How Do You Get Your Blog to 200 Posts Fast?

That’s a great question, and I’m happy to say that I’m qualified to answer it.

See, this is my Writing Blog’s 207th post. I started this site on March 2, 2013, so that means it took me just over 13 months to get that many posts.

Additionally, I have 151 posts on my ESL blog, 62 posts on my Montana blog, and 32 posts on my Montana election blog.

So how can you do the same? And do you want to?

I mean, yeah, getting 200 posts on your blog sounds like a great thing, but it’s a lot of work too.

Are you ready to write thousands of words each week, set aside time in your daily schedule for the next year or longer, and neglect certain areas of your life so you can talk to a brick wall that you call an audience?

Alright, good, then let me give you some tips that will help you get up to 200 blog posts fast.

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Organize Your Files in Folders

It’s a must to organize your blog posts. You need to refer back to these sometimes, perhaps to figure out what posts you wrote around the same time. Trust me, you will forget what you’ve posted.

I also have a spreadsheet with the perma-links to all my blog posts, making it easier when I need to link back to my site.

For instance, if I’m commenting on a blog about eBook sales, I might leave a specific link back to an old eBook marketing post, not just my generic homepage. I figure if the person clicking on my name on that site is interested in the article I directed them to, well, they’ll go and explore my site further.

That increases both the on-site time as well as decreases my bounce rate. That page they came in on is now viewed as a landing page (rather small but with potential), and I’ve also given Google yet another cue as to what my site is about.

This last point is important. Many folks are worried about links right now, specifically ling-building and linkbacks.

Now, I’m only going to be commenting (that’s the only way I get links unless someone unknowingly links to me) on sites that are relevant to what my site is about. Often I’ll have these links point back to Google+, Facebook, or Wordpress if I can’t put my own site down. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this.

Organize Your Pictures in Folders

Recently I moved all of last year’s pictures into a “2013” folder. For this year I’ve already moved the last three months’ posts into a folder called “2014 Q1,” which makes it easier to handle. Considering I had more than 50 posts during that time, it just makes sense.

Now I can access the recent pictures more easily, as you can see below.

The pictures for your blog posts will get away from you

I do the same thing with my Word documents for each post, as you can see.

Organize your blog files for fewer hassles

When you have a folder with fifty to a hundred posts it just makes you want to close it out and not even look at it. That means you won’t be putting up a post that day, or even that week. And that means you’re falling behind.

Don’t let this happen by using simple organizational principles.

Have a Standard Post Design

I’ve used the same standard design since I got started, which is to have paragraphs and pictures.

Weebly, my website designs software, makes this easy for me. I simply drag-and-drop one of those boxes and insert my text and then picture. I separate those by headlines, and follow the same pattern throughout.

A typical post will have an opening paragraph and then three headlines with their own paragraph or two, maybe three. Each of those headline blocks will have at least one picture, typically in the opening paragraph of that block. For that reason I usually try to have each block be at least two paragraphs.

A newer blog post format

The picture I use for the first intro block is typically the picture I’ll use on the homepage when I put the link there. Also, I have a “You Might Also Like” headline at the bottom of most posts, directing visitors back to similar articles I’ve written. Rarely will I have links pointing to other sites.

Now, I didn’t always do it like this. For a whole month or two after starting this site I primarily relied on text. I’d use bullet points, but there wasn’t much in the way of pictures.

An old blog post format

This is boring, and I decided to move away from it. Hey, it’s my site and I can do whatever I want. I wish more sites that rely solely on text would do the same.

Color Code Your Posts’ Categories

Like many of the above points, this is one I talked about in my post on how you can get your blog to 100 posts fast. Since then I’ve had to organize my color coding system more, adding additional categories and also cutting out some of the old posts.

Color code your blog posts for easy reference

If you compare the two color-coding pictures in these two posts you’ll see that those spreadsheet cells really start piling up, so I put those on a different page. Now my main problem is that I’m running out of colors.

Also, I’m getting too many posts bunched up into generic categories like “SEO” (the pink color). I need to organize those particular posts down into subcategories, such as link building, guest posting, content marketing, social media marketing, and other things. The problem’s that I keep putting that off.

That’s a common problem you’ll find when you blog for a long time, and get up to 200 posts or higher. There are a lot of small things like links, categories, and just keeping track of what you’ve done and what you haven’t. This can keep you from continuing.

I mean, imagine if you’re a site like The Book Designer and have more than 1,000 posts. That’s quite a headache to manage I bet!

Engage in Social Media Marketing

I’ve been doing a lot with Google+ lately and my Facebook fans have increased as well. For instance, after doing a post on Optimizing Your Google+ Circles I got a whole bunch of views and about 150 more followers.

Try to get more circles in your life

Now, a lot of authors don’t like to do marketing, but it’s pretty simple and really consists of nothing more than writing a few short sentences here and there.

