- Understand Why You Need to Be a Productive Blogger
- Get Organized – Computer and Desktop.
- Create a Schedule.
- Write Regular Features.
- Understand That Productivity Doesn’t Have to Be Writing.
- Be Fresh and Break News.
- Write a Review..
- Get a Blogging Mindset
- Treat Your Blog as a Job.
- End Perfectionism..
1. Understand Why You Need to Be a Productive Blogger
Anyone can start a blog. It takes less than half an hour to set yourself up with a domain, hosting and a WordPress blog – and even faster than that if you go for a free hosted blogging tool. However, many people fail to make a success out of their blog – and it’s not that they don’t enjoy what they blog about or find it boring – it’s because they just don’t have the motivation to maintain their productivity.
Productivity is everything when blogging. There’s no point having a wealth of knowledge to share and a story to tell if you can’t find the time to get it down in a post. And, not just that – you’ve not only got to get it down in a post, you’ve got to get it down in a way that people can read it, learn from it, enjoy it and share it.
Many of the world’s best blogs, both in terms of profit and number of visitors, didn’t get to where they are by only blogging sporadically without keeping inspired to produce quality content on a regular basis and there’s no reason why this would be any different for your blog either.
A blog isn’t going to write itself and it certainly isn’t going to promote itself. With thousands of blogs being started every week, and many of them laying dormant a month later, what’s to stop your blog from being any different? What’s different is that you’re about to learn the best ways that you can instantly become a more productive blogger. And by that, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to sit at the computer for many hours per day writing continuously; being productive is all about making the most of your time and putting the right amount of effort into a project. Productivity isn’t always just about the amount of content that you write; it’s also about how much you can leverage the potential of that content.
2. Get Organized – Computer and Desktop
After understanding the reasons why you need to become a productive blogger, the second thing that you should begin working on if you’re looking to become more productive is getting organized. There’s nothing worse than trying to motivate yourself to complete your chosen tasks, deal with the technical aspects of your blog and, at the same time, try to be creative and come up with great content when your workspace and computer are in a mess.
Where you work and the way that you work can be important when trying to stay inspired and productive when working on your blog. If you’ve got a messy desk with papers, bills and food all over the place, you’re not doing yourself any favors. The saying about a clear desk equals a clear mind is true and, in order for you to feel comfortable, relaxed and prepared, it’s important that you clear yourself some space and give yourself room to breathe when working.
If you’re finding it difficult to sit down and get on with that blog post you’ve been meaning to complete (or even start), it’s going to be much more efficient to ensure that your workspace is prepared for you to actually sit and work. Many times, when working from home, it can be so easy to lose an air of professionalism (and, in some ways that can be one of the perks) but it also shouldn’t be the case that this causes you to not treat the work that you’re doing as something meaningful. By simply setting the right intentions before you start a project and ensuring that you have cleared up your working space, you’ve starting your project free of clutter and distractions that may cause you to not take the work you’re about to do seriously.
Essentially, it makes no difference whether you work in your own office or at a desk or on the kitchen side with a laptop – the premise is still the same. Your workspace is the place where the magic is going to happen. It’s the place where your blogging empire is going to be launched and developed and, if you truly want to reach great heights with your online business through blogging, it’s important that you take your workspace seriously enough because that workspace – however small or mediocre – is your office, your place of work, and it should be treated as such.
When you’re running a business (and blogging for income certainly is a business) it’s important to keep everything that you need nearby and to not get overwhelmed with a lot of excess information that’s only going to burden you. It’s best to stick to the bare minimum – even if it’s only to give you plenty of personal space so that you don’t feel flustered. When you’re trying to do something and it’s not going the way that you planned, any unnecessary clutter is going to cause you to get even more frustrated. It may seem trivial, but really, a quick clear out of your workspace gives you a fresher and more prepared for taking on those tasks.
Tips For Clearing Your Workspace
- Keep everything to the bare minimum
- Don’t clutter up your desk with lots of papers and notes
- Keep a notice board and calendar where you can write your daily goals and see what you need to do at a glance.
- Keep a trashcan nearby and don’t store things that aren’t useful
Whatever you use as your workspace, it’s important to respect it and, in many ways, it helps your productivity because it gives you a great platform from which to work from and from which to create ideas. Your workspace really is the place from which you’re running your whole business and it’s important that it gets treated as such.
