I just got done scheduling four blog posts to post during my holiday traveling time, which is a big deal for me. I have such a hard time writing and then not publishing immediately! I think because my posts are usually personal, so it’s Stuff I want to talk about NOW. Not two weeks from now. Something happened in my life that inspired me to sit down and write and I feel the need to discuss it right away while it is still fresh. I hate waiting! Even when I do schedule posts, I often go back and rearrange them so I can Publish other more recent happenings. In fact, I’ll probably bump something else out of the way so I can publish this one sooner.

So here’s how I found to work around the issue of needing to post right away and actually help my blog as a result – By creating “Evergreen Content.”

What’s evergreen content you might wonder? It’s blog posts that continue to be relevant past their publication date. Informative stuff like “5 Steps to Surviving Toddler Tantrums” or maybe a recipe or blogging advice. This is not exactly the stuff that drives me to write, but it is stuff that sticks around and drives traffic. I think of it as more the “work side” of blogging and me complaining about baby poop and personal stuff the cathartic (and fun) side.

These posts usually aren’t things I feel the need to publish right away, and I’ll often have a few in draft form and just work on them here and there when I can. I try to have one of these ready to post when I realize I haven’t posted in a few days and need to keep the views up, but I don’t really have anything going on that’s inspiring me to write.

And it’s not that evergreen content can’t be inspired, it’s just that it doesn’t have to be posted right away to be relevant. So when I wanted to schedule blog posts during my last vacation, I turned to my stash of drafts and worked on getting them ready to publish. I was able to set them to publish every other day while I was gone and improve my traffic at the same time. All while being gone and not writing one post!

So my current strategy is to focus on an evergreen stash, schedule them throughout the holidays and then be able to just jump in with an extra post when inspiration strikes. I think it will take a little stress off my mind knowing whether I work on this or not, the blog is still humming along without me. The only stressful part is actually coming up with these blog posts in the first place!

So do you schedule your blog posts? How many do you usually do ahead of time? Any tips you’d like to share?