The next Blogging from A-to-Z Challenge is a few seasons
away but it’s never too early to get a head start on mapping out your game plan
for surviving this massive undertaking.
As we close out the Summer and head
into Fall, this is a good time to learn from our own previous A-to-Z Challenge experiences
or those of other participants, to keep up with the alphabet and visiting new
blogs without losing our minds in the process.
Since I was fundraising for my short film at the time and didn’t
have internet access during most of April, my daily schedule was hectic. There
were days when I found myself scrambling to get a blog post up by 11:59pm to
avoid falling behind our 26-day blogging schedule. Here is one of a few tips
and tricks that helped me stay on track as best as I could during the 2013
A-to-Z Challenge.
Text first, Pictures & Stuff later
I posted my blog posts without photos and then returned at a
later time to edit/update the posts by adding photos. This is one of my A-to-Z Hacks that worked wonders for me
by reducing the stress of not being able to have something new for those who
were visiting my blog.
Putting text-only posts up on your blog is especially useful
for procrastinators or those who just usually write their blog posts later in
the evening due to jobs, screaming babies, whining spouses, ailing parents, church
services, natural disasters, technical issues, NBC’s The “X-Factor” or “America’s
Got Talent,” CBS’s “Big Brother,” HBO’s “Breaking Bad” or for whatever other
reason.
Since I’ve written a lot of my A-to-Z Challenge posts at
night, I would aim to get something up on my blog by 11:59pm for the current
letter of the day. When the challenge reached Letter K, I did not have the time
to write, edit, proofread, edit again and format my post earlier in the day, so
I worked on it at night starting around 10:00pm and noticed that I was running
out of time.
So instead of worrying about the layout of photos that would
support this post, I focused on getting the post to go live before midnight, so
that I could remain up to date in the challenge. Afterward, (since I wasn’t
going to sleep anytime soon, anyway) I searched for the images that I wanted to
accompany that post and then went back into my blog editor and added them
sometime after midnight, within the next hour or so.
My Text first, Pictures, etc. later A-to-Z Hack worked so well that the same trick could be applied to
posts written earlier in the daytime as well. If you are among the challenge
participants who write your posts in the morning or during the early afternoon
hours but still need to find photos to go with them, just split up those duties
– publish the post that you have so far (which is the text) and then add the
images and/or any links that you didn’t have handy the first time around, later
in the evening when you get to them. See…this A to Z blogging trick is as easy
as pie.
Have a joyous weekend, everybody!
- Nicole @MadlabPost
*More of my A to Z Hacks will be coming soon. Until then, let
me know something…
When (morning/daytime/nighttime)
did YOU usually write YOUR posts for the A to Z Challenge?
Do YOU have any A-to-Z
Challenge survival tricks up YOUR sleeve that you’d like to share with me?
