Are You Too Busy to Write? Seven Ways to Blog More Productively

Is finding time to blog something you struggle with? A number of people have asked me how they can find time to blog on top of everything else that I have going on.

Writing content is vitally important for your blog. It is your source of direct visitors, plus the meat of what you share in social media, the combination of which is essentially all the marketing many of us do. Your content attracts and maintains a relationship with your subscribers, and it is also what prompts readers to take action, even if that action is simply a blog comment.

Without regularly added, fresh, original, useful content … well, your blog becomes the web equivalent of the Pacific Junk Patch.

One thing you might have noticed though is that I don’t stick to a rigid writing schedule. This helps me find time to work on my blog around other commitments, but is only possible for me because of a few factors:

1. I already have a reasonably sized, engaged audience. You might say I have some “credit in the bank”.
2. “Traffic” is not something I rely on for my income. Providing I help enough people work towards their own goals then I will attract “few but enough” customers to pay my bills.
3. My philosophy is that you are only as good as your last post. Given the choice between “phoning it in” to keep up an arbitrary schedule and waiting to post something I am happy with … well, you guessed right, I wait.

You might not have these luxuries so need to balance your schedule a little more in favour of keeping in touch with subscribers more often but without making it too taxing a job for you.

My approach is to offer my loyal audience content you will want to bookmark, give you actionable tips via the benefit of my experience. If I succeed then I get more subscribers and clients, and really, unlike many bloggers my subscribers and customers are the only people I need to worry about where my blog is concerned.

I have no advertisers to keep sweet, and I don’t intend ever selling my blog, so I have no need to inflate my page views. Providing I do well with keeping my readers happy then my peer group and potential partners will also be happy.

If however you make money from impressions or ad clicks then you will need to get your traffic up and maintain that high level. That makes having a more rigorous publishing schedule a priority.

At the same time you can’t let your quality suffer because you are pushing quantity, making your productivity even more important.

Most of my readers are individuals, professionals or small businesses, so it might be well within your reach to shift your online business model to be more about authority than page views and clicks. If that is the case for you then focus on one solid article a week rather that try to achieve an unrealistic schedule – that might be all the solution you need. If you do want to eek out a few more hours in your week though, read on for some more tips!

How can you find time to not just write but create great content?

1. Set time aside – preferably quiet, focused time with zero distractions. I recommend actually putting this time in your diary and sticking to it. If you try to “catch 10 minutes” then you are going to either keep pushing the task back or you are going to find that time just vanishes altogether. Also setting a specific time allows your subconscious to prepare.
2. Write in Batches, and if possible schedule your posts in advance – Most blogging software such as WordPress allows you to write articles in advance and set the date and time when they should go “live”, visible on your blog. Publishing in advance allows you to write in quieter times and have the articles visible at busy times. While I no longer do this on chrisg.com I have always done this when writing for clients (when you have a contract for a certain number of posts per month it is not a good idea to write them just before they are meant to be sent out to subscribers!). Writing in batches allows you to get into a flow and you will find the writing process far more fluid than trying to task switch between your main job and being a writer. Darren often has cafe days where he will sit and batch write a whole raft of posts, and he ran away to a hotel to complete his work on the Problogger book!
3. Jot down ideas as they come to you – When you relax your brain or think about something else is when some of your best ideas will come to you, so make sure you store those ideas on a notepad, in your phone, or on some scrap of paper! A really cool aspect of the WordPress is you can use multiple tools, even email, to send a draft of a post to your blog for later use. I have a whole bunch of draft posts that are just headlines and some bullets waiting for me to complete them.
4. Repurpose content – “Repurposing” is taking your content and using it in a different location, in a different way, or re-packaging it. So I might take a series of posts and create an ebook, or I might expand an article into a presentation. Someone might request they republish my article in their newsletter. It can work the other way though, and it can be a great way to fill your blog. Take points from your presentations and write them up as blog posts. Maybe you have a transcript that you can copy and paste as a starting point? Have you got a section of a report or ebook tat you can use? Emails to customers? Existing content is an asset to be reused if you are creative!
5. Answer questions – Taking the last point further, my customer, coaching client and audience questions are my best source of content. This post came from a question I get asked a lot and was asked in interviews twice last week. When you answer a question in email, on a forum, in a chat, blog comment, or in an interview with a transcript, then you can copy, paste and edit to create a post. The best part? You KNOW it is on-topic and relevant.
6. Have a system – My coaching clients know that I have a writing system that allowed me to write for at one point twelve different blogs at once. This has meant I have written thousands of articles, and to be honest was probably too many because people were telling me I was getting over exposed! In brief, use headline formulas, write an outline, create without stopping, turn off the internal editor until you have a first draft. People try to write the whole thing at once and get stuck switching from creating to editing and back again. Don’t do that – split the creative part from the editing part and you will work with your brain rather than against it!
7. Failing all that – outsource! If you still struggle then get guest writers, pay writers, or what I think is a really smart move, get an editor to take your thoughts and ideas and polish them into finished articles.

