How to Blog Successfully and Stay Fresh While Working Full Time
Let’s get one thing straight: Blogging is WORK. It’s not a leisurely stroll in the park.
If you are blogger and you are working full time, it can be a daunting task some days. You really must be careful not to let yourself get burned out.
Therefore, you may find yourself doing the same thing day after day and not getting anywhere. You may feel you are failing before you even have a chance to succeed. Too many bloggers quit within their first year.
Change up your daily blogging routine and try different things. What works for one blogger may not work for another.
How Can You Get It All Done and Not Be Fried?
If you love what you are writing about it will be much easier. You will want to spend an hour a day or so writing away. It will be relaxing for you once you are in the groove.
Don’t stop writing content for more than a day. Even if life gets in the way, try to make 30 minutes to write. This will help you continually be in the groove and writing will become a relaxing habit.
I love getting up an extra hour early to do this and spend another part of the time scheduling social media posts. Everyone has their favorite time of the day – use it wisely!
Weekends are another time I can try to schedule a block of a couple of hours to do things off my blogging checklist. These may include updating old posts, creating a video, writing contributor posts etc.
Delegate Other Blogging Tasks
Blogging is not only about writing. To run a successful blog, you need a tech person on your team to help with many technical failures and updates along the way. WordPress sites need updates, and you must be very careful with the plugins that you use.
You will also need copyright free images and some creative work to be done. You may not be able to do it all yourself for any length of time if you work full time.
There will come a point when you will need to delegate and hire out. I’ve met wonderful people over the years blogging and have had to hire out for these tasks myself.
Furthermore, there are many more tasks too you will need to accomplish. Social media, marketing, promoting, and of course SEO. Pick which you like and then add them to your own to do list. Definitely delegate the ones you like the least!
Market Your Blog
80% of your time should be promoting your blog. Only 20% should be on writing content. Really you ask? YES. You could do the opposite, but no one would find your writing online. There are now over 440 Million blogs on the internet. Imagine! There are that many blogs being written today?
To have yours read and come up in the search engines, you must promote, promote and promote your blog. Furthermore, you may have to advertise your blog as well, to get more visits to your content.
It takes some money and a lot of time to promote your content. I’ve always said you need time or money to invest in a business. Pick which you can afford more of and then do both accordingly.
Don’t forget blog commenting as part of your marketing efforts. It lets others know you are alive and well. It helps to get to know others in your niche, and you can learn so much from reading others content. A lot of my own blog traffic comes from making comments at other niche related blogs.
Have Contributors on Your Blog
One simply cannot do blogging alone. Having contributions on your blog helps fill in the gaps when you can’t write new posts. It also helps with your social shares and expands your own brand.
Life can get in the way between children and or older parents. People get sick and things happen. You may need more time away to tend to them and other life events.
Be clear with your guidelines for your contributors. Let me them know exactly what you expect from them. That will cut down on your editing.
Having contributors during stressful life events is a must. Contributors will help when you go on a vacation too. Vacations are a must, so you don’t get burned out. Everyone needs a little time away to relax.
Don’t forget to do the same for others – being a contributor helps promote yourself along the way too. It’s good for expanding your blog’s reach and for your social media posts too.
Automation is A Must
Social media updates are a must to promote your blog, but you can’t be on each network hours per day while working. So, you must learn to automate well.
There are so many programs out there today to use for your social media automation. I love using Buffer but know others like using MissngingLetter, SMHack, Elokenz, Co-Schedule, CrowdFire, Spout Social and AgoraPulse to name a few. These are all great as well as the standard old Hootsuite. (I’ve used most of them at one time or another.)
Recently Agora Pulse did a post on automating via Twitter. They found that automation did not hurt your tweets reach. So, go ahead and automate them to your social networks. But be sure to respond quickly to anyone who reaches out to you. Notifications must be set ON.
Of course, if you use automation, do mix it up with being live on the social networks too. You cannot use notifications 100% of the time and be entirely effective. You need to have engagements on the social networks. You can’t just push your own content out. You need to share and engage!
Notifications are a must but time your presence.
When I first started blogging, I had to be everywhere all the time. I’ve relaxed a little over the years and realized I could still check notifications a few times a day and be able to respond quickly. But some businesses need 24/7 support and service. That’s another area where one must delegate if that is needed.
