Effective Time Management Strategies

Defining Your Daily Regimen

As a blogger you will probably be doing many tasks throughout the day, if you are a single blogger, it only gets worse. But…it does not have to be, one of the factors that will influence your blog and subsequently the amount of repeat visitors you get is content quality. There are in addition to this a few more, these are listed below.

      1. Content Quality

If the quality of your content is low, infrequent and not informative this will be reflected in your statistics. You only get out what you put in. I know you may read about this all the time, but it is true and you will discover why below…

      2. Post Frequency

Are you one of those people who posts only one or two times a week without a valid reason (if you have other commitments it is obviously unavoidable). Posting less than three times a week will have a highly negative impact on how you rank in SERPS (Search Engine Ranking PageS).

Think About It…you are a search engine spider (crawler), you go to this site and you see the same stuff there week after week. What do you do? You STOP indexing the site. That is exactly what happens to blogs which are not updated frequently.

      3. Keyword Use

Are you trying to work for the keyword you want to rank highly for? Mine is “make money online” and any other related keywords to that, I try and mention it as much as possible as long as it is in context.

You have to at least try and be keyword conscious when writing posts, if you want to rank for something like “better health today,” make sure you mention it in all of your blog posts..or at least most of them.

Analyzing Your Weak Points

Finding the weak points in your blogging regimen is quintessential to succeeding in the future. Weak points are what will keep you down unless you find a way of improving upon them. Identifying and analyzing these weak points can sometimes be the hardest thing to do. Below I will list three of the most common “weak points” for blogger’s with respect to their bad habits which prevent them from doing what they do best, which is… blog. Managing your time is highly important, Nate mentions it over here: Top 5 Reasons Most Blogs Don’t Last. (Article from Nate Whitehill)

      1. Email Reading

Email continues to be a prominent factor in any person’s life. You can be a person washing dishes at a corner restaurant or a high flying CEO of a multi million dollar company…you can’t escape emails. Sometimes we love them and sometimes we dread them, my Google Talk icon in my task-bar has the ability to tell me whenever new email comes in…what do I do? I am no different from anyone else, so I read it.

But…it can be a real killer when it comes to time management. This is why you must find a way to tackle it, some people find it really good to save all their email until the evening, they have done everything they had to do that day and their email comes last on their agenda…but they are still reading it and keeping in touch with their readers and interested clients. This link can help you quickly find reader emails. (Article from JohnTP) That’s great to do when you get more than 20 emails per day.

      2. Forums, Chatting, Social Networking

Let’s face it, these things have taken over our lives, and if you are a blogger or an avid internet fanatic it has taken over your life that little bit more. I enjoy going to Digital Point and taking part in exciting posts about Google and what have you, but it is one extra thing to prevent you from getting where you want to be, for me, I want to secure my financial future using resources available to me online. Unless you have a question regarding something important like WordPress or Blog Design, do not go and engage in social chatter. Most of the posts I make (90% of them) there are regarding important issues about my latest blog design or WordPress.

      3. Plagued by Procrastination and the Box

This is a big one, procrastination, some people just like to leave things to the last possible hour, take it from me, I used to do that. But I learnt my lesson quite a few times and since then I stick to something when I start doing it. I don’t care if it is the worst thing ever, I know if I get it done now, it will not bother me at another point in time. Simple. Is it not?

The next one is not so simple…with an abundance of channels available on satellite television from so many different countries worldwide, who wouldn’t want to site down for five hours straight to watch their favourite TV shows…? Even better, let’s spend countless hours tracking down the season finale of a show on one of those illegal sites, maybe I can stream it, and then start watching something else on YouTube, Metacafe or some other site. This is a big problem for everyone, most of us LOVE television and we cannot stay away from it. The best tip is to stay away from TV is to set aside only one to two hours per day or just not watch it at all except for the news.

Make Sure You Already Have Goals (The next part of the post will not work if you have not set goals for your site). Goal Setting: One of the most under-utilized factors in web site development and expansion is goal setting, this is all about opening a word document, or getting a piece of paper and brainstorming lots and lots of stuff. Once you have brainstormed you organize the content. Similar to what I have developed below.