These might not be silver bullets but they do work. While my family is watching TV I can sit with them with my laptop tapping out outlines, drafts, or editing. Some times it will take three or even four days for a post to get to the point where I am happy to hit publish but I have also had articles written in under half an hour that have been big hits in social media and in terms of traffic.

The big difference though is when you make time.

How do you find time to blog? Do any of my tips work (or not) for you? Please share your thoughts, experiences and tips in the comments …

Talking of being more productive … I want to tell you about my latest course …

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Go ahead and click here right now to find out more!

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My 6 Favorite Blogging Locations

Where do you blog from?

One of the most attractive parts about blogging as a profession for me is the independence and flexibility that it brings.

I can work from anywhere that I can find an Internet connection. In fact, I don’t even need that at all times—I just need some kind of device to capture the content that I produce (something to type on, a camera, and/or a microphone).

This flexibility, and the opportunity to be location-independent, are wonderful things. They’ve meant I’m able to travel and work from the road; they’ve enabled me to be quite hands-on with my family (particularly useful when your kids are toddlers!), and they’ve also cut down the dreaded commute that I used to have to do when I worked a “real” job.

The other great thing about this type of work—combined with the ever-increasing array of portable computing gadgets that are around—is that from day to day, I’m able to work in all kinds of locations. This variety can be both fun and make life a little more interesting, but it can also help stimulate all kinds of creativity.

Someone asked recently what were my favorite places to blog from. Here’s what I said (and I’d love to hear your favorites below):

1. Cafes

The combination of coffee, a computer, and the white noise of those around me is a very productive mix for me. I spend at least four mornings a week in my local cafe, just a short stroll from our front door. The staff greet me with ‘Blogger dude!” and bring me my drink of choice (a skinny latte with one sugar) without needing to be asked (and a second one 30 minutes later, or on the nod of the head—whichever comes first!). They even installed WiFi just for me.

Other patrons ask how I ever get anything done with all the noise, but for me it’s a strangely productive place where I find myself getting lost in my work. I also enjoy the fact that there are others around—snippets of overheard conversation or interactions with others in the cafe often produce ideas, stimulate blog posts, and even generate product ideas.

2. Shopping centers (the mall)

A variation on the cafe approach has been a semi-regular visit to a local shopping center or mall. The one I go to is among the biggest in Melbourne, and has a great range of cafes, a food court, and several hundred shops—including an Apple store. I enjoy working there partly for similar reasons to those mentioned above (white noise, coffee, etc.), but also because I find the environment quite stimulating for ideas.

I have a little routine that I use: an hour in one cafe; a 15-minute stroll through the shops, where I get all kinds of marketing ideas; an hour in a second cafe; another stroll through shops; then I settle down in the food court or a resautrant for lunch. The combination of all this is surprisingly productive (and I keep the Apple store in business with my regular stop-offs there).

