I'm committed to getting ahead on my posts and scheduling them to publish automatically. I want to eliminate the panicky feeling I get when I'm trying to write, edit and publish all in the same day. And after the great convo on Facebook the other day (I'm having fun on FB. You gotta join us if you haven't already!), I was inspired by those of you who are super organized in this area.
And then Sarah asked about the particulars of scheduling posts, so I thought I'd throw this little tutorial together.
Can't see the video? Watch it here.
Video Notes:
- Write your post as usual.
- Instead of hitting the "Publish" button, click the "Edit" link directly above it (in the Publish box) next to the words "Publish immediately."
- When you click that "Edit" link, you will be able to change the date and time. Click "OK."
- Click the "Schedule" button (which was previously the blue "Publish" button).
- Done! Now your post will automatically publish at the time you set.
Sidenotes:
- Make sure you change the date and time, click "OK" AND ALSO click the "Schedule" button. Setting the date and time is not enough. You must also make sure you click the "Schedule" button.
- Also, make sure your timezone is set correctly by going to Settings –> General –> Timezone.
Hi Amy,
I've also been making an effort to organize my blogging, so I tried scheduling a post for the first time last week. I scheduled the post for 8:30AM and then I updated my Feedburner delivery for Email subscribers to 9:00AM. It worked flawlessly as my iPhone chimed to signal the receipt of my post as I was on my way to work, right on schedule.
Ray
Good additional point, Ray, to make sure your FeedBurner delivery time is set accordingly.
Kinda goes along with this post, but I know others schedule posts through Tweetdeck or other 3rd party sources, like Networked Blogs. PUHLEASE don't do that! In FB, all of those posts get lumped together. So, if I have 12 posts on my newsfeed from Networked Blogs, only the latest will appear and the rest will be lumped into a link that says "11 more posts from Networked Blogs". So easy to overlook that, which means your posts may not be showing up on FB!
I agree that manual publishing on FB is best for sure. An added extra blurb introducing your posts is better.
Thanks for linking to my site! I really appreciate that– and all of your helpful info on scheduling!!
Yes, this is an AWESOME way to alleviate unnecessary stress.
In regards to writing and scheduling a post, I was wondering if you had any insight on how to avoid the 30 bazillion "revision dates".
Every time I make the slightest change and save/update, I get a new revision date. I know it's fine to have them, but I like things, even behind-the-scenes, to be "clean". I've [almost] always created my posts in Word. When it's to a point that I'm happy with it, I paste it into WordPress. But as I "view" it, I will still see something that needs a little tweaking.
So, I've gone a step further and use that post, that's already had hours of time poured into it, as a "draft". Then… [you still with me
], I copy my HTML post that has a ton of revision dates, delete the "draft" post [after I've pasted it into a new Word document as a backup, incase my pasting command freaks out on me], and then create a brand new post so I can simply paste it, select the category, schedule the date and time, and click the FINAL button – the SCHEDULE button.
Sometimes, I'll STILL catch something silly, and if correcting it creates too many revision dates, I go thru all of this all over again. So… my question is, is there a way to delete all the revisions?
The string of revision dates TRULY drives me crazy!
Your crazy, anal, OCD, control-freak follower – Your Gardening Friend.
I haven't tried it myself, but check out a plugin called Delete-Revision (searchable from your Dashboard). There are other plugins that are similar, just search for "revision."
Okay, I already knew this. But I just wanted to take a minute to say (again) that your blog has been Instrumental (capital I) in helping me make the switch the wp, and lots of other bloggy things!
I'm so glad! I never tire of hearing it has been helpful so thanks for letting me know (again).
And I so appreciate how much you've been a part of the community here, Jessica. So, thank YOU!
Good advice as usual Amy. The girls basically take one day out of the week and devote the entire day to writing all of their posts for the following week. Scheduling each post ahead of time for the following week seems to be a great way to manage time and systematically have good content Monday through Friday for readers. We have all come to find that the scheduling posts WordPress feature is an invaluable asset.
Thanks!!
Yes, I think I heard it called "batch blogging" once.
I really appreciate all of your information, it has been very helpful in getting me ready to start my blog which will be next week hopefully
Thanks for the great tip! I was wondering how I was going to find the time this coming Sunday to post my baking recipe since I'll be on the road traveling. Now I can get it done ahead of time and it'll post on time and I won't have to worry about missing an opportunity to post.
Woot!
I would love to start "batch blogging" as you stated in a reply to a comment above. I met a lady at (in)RL who said she does her posts for the week every Saturday. I don't know if I can carve out that much time in one day, but I think I could easily carve out 3 mornings a week to do my 7 weekly posts.
Amy, my wordpress seems to have it's dates/times messed up. It's nearly 11pmCT here and yet it's telling me I just updated a page at 4:33am TOMORROW! How do I fix this? and does/will it affect any posts I schedule? Thanks!
Katie
Hi Katie, go into Dashboard –> Settings –> General and make sure your timezone is set correctly. Hope that takes care of it!
I've been trying to get this to work for a few days, how did I keep missing that "schedule" button ?! LOL, I knew you would know how though
Thanks!
I was wondering why:
When I publish a blog post manually, or schedule it to post, I don't receive the post in my own email until about 12-18 hours after? My time is set correctly in the wordpress settings. How can we know for sure when people receive our posts? Do they deliver according to the time zone they are sent from? If so, why is there a delay for it to get to my own inbox? Just beginning, just confused. Thanks.
Hi Jenny, it sounds like you need to change the time on your RSS email delivery service (FeedBurner, FeedBlitz, etc.).