Most bloggers have the idea that blogging is 97% writing and 3% promotion. This view places way to much emphasis on writing. It isn't that writing isn't important, but if you write 5 posts per week that no one knows about as opposed to writing 1 post per week that get spread around the web, which do you think will be more effective? Network With Peers There are a bunch of ways to promote your content. Getting on the front page of Digg or Delicious is great, but you will probably have better results over the long term by focusing on good old fashion networking. You need to meet other people in your niche. Subscribe to their blogs, comment on their posts and email them offers to … [Read more...] about Productive Blogger: Promotion vs. Production
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The Distribution of Inspiration — Productive Blogging
Most successful blogs post new content every weekday. People looking to start successful blogs look at this and think, "I guess I need to write something every day." The problem is that inspiration isn't evenly distributed. One day you may have ideas for 10 posts and the next two weeks--nothing. To be a productive blogger, you need to learn to use the mountain tops of inspiration to help fill in the valleys where you can't think of anything to write. This can be as simple as keeping a word processor document of future posts. If your blogging platform supports it, I suggest using the scheduled post feature. Write your post when inspiration strikes but set it to go live when you … [Read more...] about The Distribution of Inspiration — Productive Blogging
Productive Blogging Posts
The last seven weeks we have been doing a series of Productive Blogging. Here are links to each of the posts. How did this go? Was it useful? Should I only stick to non-blogging topics in the future? The Distribution of Inspiration - Understanding how inspiration is distributed is crucial in maintain a regular posting schedule. Pace yourself and don't get discouraged when your mind is blank, but plan ahead when you have plenty of ideas. Make a Top 100 Tips List - This is a simple method to make sure that you always have a ready supply of ideas for creating posts. Create a Series - Creating a series can be a great way to spread out a larger post into smaller bite sized sections of … [Read more...] about Productive Blogging Posts
Productive Blogger: Getting Unstuck
Everyone gets stuck. Productive bloggers know how trigger ideas for great new posts. Here are some methods I use for generating new ideas: Skim a Book on Your Topic - An hour in your public library with a pencil and notebook can easily produce enough ideas for several weeks of posts. Use Someone Else's List - Find another list on your topic. Link back to the original to give them credit and add your commentary to the list items you feel are important. This way you use their list as a springboard, but it is primarily your content. Make sure you give them proper credit and are actually adding value. Link Out - Gather a bunch of links to great posts on a particular topic and use them … [Read more...] about Productive Blogger: Getting Unstuck
Productive Blogger: One Post Per Week Autopilot
To keep your blog from looking dead, you really should have at least one post per week. Any less and it is difficult for someone to justify coming back again. Since you know you need at least one post per week, why not do these ahead of time. Sit down one weekend and write one post per week for the rest of the year. They need to be well written, but not necessarily long or earth shattering. Pick a Day - Always publish these posts on a particular day. For example at Productivity501, we do a quick tip every Tuesday. This helps people come to expect that at a very minimum they can find new content on that day of the week. Include the Day Name in the Post - Calling your post … [Read more...] about Productive Blogger: One Post Per Week Autopilot
Productive Blogger: Starting Slow
One mistake I see new bloggers make is to start off by writing 20 posts all in the first week. Write as much as you can, but don't post all at once. Here is why. When you start of you will not have any readers. If you spread your great posts out over time, you have a better chance of people actually seeing your content. Obviously you can't decide not to post anything until you have a bunch of readers, but unless your posts are time sensitive, don't try to post 5 times a day when you have only 3 people subscribed. A better approach is to post once every two weeks for the first month or so, just to get your blog established and indexed in the search engines. Then start posting every … [Read more...] about Productive Blogger: Starting Slow
Productive Blogger: Create a Series
Some topics are too large to be a single post. As you write a post ask yourself if you need to step back and deal with other related subjects as well. If so, then you might have a good candidate for a series. The best way to write a series is to start with your recap post. This is the post where you link back to all the posts in the series so people can find them all from one place. Write this post first and list the different posts that make up the series--even though you haven't written them yet. Then take this list and write a post for each item. Sometimes it is easiest to do this in a text editor so you can see all of the posts at once. This lets you jump back and forth if you … [Read more...] about Productive Blogger: Create a Series
Productive Blogger: Make a Top 100 List
Every blogger eventually feels like they have run out of ideas. To help counter this, you need to have a repository of ideas ready to go. I suggest trying to write a list of 100 tips. You may not ever publish this list, but having it gives you a place to store those little ideas as they come to you. More importantly it gives you a place to go when you need inspiration. I use this method for Productivity501. When I have some time to write, but none of my ideas seem good, I'll browse through my list and usually I'll find something that clicks. This idea is very similar to the post about inspiration not being evenly distributed. You have to capture inspiration when it comes to use when it is … [Read more...] about Productive Blogger: Make a Top 100 List
Productive Blogger
For the next several Monday's we are going to be doing a series of posts on Productive Blogging. I've kind of avoided meta-blogging (blogging about blogging) in the past, but I think enough of the readers here are running some type of blog, that it will make for some useful content once a week for a while. If this is or isn't useful, please let me know. … [Read more...] about Productive Blogger
Your Turn — Three Questions
Previously I interviewed about 30 bloggers asking them to answer three questions. The responses (linked below) were very insightful. What is the single biggest way people waste time without even realizing it? What change has made the most difference in making you effective in life? If someone were to read just one post from your site, which would you recommend the read and why? However, as with any large group interview, it is easy to leave out people who have some great ideas to share. So if you would like to give your opinion on any or all of these questions, please post the answers to your blog and I'll link to them in this post. If you don't have a blog, feel free to … [Read more...] about Your Turn — Three Questions