3. The library

I don’t get there as much as I used to since we moved further away from the city, but I always found the big library in the center of Melbourne to be an inspiring place to work, and I used to head there at least once a month. I found just being in a place where others were working and reading used to help me still myself and focus.

Having a vast array of books, magazines, and newspapers on hand for little breaks was also quite stimulating, but the real treat for me is the reading room pictured above, which is just an inspiring place to hang out.

4. Flying

One of the most memorable work sessions that I’ve ever had was on a recent flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles. While I never used to enjoy that flight (14 hours cramped up next to a stranger with not much to do? Not fun!), the last few times I’ve flown, I’ve found myself being particularly productive

Perhaps it’s the altitude or the oxygen they pump around the plane (do they do that?) but I often get a lot done flying. This could also partly be because this is one of the few times in my life that I’m disconnected from the Web (those international flights don’t have WiFi yet). It might also be because I’m traveling to and from conferences that I find to be stimulating experiences.

5. On the couch

Most weeknights you can find me sitting in our lounge room, next to my wife, on the couch, in front of the TV, blogging. I’m not sure how much of the TV I actually watch, but I find the experience to be a good way to wind down at the end of a day.

There are times where my wife needs to tell me to put the computer down so we can connect (although she often sits there surfing too), but all in all it’s usually a reasonably productive time. I tend to use it mainly for admin-type tasks—email, social media, comment moderation, etc.—rather than creative ones, but occasionally I’ll find that something from the TV also stimulates ideas for my work.

6. My desk and office

This is where I do the bulk of my blogging. While I like to get out of the house in the morning to write (mornings are generally more about writing content and creative tasks), I spend the bulk of my afternoons in my home office. This is where I create multi-media content, do interviews, take calls, and do most of the admin and editing tasks that I do.

I did a tour of my office a few years back—not a lot has changed in terms of layout, although I now mainly work from a laptop rather than the desktop computer.

What about you?

Where do you spend most of your time blogging? Which places do you enjoy blogging the most? Do you find different places are better for certain tasks more than others? Interested in your thoughts.

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Several Reasons To Avoid Writing Free Samples

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I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like a crow that’s obsessed with picking up anything shiny when it comes to the free samples that people ask us content writers to provide to get the work that pays our bills. It’s hard to discern between the people who will rip you off and take the sample and never return any of your subsequent emails, but I’ve found there are certain criteria that can be helpful when trying to separate the honest clients who just want to get a feel for your writing and the shysters who are out to take you for a ride.

First of all you need to be sure that you’ve got adequate contact information. It used to be an e-mail address was good enough so that you could start a business relationship but now you need to get some further point of contact like a telephone number, a snail mail address or even some kind of social media to look at like a Twitter or a Facebook page. The reasons for needing this much contact information are simple. It’s important that you can rest assured that you are dealing with a reputable company and on the Internet that means you’ll need to have several different points of contact.

Even then you want to be extremely careful when people start asking for free samples of your writing and one of the best ways to get around it is to have a comprehensive list of your past work on a website. Several times I’ve been asked to write samples and pointed perspective clients to my website where I’ve stored information away that highlights my experience and provides URLs and samples to my previous work.

One of the rules that I like to use is the fact that if you’ve been around for a while in the writing game and have a portfolio of your work there’s really no reason to provide anything for free. If you’re a proven writer with a background you should get paid for what you do even if you make a promise to rewrite according to your client’s specifications for free so you can get on the same page.

There are several other things that you want to look out for when you’re writing for a living on the Internet and they include the promises that go along with free samples. Usually I found that companies who promise you a lot of work without being clear about payment methods can be the ones that you need to watch out for in the end. Sometimes the people who promise you the world aren’t necessarily dishonest but they’ve just oversold the amount of work that they think they’ll be able to get.