Keeping Your Computer Organized
While keeping your workspace organized is great for giving you that boost of productivity that you need in order to enable you to feel fresh, motivated and prepared, it’s just as important to organize that way you store your files on your computer.
Not being able to find the file that you’re working on in all that mass of complicated folders, duplicate files and gigs worth of downloads swimming around in your download folder is not only inconvenient and distracting but it’s a complicated mess that you could do without.
If you’re trying to work on a new project, it’s important to keep everything together and not have to go ahead and search your whole computer and wade through files in order to find what you’re looking for.
There are many ways of organizing your files and one of the best ways are by project and then by date. For example, you could have a folder on your desktop that relates to a project that you are working on. Within that folder, let’s say that you’re working on a blog post; that blog post should have its own folder and within that folder it’s important to include everything that you need for that blog post. You can keep a section for research notes, a page for the actual blog post draft text, a separate folder for images and also keyword research that you can use to find the right keywords to target with your blog posts.
One of the reasons that many bloggers fall short in terms of productivity is due to the fact that there can be a general lack of organization of files, folders and documents. A well-laid-out arrangement of important files and folders can make all the difference in, not only ensuring that you can always find what need when you need to find it, but to allow you to feel prepared, organized and ready to take on your next blog post or project.
It can be all too easy to feel overwhelmed in a mass of files, notes and blog post ideas and so, by simply organizing the way that you lay out your blog post ideas, it becomes easier and faster to complete a blog post because you’ve gotten everything that you need ready in advance. It’s also great to start dropping your research into the appropriate blog post folders so that you are more organized when you need to get to start writing them up. You’ll know exactly where you need to go to find your material and it will already be set up for you to just get started on the writing process.
If you have everything that you need organized and ready to go, the only thing that you then need to do is start writing. You can get on with the creative process and let it flow instead of worrying about all of the technicalities and organization that would hinder your creative flow. It gives a great sense of release to clear up all of the organization in one go than have to try and organize and research as you’re trying to be creative.
3. Create a Schedule
One of the common pitfalls that many bloggers make is to not stick to a manageable schedule. Many people make pseudo plans to write a blog post on one day and then put it back to another day because they didn’t feel like it or they were doing something else. One of the best ways to deal with that lack of focus and direction is to just lay out a blogging schedule so that you can always stay on track.
Often, when working online, one of the biggest problems is giving yourself a sense of direction and giving yourself boundaries. In many employed jobs, you’d have a boss to give you some sort of infrastructure, tasks and guidelines for you to follow. When you are your own boss, it becomes your job to give yourself some structure in your work day and a great way of doing that is to set a rigid schedule.
Setting a schedule isn’t as daunting as you may think. Many people look at schedules in a negative way and hate to give themselves deadlines to get things done. However, in reality, it’s important to set goals and intentions so that we can follow them and give a sense of direction and purpose to what we’re doing.
When blogging, it’s so easy to call yourself a blogger because you write a blog – however, in any major publishing company or major online website (those that are making lots of money, anyway) they tend to have a regular structure that they stick to because it helps you to keep writers focused and also keeps the momentum of the blogs going. Often, many people give up on a blog after a month or two so it’s incredibly important to know what it is you’re hoping to achieve and when you’re going to achieve it.
A common mistake that people make when coming up with a schedule is to be too general. It’s easy to say, “I’m going to write a blog post every day” – but in reality, you know that’s not going to happen. A great remedy for that is to get specific about what you’re exactly going to do.
For example, instead of saying that you’re going to blog everyday (something that not everyone’s going to be able to keep up with) it’s important to say exactly what you’re going to do. You need so get specific and say things such as, “On Monday I’m going to research a blog post on Topic 1”, “On Tuesday, I’m going to write the blog post on Topic1”, “On Wednesday, I’m going to publish the draft on Topic 1 and research Topic 2”. It’s always a good idea to say state the actual topic that you’re going to be writing about and how you’re going to do it because then you give it more credibility and it helps to make it look like something that’s achievable. It’s much better than just saying you’re going to blog every day.
This helps to, not only create a sense of expectancy and excitement for your readers, but it also helps you to get some ideas of what you’re going to do next. It’s always great to follow a regular structure that works well for you because then, like a normal work life, you can come to fall into a regular pattern of expectation and delivery that your readers will appreciate also.
