Successful Blogging: 5 Steps To More Productive Blogging

Posted on December 24, 2007
Filed Under Blogging Tips |

Productive BloggingNot many bloggers are fortunate enough to be able to blog full-time. After meeting the demands of work, family and other daily activities, most of us only have limited time left available to us for blogging.

In this article I will outline 5 ways you can become a more productive blogger by better utilizing the time you have set aside for blogging. Whether you blog for money or pleasure (or both), I am sure you would like to get more out of the time you spend blogging.

1. Stop Checking Your Stats

One of the biggest time wasters in blogging is the act of continually checking your statistics - website traffic, Adsense clicks, affiliate sales, rss and email subscribers. Be honest - how many times each day do you check one or more of your blog’s statistics? Add them up. You’ll be surprised how much time each day goes down the drain on this mostly unproductive activity.

Wean yourself off these stats. Try cutting back to twice each day - once in the morning and once at night. If this works, why not once each day? Or if you want to get really radical you could try for a couple of times each week.

How many times have you checked your stats in the middle of writing a blog post? If you are anything like me, it would be more than once. Not only does this waste time, it can also interrupt the flow of your writing.

The only exception to this rule is when you need to monitor something on your blog. You may have just made a change to the structure or layout of your blog. You’ll need to track whether it is having the impact on visitor behavior that you expected. Even if this is the case, will need to wait a reasonable time to capture enough stats to make a meaningful analysis.

2. Stop Fiddling With Your Blog’s Appearance

Don’t get me wrong. The appearance of your blog is very important in attracting and retaining visitors. However, writing good quality content is more important. Visitors will come back to your blog if you have well written insightful articles posted on a regular basis. They will forgive a few little cosmetic imperfections if they know they can come back for quality content.

And with more and more readers consuming their blog content through rss readers, your content becomes even more important. Some readers may hardly ever see your blog’s theme.

But don’t neglect your blog’s appearance altogether. A professional looking theme and a well organized structure will add to the overall impression your blog gives to new visitors. Spend a weekend or a couple of nights getting your blog’s appearance right then move on. Write some content and try to leave your blog’s template alone for a few weeks.

3. Start Planning Your Week’s Writing In Advance

Having a plan when you are blogging is very important. I’ve already written about planning for your blog over the longer term, but you also need to decide what you will be writing in the days (or weeks if possible) ahead. Plan out your next 5 to 10 blog posts in one sitting. You will find the ideas flow better. You wont be scratching around on a daily basis looking for the topic for your next post.

The flow between your blog posts will be better as well. Because you’ve thought about it in advance, you will be able to link your blog posts together more easily. You can even advertise your next post at the end of your previous one. This will increase the chances of attracting a regular readership. Another thing you might like to try is a series of posts on the same topic. Post on a classic car from the 70’s each day for a week, or a new Windows vulnerability ever day for a month (that last one might be popular with the Digg community).

4. Get Your Writing Done First

How many times have you sat down to write a blog post then thought “I’ll just check my email…”? Before you know it, you’ve read and responded to all of your email, you’re up to date with your rss feeds and you’ve done an hour’s “research” surfing into the bargain. But your post is no closer to being complete (or even started?).

Try to do your writing first. Do it before all of the other little things that individually don’t take much time, but in aggregate waste a lot of time. Even activities directly related to your blog ( like blog promotion) should be done after you have finished writing. It’s too easy to get distracted - commenting on other blogs, submitting to social media sites and participating in forum discussions. These are all valid activities, but remember - you can’t promote your blog if there is no content.

5. Take A Break

Sometimes all you need to increase your productivity is to take a break. This may be a break from writing on a particular blog or a break from blogging altogether. However, this is not always easy to do. If you have established a regular posting schedule, you may be worried that your readers will desert you if you take a break. There are a few options to address this problem.

You could write a few posts in advance. Once you have accumulated a few spare posts, you can take a break from daily blogging. If your blog platform supports it, you could even set them to post automatically over a few days or a week.

Find a guest blogger. Advertise for someone to do a series of guest posts on your blog. Alternatively, you could get a number of guest bloggers to write one post each. It’s a win-win situation. Your guest bloggers get to promote their content outside their own blog while you get to take a break.

If all else fails, just let your readers know you will be taking a break. Most of them will understand and as long as your break isn’t too long, it may pique their interest for when you return.

What Do You Do?

What blog productivity tips do you have? What lessons have you learned? Can you share any methods you follow to ensure you make the most out of your blogging time?

Other posts from this series include:

Technorati Tags: Blogging Tips




Keep up to date with the latest articles at Monetize Your Blog. Subscribe via rss for free.

Related Articles


Comments

8 Responses to “Successful Blogging: 5 Steps To More Productive Blogging”

  1. printnpost on December 26th, 2007 3:14 pm

    I think you need to give some of the authors on printnpost a crash coarse….great article!

  2. Justin Dupre on December 27th, 2007 4:58 am

    Great post here. I try to deal a lot with productivity in my blog as well. I think I will check back often to see some more of your ideas. Tell me what you think of mine: www.moneyandblog.com

    Thanks

    Justin Dupre

  3. Shari Thomas on December 27th, 2007 3:15 pm

    Long time ago, I learned to keep my e-mail client closed.

    I open my e-mail client, download, and read my e-mail three times a day… first thing in the morning, early afternoon, and last thing in the evening.

    Also, I rarely ever keep an instant messenger open. The only exception is a little-used one where I communicate with two other people, both of whom respect my time.

  4. Powerfull Living » Blog Basics For Everyone on January 5th, 2008 4:54 am

    […] yourblog presents Successful Blogging: 5 Steps To More Productive Blogging posted at Brett. This article describes how to make the most of your blogging […]

  5. ProductivityGoal on January 9th, 2008 1:04 pm

    Productivity at Work Blog Carnival First Edition…

    Here's the first edition of Productivity and Work and at Home Blog Carnival. But before you start reading the rest of the submissions, I'd like to present my top three submissions: Steven Aitchison presents The GOYA method for Personal Developm…

  6. Working at Home on the Internet on January 11th, 2008 3:00 am

    […] yourblog presents Successful Blogging: 5 Steps To More Productive Blogging posted at Monetize Your Blog, saying, “Tips on how to be more productive when working […]

  7. Tip Diva on January 19th, 2008 4:59 pm

    Thank you for submitting your post to Carnival of Tips!

    Eeek - guilty as charged on most points! But what I’ve been doing lately is disabling my Internet connection and writing my posts offline through the Blog Desk client. Then, when I feel I’ve been productive, I hop back online and upload my posts at the touch of a button.

  8. Brett on January 25th, 2008 12:34 am

    I think we’re all guilty. I think it’s a great idea to do your writing offline. It removes so many distractions.

Leave a Reply