5 Techniques I Use To Manage Multiple Blogs

Last updated: May 31, 2023

If you have a blog you’ll know that it can be difficult to manage at the best of times. In order to grow a blog you need to be organised, constantly learn new skills, and manage your time effectively around your other commitments. I picked up a lot of blogging tips when I first started blogging at melissajanelee.com over three years ago. Since then, I have started up three other blogs including this one. I won’t lie, it’s not been easy. I don’t recommend jumping in to starting several blogs at once unless you have a lot of time on your hands! Very quickly, I found myself overwhelmed, which led to my blogs not growing as quickly as I had initially hoped.

In the last year, I’ve been able to get a handle on my blogging schedule and have come up with ways that I can manage multiple blogs without growing crazy. These are my tried and tested blogging tips for multiple blog management. They may not work for everyone (and if you have more than one blog I would love to know your tips too!) but these have been helping me streamline my work and get more done in less time.

Why Have More Than One Blog?

Before I started At Home & Online, I knew I wanted to start sharing my money making and blogging tips online. They could have fitted in to my first blog, which is a lifestyle blog. However I realised that I had a lot to share, particularly when it comes to eBay reselling. But I didn’t want to suddenly start bombarding people who were there for a beauty review, for example, with my top ten eBay selling tips. It made sense to set up a separate blog dedicated to money and working for yourself. I have a lot of other interests too. But not everyone who reads my lifestyle blog wants to know how many reps I did (or didn’t do) in the gym, or read only vegan cookbook reviews. I started separate blogs for fitness and veganism topics. 

Fitness, veganism, beauty, fashion, mental health, money, parenting…those niches and others can all be blog topics in their own right. I recommend having a niche that you stick to. It allows people to know what to expect when they visit your blog. It will attract people with the same interests as you, and keep them coming back. So on to the tips…

Tip 1: Have A Manageable Editorial Calendar

This is top of the list because it is paramount to success for any blogger. An editorial calendar is a schedule of your blog posts. I have an editorial calendar which covers the next two months. I have blog posts planned out in advance so I know what I am writing and when. It also helps with scheduling seasonal content, such as Christmas gift guides. The idea is that I can get ahead of myself and have posts written and scheduled well in advance, eliminating the late night panic of trying to get a post ready for the next day. It also frees up time for sponsored posts.

I failed at this several times because I just could not get a manageable editorial calendar in place. I was overambitious with the amount of posts I thought I could write, publish, promote, keep promoting and so on. The reason was that I thought I could write more posts than I could. Writing posts takes time, and I didn’t have the time to do it. I’ve adjusted my calendar many times over the past few months, and now have a minimal schedule. I post twice a week on here and my lifestyle blog, and once a week on both of the other two. Sponsored posts, giveaways and other new work which comes in can be done as and when it arrives.

I am publishing blog posts a lot less than I thought I would. However, the quality of those posts is better and I have more time to deal with the other blogging tasks I need to do behind the scenes. It mean I am much less overwhelmed. I’m able to spend more time on my eBay business too, and am actually hitting my publishing goals for the first time. Creating quality content for all of my blogs each week keeps readers coming back.

Tip 2: Use Google Chrome Profiles

Chrome is Google’s free web browser, which you can download to your computer. I use Chrome for everything now. A Chrome profile stores bookmarks, passwords, settings and other data for you. I have a separate Chrome profile for each of my blogs. There’s also one for my eBay business, and one for storing all of my household things like bank accounts sites and loyalty card sites.  I also have one which stores all the bookmarks for the survey sites I enter, the places I find competitions to enter, cashback sites and bookies’ sites for when I am matched betting.

