Tips for Blogging as a College Student

Hi everyone! I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, since I recently finished my first semester and am in my second semester of college! It’s no exaggeration that blogging takes a lot of time and effort out of you, but imagine juggling blogging and college shenanigans as well. Hence, I’m here to give you a few tips for blogging as a college student.

1. A calendar is your best friend. 

I use a blogging calendar all the time. I find this incredibly helpful because it reduces potential stress from blogging. This consists of a simple table in Google docs that depicts a monthly view. I use this to schedule all my posts – reviews, monthly recaps, blog tours, etc. I find this to be incredibly useful because it’s easy to forget or get swept up by all the posts you have to write. This way, I can see what posts are going to go up on what date and I can plan accordingly. Here’s a screenshot of what my calendar looks like for the month of January.

I have a key too! Red are for promotional posts such as reviews for books I’ve requested, blog tours, etc. Bold means the post is scheduled, and not bolded are posts I’m planning to write. This is also super duper helpful for if you have cobloggers (shoutout to my lovely team at AB!) because each blogger can have their own color so everyone on the blog knows what posts are going to go up on what date. I live by my blogging calendar.

2. Have a short list TBR. 

As a college student, it can be hard to find time to read. However, I use a short list TBR so I don’t get overwhelmed by all the books I want / need to read. At a time, I have about 20 books on the short list TBR, which I try to knock out during my breaks. For example, during my winter break, I read so many books to make up for the fact that I read, like 2 books during my first semester.

3. Write reviews right after you finish a book. 

Everytime I finish reading a book, I go onto Goodreads (for digital ARCs) or WordPress (for physical/requested ARCs) to write my review. I know I’ll forget the gist of the novel if I wait to long to write the review, and I find that my memory and thoughts of the book are fresh if I write the review right after I read it. Then, I proceed to schedule the review (if I’m posting on my blog) sometime in the future so I don’t have to worry about blogging when I’m too busy to.

4. Schedule posts in advance. 

It’s really useful for me to take advantage of weekends/breaks/the scheduling button on WordPress so I can churn out posts even when I haven’t logged onto WordPress in a while. Most, if not all, of my posts have been scheduled and planned out on my calendar so I have posts coming out on a regular basis even if I’m not actively writing posts that month (i.e. college).

5. Take advantage of audiobooks and ebooks. 

As a college student, you’re bound to be walking / waiting a lot. At least for me, I go to school with a pretty large campus, so I usually have to walk 10-15 minutes to get to class. During this time, I usually listen to music on my phone, but I would also suggest listening to audiobooks. Additionally, if I get to class early, I’ll read a few pages of an ebook on my phone just to kill time. It’s convenient and helps me read a little bit everyday.

Alice is an 18 year old college student who loves the oxford comma, television shows, and the company of dogs. She finds writing in the third person odd yet enjoyable. You can find her scrolling through Twitter, Instagram, and forever organizing her shelves on Goodreads.

How do you juggle blogging and real life (work, home, school)? What tips do you have? Let me know in the comments below!