I think it’s the thought of getting into it that scares people the most, but after you familiarize yourself with the various site designs you’ll be fine.

You’ll find more than enough eBook marketing and content marketing posts on this site, if you take the time to look. If you’d like to save time consider buying one of my books on the subject.

Have Numerous Series For When You Get Bored

I get bored of writing for my blogs, and I have series to combat this. For this writing blog there’s Dead Author Interviews, Adventures in SEO, the Monthly Reports, and a few on writing a fantasy novel and even writing faster.

Just last week I started another series that’s nothing more than content curation. Posts like that can be easy (they can also be even harder) and that means you have an extra post that week, or day even.

All of these are good things to have on your site, whether it’s just a weekly 3 to 5 post series or an ongoing series that ends sometime in a few months, or perhaps an open-ended series that you add to when you feel like it.

For my Dead Author Interviews series I have a whole list of names. Sometimes I’ll break one of those down into its own document, get some research, and get started slowly. For SEO Adventures, I typically write when I feel like it, going over everything that’s happened since the last installment.

That’s a good word – installment. Episode might be better, like those old TV shows you used to like.

Well, 12 is a good number, so think about starting your monthly series this month. If nothing else, it’s an extra 12 posts closer to your 200.

Take a Day Off

Do you know what I did last weekend? A whole lot of nothing. First, I wasted a lot of time playing Facebook games like Criminal Case, Farmville 2, and Hemp Tycoon.

This game will eat your time like no other

Next, I did a lot of social media marketing on Google+. Finally, I didn’t have any jobs to do so just didn’t have as much of an economic incentive to write. Remember, this blog doesn’t really make me any money, at least not measurably.

So why all this time wasting? Well, I was visiting my parents in Helena and also didn’t have anything to work on for other people. So I decided to do nothing.

Alrighty, I still posted on this site each day, but when I say nothing, I really mean that my daily word counts went from around 5,000 to 500 or so. I hate that, but sometimes it helps to recharge the batteries.

This advice might apply to you, but I still don’t like it.

Insult Your Visitors

I do this frequently, as you can see in such posts as Writers Stop Visiting My Site and Just…Don’t Listen To Me.

Those are two recent examples, although I think I’ve done the same many times before.

Sometimes I feel bad about this, but my site traffic doesn’t go down. Blog comments also don’t go down, primarily because there are none.

So what have you got to lose in a situation like that? Maybe something, maybe nothing. I guess you won’t know until you give it a try.

Do Not Focus on Making Money

I don’t have much in the way for advertising on this site. I tried a pop-up survey asking visitors about my site, but after a week or two with no comments I took it down.

That was about a year ago, and since then I haven’t added any of that crap. I do have a few Amazon Affiliate ads, and some Google Adsense ads, but nothing too major. And you know how much those make me? About $1.82 a month or so.

I figure that’s why I have so many visitors each day, because I’m not bombarding them with crap they don’t want.

If you want to get up to 200 blog posts fast you’ll need encouragement. Maybe that’s money from advertising, although I don’t think you’ll be getting much. What I think is better is if you have that steady increase in traffic over time.

Organic audience building boosts your confidence, and that keeps you motivated to keep posting. So in that regard, I think ads are bad. After all, they scare away visitors that could have turned into users, and that means your traffic could stall, and your motivation to write right along with it.

Try to Be Bold and Daring and Entertaining

I try to do this, but I don’t think it works very well. My whole idea is that people want to be entertained, they don’t want to be informed. Well, my Google+ Circles post getting 175 views in 2 days (that’s a lot for me) might say otherwise.

And yet at the same time it’s the entertaining articles that keep showing up high in the rankings each month. Again, that’s not quite accurate. Perhaps it’d be good to say there’s a mix of informative and entertaining.

Hell, I don’t know what people want!

That’s what you’ll find out, too. Maybe it takes 20 posts, maybe 100, but eventually you’ll run out of steam or just start to say the same thing over and over again.

So what can you do? Posting cat videos might work, as those get the most likes of anything I see, besides puppy videos.

No, I think it’s better to take chances. Try something stupid or silly, like my Tarot posts. Blame the planets for your eBook sales like I did once a few months ago.

Maybe you should talk about your family or kids or pets. I think that’s pretty boring for most people, however, unless you’re famous or something.

So in this one I guess you’ll have to think up something on your own. Bummer.

Try Not to Be Boring

This is something I try to do a lot, but really, do you know what you’re doing that is boring?

I mean, really?

We had a Boredom Scale when I was an ESL teacher. This was something I started on during my last year, when I myself was bored out of my mind, and a lot of students got a kick out of it.

Maybe there’s a sidebar plug-in that can act as a Boring Scale for you. After all, we don’t always have the best judgment.

Hmm, maybe you could get someone else to read your rubbish before you assault everyone else with it?

I never do this, but again, you don’t really want to do what I do if you want to be successful. Trust me, Big Boys that specialize in content marketing, social media marketing, and branding will be able to help you a lot more.