Finally, I just like to remember that there’s never a contract with any freelance writing that I do on the Internet so there’s never any reason not to pay me for my time and effort because clients can let me go just as quickly as they hire me if they don’t find my writing is up to the standards they set. For me there’s no reason to give out any kind of free samples.

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How Cancer Changed My Blog

This post is by Karl Staib of Work Happy Now.

I was recently diagnosed with testicular cancer. Yes, the dreaded c word. It’s probably not what you are thinking. I don’t look at this health issue as an anchor. I look at this as an opportunity for growth.

I’ve been blogging for over three years. Each year I’ve gone through unique pains.

The pain of no one reading my blog eventually transformed to Forbes.com contacting me and naming my blog one of the top 100 blogs for women. It’s been an amazing blogging journey.

I want to share how a major illness has shifted and improved my blog. It has been a journey that has bruised my ego, but it has also lifted me to new heights.

Blogging is not easy, every blogger will tell you that, especially when also dealing with personal issues. There are so many factors that can derail your progress if you don’t stay focused.

Put the important stuff first

You know that you need to put the important stuff first, but how do you figure out what’s important and what’s not?

You have to see where your present wins are coming from and figure out how to expand on them. I teach people to leverage their superpowers and bloggers are no different. You have your strengths, passions, and the work that puts you in the zone. All of these actions need to be pushed to the front.

Too many people say to focus on your strengths and you’ll be successful. That’s not true. You may be a great writer, but if you write about the wrong subject you are never going to thrive. You must take a holistic approach to your work. If you are crazy about music, but can’t seem to string your notes together then you won’t thrive either. It’s all about creating synergy between your passions, strengths, and focus. All three must be present for your action to be a superpower.

When you do work that gets you excited every day, it’s easier to keep your energy level high and stay productive. You have to have a system. Everybody’s system is different. Leo loves to write in the morning. Darren loves to do work in batches. The most important thing is that they put their passions at the top of the list and so should you.

Don’t be afraid to reach out

Blogs are dependent upon people not just following your posts, but also sharing your blog with others. That means you have to find the people who are willing to share your stuff with their friends. This is hard and I struggled with this concept in the first couple of years.

Since my cancer diagnosis, I’ve been more willing to put myself out there to be found by someone like you. I don’t care if I get rejected. The fear is just a little less intense.

Because the fear is less intense, I’m more willing to market my coaching or my brand.

You have to realize that you only have a finite number of days on this earth. If you want your blog to get to the next level you have to find people who will tell their friends about it. You have to connect with people in your niche and find a way to encourage other people’s audience to visit your blog on a regular basis. I know you know this, but it’s a lot harder than it looks. You have to test out a lot of different blogs until you find one that connects with your style.

Stop letting your frustration dictate your choices

I could have given up on my blog a long time ago. I have a full-time job, a wife, a kid, and not much time. My cancer would have been a perfect excuse to give up. Believe me, there have been times when I really wanted to do just that.

I didn’t give up because I know that I’m on a mission to help people leverage their superpowers. I want to help people change the world. It’s why I love working with bloggers. They are the type of people that are creative and passionate. They aren’t always sure how to get to point b, but they really do want to get there.

Your frustrations can take over if you let them, and they’ll wreck your happiness and relationships. You constantly have to be working with your emotions and using them to fuel your actions. Don’t not let them hold you back.

You can deal with your frustrations by taking time to process your emotions. I like to do a ten-minute meditation every morning and every night. It helps me set up my day and process my feelings each night. This mental exfoliating process is what keeps me balanced.

You may not like meditation, but you need to take time to process your emotions every single day. When you create this habit, you’ll improve your productivity and creativity. I promise.

Use a day each week to rest

As a blogger you have access to your work wherever you go. You can write a blog in any country, check your Facebook and Twitter account in any coffee shop, and build more connections at every comment on your friends’ blogs.

