While you never want to phone it in when you’re writing your blog post, it can pay off to (in the immortal words of infomercial king Ron Popeil) “set it and forget it” when it comes to scheduling them.
If you’ve taken the time to create an editorial calendar ahead of time, you know exactly what you’ll be posting on your blog in a given month. You can map out your posts in advance and begin writing them.
While many bloggers are aware that they can save drafts of their posts in a content management system such as WordPress, they may not know that completed posts don’t have to languish in the queue until a blogger hits the “publish” button.
You may not be aware of WordPress’s “Schedule” feature. Once you’ve finished writing your blog post, you can schedule it to go live on a certain date instead of just saving it as a draft and hoping you remember to publish that post on the date you intended it to go live.
Why You Should Schedule Your Blog Posts In Advance
For starters, scheduling your posts ahead of time takes the pressure off of you to remember to publish your post long after you’ve completed it.
Scheduling your posts in advance also gives you the ability to be strategic about your posts. For example, if you write a Halloween-themed post in September, you may not want it to go live around Labor Day since it may not be relevant. You can use the “Schedule” function in WordPress to save your draft and have it ready to go live on the date you specify. This allows you to make more timely posts and gives you one less thing to remember.
How Do I Schedule Blog Posts in WordPress?
So glad you asked! Don’t worry. This is really easy.
Step 1: Take a look at the right hand side of your WordPress post draft and look for the “Publish” module.
Step 2: Look for the line that says “Publish immediately” and click “Edit.” (Obviously, you don’t want to “publish immediately,” but don’t worry! We’ll take care of this!)
Step 3: Once you’ve clicked on “Edit,” you should see a drop-down menu with the current date.
Step 4: Using the drop-downs and the date and time markers, schedule your blog post for the desired date. (Hint: If you’d like your post to go live at the stroke of midnight that day, schedule the time for 01:00 hours.) Once your desired scheduled date and time have been set, hit “OK.”
Step 5: Once you’ve hit “OK” you should see the “Publish” button transform into a “Schedule” button. If you’re satisfied with your post, proofed it, optimized it, and added your tags…. Hit “Schedule” and chill til the next episode… er, blog post.
The next time you’re on a mad blogging spree and writing your posts ahead of time, try using WordPress’s scheduling functionality to “set it and forget it.”
