I wrote a post for PureBlogging, called 3 Ways an Editorial Calendar Improves Your Blog. It came out pretty good, I think. Go read it, because only then will you get the full impact of what I’m about to say next. I’ll still be here when you get back.
You’re back? Ok, here’s the deal. The post is about editorial calendars. Let me ask you a question: do you think that I wrote it according to an editorial calendar? It would seem so–the post leaves you with that impression, doesn’t it?
I wrote it in the middle of last night in less than twenty minutes.
This post you’re reading right now? I’m writing it in less than fifteen minutes before I leave for work this morning.
So much for my “editorial calendar,” huh?
So, I admit it. I am a big hypocrite. I do have an editorial calendar, and when I followed it, it did give me the benefits I described in my post on PureBlogging. But I’m doing a lousy job of following it… I just kinda sorta conveniently left that little fact out of it. Even though it’s great advice, I’m not doing a very good job of taking my own advice.
But one of the amazing things about blogging is that being real counts more in the end than almost anything else. I can take my worst mistakes and parade them in front of you and use them to help you. We learn infinitely more from our mistakes than we do from our successes. The best part is, you don’t even have to make the mistakes yourself–you can learn from mine.
When you’re reading advice on the web from anyone who’s telling you how to make money, how to blog, how to write, or how to do anything–you gotta wonder if they’re really walking the talk.
You know, if I really was sticking to my editorial calendar, this little off-the-cuff gem would never have been written, and that would’ve been the real shame.
Now it’s confession time. I dare you to spill your little inconsistencies in the comments below…