I’ve seen too many bloggers burn out because they go non-stop for too long and don’t enjoy the process. Blogging is a skill that takes time to develop, especially in this overcrowded age.

You have to take time to relax.

After discovering I had cancer and having it removed, I took a short time off from blogging. After a few days I quickly got back to it, but realized that I can’t go seven days a week any longer. I should never have been going seven days a week. I needed more time to relax and enjoy my family and life.

I’ve been blogging, networking and planning six days a week and I feel so much better. Sundays are no longer for blogging; whatever I don’t get done Monday through Saturday can wait until the following Monday. The best part about this new routine is that I get just as much done. I’m a little more focused, and I make sure that I get everything done by Saturday night.

You have to find time to relax that brain of yours. There is nothing wrong with posting seven times a week, but if you are constantly checking your stats, email, and whatever else you do all the time then you are missing out on life. You have to be willing to relax and let your mind recharge.

No pity

I’m not writing this post to gain your pity. I’m here to tell you that we have a short amount of time on this earth no matter how you look at it.

Bloggers are one of the luckiest groups of people on the internet. They have the superpower of communication. You can write, podcast, or video cast coherently. That’s a beautiful talent that you must optimize. You are changing people’s lives for the better. It’s up to you to find a way to take your setbacks and make you smarter, stronger and more widely read.

Have you ever been sick or had a family member become sick and had to adjust your blogging work load? What did you do and how did it change your blog?

Karl Staib is a career coach who helps people leverage their superpowers! If you enjoyed this article, you may want to check him out on or join his free 10 Part eCourse to a Happier and More Successful You.

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Three Ways to Take Advantage of Being a Blogging “No One”

This guest post is by Chris, “The Traffic Blogger”.

My name is “no one.” Well frankly, to you, being that you have no idea who I am, my name might as well be “no one.” However, just because I am a “no one” does not mean I have nothing to say! Many of you may actually know exactly what it is I want to say because you also are a “no one” like me.

I am a “no one” and I have dreams. I have aspirations, a good work ethic and although there are others with the same name as me, there is only one person who can be me. So just because my name and situation are not unique, does not make my personality, good humor and helpful nature a common commodity. Nobody else can be me—even other “no one”s!

I am “no one,” and I have something to say! I exist! I want to help people and I need to reach out to them! I write helpful content several days a week but I cannot find other people besides my mother to read my work. I exist whether I have a comment, a follower, or not!

Are you a “no one” as well? I know that I sure was when I first started writing a gaming blog two years ago. It took many months of hard work before 1000 people called my site home and two years later a staggering 9,000 individuals read my content daily. What I did as a “no one” was the difference between building a site that worked and one that would lead to me wasting my time.

There are two drastically different ways to look at being a “no one:”

You can realize this is hard work and eventually give up.
You can take advantage of being a “no one.”

If you chose option ‘B’, good for you! But how can you possibly take advantage of being a “no one?”

1. Be a new presence with fresh ideas.

If you are a new person to any niche you have an opportunity to jump off the band wagon and stand all by yourself on an island build out of your own ideas. Many people find fresh ideas exciting and inspiring, so play off this notion as much as you can by making your site seem very new and inviting.

Write content that is challenging of old concepts and revolutionary at the same time. In other words, don’t be just another site in your niche. If you manage to pull this off then you will be the person everyone wants a guest post from or the one person they all talk about on forums (which you should also be participating in).

2. Experiment and don’t be afraid to mess up.

Making mistakes and learning is what it’s all about. Although you will never stop screwing up and learning, it pays to get the bulk of your speed bumps out of the way earlier on. Write outrageous articles, experiment with cheesy headlines and do all the big mistakes we all learn from early on. You’re a “no one” so nobody will mind your early mistakes. Take advantage of the situation and do some learning.