I mean, their content’s never boring, right?

Don’t Pay Attention to the Big Sites

Alright, the Big Boys again. I talked extensively about this in my book Visit My Site, Bitch, so you should be like the other 20 smart people in the world and buy it.

Now, at this point I’m seriously thinking of changing the title of this post to “200 pieces of shit advice not to take when it comes to blogging.”

That actually might get me a lot more hits, and I think I’ll have to save that idea for later.

But really, when it comes to the Big Boys, they often recycle the same 200 blog posts over and over again. Yeah, you’ve noticed this, right?

I mean, let’s take a tally here. The most common big site topics include:

• Headlines Sell (10);
• Writing Compelling Content (25);
• Dealing with Headers (10);
• Link Building (10);
• Google Penalties (10);
• Marketing Your eBook (10);
• Learn From the Greats (Perfect for Holiday Weeks) (5);
• Top 10 Things To Do (10);
• Top 10 Things Not To Do (15);
• Doing What You Shouldn’t (10);
• Not Doing What You Should (10);
• What To Do When You’ve Done Everything Wrong (10);
• Our Conference/eBook/Newsletter/Product is Coming Soon (25);
• This is a Holiday So We Don’t Work (5);
• You Are the Most Important Thing to Us (25);
• Look at Me! (10).
  

Alright, those pretty much encompass the top articles you’ll see each month on the Big Boy sites. And to make it easier for you, I’ve divided up the 200 posts into what I think they’ll be about. 

For instance, “This is a Holiday So We Don’t Work” is not used that often, but I’d say 5 times each year you’ll see that exact post up on your favorite site, and on the exact day you’re sitting around doing nothing and just dying for fresh content.

How about “Not Doing What You Should?” This is a post you’ll see about 10 times throughout the year or in a 200-post cycle, and they really point out your own inadequacies, usually to sell some kind of product or service.

Sometimes the advice will be friendly, advising you against doing what Tom over there is doing. Sometimes it’s a big condescending, calling Sally an idiot. But never will it be you they’re talking about.

It’s kind of like going to the doctor and saying “Listen Doc, I’ve got a friend who…”

And this gets us around to “You Are the Most Important Thing to Us,” a common post you’ll see about 25 times a year, a few times a month, on average.

Here we extol the virtues of you – the user. 

What a crock of shit! Perhaps if those sites were actually telling their visitors and users just how stupid they are, well, maybe those visitors would come back more often.

You don’t have to act like a Soup Nazi, but being Polyanna-ish is no way to continue with your blog either.

Perhaps you should visit the Big Boys more often, to get an idea of what not to do, or just how you can take their lame game to a whole new level. There is money to be made with that last one. After all, copycats can always find an easy buck.

Find a Fuel for Your Anger

Writing in the morning is good for me, especially if there’s some story about the Republicans doing something stupid.

Those aren’t hard to find, so I can get fired up and my fingers flying and then, BOOM!, there’s 1,231 words or something.

You need to find your own “Republican” articles as well.

Piss People Off (At Least in Your Mind) At Least Once a Week

I typically put up at least one post a week that I cringe at and wish later that I perhaps didn’t put up. Sometimes these are really popular, other times no one reads them at all.

Most people want to be angered when they’re on the computer. They want to take out their frustrations on someone else, or at least have someone actually come clean and tell them to their face that, yes, they are stupid.

A No-BS attitude can really help your site. If you put out bullshit on a continual basis no one will really be interested in you. At that point you’re going to engage in some of those questionable SEO tactics that could get your blog in trouble.

But what is trouble, and is it really that bad? I guess if your blog is tied to your business, or if your business is your blog, then trouble might not be good.

But everyone likes to slowdown and look at a car wreck, and some even pull over to stop and get out. No once can’t look.

Your site could be that car wreck, if you put out an edgy piece of content at least once a week.

I bet it’ll be tame at first, perhaps swatting at a few flies. But if you decide to dig up the whole backyard one day and really get at the infestation problem as you see it in your niche or industry, then my hat is off to you, sir.

I doubt it will come to that, but chances are, putting a bit of bite into your blog will help you in ways you can’t yet realize.

Post Everyday

See, I don’t follow this rule, at least not on this blog. I have four blogs, however, so if I’m not posting on this one for a day that means I’m posting on another one. Also, sometimes I put up two posts in one day on this blog. I don’t’ really care.

Now, by this point I’m sure you think I’m crazy. I mean, I have four blogs. Some people can’t imagine keeping up with one blog let alone four. And I have a rather blasé attitude toward them and the readers of them.

And that’s why I should have just done what I wanted to do, and that’s given you the best piece of advice right up front.

Unfortunately that would have meant this 3,296 word blog post would’ve only been 2 words long. And that would have pissed you off. Well, good – go write something!

So what is this magical formula?

“Write everyday.”

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