Are You Automating Too Much Of Your Blog?

"Look ma!! No hands!!" by wajakemek | rashdanothman

Here’s a question for you to ponder: How much of your blog is automated?

Well sure, you write your posts yourself (at least I hope so!). But what happens then?

1. You schedule the post to publish at a specific date and time.
2. When the post goes up, it may get posted to Twitter automatically. It may also be auto-posted to Facebook (and so on).
3. Anyone who subscribes will see your latest post in their feed reader.
4. Email subscribers will receive an email with your latest content.
5. Comments are automatically approved, or automatically pushed into the spam queue. Some go into moderation.
6. Maybe you also use a newsletter and dispatch that on a specific day and time, too.
7. You might also have a plugin such as Tweet Old Post for randomly sharing an old post from your blog.

None of this is bad – but don’t forget to actually check into your blog from time to time. Here are some things you should be doing yourself:

1. Replying to comments. Ignoring readers isn’t a good way to keep them coming back. If people comment, give them the courtesy of a reply. Don’t just say thank you – talk to them.

2. Proof-reading. Before the post goes online, and afterwards. Read and re-read. Don’t edit it to death – but do correct any typos or other mistakes if you find them.

3. Testing. Click all your links, check your feed, make sure posts go out when you schedule them (did you choose the wrong date by mistake?).

4. Check for comment spam. Did some spam get through? Or did a legitimate comment get spammed? Unfortunately for some of us the volume of spam is so high that it would take too long to sift through it – one of my blogs gets over 500 spam comments every week. If this isn’t the case with your blog, check the spam queue from time to time.

5. Use social media. As in, use it – don’t just rely on automated updates. Follow people, talk, share other people’s content, and enjoy yourself.

Discussion

How much of your blog is automated? How much is too much?