3. Build a relationship with the few readers you do manage to get, while you have time to do so.

As your site grows you will find it impossible to build relationships with your readers the way you could when you were a “no one.” If you skip this crucial stage of intimately connecting with those who like you from the outset, then you will be building a structure whose foundation is made of Swiss cheese.

Be intimate with your readers and pick their brains on what their problems are, what they think so far of your site, and more. You’ll need these fans later when you want to promote site growth, especially with regards to social media.

Are you a “no one”? If you are, what are you going to do about it? If you aren’t, what did you do to go from a “no one” to a “someone?”

Chris “The Traffic Blogger” writes on the subject of generating traffic for both new and advanced site owners for the purpose of making money online. He is a self-proclaimed expert on building communities and marketing solutions for those communities.

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Your Biggest Investment: Time and Dedication

One of the biggest problems we see when trying to teach and motivate others to make money online or start their own business, is that they won’t put in the time and effort. Usually it’s because their either too lazy and not dedicated, or just expect to see immediate results…. but why should you expect immediate results? Whether you run a retail store or a web site, business is business and the same principles always apply, you need a solid structure and plan to make anything work.

In times like these, a situation many of us have gone through, is furthering our education. How many of us will go to college for two, four or even eight to twelve years… then graduate, just to try and pay off the debt from the last several years for the remainder of our career, and maybe even lives? Imagine the amount of success individuals could have if they put this same work and effort into starting/running their own business or online marketing campaigns, as they had for college.

You can’t simply walk into a high paying career right after high school and expect a job, and running a business should be looked at the same way. College is a very expensive way of investing in yourself and planning for the future. The truth is, students graduating from college, now have more debt than ever. A recent report shows students graduating from college are now leaving with over $20,000 in debt. Double or even triple that number for higher education such as Masters and PHDs…

Am I saying college is a waste of money and time? No, but a great majority of affiliates and internet marketers have passed on college and even dropped out to bigger and better things. It’s take a certain mentality and drive to be successful in business, but those dame principles can be applied to anything you try and achieve. The point I’m trying to make, is that whether you are aiming to work for a fortune 500 company, or run you own business, they all require the necessary mindset and time/work investment to reach your goals.

Anyone who says money doesn’t make life easier is lying. Money is great, but your time and dedication is the difference between getting to where you want to be versus where you are headed.

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Some More Helpful Hints To Stay On Top Of Things

Anyone who writes web copy knows how difficult it can be to stay on top of things and juggle all the different requirements at once. Working on the Internet is great because you always have lots of work to do but to be efficient you need to have a few techniques under your belt that will help you manage your time accordingly.

One of the first things I learned is not everything is about technology. To each his own of course but I don’t use anything electronic to help me plan my day. There’s lots of great calendars and BlackBerry apps available to help you along, but I still prefer to use a paper day planner that I can flip over and hold in my hands. I still like to cross things out with a pen and write things in as the day goes on and maybe it’s a bit old-fashioned but it still works for me.

Of course planning out my day is still important and beyond the day planner I like to use a dry erase board as well for those clients that have a lot of changing demands. It’s important to be able to juggle all of your work requirements but those aren’t all that you need to look at.

The idea here, especially when you’re working from your home, is to be able to juggle work and a reasonable home life. For me that’s the hardest part because there are always distractions and unintended noise that I really find quite a distraction. ( Of course having to Labrador retrievers doesn’t help any with the way they like to run around and accidentally rearrange things while I’m sitting at my laptop.)

All this brings me to the point of this week’s effort. Us stay at home writers need a support network of sorts and that means we need to share ideas about how to keep that dripping tap in the bathroom from finding its way into your work. I did write a column about this a while back and got some interesting feedback but I have a great feeling that there’s a lot more out there.

Another one of the techniques that I’ve found is a leftover from my younger days when I used to work in shipping and receiving while I was writing one of my short story collections. Earplugs of the industrial variety are a great way to block out a lot of the high-end noise that you can find distracting, but I’ve also found that when you let a neighbor’s thumping stereo get inside your head it’s really hard to ignore.