In each blog profile, I have stored in the bookmark bar: my blog’s url, my WordPress dashboard, Twitter account, Facebook page, Pinterest account, Instagram account, Bloglovin’ page, Google+ page, Stumbleupon, LinkedIN, and anything else related to that particular blog. On each profile I also have links saved to things I use on a regular basis like Socialoomph, Boardbooster, Convertkit and Canva. I also have a folder of things I want to refer back to, such as blog posts to read later or blogs I like to follow. Each password is saved within that profile, so when I go into Twitter I am logged in to the Twitter account I want to be for that blog. The same with Pinterest, and so on. It reduces the possibility of me accidentally tweeting something from one of my other Twitter accounts, for example.

I can quickly switch between profiles by clicking on the drop down list in the upper right hand corner of Chrome. Doing things this way has really helped me to compartmentalise each blog, and keep accounts separate. It also saves a lot of time because I don’t need to keep logging in and out of accounts all the time. If I need to send someone a link to my At Home & Online Pinterest account, for example, I just pop into that Chrome profile and click the bookmark to be taken straight to the account. Chrome profiles have revolutionised my life!

Tip 3: Use Tools Which Allow You To Manage Multiple Accounts In One Place

By this I mean tools which you pay one fee for (or none at all) but can use for all of your blogs. For example, I use Canva to create my pins and other blog graphics. I pay for the Canva For Work package because I like the features it offers. However you can also use this for free. The paid version allows me to set up a ‘brand’ profile, with my blog’s colours, fonts etc all saved for me for ease of use. I use this to create the graphics for all of my blogs.

I also use Socialoomph, which allows me to schedule and loop tweets on all of my blog’s Twitter accounts. For this I pay one fee, but can use the account for multiple blogs. Read my guide: How To Manage Multiple Twitter Accounts Using Socialoomph.

Another service I pay for each month and use on all four blogs is Convertkit, which is an email subscription management service. I wouldn’t be without this now. Full review coming soon.

I like using tools which make life easier, and which I don’t have to overpay for if I have more than one blog.

Tip 4: Use Separate Email Accounts & Outlook

I have an email account associated with each of my blogs, using their domain name. The one for this blog, for example, is hello@athomeandonline.com. I use a host which allows me to have multiple email accounts for free alongside hosting my blogs for me. I use Bluehost, and I’ve written a full how-to on getting set up with them. Having a separate email account using your domain name looks professional.

I have Microsoft Outlook installed on my computer (I use a Mac but you can get Office for Mac which includes Outlook), as well as my phone. Outlook receives my emails from all four blog’s email addresses. I view them all in one big combined inbox, but they also go in to their own folders so I can focus on one blog’s emails at a time.

I also have a separate email signature for each blog, using that blog’s header image and links to the blog itself and its social media channels. When writing an email in Outlook, I can quickly select the correct signature to add to that email address.

Tip 5: Have An Organised Filing System

By this I mean both a virtual filing system and a physical one. On my computer (and also on an external hard drive), I have separate folders for each blog. Within those there are folders for each blog post, containing its photos and graphics. I have folders for that blog’s invoices, contracts, header images and social media profile photos, and its media kit.

On my desk I use sets of A4 acrylic drawers. I have two sets of three drawers. I use these ones by Osco.

They are more expensive than some others but they are the perfect size for A4 documents. They’re also very deep so they fit a lot in, and are excellent quality.

These are labelled for purpose, so each blog has its own drawer. In there I keep any notes I’ve made for blog posts (I tend to write everything down or I won’t remember it), brainstormed post ideas, worksheets from courses I’m taking, and any other paperwork I need to keep track of. The top drawer holds my HMRC correspondence, checklists for things I need to sort out on each blog, and my blogging goals for the year. The fifth drawer is for another blog I want to launch, still in the planning stages.

So there you have it, my blogging tips for those of us who have, or who are thinking of having, more than one blog.

These have helped me immensely. I felt very overwhelmed at first and was tempted to drop a blog or two to give myself more time. I’m glad I stuck with it though, as staying organised in this way has helped me to consistently publish to schedule, free up my time to pursue other tasks, and keep my blog growth going.

Why not pin this post for later?

I would love to know if you have more than one blog, and what tips you have for managing them. Or if you’re perhaps thinking of starting up a second blog. Let me know in the comments!