Besides Free is something I have always enjoyed and been able to find!

This week are 2 scheduling tools.

Remember the Milk

You ever gone to the grocery store, bought “everything you need”  just to come home and find that you forgot the milk or some item you really needed?

That’s the story behind Remember the Milk.  As your business grows it may be hard to keep track of all the things you need to do. If you have weekly, monthly or otherwise regularly scheduled tasks tell Remember the Milk what they are and when they repeat. Create lists or task clouds to organize your notes and tasks. Receive reminders with any service you like. Send an email, Twitter or text to add new things to your schedule and check what is due and what is done. Oh, and don’t forget the milk.

But now that you know what is on your schedule, how do you stay on time?   Here’s where the next tool shines!

E.ggtimer.com

Perhaps you need to write for 30 minutes without interruption. Instead of writing for 30 minutes you are checking your time every two minutes. With E.ggtimer you can set it for seconds, minutes or hours. If you use the Pomodoro work system of 25 minutes of work, 5 minute break then it already has a timer for you. These different timers can help you create your Internet success, by allowing you to focus on the work while letting the timer do its job.

Below is a video to go over the two tools and then beneath are some questions for you, because Rockstar Guide Books is going to go through some changes.

Did you like the video?  Does it help?   Would you like to see a weekly Freebie Friday Video?  The other thing which I will be doing is Video Wednesday.   On Video Wednesday you can see how to do something or an answer to your questions.  It will be a short video, under 10 minutes long.  But what would you like to see?

Ask me a question that needs a video and I may answer it on a video and include your website link!

Live ♥ Laugh ♥ Love

MJ Schrader

Things happen. That’s just the way life is. Family emergencies, home emergencies, emergency evacuations. Things happen unplanned and throw things into turmoil.   But how much depends on your planning.

Unfortunately you are reading this post because my grandmother died.  It sounds weird, but she had a stroke May 27th.  So I wrote posts to plan for leaving suddenly, including this one.  This one explains my departure and how the post will be maintained.

Blog Advantage

With blogs and website you do not have to have everything published right away. With WordPress and other blogs you can easily write several posts and leave them in draft mode.  They will not publish, but you can have the posts ready for an emergency. With the posts written and prepared it does not take long to make them work for you.

You can either follow a FIFO, using the first in first out, and keep writing to keep some in reserve/ draft mode for emergencies.  You could write some posts that you know will be timeless, so they can easily be used when the time is right.  The second was the method I chose.

When things change

Then when I got news, I was able to use the quick edit to change the dates to “replace me.”  When you click posts and edit, you can select quick edit underneath a post title to change the date and to scheduled.  Pick dates that follow your normal post schedule to maintain your presence. You can also write posts and schedule them as you write.

What you will see.

For the next few days you will see posts about various services and products people offer, because they can help your business.  Since these are friends, the posts were easy to write especially with worrying about both grandparents.  Also a last minute ticket costs twice as much as regular airfare, especially flying into a tourist town.  Please if you like the person or product I discuss, then please use the links provided and tell them I sent you.  I get affiliate income.

If you want to help me AND make money, join my Rockstar Affiliate Program. You earn 50 to 60% on my products and if you sell over 25 items your rate increases by 5%, 10% if you sell over 50!

~ MJ Schrader

PS.  Please mention this post on Twitter.

This has been interesting. Twice in this #Blog30 day challenge I have been gone for 4 days. That has left me with 22 days to write, if there are no other absences.   The first time I was gone, I got my posts done in advance.  After the one this weekend,  I am playing catch up. The 4 days between visiting the family in Florida and preparing for company and spending the weekend family here was not enough time to get ahead, although I am now writing in advance.

Scheduling WordPress Posts

Every time you make a post you have the option to schedule it. What this does it delays writing or can back date it.

Back Date WordPress Posts

When you create a new blog, you might want it to look like an established blog. You could also write a post and realize you want to add a previous post to add back story or information that needs to come before. In my case I back dated a few posts to keep the dates at one post a day during my last absence. Months from now, it will show one post a day, instead of 2 or 3 posts a day.

Future Scheduling WordPress Posts

This is the big thing I used. Again this keeps it from showing 2 or 3 posts a day. In my first absence I scheduled a post a day so they would keep showing up daily. Plus right now I am on a writing binge so this post itself is scheduled for Tuesday  and today is actually Friday night.

For some people they may not have time to write every day. This also comes in handy if you have ideas for a series of blog posts, because you can write all the posts at once. A vacation does not mean your blog will look abandoned. Some people write 52 posts at once and have a full year of posts scheduled to automatically post.

How to Schedule Your Blog Posts

After you are done writing your post, you can press publish. This might either be below the post or to the right depending on if you have your screen set on one or two columns. Above that publish button is “Publish Immediately” followed by “Edit.” Clicking Edit will allow you to change the date. You can change the year, the month, the day, even the time of day.

For 365 Online Tips, Kelly nor I want to get up at 5 am to make the daily post.  (2 women who hate early morning, early morning post not a good combo.) Thus we schedule the posts for release before 8am EST. Perhaps you want to have a lunch post, or one after work. This allows you to be specific about the time of day the post will publish.

Now you know! And now you don’t have to worry about writing lots of posts in one day and having nothing to write the next.

~ MJ Schrader