Don’t get me wrong.  I feel very fortunate to have a career in an expanding industry considering the fact that I live in a primarily industrial town and I’ve seen many friends lose their jobs. I just thought this may be a good time for a few of us to circle the wagons and share a few ideas about how to best work as freelancers from home.

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BlogWorld & New Media Expo is Coming, Are You Going?

This time of year is one of my favorite times because I get so excited to see all of my blogging friends at BlogWorld & New Media Expo. I have been lucky enough to have attended every single BlogWorld that there has been. I went to my first on in 2007 and am going to be speaking at this one on Friday October 15, at 2:45pm. My session is called Content You Care About. I happen to be on at the very same time as the owner of this blog, Zac Johnson, is on the Make Money Super Panel. I really would have liked to have seen him speak especially since he came and saw my panel at Affiliate Summit and has let me ramble on here on this blog offering help where I can.

In one of my earliest posts on Blogging Tips.com I asked the question Should you Attend a Social Media Conference? At that time I mentioned that I had put in proposals to a number of conferences that I planned to attend. Well, my proposals were accepted at all of them and the response has been incredible. Blogging and Social Media conferences are amazing ways to make contacts, friendships and business ventures. But you have to do a lot of work to make it happen for you, so here are my essential tips for having a successful conference attendance.

Talk to Everybody – Seriously, you never know who you are going to meet and if you don’t talk to everyone you are going to miss out on so many opportunities. MY most recent conference was at Modern Media Man in Atlanta. I was tired and figured that I would head back to the hotel when I saw one of my friends talking to a representative from Mattel. At the time I hadn’t been doing very much with my Dad blog, Read to Me, Dad. and wondered if I had much to offer in the way of working with Mattel, but I do love toys and so I got introduced and struck up a great conversation. This leads me to my next tip.

Ask for What You Want – I don’t mean that you have to be a swag whore and try to get something for nothing but you do need to put yourself and your intentions out there. I knew that I wanted to work with a major brand like Mattel and so I asked if they were looking for Dad bloggers who did reviews. I also asked if I could be one of those bloggers. A relationship started right then and there.

Give it Your Best – While at Modern Media Man I spent a lot of time with major sponsor Chevrolet. They had cars on hand to take on test drives. I saw people taking the test drives and collecting their iTunes gift cards, essentially taking but not giving anything back tot he advertiser. I quickly got out my camera and snapped a ton of photos of the staff and the cars and then took one of my video cameras and gave it to the company rep who took me on test drives of the Silverado, Camaro and Convertible Corvette. I asked them to interview me about my thoughts on their cars at the same time as they showed me the great features of each car. I was able to give them content from my experiences in their vehicles. I then put the videos together and posted them so that as an advertiser they got something for all the money they spent to support the show.

Follow Up – It is so essential to follow up on your connections right away. I really wish that GMail had a feature where you could schedule when you send your e-mails because I would have written every follow up message that same night that I met someone and they were fresh in my mind, but send it a couple of days after the conference so that they had time to catch up on the work they missed while at the conferences. Either way, follow up is so crucial because it means that you are serious and should be taken seriously.

Have Fun – Conferences aren’t all about work, going out and having a great time is also key. Go out to the parties, have meals with your new friends, don’t eat alone, or spend all your time working in your room, there is time for that but the one on one time that you get with other conference attendees is priceless. Have fun and who knows you might meet your next business partner, friend or more.

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Blogging Tips from Pro Triathletes

This is a guest post by Mike CJ, co author of Beyond Blogging.

One of the businesses I consult with organizes triathlon events. Although my work is based around their blog and social media presence, I also enjoy getting stuck in as a general volunteer on the actual events.

The triathlon we run is called Ironman, and it consists of a 3.8km swim, followed by a 180km bike ride and finished off with a 42.2km marathon. Our triathlon is renowned as the world’s toughest, as athletes have to endure our searing heat and a mountainous bike course.