4. Write Regular Features
So, in order to stay productive through a schedule, you need to think of regular features for your blog. This is an excellent way to improve your writing schedule because you can plan it well in advance and you also don’t have to always do as much work as you may think.
A regular feature is a common theme that you can come up with for one day per week. So, for example, let’s say that you’re blogging about a health related topic – you could have a day of the week where you check out the news headlines and do a review of some of the most interesting, silliest, funniest news stories of the week. Or, it could be an interview with someone that works with in a health profession or a disease of the week – anything, as long as it’s a regular feature.
What’s great about having a regular feature like this is that you don’t have to worry about what it is you have to blog about next and you can come up with many ideas in one go and plan ahead. Not only do you not have to worry about where the next idea is going to come from, you also get the chance to build a relationship with your readers as they will come to anticipate your blog posts based on a certain idea and see what’s coming next. It’s a great way for you to schedule lots of quality content on a regular basis, know what you need to write about next so you can get on with it, and it also brings in recurring traffic from your readers that will look forward to the next feature.
Don’t think that you have to stop at only one feature of the week though – it’s just as good to come up with two or more features per week – just be sure that you can stick to the schedule that you set yourself. You can also mix up your content and have one day being a Top 10 list: (eg. Top 10 Facts You Didn’t Know about Diabetes), a review day (where you review a product – digital or physical) and even a day where you have an interview or guest post. Your schedule doesn’t have to be you struggling to come up with lots of content in a short space of time – it’s to help you build up a regular structure for yourself and your readers and it also helps to keep you very productive because you know what it is you’ve got to do next and you also know how to tackle it.
Once of the great things about any type of structure is that you’re best off setting your schedule as something that’s easily achievable but is also effective at the same time. Therefore, you’re always likely to be able to achieve that basic minimum every week. Anything else that you achieve after setting that basic goal is actually a bonus to you!
However, if you do find that you’re doing well and are surpassing your schedule and creating more content than you need to, don’t publish the content early just because it’s completed, try to ensure that you still stick to the schedule and you can relax a little because you’re working a week (or more) ahead of schedule. This gives you time to keep creating content without worrying about deadlines and rushing it.
5. Understand That Productivity Doesn’t Have to Be Writing
Often, when we think about productivity in blogging, we’re often talking about creating lots of written content on a regular basis. However, being a productive blogger doesn’t always have to be about writing as much content as you can. No, in fact, many successful bloggers don’t sit at their desk all day writing – it’s as much about the promotion of the content as the content itself.
On those days where you don’t write or upload any content, those days aren’t days that have to be wasted. When you don’t write or a submit a post, it doesn’t mean that since you don’t have time or the willpower to complete those tasks that you should just not bother. There are several different things that you can do to still be a successful blogger without having to spend your day writing.
Video
Let’s say that you were going to write a post and you didn’t get time to actually write it. It’s so easy to just forget about it and wait until the next time that you were going to upload something and upload it at a later date. However, that would set you back on your schedule and it’s actually not worth it. If you’re looking to still get your idea out there, you can just as quickly flick on your WebCam and record a quick five minute video talking about the topic that you were going to write about. Video is an excellent idea because many people love to sit and watch videos. They love to be able to sit back and watch their favorite blogger speak to them directly instead of having to read the content. It means that they can see the person behind the blog, interact with you and also get the information that you’re giving them in a different format to what they’re used to.
By uploading a video and posting it on your blog, you not only have a new informative post that took you five minutes to create and upload, your readers get to see you in a different way and you give them a new form of hearing your message, but your video can also sit on YouTube where you can pull in more traffic than you otherwise would have because people are now going to be finding you through YouTube.
Social Media
Another element of being a productive blogger is to ensure that you’re promoting yourself. A productive blogger doesn’t just spend their time writing blog posts, they also go ahead and spent time promoting themselves. There’s no point writing content that no one’s going to see – it would be like performing to an empty crowd.
There are many ways to help you build an audience and get traffic to your blog, but one that utilizes the idea that you can get traffic to your blog while also building your brand is to use social media. Social media is one of the best ways to get yourself out there, to show people who you are and to tell them that they should take notice.
