We can automate many, many things in our lives. We have automatic dishwashers to wash our dishes ? but somebody has to load it. We have automatic car washes to wash our cars, but we still have to drive the car into the car wash. We can make automated payments, but we still have to make sure that we make the money to pay those bills. The point is that when you think about it, in many cases, automated isn't really so automated. The same is true when it comes to automating your blog.



In theory, you cannot automate a blog. Blogs are meant to be original. They contain your thoughts, information, or your opinions about specific issues or events. You cannot automate your thoughts and therefore there technically is no method for automating your blog. You can, however, make blogging easier. It all starts with organization and preparation.

First, choose blogging software, or a blog host that is simple to set up and simple to use. Many people spend a huge amount of time trying to figure out how to use the software for their blogs. It doesn't have to be that difficult ? and if it is, use a different service or different software. The blogging revolution may pass by the time most of us figure out some of that software! Don't waste time with complicated blogs. There are too many other simplified solutions that are available, such as Blogger at http://www.blogger.com or Word Press at http://www.wordpress.com .

Next, make a list of things that you can write about. Try to list enough topics to cover you for a year of blogging if possible. This way, you won't ever have to worry about writer's block. A great deal of time can be wasted each day just trying to figure out what you should blog about. You should even consider taking several days to write blog entries in advance. You could even write all of your blog entries for the year in some cases, unless your topic is more time sensitive. For instance, if you blog about world events, you cannot come up with a list of things to blog about, because those events have yet to occur.

Providing Trackbacks to other people's blogs is very important in the world of blogging if you want to build a large readership. Spend some time searching for related blogs, and add them to your news reader. Plan time each day to see what those bloggers are blogging about. This may give you fresh ideas for your own blog, and it their posts may even tie in with a topic that is on your list of things to blog about. You should also add the feeds for your favorite headline news sites to your reader to stay up-to-date on any late breaking news that you can blog about as well.

Look at the options that are available for your blog software or service. Take advantage of any option that will save you time, such as pinging services, filtering certain words, or blocking certain domain ? spammers hit blogs often, and removing all that spam takes time. Avoid this by blocking them in advance. Most blogging software and services already have lists of the spammer's domains, and you can automatically block them with the push of a button. You can also send pings to services such as weblog and Feedster through Pingoat (www.Pingoat.com) in less than one minute after you update your blog.