I’ve been lucky enough to get to know several world-class, professional competitors, and it was while talking to one of them that the similarity between what they do and what bloggers do dawned on me.

It’s the details that count

Steve was explaining to me that the difference between being a winner and an “also-ran” in triathlon is about improving a wide range of factors, bit by bit, over time.

He said the mistake most amateurs make is to focus on what he called “The big one”— the biggest challenge. In triathlons, that’s almost always the bike discipline, or the marathon. Amateurs tend to work hardest on those areas, believing that there is a lot to be gained from the two longest legs.

He told me that they’ll work and work on one area, and then lose all the time they’ve gained in those legs on other parts of the race.

As a pro, he told me the secret to his success was to focus on improving every single element of his race by a small amount every week. As well as the obvious key phases of the race, he also concentrates on small details:

• the swim start, running into the sea and getting into a stroke fast
• stripping his wetsuit off while running to the transition area
• getting sun cream on quickly
• leaving his bike shoes strapped to the pedals and doing them up while riding
• changing his seat height for the final few miles to get his legs ready for the run
• dismounting from the bike and racking it fast
• putting his running shoes on while running
• planning his fluid intake during the race.

These are just a few examples, but he told me that he seeks to improve the efficiency of each of those factors by several per cent every year. In real terms, he may make up only a few seconds on each, but when they’re all added together, he improves by minutes every single year.

How to blog like a pro triathlete

We bloggers love to focus on the big stuff—changing our themes, writing an epic series of posts, or perhaps creating a new ebook or course.

But actually, it’s all the little things that add up to improve our traffic, increase our conversion rate and really move our blogs forward over time. Lasting progress is achieved in many small ways:

• revisiting old posts to add internal links and improve them
• adding new follow-ups to keep our email lists engaged
• testing placement of adverts or calls to action to improve response rates
• taking the time to follow commenters back to their blogs
• creating sneeze pages to help new readers find relevant stuff
• adding links to relevant past posts when we write new ones.

None of these tasks are interesting, fun or sexy, but find me a successful blog and I’ll show you a blogger who does them. All the time.

Mike CJ is a full time blogger and writer who lives in the idyllic Canary Islands. He’s co author of Beyond Blogging and you can find out more about him at Mike’s Life.

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Procrastinating Lately? Remind Yourself of What Is Important In Your Life.

I believe we all need to deal with procrastination sooner or later. Bloggers and webmasters are especially vulnerable to this problem, because we work alone, usually from a home office, and the possibilities to do something else other than work are both plenty and tempting.

Why write that long blog post now if you can go play the Xbox 360 instead? What about going out for a bike ride, taking some pictures with the digital camera, or simply sitting in the sofa to watch that movie you rented? You get the idea.

If you have been struggling with similar stuff lately, here is a trick I started using that is working like a charm. In order to stop procrastinating and get back to work I remind myself of what is important to me, of the things I want to achieve, of the lifestyle I want to have and so on. Then I realize that playing the Xbox 360 or sitting in the sofa watching a movie will not get me any closer to these things.

Suppose your website is currently making $100 monthly, and you are working on it to see if you can reach an income level of $1,000 monthly, because that will allow you to buy that new car you have been dreaming about.

The next time you find yourself going to play a game instead of working on your website simply stop and think: “What is more important to me, the quick fun I’ll get from this game or buying my dream car? For sure the car, so let me roll-up my sleeves and get busy on something that will help me achieve that.”

There is a line from a movie I watched a long time ago that illustrates the concept. One of the kids in the movie was reluctant to do his homework, so his father told him: “We do what we have to do in order to do what we want to do.”

This guest post was written by Daniel, who started working on the Internet back in 2005. His latest project, HowToMakeAWebsite.net, is a step-by-step tutorial for those who want to make their first websites.

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