where it's supposed to. It's a bit like setting everything on autopilot - it really takes the stress out of trying to work full time and juggle a blog!

So there you have it, a fairly detailed look at how I go about running IR on a day to day basis! The only resource that I haven't really mentioned above is Photoshop, which I use to edit all of my photos, but I think I'll leave that for another post. I hope you got a better idea of what goes on behind closed doors, and if you have any questions do feel free to leave them below!

If you're a blogger, do you use many of these steps? For you non-bloggers, did you know that this much work can go into a single blog post? Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below :)