Underground Web Designs Blog

It’s pretty common knowledge that having a blog can be a huge boost to your online business, but where do you find the time to write in it? Did you know you can automate many blogging tasks, so you don’t have to spend extra time doing them? If you take just 30 minutes to set them up you’ll never have to worry about them again.

1. If you have a wordpress blog, turn on the Askimet pluggin. Every wordpress blog comes with this pluggin included, just log in to your wordpress admin area and activate the pluggin. In order to activate it you will need a free account at www.wordpress.com, which you can get in a few minutes. Once you have your wordpress.com API key and plug it into the Askimet pluggin, Askimet goes to work protecting your blog from comment spam. If you’re just starting out as a blogger comment spam may not be a problem for you yet. In this case, Askimet is a preventative measure. As your blog gets more popular you’ll soon have almost as many spam comments as you have spam in your inbox. Take preventative measures now by setting up Askimet so you NEVER have to deal with comment spam on your blog.
2. Batch your posts. Have you ever sat down at your computer and felt like you could pump off 3 or 4 posts all at once? When you are in the mood to write make use of your post time stamps to save yourself some time over the next few days. Most bogging platforms allow you to edit the time stamp on your posts, and if this time is set to a time in the future, your post will not be published till that time. Next time you feel like writing 5 posts all at once time stamp them into the future and watch your blog update itself over the next week without any help from you!
3. Make use of Aweber’s Blog Broadcast feature and your blog’s built in RSS feed. Every good blogging platform should automatically provide you with an RSS feed of your posts. Make sure that it is easy for people to subscribe to your feed. Put a big button in a prominent possition on your blog that links to the feed. People who subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed will be automatically notified of your new posts as soon as you post them — without you having to lift a finger! Another powerful way to get the word out about your blog is to use Aweber’s “Blog Broadcast” feature (this only works if you have people on your Aweber subscriber list). Simply input your blog RSS feed URL, the number of blog posts to include in each e-mail, and the template you’d like to use and you’re set! Now every X number of posts your loyal subscribers will get an e-mail letting them know what you’ve recently written about… all without you doing anything except write the posts!

Technology was meant to make our lives easier, and in the world of blogging it has certainly come a long way toward doing that! Following these three tips will help you avoid hours of checking through spammy comments, allow you to write when you feel like it and still post consistently, and help you broadcast your blogging efforts without lifting a finger. Never do manually what you can automate!