Facebook pages have a respond quickly button for those that respond within an hour. If that’s a concern for you may need a virtual assistant. I recently wrote why you may need more than 1 administrator for your Facebook page too. Having someone to respond for you while you sleep or work, is a great way to still respond quickly.
You can also have others on your automation tools (as admins) to help you throughout the day or week with those. More and more of the networks are allowing that, so small businesses can use their services and maybe purchase their ads along with it.
Email Control
Did you know you are in control of your email? Many people do not realize this, and check email many times throughout the day. They even check it first thing in the morning or last thing at night.
If you prioritize your day, you can have control over your email and only check it once or twice a day. I know, easier said than done. But just think about the time you may save yourself.
Audio Blogging
Many days, I write a blog post in my head while driving. Recently Sue-Ann Bubalze introduced me to AudioFM – a way to podcast your posts via your phone app. This is a great way to help others in a different medium. And you don’t have to be seen on video. You can be driving or in your pajamas while recording your voice.
In addition, add live video and audio to your blog or social media to help when you can’t be in front of your laptop generating written content. Twitter is working on a new form of video for its site, to make sharing a one button push. You can use these methods on your blog or your social media updates.
Stay Organized
Staying organized can be easier said than done. Many times, I have pieces of paper everywhere and must spend a little time organizing them before sitting down to type. Keeping your area clean can help you think more clearly and produce more. Therefore, clean away and try to keep yourself organized daily. Let’s see if we can make it a habit starting in 2018.
Source https://www.wikihow.com/Stay-Organized
They say keeping organized helps you do more quicker, and even helps maintain your health. Anything that can reduce some of life’s stresses can help your health. Another reason to stay organized.
Prioritize Your Money-Making Activities
If you are making money from your blogging or related business, focus on those first. They are the activities that can make your blogging business become FULL time. They will also help you to feel better about your success blogging.
Many of your family or friends may ask – “What is that thing you do?” Those that do not blog don’t understand why or what we do. Ask one of them to explain it back to you. I’d love to know the answers you receive 😊
Repurpose Your Content
This one has gotten a lot of attention in the past year. Everyone is talking about repurposing content. Just what is it? It’s making a SlideShare out of your blog post or making an eBook out of your blog or several posts.
It could also be a video about a topic on a blog post, but posting it on Facebook Live or YouTube.
You could also make an infographic out of a blog post.
There are so many ways this can be done. It helps to spread your blog post out over other mediums and places to increase your reach.
Give Yourself a Break
This one is imperative. Once you feel like that rat in the wheel, you know you need a break. Every day should not feel like the same, day after day. This is true for any tasks in life. If you did the same things over and over with no break, you would break down mentally. Thus, your efforts would not be fruitful.
I love going for long walks and spending time in nature. Do something different that takes you away. You will feel refreshed and be able to pick up from where you left off.
Doing other things often can generate ideas for your content generation. It can lift you from a slump and clear mental blocks. Sitting in front of a computer your whole life will not help to generate as many ideas as if you are out and about living a full life.
Give Up the Perfection
If you are going to do it all, don’t expect perfection. Not every post will be error free. But with digital, you can go back and correct. If it were a print edition, you would not be able to. I always re-read my own work on my mobile device and sometimes find an error. I just correct and republish.
I used to fret over them so much more in the earlier days. You must give yourself a break and not expect to be perfect with everything. Sometimes, I tweet too fast and make a typo and they do not allow edits like Facebook. If you were not writing content, you would be error free. Move on and get over it!
Don’t Give Up Blogging!
Don’t give up in the first year of your blog. I think too many bloggers get impatient and give up within their first year. I find their broken links via their comments or blogs. They say success comes after failure. I recently read it does take 2 years to find success with blogging. If you truly love blogging and must work full time, don’t give it up. Just go at your own pace and stay with it.
Blogging is not for the faint of heart. It takes time, patience and a strong will. It’s a never-ending adventure.
Have Your Say
I’d love to know in the comments below. How long you have been blogging while working. Have you ever quit and come back to blogging? Or have you dragged yourself back from the brink? You surely have some wisdom to share if you have!
Featured image: Copyright: ‘https://www.123rf.com/profile_nexusplexus‘ / 123RF Stock Photo
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Latest posts by Lisa Sicard (see all)
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