It has been just over two months since I started serious blogging. Yes, I have posts archived back to 2005, but it was not until the end of August that I started serious blogging. By serious blogging I mean:
writing most of my own posts, rather than simple linking to articles on the web
aiming to provide value for my readers
working to bring readers to my blog (before August I averaged less than five visits a day).
For the last two months I have been diligent about writing my own original content that aims to provide value for my readers. I have also have consistently worked on marketing the blog to attract new readers. Hopefully some of what I have learned will also help you.
Photo by Star-dust
1. Writing Takes the Most Time
One of the biggest surprises for me was in how much time the writing process takes. I’ve always considered myself a pretty fast writer, and compared to a lot of people that is true. At work, I seem to be able to write quicker than many of my colleagues, when I was a student I could write faster than other students, and generally my writing speed is pretty high. Even with that, it still takes longer to write than I had expected. An average post takes about two hours to write, prepare and post. Generally the first draft takes an hour, and the review, formatting and posting takes another hour. The good news is that if I am consistent at putting in an hour a day, I can write and post about three articles a week. I have been generally fairly consistent at using my Power Hour for this purpose.
2. Marketing Can Be Done One Step at a Time
Because writing good material is my priority, it means that marketing must happen a little more slowly than I had expected. I have learned enough about promoting a blog that I could easily spend several 40 hour work weeks simply promoting the blog. However, I have a busy life including my job as a professor, and my rapidly growing home business. As such, I aim to take one step at a time in expanding my marketing efforts. I set marketing goals for my blog each week as part of my weekly planning process, and work towards those goals each week.
3. Network, Network, Network
Probably the priority in my promotion efforts has been to establish a presence online by networking with other bloggers and blog readers. Just like most traditional bricks-and-mortar small business, networking is the lifeblood of my blog. Blogs are not in competition with each other, rather the growth of one blog can support the growth of other blogs (Zen Habits author Leo Babauta has a great post about how success isn’t a competition). There are several ways that I network with other bloggers and readers:
leave good comments, including links to my articles when appropriate
help increase awareness about other good blogs and articles (through sharing links on my blog, submitting their work to Digg! or StumbleUpon.)
be in email contact directly with other bloggers
4. Contribute with Guest Articles
Another great way of promoting this blog has been through writing guest articles for other blogs. Certainly this is a little more time consuming than some of the other marketing ideas, but it has been a very valuable way at connecting with new readers. I have only gotten started at making a serious effort to write for other blogs, but what I have done has made a big difference. Many of you may have first found your way here through guest posts including my recent guest article at Dumb Little Man. My current goal is to submit one article each week to another blog for a guest post.
5. StumbleUpon!
Again, I’m fairly new to using StumbleUpon but it has been a significant source of traffic. If you are unfamiliar with StumbleUpon, it is a unique internet community that allows users to recommend websites to other users with similar interests. My two biggest days for visitor numbers have been when a post received a number of “stumbles”.
Here is a great post about how to use StumbleUpon to increase your traffic.
6. Switching to WordPress and Getting A Domain Name
The first thing I did when I was getting prepared to start blogging more seriously was to switch from Blogger to WordPress and get my own domain name. This entire process was easier than I expected. The actual switch process took less than an hour, and learning to use WordPress was very simple. I find WordPress easier to use and more functional than Blogger. There are many free WordPress themes to choose from and many Plugins to make it work best for you. If you are looking to make the switch you can read this post about the process.
Hopefully these six steps will be helpful for you and your blogging or internet marketing efforts. Between now and the New Year my blog goals are:
Double the number of subscribers and daily visitors
Continue to publish guest posts around the internet
Make a few small improvements to blog theme
Add a few more static pages such as a FAQ section
How Can You Help?
Share this blog! Email your friends or add a link on your site
Stumble the blog or your favorite article with StumbleUpon
Comment on your favorite article
Share feedback by emailing danny (AT) secondincometeam.com
Thanks for all of your support. Have a great day!
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
Posted on October 28th, 2008 by The Success Professor | 7 Comments »
Here is the video, followed by my 10 observations from the lecture.
1. When perceived difficulty of a task is high; fewer people will try it, thus making it easier - This is why Tim challenges people to set big goals that everyone else things is impossible. If everyone thinks things are impossible or unattainable, that very perception will make the task easier.
2. Set big, world changing, goals – Because of point #1, you should set big goals that will allow you in some way to change the world.
3. Design clear actionable steps – Whatever goals you have, you need to create clear actionable steps around that goal. This fits very closely with the Getting Things Done plan of defining the next action step for each project you are working on. Break down your world changing goals into clear actionable steps.
4. Don’t believe people who say you can’t do it – If you are doing something that is perceived to be impossible, you will have lots of people who will say it is impossible. Realize that they are wrong, and don’t listen to them. Instead, surround your people who have already done it, or who will encourage you.
5. Only listen to people who have done it, who have accomplished the impossible – The people you should listen to are the ones who have already accomplished something impossible. If someone has done the impossible thing that you want to do, then that person is first. If no one has done the thing you want to do, look for people who have done similar impossible things. Tim calls these people the “Dark Horse Role Models”.
6. You need to be able to recruit people to help you – If you set a big enough goal you will need to be able to recruit people to get your message out. Interestingly, small goals will draw very few supporters, but big world-changing goals will be easier to recruit people to help you.
7. Think exponentially and not linearly – As you work towards achieving your big goals think about exponentially. Think about big gains, not small gains. Think about big growth that people can get excited about joining in on.
8. Convert lack of resources into strengths – Tim suggests “writing down the positives about whatever you view as your negatives.” Once you start to look at those areas as strengths you can capitalize on those areas. Whatever your weaknesses are, there are strengths corresponding strengths in the marketplace.
9. Make your message really clear – This is an important principle in any type of communication. Tim says, “people can hate you or dislike you but they shouldn’t be confused by your message.” The crux of a clear message is giving the audience a clear actionable next step.
10. Create fun competition – One way to encourage activity amongst the people you have recruited is to create fun competitions. People like competition, and some people – particularly people who already get things done – will do far more simply because of a competition.
Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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Posted on October 24th, 2008 by The Success Professor | No Comments »
In one of my favorite posts ever, Zen Habits shares why Success Isn’t a Competition.This article comes with a powerful offer of support for other bloggers.
As we end one week and prepare to start another it can be a great time to reflect on our accomplishments and goals.Tuesday is month end.Do you have any goals you still need to accomplish this month?Why not go for them?Finish the month strong and then use the start of a new month to set new goals and start over!
Here are some great blog posts that I came across in the past week:
Hi everyone,
