What I've learned from Blogging: The Thritiness Miss

Hello there! My name is Jessie and I blog over at The Thriftiness Miss.

I've been blogging for just over a year now and Shatzi has been one of my best bloggy buddies ever since the beginning.. In fact, we even host a link party together every Thursday night! So when she told me about her blog anniversary and her "What I've Learned from Blogging Week" I was thrilled to be a part of it.And then I thought and thought and I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do a post on. And then it was two days before it was my day to post and I still didn't have anything written yet.. That's when it hit me... Schedules are pretty important! And so, rather than something I've learned, I'm going to talk about something that I haven't quite learned from blogging yet... But I'm working on!As a blogger there are TONS of things to consider and generally not enough time in the day to do everything. There's blog maintenance to do, posts to write, ideas to collect, social media networks to tend to, emails and comments to return and on and on and so forth. Now, I'm definitely no expert and I'm not even 100% on my own schedule yet but I've found that keeping track of my posts and page views in a monthly calender has really helped me to get more organized with my posting. Here's 4 reasons why I think you should work towards a semi consistent blogging schedule.. If you can..

You readers know when new content is coming and know when to come looking for it.
You know what needs to be done now, tomorrow, and next week. This equals better time management on your part.
Your best stuff should be spread out.. If you link up to parties, use your favorites as a kind of guide as to when you should post your best linkable posts. If you don't link up, take some time to research your stats and find when your highest traffic days are and post then.
Keeping track helps you to find what kind of posts bring you the most traffic. These are the types of posts that your readers love the most. Knowing this will help you to create more content of the same kind that will ultimately bring maximum traffic.

Whether you plan by the month, week, day, or project... There's tons of blogging printables out there completely free for the taking that can help. Here's a few of my favorites to help you start your blog planning.A Typical English Home offers a really nicely set up Post Planning Printable as well as a matching idea log.From Girl Loves Glam, a fabulous Blog Post Checklist that has everything you might want to do before, during, and after writing a post. Evelyn Kate Designs, gives us a Weekly Calender Printable with space for link parties, shopping lists, and even ideas for next week!Also, check out this post from Fab n' Free for 20 more blog planning printables.Thanks for reading and good luck with the post planning my bloggy friends! Thanks so much for having me today Shatzi! Happy Bloggy Birthday!