I Have No Time to Blog - Here are Some Suggestions to Conguer That Excuse

I have often heard, from experienced and new bloggers, that they have no time to blog. 

• Some use it as a reason to not get started
• Others fade into the sunset soon after beginning
• And those of us at it for awhile often find it hard to take the time when other things are flying at us faster than we care to think about 

So how to do you conquer that excuse that you have no time to blog? 

In some cases I think it is a commitment issue. Those who truly understand the value and the power of blogging find the time - it's part of their marketing plan, and they make it work because of the ROI and ROE (that's return on effort, or perhaps ROT, return on time). And it may take the place of those marketing efforts that cost money and yield little or nothing. Get rid of those and you will have the time. I'm preaching to the choir here. 

But time management is always a struggle, and with the unpredictability that can come in our business, even when expectations are set, time is precious.

Here are some ideas that may help: 

Set aside time to write when you can. Often the excuse of no time is due to lack of scheduling. But not always. However if you do some planning (it IS part of your marketing PLAN, is it not?) it will work. Time has a way of getting filled by other stuff that may be less important. Drinking the morning coffee and writing can be a time saver, provide you are awake enough. And if you make it planful, instead of an afterthought, you will find the time. 

 

Use down time, such as a slow open house, to write - I can bat out 2-3 articles (or at least drafts) if I am not over-run with buyers and looky loos. Then I have a few days of articles almost ready to go. 

 

Keep a list or a file of ideas. Sometimes it's hard to come up with an idea on the spot - why waste time thinking about it if you have a file folder with newspaper clippings, post-its and notes of all your terrific blog ideas.

 

Use existing marketing pieces, with some editing (no plagiarizing) for an article or a series. Why recreate something that already exists? What's in your pre-listing kit? Your buyer counseling file? 

 

Keep in mind the standard questions that buyers and sellers ask and answer them in a post.  You get a great article and you can send the link to folks who will be interested. Look at all the emails you write with answers to questions - there's a wealth of topics in those emails. 

 

Use guest bloggers - how about asking vendors your work with to write articles for your blog. You can write a brief intro, then paste in their article (with the appropriate credit and links to their site) and presto it's done. Not only do you save time but you foster a relationship, readers get a new viewpoint and learn something, and you both may get some SEO advantage or a lead or two. I used a mold company owner I know for 3-4 articles, and a friend who is an organizing consultant for at least 4 articles. 

 

Use technology - I use Voice Cloud (which transcribes my voice mail to text in an email) to record short posts, or several voice mails. Once I get the email I copy and paste the text, edit it, and I'm done. Of course this works best for short articles, and you have to record a voice mail that is somewhat coherent. But for some topics this can work work. Or use JOTT in the same way. 

 

Share videos and photos with a small amount of text. It's quick and visually interesting to readers. Just don't do it all the time. I suggest taking as many photos as you can, too. You won't have to search for photos for your posts, and some of them will generate terrific article with almost no thought. 

 

Use the re-blog feature on ActiveRain. This does NOT mean re-blogging everything in sight with no commentary of your own. Any idiot can do that, so what is the value? But now and then there are great posts worth re-blogging on your blog, with your own thoughts as an introduction. Just don't over do it. 

Personally, I do NOT advocate using a ghost writer as a time savings. But that's just me. If you want someone to write YOUR stuff once you give them the ideas, that's your decision. I'm not going to debate the issue here. I don't like it and I don't do it. Your choice. I want readers to know ME, not Casper. 

And it you are in the mood for some tongue-in cheek humor, read 10 Reasons Why I Hate Blogging

Well, gotta go. I ran out of time, and it's on to the next thing