If I could name the struggles I most often hear bloggers refer to, I would easily put “remaining consistent” in the top 3. Easily.

Many people start a blog with big dreams of having their own corner of the internet where they post their thoughts that flow easily from their mind. They envision having hundreds of eyes visiting their page on a daily basis, leaving endless comments that share how they resonate with the writer’s thoughts.

Then they actually get into the nitty gritty of maintaining a blog and realize it’s a lot of work. Constantly coming up with fresh content to write about, sourcing photos to keep your blog posts from looking like a research paper, sharing your posts on a regular basis and finding ways to entice people to actually click on the links you’re posting everywhere ….it’s a lot of work. It’s not a walk in the park while smelling the roses and petting random puppies. It’s a lot of brainstorming, typing, deleting, proofreading, and sharing.

I’m not mentioning all of these things to discourage anyone from starting their own blog. On the contrary, I’d be thrilled if people took the leap with that awesome idea they have and created their own URL to share their insight.

By giving you the reality of what it’s like to maintain a blog, I’m really hoping to help people get started on their blogging journey with the right mindset. As I said, it takes work to remain consistent with your blogging and I have 5 tips below to help you remain consistent:

1. Know your blog’s purpose

Before you even start thinking about what to name your blog and what your first post should be about, you need to have a clear idea of why your blog will exist.

Will it be to educate? To entertain? To share your random rantings and ravings? Will you stick to a specific topic? Or will you write about everything under the sun? What tone of voice will you write in?

All of these questions are important to have an answer to. Knowing your blog’s purpose is like having a custom road map to help reach your destination. Without knowing your blog’s purpose, you’re akin to a car driving on the interstate taking random exits hoping they’ll lead you to somewhere you want to be. But knowing your purpose beforehand will ensure you only take the detours that bring you closer to your ultimate goal.

So tune up that GPS by making sure you know your blog’s purpose before you publish your first post.

2. Have a clear schedule of when you will post

The easiest way to get overwhelmed with blogging is to have no plan beforehand. Before you know it, 3 weeks will have passed without you having posted a single thing to your blog. Then you start thinking it’s too late to even try so you give up and next thing you know you’ve wasted that URL you took so much time to think up. It can easily become a cycle if you’re not wary.

Set your priority to come up with your blogging schedule as #2 on your to-do list right below deciding on your blog’s name. You should know how often you plan to post, what day(s) you plan to post, and what time you plan to post. Furthermore, figure out where you’ll be promoting your posts (i.e. Pinterest, twitter, Facebook, etc.) as well. Having all of this pre-determined will eliminate the scrambling process when it’s time for your blog posts to go live.

3. Pre-plan your content/topics

Want to eliminate the stress of writing your blog posts? I’ll let you in on a little secret you can feel free to steal: keep a running list of topic ideas for you to consult when it’s time to sit down and type up a new post.

Instead of waiting for inspiration to hit you to write then publish, actively seek inspiration and ideas in order to keep a list of possible topics that you can add to and cross off. As you’re out and about living your daily life, whenever a random topic idea pops into your brain be sure to jot it down on your list for future reference.

4. Have at least 4-5 posts written at all times

Eventually you WILL experience writer’s block. It’s inevitable. If you’ve managed to avoid it thus far on your blogging journey, just know it’s coming. That’s pretty much the one thing you can count on.

Having a handful of posts that you’ve already typed up will keep those moments where you’re lacking inspiration from overcoming you completely. During those times you can reach into your bag of pre-written posts and share one of those. Trust me, it’s clutch in dire times.

These pre-written posts also come in handy for the times when you’re not feeling the posts you originally planned to share, because that does happen as well. Having these pre-written posts is a lifesaver that future you will thank present you for taking care of, so do future you a favor and have them ready to go.

5. Create your graphics and promotional posts ahead of time

Since you’re pre-writing your posts, go ahead and create your corresponding graphics ahead of time as well. Trust me, this is another way to avoid the stress that comes with scrambling to put together all the pieces of the puzzle right before your post goes live.

My current favorite tool for building graphics is Canva. They have so many templates to choose from and they’re easy to edit so the learning curve is pretty low. If you subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud for Photoshop and Lightroom, an awesome resource for free stock photography is Adobe Spark. If you aren’t subscribed, however, Canva also has free options for stock photography as well.

The more organized you are and the more pre-prepping you can do the more likely you are to remain consistent. By doing the necessary work ahead of time, you eliminate the chances of you becoming overwhelmed by having to do things last minute. Feeling overwhelmed is often a cause of people giving up, so reducing the chances of you feeling overwhelmed will help you stay the blogging course.

Have you had issues remaining consistent with blogging in the past? What were your biggest blocks while trying to do so? Share your thoughts on the topic below!