How to manage multiple blogs without going crazy

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managing multiple blogs

Managing one blog is time-consuming enough, so why would anyone want to run multiple blogs?

Lots of reasons!

Maybe you want to have another blog just for fun.

Maybe you want to start networking in another industry.

Maybe you want to build another revenue stream.

Maybe you are a professional blogger that needs to manage multiple blogs for clients.

There are so many reasons for managing multiple blogs, and although all the experts say it’s silly to spend time focusing on more than one thing, let me explain why it can benefit your life.

When I first dipped my toes into the blogging world, I started with a blog for college students because that’s what I knew best. From there, that blog morphed into a few other niches where I eventually landed on copywriting, my true passion.

If I hadn’t given myself room to try multiple blogs, make connections, and build out my portfolio, I wouldn’t be where I am now.

Not everyone is lucky enough to know what their true calling is, and I am a firm believer in the idea that blogging can help you discover it. Blogging can also help build your small business and depending on your marketing strategy, I’ve seen some benefit from running multiple blogs.

No matter your reason, this article will show you exactly how you can manage it all.

1. Decide on a realistic publishing and work schedule.

When starting any creative project, most of us have an optimistic view of being able to fit it all in. It’s easy to imagine that you can fit in multiple blogs a week and maintain that schedule for the whole year, but you don’t want to overwhelm yourself before you even begin.

It’s better to start slow and work your way up than starting out with a lot of posts and burning out before you gain any traction.

Even if you can only publish one piece of content every other week, the best thing you can do for any blog is stay consistent and keep going.

2. Pick your tools.

There are no “one-size-fits-all” solutions to managing your creative workload. Some people prefer digital, some prefer paper. I’m (mostly) a paper girl myself, but I understand the benefit of having everything digital. If you’re like me and prefer to brainstorm offline, paper might be your best bet.

The most important thing is to use tools that don’t get in your way. You want them to work for you instead of you working for them.

How I do it:

Here’s what I do, the tools I use, and the process I follow so please borrow what works best for you. My process is also incredibly cheap so you can do this whether you’re a beginner or expert.

The biggest hurdle for me to overcome in the beginning was organizing all the ideas I had in my head and being able to put them all in order.

I joined Trello and set up a board for each blog. I have one category called “Ideas” where I type post ideas as they come. I also carry a small pocket notebook so I can track ideas and then funnel them into Trello as I go. You never know when inspiration will strike!

A note: Trello now also has a calendar option, so you can use that, too.

3. Brainstorm content for the months and year ahead.

Once you have a whole list of ideas, it’s time to organize them all.

I look at the year and imagine what I want each blog to achieve by the end of the year. Maybe you want a certain amount of posts, a networking opportunity, a set number of followers… Whatever it is, knowing what you want in the future will help you organize your steps now.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”‘Knowing what you want in the future will help you organize your steps now.’ @JackieMPearce” quote=”Knowing what you want in the future will help you organize your steps now.” theme=”style3″]

I use a Crayola’s child’s floor pad that you can buy online or at any major store, like Target. They’re huge and it helps you truly brain dump your entire year.

I make little squares for each month on these sheets and then I start plugging in my focus or theme for each month.

For example, let’s say you run a fitness blog. January would be New Year’s Resolutions, April would be starting to lose weight for summer, June could be healthy summer recipes, Thanksgiving could be – you get the idea.

Be sure to plug in when you’re launching products, writing an ebook, going to conferences, or anything else that will shape your focus each month.

I go through pens like crazy, so here’s a professional writer tip: buy them from closeout stores. These are my personal favorite and I can’t recommend a pen/highlighter combo enough.

This will help so you can highlight the most important events and topics you want to cover each month.

Now that you have a publishing schedule and a general outline for the year, at the start of every month you can look at your lists and plug them into your monthly calendar.

If you keep them all together on one planner, be sure to start color-coding each blog so you can find your To Do’s easily.

4. Give yourself room to adjust.

Being able to juggle multiple projects isn’t easy, but it’s worth it once you get the hang of it.

The most important thing to remember is that if you fall off the wagon, miss a few days, or have to focus on something else, it’s truly no big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Just pick right back up where you left off. You’re human! People will understand. The biggest mistake people make when trying to manage multiple blogs is quitting before they can get the ball rolling.

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Jackie Pearce

Jackie is a copywriter and blogger from Denver, CO. She graduated with her business writing degree from the University of Colorado.

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12 Comments

  1. Avatar Gillian Sutton on March 16, 2017 at 10:14 am

    I’m curious, is there a special platform for scheduling blog posts? A kind of blog related HootSuite-like tool…?

    • Avatar Janet Barclay on March 16, 2017 at 10:37 am

      I’m not familiar with other blogging platforms, but WordPress has a scheduling feature built into it.

    • Avatar Jackie on March 16, 2017 at 2:59 pm

      Hi Gillian! As far as I know, every blogging platform allows scheduling, at least the ones I’ve played with (WordPress (.com and .org), Blogger, Squarespace, and Tumblr). I haven’t found a platform that allows you to manage all your scheduled post in one place, so I mainly use Excel sheets or Google Sheets to keep track.

  2. Avatar Kathy McEwan on March 16, 2017 at 4:43 pm

    Thanks for mentioning Trello. I am not familiar with them but will check them out.

  3. Avatar Sabrina Quairoli on March 21, 2017 at 8:11 am

    Great tips Janet. For me, having separate pages in my OneNote account helps me keep the topics separate. I add a table in OneNote for the entire year and write down the big picture goals for each month. This way I can be more flexible with my topics each week.

    • Avatar Janet Barclay on March 21, 2017 at 11:36 am

      Ooh, great tip, Sabrina! I use OneNote for organizing the Blog Carnival topics and my guest bloggers, but I never thought of using it for the other stuff. I’ll have to try it!

  4. Avatar Tina Holmes on April 20, 2017 at 9:42 am

    I will check this Trello. But for me the concentration is the most powerful tool.
    Great article!
    Thanks

  5. Avatar Putra Eka on May 5, 2017 at 5:01 am

    Trello can help to manage multiple blog? I will try it. Since I blog at 2008, I created so many blogs and can’t manage it well. Most of them expired within a year because I have no passion anymore to write on that blogs.

    Will try to focus at several blogs that generate me some money.

    Btw great article

    • Avatar Jackie on May 18, 2017 at 12:39 pm

      Thanks, Putra!

      Yes, Trello can certainly help!

      I start by making a board for each blog, then I go in and create separate columns for each month during the year. Then, at the start of each month, I go through each board and plug the blogs I want to write into my calendar for that month. It’s not a perfect system, but so far it’s working. 🙂

      • Avatar Janet Barclay on May 18, 2017 at 12:43 pm

        It’s better than my current system. 🙂

  6. Avatar Krista on October 29, 2020 at 8:15 pm

    I’m about to start building my second blog and these tips were all so helpful, thank you!

    • Avatar Janet Barclay on October 30, 2020 at 12:39 pm

      I’m so glad! I just checked out your blog and was surprised to learn that Etsy has an affiliate program. I never ordered anything there until this year, but have bought from three different vendors and had great experiences with all of them, so it’s nice to know I can promote them and possibly earn something myself as well.

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