While writing and publishing posts is a necessary part of being a blogger, a productive blogger also takes the time to get out there and promote the content that they have written in order to get a greater leverage from it. Writing content is one thing, and promoting it is another. If you are striving to be a productive blogger, you’ll have to learn the art of promoting your own content because you’ll come to realize that the productivity isn’t in the continuous writing of content, it’s in the way that you can make the most from the content that you’ve already written – and that’s to promote it.
Promoting your content isn’t just about letting people know when you’ve created a new piece of content; it’s about promoting your content that’s both old and new. Social media is a fantastic way to really get people to read that review of the product that you wrote, or a way to get people to share that post that you want to go viral. Being productive is never about working yourself to overload, it’s about making the most progress with the least effort and social media is the way forward.
So how should you promote your content and build your brand as part of becoming a productive blogger? Well, first you need to make sure that you talk about your content. As soon as you’ve got a new post out there, make sure that you tweet it on Twitter (using hash tags related to your post, eg. #Diabetes or #Movies), give it a +1 and share it on G+, share it on Facebook and also submit it to social bookmarking websites like StumbleUpon. Of course, it’s always best if you spend time to build up a following on each of these social media platforms – and that’s something that takes time but is very important.
Another great tip is to sign up in forums that are related to your blog topic. Don’t simply spam the forum with your site details – you can just add a signature link and begin posting helpful comments on the forum. You’re likely to build a name for yourself on the forum if you continually post and help people.
When you want to ensure that you’re being as much of a productive blogger as you can, every little form of promotion can make all the difference because, each time you get your content out there as far as you can get it to go, the greater the chance that you can build up a large audience when it gets shared further. Being a productive blogger is not just about producing lots of content and producing it fast, it’s also ensuring that people see the content you’re creating. Those masters of productive blogging spend as much time, if not more time, getting their content in front of an audience than they do actually writing it.
6. Be Fresh and Break News
To be a productive blogger, it’s important to think about the type of content that you want to create. If you’ve got limited time to spend working on your blog, then the type of content that you write becomes extremely important – because certain types of content pull in more visitors and get more attention than others. You don’t want to spend an hour writing a post that’s not going to pull in many visitors when, working for an hour on a more groundbreaking post could pull in hundreds or even thousands of visitors.
A productive blogger not only knows how much content they need to write, they also know a great deal about the type of content that needs to be created in order to get the maximum benefit and returns for the effort that you put in.
One type of content that can potentially be extremely beneficial to you is a post that breaks news or talks about a topic that no one else is talking about. That way, then people read your post, they then go and share it and other websites write about the similar (or the same) topic and link back to your site as a reference.
If you want to become a productive blogger you need to create a sense of authority in your niche – and that means that you can’t really go around writing about the same old rehashed material that everyone else is writing about. You need to try something different and you need to be looked upon by others as being someone that stands out from the crowd.
Productivity in blogging isn’t about writing about the same topics as everyone else; it’s about going out there into the many sources available to you, finding something new and bringing it back to your audience so that you can be seen as a leader in your niche.
You may be thinking that it’s quite difficult to come up with something new when, every time you go to research a topic, you’re actually looking at other pieces of information that are written first. There are many ways that you can get around that, however.
Do An Interview – There are many stories out there that are about certain new websites, new ideas, new proposals or even about a problem within your niche market that is causing concern. Are all the other bloggers in your niche arguing over a certain topic and can’t come to a conclusion about it? Why don’t you go direct to the original source and ask someone for an interview? Let’s say that you’re blogging about diabetes and there are some discrepancies about a new treatment that is causing a stir on their internet, it’s then your job as a productive blogger to actually go and see who came up with that treatment, contact them and get the details directly from them. You won’t then be seen as someone that just argues about the situation and talks about the lack of clarity within a situation, you’re then someone than finds a solution for people and, hence, you are more productive as a blogger because the work that you do has more leverage than those other bloggers that aren’t going to be getting as much traffic as you.