A Simple Brainstorm

• I want more traffic each month (Article by JohnTP)
• I want to increase my RSS subscriber count (Article by Nate Whitehill)
• I want to get a better theme for my blog
• I want to make more money online
• I want to make my blog the best I can (Our Article)
• I want to have people raving about me
• I want to be linked without having to ask to be linked
• I want to improve my writing skills (Our Article)

This is a very intense list…many, many, many goals and some are more attainable than others. These is a BIG PROBLEM with the above list. Can someone tell me what that is? Let me tell you… The problem with the list you find above is that it is the first stage of a list and some people will probably leave it at that. This is where the problem arises.

You cannot leave it at that when you have not developed a PLAN, and this all boils down to the big “HOW” question. If you do not create a step by step guide that details exactly HOW you are going to get more subscribers, HOW you are going to get more traffic or HOW you are going to make more money online you will not be able execute these goals effectively and become a successful blogger. (Our Article)

The first goal for example may have twenty five, fifty or even a hundred different steps associated to it, you need to create simple steps, simple instructions which will allow you to achieve the goal because you have broken down those goals into such simple steps. So remember, create goals and break them down so you can achieve them.

Developing Strategies to Improve

After you have identified and analyzed these weak points the next step is developing a sound strategy to improve upon them so they no longer become a problem. The problem with this step is that many do not know what strategies to use to improve on their weak points. The reality of the situation is that you can deal with these weak points in several different ways. One way is by:

      1. Creating a Daily Work Plan

As daunting as this may sound it is one of the most effective things to do with regard to organization and a good, healthy and productive blogging regimen.

1. 8:00am: Eat Breakfast (Watch news)
2. 9:00am: Write daily blog post
3. 10:00am: Work on link-building
4. 11:00am: Stop work, do something fun
5. 12:00am: Eat Lunch and Watch TV
6. 1:00pm: Go out and have fun
7. 4:00pm: Get back home, cook dinner
8. 6:30pm: Eat dinner
9. 7:30pm: Check emails, message banks etc…
10. 8:30pm: Analyze traffic statistics
11. 8:45pm: Take notes about traffic and plan to improve
12. 9:00pm: Surf some blogs, see what’s buzzing
13. 9:30pm: Watch some TV and go to sleep

So…this is a really basic plan that I have drafted up in less than 10 minutes, I take into account breakfast, lunch and dinner. I also ensure that you are spending less time on work and more time on fun activities whilst ensuring you have done the work (this would usually take you the whole day to complete in bits and pieces…why not block it into one hour of the day? Simple and Easy.)

Many people find it tough to follow a daily regimen at first, but they soon begin to see the advantages associated to a work plan (more free time, less eye strain, less stress, less anxiety, happier etc…). I know some people might find it really difficult to follow a regular work plan so I will give you links to three tools, one which I have used before when things get hectic.

EssentialPIM (www.essentialpim.com): This is the piece of software I have used previously, it is really useful, especially when you are finding it hard to juggle all of your tasks for the day or week. It takes the form of a daily diary in digital form, this allows me to see the days by day, week, month of year. The best way to go is by week because you can manage any other commitments or tasks for that week. It seems: A+

Backpack (www.backpackit.com): This is another service I found, which seems to be a bit of a Web 2.0 network style company. The great thing about backpackit is that it seems like a bit of a work collaboration network as well, this means you can share your ideas with colleagues to see who likes what and what does not work etc…It seems: A+

Treepad (www.treepad.com): I am not used to this one, I have been to the site before and I think it’s time for the owner to do a major overhaul of it and bring it into the 2.0 realm. That being said it seems like an okay personal information management utility (tool). I would not recommend it over the other two, because you actually have to pay for some of the packages…It seems B-

Managing Your Content Creation

Content creation is yet another factor where I find most bloggers struggling with, some of them have posts which are just all over the place. Nothing, absolutely nothing relates to their niche…They will talk about anything and everything, why? Just because the big name bloggers are talking about it. My simple response to this is why blog about it if it is already being blogged about by a higher power? Especially if it is about a new service.

