Scheduling Your Posts....Don't Make My Mistake!

What do you do when you are going to be away on vacation, out of the office for the day, or somewhere else that takes you away from your usual routine?  Do you...

Get someone to pick up your mail/newspaper?

Arrange for someone to take care of your pets?

Make sure any bills are paid that will come due while you are away?

Make sure your voice mail is set up and working so people can get answers while you are out?

Basically, you plan ahead so you don't have to worry while you are out....right?

So, if you are a blogger, what do you do when you know you won't be able to write posts for a while due to other work/family obligations?  You write up posts for the time you will be away and then you schedule them to post at a later date/time, right?  All is well.  Your followers are still getting tips, ideas, and inspiration from your blog while you are tending to your work/family obligations (worry free).

Well, that's what I did....or what I THOUGHT I did.  

A couple of weeks ago, I was busy with getting my kids back to school.  That wouldn't have been so bad but my husband (a small business owner) needed me to get a lot of bookkeeping and financial projections done for him.  I wouldn't have time for blogging but not a problem.  I wrote up 10 posts and had them scheduled to post over these past two weeks. I've done this many times before and it's not difficult.   Here's how you schedule a post in Blogger.

Step 1:  Write your post as you normally would do

Step 2:  On the right side bar, you will see "Schedule"...click on it

Step 3:  Choose the option "Set date and time"

Step 4:  A calendar along with date/time boxes appear.  Choose your date/time and click on done.

Step 5:  When you are completely satisfied with your post, select Publish from the top...NOT save.

Your post will then be published at the day/time it was scheduled.

Guess what?  The "publish" selection is VERY important....no, it is VERY VERY VERY Important!

Why do I say this?

Well, let's just say that I haven't checked my blogging e-mail, facebook, twitter, or anything else in my blogging life so that I wouldn't get distracted from my other "must dos".  I just logged on so that I could write a new post and saw that NONE of my scheduled posts were published.

AAARRRRRGGGGGG!

I am so sorry, guys.  I thought I had this all under control.  So, what have I learned from this?  To add....

Step 6:  Check in on your blog to make sure your posts are being published....in your frenzy to get everything done, you just may have forgotten the "publish" step.

So, my gift to you is this.  From Jan 21 - 31, stop by in the morning and again in the evening.  Why?  Each day I'll be sharing one of my "missed" posts along with something "new".

See you tomorrow!

4 You