The Busy Blogger’s Guide to Getting the Right Things Done
On a recent Office Hours Call, inside Blogging Your Passion University, I was asked a great question:
If you only had 2-3 hours a day to work on a fairly new blog, what would you focus on?
If you haven’t already figured this out, there is a lot you can spend time on as a blogger. If you have an hour of free time, you could:
- Tweak the theme of your site
- Add a new, cool plugin to your blog
- Browse for just the right picture for your next blog post
- Check out the latest social media tools
Everything feels as if it is important. New bloggers often struggle with identifying what is essential. When I look back on my own journey of building separate blogs, there was a pattern I see woven in all of them.
1. Always be producing good content for your own blog first
Content is still king. If you want to connect with your audience and earn their attention, it starts with having great content. You want your audience to feel like they’ve been missing out if it has been awhile since visiting your blog.
You can wow your audience by:
- Being the most resourceful person you know
- Answering the most popular questions in your niche
- Empowering them through motivation and stories
- Delivering the goods in text (blog posts), video, and audio (podcasts)
2. Go to where your tribe is hanging out and add value
When I look back on my journey, this was probably my primary strategy for promoting my blog. I like to find the forums where my ideal audience is hanging out and join the conversation. If you only had 2-3 hours a day to work on your blog, I’d encourage you to spend it by adding value in forums or through guest posts (after writing good content for your own blog).
Once people see the value you can bring, they will gladly follow you over to your blog. Blogging Your Passion was a group I created in 48Days.net over a year before the blog ever started. I gave as much value as I could to that group before the blog ever existed.
In fact before the first blog post went live, we had:
- Over 79 emails on our subscriber list
- Over 125 on our RSS feed
3. Work on creating a product that solves a circumstance
I’m also a big believer in creating products. I sold my first product when I had between 1,000-1,200 unique visitors to my blog. It was a $27 a month product that sold 15 memberships in the opening weekend. That was an instant $400+ month revenue stream!
I was convinced from that day forward that you can earn money blogging. What is the best way to create a product? Find a common circumstance that your audience is facing, and create a solution. Find out what people need, and give it to them.
Let’s recap. If you only have 2-3 hours a day, then spend your time in the following ways:
- Always be producing good content on your blog first
- Add value on forums and blogs where your tribe is already hanging out
- Create products that solve a common circumstance your audience is facing