So, you have a blog, you have some okay to good content, but you want to bridge the gap between okay and great! You can do it, just keep on building upon information provided by other bloggers.

Tomorrow, if a big name blogger talks about finance management, you can still blog about it, but

• Provide more quality content than he or she did.
• Give the audience the information which the big name blogger did not give them.
• Differentiate by giving more…but don’t forget to keep the information high quality when you are giving more.

It is hard to keep up with the demands of your readers on a daily level, but you can, you just need to make some plans which will enable you to blog frequently and get more pages ranked in search engines and probably more people digging, stumbling, redditing etc…Some people also enjoy writing posts in advance. (Article from JohnTP)  I use a desktop editor to write articles for my blog, and it is great because you can insert images, hyperlinks and so much more with ease…what’s even better, you can save drafts and keep working on them at your desktop, read more about it here: Use A Desktop Blog Editor to Write Your Posts. (Article from JohnTP)

1. Make a Posting Schedule

Some people enjoy doing this, they make a schedule where they say, okay I will post four times a week. Why do they do this? They do it because their posts are usually

• Longer than the average post
• It gives them more time
• It makes their life more flexible
• It is a great way to organize your life
• It means they are not sitting at a desk 24/7
• But…they still deliver great content

2. Are You Stuck?

This can be a tricky one, some people say they never get stuck…but they do. They get stuck when you see them (the bloggers) writing totally unrelated blog posts because they just wanted to write a post for the day and be done with it. Wrong! It is always good to have a system that you use when you don’t have ideas. You can use the following…

1. Go to other blogs, see what they are talking about…use their idea, but put it in your own words, give some opinion and provide more thought and opinion than the other blogger did.
2. Relax And Take Breaks Often, this may allow your thought process to work whilst you are doing something fun, like going to a restaurant, watching a movie, going to the beach etc…
3. Think about it, When Do You Write Your Best Posts, if it is in the morning, then do it in the morning…there is no point waiting until you are tired and grumpy to do it.

Different People, Different Thoughts

Of course, the techniques mentioned above will be effective for some and not as effective for others. It is important to note however that you must try it before you decide to give up altogether. Try using the software, try creating a work plan, try, try, try and try again until you hit the jackpot and find a system that works for you…after all, each individual is unique so we have to find a unique way of managing valuable time and money!

If you are finding it difficult and you feel that you want to do this but you can’t get started I am here to help you. If you want to arrange an online chat to discuss your daily regimen and schedule I will be more than happy to accept. I really believe that these skills for brainstorming, breaking down, planning out and executing your projects are quintessential for success. So, now that you have read the above and at least tried to put it into place, you should start seeing results, you will be, happier and feel less tired or stressed out about blogging. I wish you all the best. JohnTP likes to write a to-post list for your blog and he says it is very helpful. (Article from JohnTP)

Now the Cogs and the Gearwheels will Interlock

Once you have successfully applied all the principle I have mentioned above you should see some rapid improvement in both your blog and your productivity levels. It is not difficult to meet targets once you have a system in place which allows you to blog well, blog frequently and blog without being anxious. Finally, I wish you all the best in your blogging and I hope that your blog prospers in 2008 and beyond. I want to hear what blogging strategies you already having in place, so you can share your ideas with the community and fine tune it perhaps. Thanks. I am sure you will appreciate reading The Nature of Motivated Bloggers by Nate Whitehill.

Posted on January 19, 2008
Filed Under Blog and Site Improvement |

 Did You Like Reading This Article? If Yes, Subscribe To My RSS Feed Please.

COMMENTS

Quick Comment Policy: Small Fish Big Money values the community contribution you make to the site, we ask that you make comments that add value to the post. This could be by means of sharing or relating to the post in one form or another, or providing your own opinions relating to the post topic at hand.

Spam Policy: In the interest of reducing spam and useless content, we ask that you refrain from using 'one-liner' style comments or comments created for the purposes of attaining links (they will be purged from the site during comment quality upkeep periods). Thank You For Your Time.