Article Writing and Storage Strategy
I am very ADD. I go a lot of directions most of the time. Often intensely for short periods of time. I am often working on several articles at once and I am working in a few different niches.
Document Storage
I have had trouble storing documents on my computer. I work on 6 or 7 different computers. I end up with a bunch of partially done articles and they are stored on different computers. I end up not working on that computer for a while and by the time I get back to it my thoughts have changed. Sometimes I have an additional thought for the article and I can not find the article.
New Document Storage Plan
I am now storing my partially written articles on the website they will go on eventually. Almost all of my sites are now on the WordPress blog platform and I store the future articles as private posts. When I finish the article I can save it and set a post date or just have it go live.
Blog Timing Issue
There might be an issue I have not worked with yet. If I change an old post from private to live it will keep the old date. I think I can cure this by setting the post date in the future.
Access While Traveling
Another advantage to this is while traveling I can go in and write or finish articles and not carry anything with me.
Previous Failed Attempts at Article Storage
I tried using a USB storage device but I always left it in the last machine I worked on. I tried using a laptop but I don’t like carrying one with me all the time.
Great Post
I am always losing my thoughts in computers too.
Orgainsing thoughts is one of my worst attributes.
Thanks
Hey rick,
I am just new to wordpress as well – i think if you save your posts as drafts and then make them live at a later date (instead of saving them as private posts) then the date will be the correct publish date (ie, the date they go “live”)
I don’t know much about this stuff but I do know my post dates seem to be trouble-free this way :)
Best of luck!
Rick,
Some interesting thoughts…I’ve tried many things over the years. I’m a green web writer and marketer. Recently my laptop screen died, and although my files are backup and safe it was hard to reach them until I got another computer.
I’ve determined that the ultimate solution is to get an external drive…a 500MB WD My Book can be picked up for about $150-200 and is plug and play with any computer. Such an easy solution and so portable.
I also use Google Docs to write my articles and do basic spreadsheets which means I can access them anywhere from any computer.
Using WP could cause problems with backups and if you need to change the platform in the future. You should have your WP backup! When the size of your sites increase there may be other problems including duplication and penalties with the SE due to archive copies etc.
The trick to the article storage is a simple file structure…try listing by site/domain name and then by article directory submissions, blog posts, unfinished articles etc.
Hope this ads some light….data is always a tricky thing to manage, naming structures help.
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Wow……!!!
Amazing Post,
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Thanks……..
Great article and idea to be highly enriched. I sometime keep unfinshed projects left in notepad for finishing later, though it is not a good idea even it be very clumsy. Your article is a great one to help me. Wish for more from you. Regards
I used to store my articles in Notepad. I have lost a bunch from the computer doing automatic updates. I have several computers and half the time the article is not on the computer I am working on. No more lost work.
Really a very nice idea. Hats off to you man. I used to use google notes to store such info, but you have made it more easier. Thank you.
We all article authors face similar problems it seems. A good method can be to use an Online document management system of some sort. Google Docs can be a good alternative for managing articles in a central place. Google docs provides almost 7 GB of storage space so its sufficient space. it can also prove useful for those who collaborate with others. Google docs allows you to set permissions for each document that is stored. Online editing is also possible so you are not restricted to software. There is a built in Rich text editors so it will not matter if someday you have to use it from a PC that does not have Microsoft Word installed.
Hi, Rick. I usually create different folders based on year. Inside the year folder I put twelve folders based on months, and each month folder contains three folders; unfinished works, finished works, and published works. It seems traditional, but it works for me.