Choose a New Angle – When you look out there for ideas to break some news or bring something new to your niche market and your readers, you don’t necessarily have to come up with something that’s brand new – as long as you’re putting your own spin on it and making it your own. For example, there’s not going to be much point in repeating the news stories that other people are spewing on their blogs; it’s going to be more beneficial for you, in terms of getting more out of the time you spend blogging, to change the angle of that news story and tackle it from a different perspective. So, let’s say that you’re writing a blog about website design, and there’s a common idea that a certain color palette on your website is more beneficial and gives you higher conversions than another. That’s a news story that’s already been written about and discussed so there wouldn’t be much point in writing about it again – unless, you can put a different spin on it. Let’s say that you have personal evidence that contradicts what that original article said. What about if you carry out a survey and present data from your survey that contradicts what that original article said? Or, you go out there and find many successful websites that have color schemes that oppose that original article. You can break news by contradicting or even giving evidence to support an original article with your own unique perspective.
The whole point in breaking news and adding fresh information is 1) so the your article doesn’t get lost in the masses of articles that are already published about the same topic and 2) so that your new perspective is much more interesting to people and so it gets shared more. You’re spending the same amount of time writing an article so you may as well make sure that post you’re working on is one that’s going to go further than an article that is simply generic. A productive blogger know that it’s easier to build an audience around content that is fresh, groundbreaking and has a unique perspective than around a piece of rehashed content that people have read over and over again. Again, it’s not how much content you get written and published; it’s the type of content that you get written and published that will make all the difference.
7. Write a Review
Reviewing a product (whether that’s a physical or digital product) is great for your readers and it’s also great for your blogging productivity. When you can’t think of anything to write about, you can almost always think of something to review. Every day, you’re using many different types of products – whether it’s the type of computer you’re using, a tool or software, a course that you took, a book that you read or even the companies that you use to enhance and support your business.
A productive blogger knows that it’s great to review products because, when you have no idea what you’re going to write about and you don’t have the time or the momentum to go out there and research something, you always have an opinion about something that you use. And guess what? Your readers want to know your opinion.
The fact that opinions, thoughts and personal likes and dislikes lend themselves well to reviews is great for someone that’s trying to increase their productivity as a blogger. The research is done because you’re offering an opinion and you’ve also then got content that is truly valuable to your audience and readers.
The fact that you’re already locked and loaded with personal experiences mean that all you have to do is pour them down into your word processor. You don’t have to worry about researching statistics and facts – you simply have to offer your opinion (something that you carry with you everywhere).
A productive blogger knows the power of reviews and of personal opinions – in that they offer great content, they are quick to write in a short space of time and they can also earn your affiliate commissions if you recommend the product through an affiliate link. This neat little package of fast, entertaining, useful and financially rewarding type of content (the review) is a favorite of a productive blogger because the format gives you everything that you need for a blog post: value to your reader and money in your pocket.
So, whether you can’t come up with anything to write about, you could do with a little more cash you want to treat your readers to your own personal opinion about a product or service, a productive blogger will often turn to writing a review in order to get maximum leverage from the time spent writing.
8. Get a Blogging Mindset
A productive blogger rarely stops thinking about their blog – at least in some capacity. If you want to become a productive blogger, you really need to start living and breathing your blog. Your blog can’t just be something that you update and write posts for, your blog is your business and needs to take up a large portion of your time and your thoughts.
That doesn’t mean that you have to sit at your desk all day when you’re not writing a blog post and make lots of notes about a subject – it actually means that you simply need to be more aware of the fact that you are a blogger and aware of the fact that every little moment of your life (however small it seems) can actually help you with your blog.
You may be wondering how thinking about your blog often will help you to be a more productive blogger. Well, the answer is actually quite simple. When you get yourself into that blogging mindset where you actually start relating those everyday ideas to how you could create a blog post about it, you’re not only going to get some amazingly unique and fresh blog content ideas, but you’re also going to get be able to come up with ideas on tap.
All around you is a whole world that relates to your blog in so many ways. It’s not always the case that you have to keep your business and home life separate and it’s certainly not the case that you can’t use events in your home and everyday life to inspire decisions that you make in your business.
A productive blogger is always wearing their blogging hat, even when they’re not actually at the keyboard writing. Throughout your day, even when you’re not entirely focusing on or thinking about your business, you’re actually going to come across many events and ideas that you can use in your business. A productive blogger is one that’s constantly tuned in and looking for the many ways that they can use their life experience in their blog posts.
