I’ll be the first to admit it: I was on WordPress for over a month before I realized I could schedule posts to go live at a certain time. I usually write at night and post first thing in the morning, so that meant I was saving drafts, then getting up early to hit “Publish” at the time I wanted the post to show up. I remember thinking, There has to be a better way!
Here’s how to schedule your posts for the time and date you want. It’s super easy!
1. Look at your publish box in the upper right corner. Right above the publish button, you see “Publish Immediately” with an option to edit.
2. Click the Edit link. You’ll see options for date and time. Note that the scheduler uses military time, so if you want 8am, you need to type 08 in the hour box (the one that currently says 22 below).
3. Choose your date and time and click the “OK” button. You’ll notice that the Publish button now says Schedule. Once you click Schedule, the post is ready to go at the time you set. That’s it!
ONE MORE THING: You can also use this function to backdate a post, or post it at a time that already passed. For example, if I’m putting up a sponsored post, I usually ask if I can backdate. (That way I can keep it from showing up on my homepage - not that I tell them that.) If the ad rep is okay with it, I’ll set the date for sometime in the past few weeks. It will go up immediately, but sandwiched between the other posts that went up before or since.
Holy smokes.. I wish I had known this a month ago!
I *have* been waking up early to push the [Publish] button.
Thanks for the tip!
So it's not just me! Good to know.
I really think they should make it more obvious - a big neon button would have been super.
Finally figured out the post scheduling thing a couple weeks ago. It's really nice since I tend to write the majority of my content on the weekends then queue up a list to get me through the week. In blogger it doesn't change from publish to schedule. I had to actually use the help feature for an explanation before I figured it out.
That used to drive me insane when I was on Blogger - I could never remember if it was scheduled or not. That said, I've learned that once you set the time in WP, if you forget to click the little OK button first, it will either (1) publish the post immediately or (2) never post it at all. I'm trying to be better about checking first!
Haha I think I was at it for about eight months before I discovered this. A little slow on the uptake. :p Great tutorial!