Taking It Up A Notch In 2012 | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

As part of the Yakezie challenge, not only do I plan to do all the things on the list, but I am planning to take my writing up a notch for the entire year. In the past I have been lazy because I know i could get away with it. That is not to say that the articles I wrote weren't decent, but I could have done more. I have made a commitment to take my writing to the next level this year. That means when I get 5 ways to do something and I know that I have a decent article, I don't put it up, but tell myself to take it to the next level. This is my first attempt this year and how I hope all of my articles look from now on:

http://www.savingadvice.com/ar…..rtune.html

My question to all of you — what could I have done to make it even better? Also, who would like to join me in taking their posts to the next levl this year?

Since I'm new, I'm trying to write at a high level, hoping to distinguish myself through quality content.

One way I've been able to accomplish this is to "write ahead."

I have a buffer of posts so I'm never less than a week ahead of my posting schedule (not counting link roundups, etc).

I also have 3-4 posts in progress at a time, and when I get tired of working on one, I go to another.

Keeps me fresh and allows me to develop higher quality posts that I look at for a week or two before publishing.

John @ Married with Debt said:

Since I'm new, I'm trying to write at a high level, hoping to distinguish myself through quality content.

One way I've been able to accomplish this is to "write ahead."

I have a buffer of posts so I'm never less than a week ahead of my posting schedule (not counting link roundups, etc).

I also have 3-4 posts in progress at a time, and when I get tired of working on one, I go to another.

Keeps me fresh and allows me to develop higher quality posts that I look at for a week or two before publishing.

Even before I found my way over to Yakezie, I had established some writing guidelines for myself…and like you having a buffer of articles at least a week ahead has proven to make it feel much easier than a year ago (when I started blogging).  At that point I felt the pressure to get something done, or I rushed everything out.

This way I get the core of the articles done at least 7 days ahead, and read and re-read and edit and re-edit the ones getting closer to publication date.  I have a calendar plugin on the WP dashboard, and that helps me see ahead easily.

Of course, the purpose of the schedule is to improve what I write…not saying I accomplish that, but it is the goal.

You guys are so good!  I feel happy if it is Tuesday and I have posts scheduled through Friday.  There is no back up; I have tried, but I just don't seem to work that way.  

Melissa (Mom's Plans) said:

You guys are so good!  I feel happy if it is Tuesday and I have posts scheduled through Friday.  There is no back up; I have tried, but I just don't seem to work that way.  

I started using a web service called Evernote as a way to capture ideas for future posts (well, actually I use Evernote for just about everything…I wrote in late 2010 about it here:  http://ow.ly/8xC9j ).

I have Evernote on my iPhone (they have Blackberry and Android apps too), and when I have a spark of an idea, I jot it down or use a voice note on Evernote).

ThadP said:

Do you ever repost something that was out there before?  I have a some posts I wrote for a shared blog that I have brought over and dusted off/updated.  Thoughts?

I probably wouldn't do it unless I did a significant update. I could probably rewrite from scratch some ideas I've written about before, on Hubpages, for example. Most of my prior writing is on Hubpages, which does not allow the content to appear elsewhere, so I'm tied there