So, for example, let’s say that you’re blogging about diet and fitness – your weekend trip to the store is now going to be much more than a necessity; you can now look at what latest products are being promoted the most, which types of food appear to be selling the most, whether healthy food is as good value for money as the unhealthy food. A productive blogger is one that can turn their everyday life into something to blog about. No matter what your blog is about, you’re sure to find something that you can take from your day-to-day life and use it to give inspiration for a blog post or topic.
If you’re serious about being a productive blogger, you really need to get yourself into the frame of mind where you’re not just looking at your blog as a separate entity to your life – you need to see it as being part of your life and you need to integrate it as much as possible if you really want to come up with interesting content that’s unique in perspective. A blogger that’s looking to increase productivity is one that is always looking for ideas, always storing valuable information and always looking for links, analogies and patterns that they can somehow include within their blog. Life throws you so much information and so many ideas – you want to be a productive blogger that is in the position where you can accept that information that is being given instead of always having to go looking for it; you cut your research and note making down to almost nothing. In order to become a productive blogger you really need to tune yourself into the awareness of what’s going on around you because; often, the best ideas come from out of nowhere. As a blogger you’re a website creator, a writer, a producer and an editor – it’s important when you’re not in your writing mode, you’re thinking about the other roles that comes with being a blogger; and one of those is to really get out there and be on the lookout for ideas – not just when you’re at the computer, but when you’re away from it as well.
9. Treat Your Blog as a Job
Whether you’re working on your blog full time or whether you work on it as an aside to your regular 9-5, it’s still important to treat it like a job. If you want to earn money from your blog it them means that your blog is your business – and, it’s important that you treat it as such.
When many bloggers are looking to build a blog, it’s often not until they see money coming in that they start to treat it as a proper business. However, it’s important that, even before you begin to make an income from your blog, you see it as a business model and come up with a proper business strategy to go with it.
If you set out your intentions to build your blog like a business, you’re much more likely to take it seriously and ensure that you keep up the maintenance of it than if you don’t. For example, if you lay out some goals in terms of a business strategy, you’ll have a much better idea of where it is you want to take your blog (your business) in the future. That may be in terms of affiliate marketing, paid advertising, selling your own info products or offering services. If you know exactly where your income is going to come from in the future, you can learn to build your business towards that.
So how does this idea of seeing your blog as a business relate to learning how to be a more productive blogger? Well, that comes in two ways: First, you’ll come to see that, when you’ve laid out your intentions in terms of a business model and where you hope to get your income from in the future, it gives you something more tangible and achievable to aim for and so you can set your sights on the goal more easily and be inspired to keep building momentum towards it. Second, it’s also the case that seeing your blog like a business will mean that your mindset has now changed and you begin to actually tackle your blog in a much different way.
To expand on that last point, let’s take a look at the ways in which a real job or a physical business contrasts that of an online business that you’re building such as a blog. A real job where you are an employee and you have to work for a boss doing daily tasks, is one where you instantly given what you need to do and you better hope that you get it done if you want to keep your job. When you own your own physical business with premises, you’re also going to have a great deal of responsibility on your shoulders in terms of ensuring that everything is running smoothly, your staff are efficient and that the customer is happy. Now, switch to the business model that is a blog and see the stark difference: You no longer have a boss telling you what to do, you don’t have a physical premises and the responsibility for others, and you don’t even have to worry about customer support in the same way. You’re a writer and you’re a presenter and it’s your job to share information in a way that is interesting to people so that they keep coming back for more.
So, when we’re talking about being a productive blogger, it’s about seeing your blog as more than just your outlet – it’s about seeing it as a business and, if you’re not yet making money, seeing its true potential as a business.
There are two main reasons why, in order to be a productive blogger, you need see the business potential in your blog. Firstly, if you’re thinking about your blog as a being a way to make an income, it’s important that you can gear your efforts towards those types of posts and activities that are going to be profitable for you. That’s not just to say that you should always be looking to make money from your blog and nothing else, but the methods that you need to incorporate in order to make money (getting traffic, making interesting and useful posts, building up an audience and readership that trust your products and your recommendations) are all of the things that are going to create a blog that is popular and financially successful anyway.
You see, when running a business it’s all about efficiency and, as any business owner or productive blogger will tell you, it’s important to ensure that you’re efficient in the amount of time that you spend on an activity (whether that’s a blog post or promotional task) that gives you the best return on your investment – whether that investment is money or time. If you’re spending the majority of your time on those tasks that are going to give you and your readers the most value and reward, then you can ensure that you’re being productive in the sense that you have a greater leverage for each task that you complete.
