How to Pre and Post-Date Your Posts

I think one of the things that I like most about using Wordpress is that when I post, I get to choose when I want my content to go live.  Of course, other blogging platforms allow you to this as well.  Either way, it’s a great tool to have and will surely come in handy from time to time.

Most of the time, I like to pre-post my stuff over the weekend for the upcoming week.  I’ll usually write or compile my posts, tweak the edit date and set them to publish later in the week.  In Wordpress this is very simple.

From your admin panel, on the WRITE page you’ll notice a box over to the right with your Publish Status (see image below).  This is where you can mark your posts published, draft, or later go back and unpublish something (it happens).  You’re also able to  select this post to remain private (I use this option when I write something more personal or like a diary entry, or when I’m making a to-do list that I want to have someplace accessible).

If you click on the edit button following the date, you can then change the date (see the image below) to reflect something in your past (like I’m doing with this post – writing on Saturday, but having it show going live on this past Wednesday) or to pre-date the post to go live in your future.  This can be useful when you’re going to be out of town or on vacation but you still want regular activity and content on your blog.

From there, just click the Publish button and you’re ready to go.  If you post-dated, it will show up on the date you gave it (as far back in the past as you’d like).  If you’ve pre-dated the content, it will go live at the date and time you told it to (as long as you clicked Publish).

As a side note here: it can also be used in situations like I’m using it today, when well, you just never got around to posting and you want to appear like you’ve got that regular, steady flow of content.  Hey, it happens to the best of folks and I’m not to shamed to admit it and why I’m willing to share

Edited to Add: if your blogging platform doesn’t offer an option to pre-post your stuff, check out Post Later.