*UPDATED* Secrets of a Successful Blogging Workflow

It’s been a couple of years since I shared my secrets of a successful blogging workflow. The essentials haven’t changed but I’ve streamlined and improved the process since then. I thought it would be useful to provide an update.

What’s Changed?

I’ve moved away from needing to use my desktop computer. Instead of phone plus PC, I now complete the entire workflow on my Android phone and tablet (Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy A8, respectively).

I still have my Maplin N87EN Bluetooth keyboard, but now work primarily on a Logitech K380. Its hot key function allows me to swap between my phone and tablet at the press of a button. I continue to use Microsoft Word as a formatting tool, but now use the cloud-based Word app rather than Office Professional on my PC.

The most significant change is the introduction of Quick Edit Text Editor Pro. This allows me to easily add HTML tags, links, and perform live link testing before I move the article into Blogger for publication.

Here’s my current workflow, with the applications I use at each stage.

1. Google Keep

Every article starts as a new Google Keep document on my phone. The app’s simplicity appeals to me. It synchs perfectly and quickly between my phone and tablet, meaning I can capture ideas or continue working on my latest post at a moment’s notice, wherever I might be. It’s text only with no fancy formatting features (no styles, italic, bold etc). This could be seen as a disadvantage (a word count feature would be helpful) but I find its simplicity helps me focus on what I’m writing. Formatting comes later, although I do mark key divisions in the text as I’m going. For example, I mark a new section with “==” and use “--” to bracket content that will be formatted as blockquotes.

I capture web links (URLs) as I go, pasting them immediately after the paragraph to which they belong. This means they are to hand when I add the anchor links later.

I usually begin my search for an accompanying image at this stage, and add it to the Keep document so I can gauge how well it suits the article as I’m working on it. For more on images check out my article How to Choose the Perfect Image for Your Blog Post.

I do a lot of the writing and editing on my phone using the on screen keyboard (SwiftKey) but if I’m settling in for a longer session — for example, at one my favourite writing cafés — I prefer to work on my tablet with my Logitech K380 keyboard. The larger screen and keyboard are better for my eyes, and it’s useful to have my phone if I want to quickly look something up or check for content to include. I can easily add URLs and such into the document on my phone, synch it back to the tablet, and continue writing.

2. Word

Once the article is written and edited, I paste it into a new Word document. This is the simplest way I’ve found to convert quotation marks, double quotation marks, and apostrophes to their “smart” equivalents. I also scan for and correct any spelling mistakes and accidental double spaces, and check the word count. The process normally takes no more than a couple of minutes, after which I paste the content into a new Quick Edit document.

3. Quick Edit

Quick Edit is what was missing from my original workflow: a dedicated HTML editor with live preview. It highlights HTML tags, making it very easy to confirm I’m entering them correctly. I like to keep my code as simple and clean as possible. I use one or two levels of headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, bold, and italic. (I’m aware that I ought to employ strong and emphasis tags rather than bold and italic.) I add the links (anchor tags) next, using the URLs I captured earlier.

One of the key features of Quick Edit is the preview option. The links in the preview are active (clickable) so I can test they all work correctly. This is particularly useful because links in Blogger previews are not clickable and so can’t be tested until the post is published. Pretesting in Quick Edit means I can publish with confidence that all the links are working as they should.

4. Blogger

Once everything is tested in Quick Edit, I copy the entire document and paste it into a new post in Blogger. At this stage, everything is complete apart from adding images. These need to be uploaded to Blogger, so it’s simpler to leave this until last. I perform a final proof-read using the Blogger preview function, add labels, and then schedule the post for publication. I publish one new article each week on a Wednesday, with any additional pieces going up on a Saturday.

I don’t currently use any tools to schedule my social media posts, so I share the new blog posts manually on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Over to You

In this article I’ve shared my current blogging workflow. If you’re a blogger I’d love to hear your process, as I’m sure we all have lots we can learn from each other! Feel free to share your thoughts and experience, either in the comments below or via our contact page. In the meantime, check out my Curated List of Blog Posts about Blogging for more inspiration and ideas.

 

Image by Kiyun Lee at Unsplash.