The second reason why it’s important to see your blog as a business in order to be productive is because, when you see your blog as a business, you begin to hold yourself more accountable. When you’re working from home and writing with a laptop on your lap and being in a somewhat more relaxed position to what you would be in if you were in a typical work environment, it means that you run the risk of being a little more complacent with your efforts.
If you really want to be a productive blogger then it’s important that you hold yourself accountable in terms of getting those posts written and promoting your blog. When you have a boss giving your orders in a regular job, you are more likely to follow them than if it’s a goal that you’ve set yourself in your notes. Being accountable and ensuring that you keep up with the momentum that you set yourself is one of the secrets of a successful blogger – it can’t be that you don’t heed your own orders, it’s important that you ensure you stick to what you set out for yourself to do. Just because your task is a little note that you’ve written on a legal pad as opposed to a signed contract, it doesn’t mean that it should hold any less weight. A productive blogger that knows the importance of seeing the blog as a business know this, capitalizes on this and uses it to help stay focused and inspired.
10. End Perfectionism
In order to be a productive blogger, you’re going to have to kill that idea that everything needs to be perfect. Too many bloggers are intimidated by the fact that their post won’t be good enough, the design of their blog doesn’t look professional enough, or that someone may be offended by what they have to say. In order to be productive and ensure you’re focusing on what matters first, you’re going to have to really push back that nagging voice inside your head that tells you that what you’re doing isn’t good enough.
That feeling that your post needs to be perfect before you publish it or that you have to change something in order to impress others isn’t going to help you target the right type of audience; you want an audience that follows you and respects you as a person. It’s also going to mean that you’ll never get anything done if you spend too much time worrying about trying to get everything perfect. No matter what you’re working on – whether it’s a blog post, a marketing campaign or a promotion – it’s never going to be perfect and you could spend the rest of your days trying to get it perfect because it’s something that you’ll never achieve. Therefore, if you want to become a more productive blogger, you need to really forget about trying to make it perfect and just get it out there.
That’s not to say that productive blogger is simply a mediocre one, it’s to say that, in order to be productive you’ve also got to lighten up on yourself and allow yourself to be a little more relaxed in your approach to perfectionism. You can spend a week writing a blog post and you may think that it’s the best that you can possible make it – but, if you’re not really making the most of your time and you’re spent that time worrying about how well received a post is going to be instead of getting it out there, you’re not really doing yourself any favors.
In many instances, you’re not actually publishing your content to an audience that’s waiting to criticize you. You’re not really just trying to please a whole bunch of people that are just waiting to give you mounds of criticism every time you hit that publish button. Most people, when they come to read your blog are going to read that blog post in a couple of minutes. They’re your audience but they’re not going to spend hours analyzing your every word, waiting to point out grammatical errors and spelling mistakes – they’ve got better things to do with their time and they’re likely to forget about it and move on to read another blog post somewhere else.
People want good content that’s beneficial to them and, if you’re doing your job as a blogger (and not just a productive one) those are the types of posts that you will be creating anyway. There’s no reason why they should go on to criticize or complain about someone that’s taken the time to help them.
If you’re trying to become a productive blogger, perfectionism isn’t your friend. Perfectionism causes you to:
- Feel unhappy and frustrated because you’re not something you can never be anyway
- Procrastinate because you waste time and put off publishing content that would be valuable to you and your readers
- End up with low self-esteem issues and cause you to criticize your work instead of enjoying it
There are many creative people out there and they have a lot of talent. Many of them are even bloggers. However, they’re not popular and they’re not making a full time income from their blog because they’re a perfectionist and they fail to reach the heights of others because they’re too afraid of falling. If you really want to be a productive blogger, it’s essential that you create content and push it out. Spread your message and don’t wonder how it will come across to others. Don’t be afraid to share your work and attract an audience just because you don’t think it’s perfect.
Even if you only had one post on your entire blog, get it out there without wondering what people will think when they arrive at a blog that’s only got one post. It really doesn’t matter as long as the content is there. It doesn’t matter that the blog’s not perfectly designed before anyone gets to see it. Just get it done and get it out there. The rest will follow. It you want to be a productive blogger, you can’t let perfectionism stand in the way.
