As an author, you’ve probably been told you should be blogging. Blogs are an excellent way to engage your audience and establish yourself as an authority figure. Still, many find the idea of blogging overwhelming and the actual process of writing blog posts almost unbearable. But with a little bit of planning, a few shortcuts, and some tips from the blogosphere, you can be posting and engaging with readers in no time. Here is our five-part series on blogging to help you get started:

Part One: To Blog or Not to Blog (why you should blog)

Part Two: A Blog Without a Cause (what to blog about)

Part Three: Taming the Blog Monster (managing your blog)

Part Four: The Blog Without a Name (promoting your blog)

Part Five: Blog Vital Signs (tracking your progress)

In part three of our series, we show you ways to manage your blog so it doesn’t manage you. If you read our original post on how to develop content for your blog, then you should already have a stockpile of posts to draw on. Next, you want to get them up into the blogosphere.

Some people enjoy blogging on a daily basis, but for most it’s too time consuming and can interfere with other important tasks. Luckily, most blog services such as Wordpress and Blogspot have the option to set a publish date and time, so you can load several posts in one sitting and have them publish automatically in the future. This way you are generating content on the recommended daily basis without the trouble of logging in and posting every day.

As I just mentioned, it is recommended that you blog daily, primarily on weekdays; regular posts positively impact search rankings in search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Still, posting a couple times a week is a good way to generate traffic on a frequent basis. The key word here is consistency. Don’t post five one week and then nothing for the next two weeks. People won’t be interested in what you have to say if they have no idea when you are going to say it. Develop a schedule and stick to it.

Another option to help you manage your blog is to either host guest bloggers or have a co-blogger. This way, the workload is divided among more than one person. Guest blogs are a great way to pull another blogger’s followers into your site (new potential readers) and to provide fresh content. Co-bloggers help take some of the burden off you, and also bring another perspective and new information to the blog. Just remember to choose cohorts who are in line with your author brand so you can keep your message on target and keep your audience engaged.

In our next post we discuss ways to draw readers into your blog.