15 Wasteful Habits of Unproductive (and Unsuccessful) Part-Time Bloggers

Posted on November 30, 2011 Written by

This is a guest post by Dr. Bob Clarke.

It’s hard enough to build a successful and profitable blog when you have all day and night to devote to it. But when you’re a part time blogger working around a full time job, taking care of the kids and/or your elderly parents, success can seem like it’s a mile away.

While it’s not impossible to transform yourself from a part time blogger to a highly successful full time blogging machine (think Kristi Hines, creator of this blog and others), those blogging part time face unique challenges.

The fact is, if you want to succeed as a part time blogger, you’d better bring your “A game” at all times. You simply cannot afford to be wasting time in the few hours you have to devote to blogging each day.

While it’s always a good idea to study those who are successful, sometimes it works equally well to examine the reasons why many fail to thrive.

With this in mind, I share with you the most common wasteful habits that will torpedo a part time blogger faster than a submarine can sink it’s unsuspecting prey.

1. You Don’t Understand WHY You Want to Blog

Everyone thinks they should have a blog when they start marketing online; yet, you’d be surprised how many “bloggers” have no idea why they’re doing so. The result is a mediocre blog lacking direction and results.

Take some time to figure out what you want your blog to accomplish. Are you looking to build your email opt in list, sell products or an income opportunity, or simply wanting to build your reputation and value to others?

Understanding why you are blogging in the first place will help you become clear about your expectations and what actions you wish your readers to take.

 

Fetching Friday – Resources Mashup, 2011 Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals

Posted on November 25, 2011 Written by

This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the best posts of the week in blogging, making money online, SEO, and social media on kikolani.com.

The Resources Mashup

Here are some of the best articles I have stumbled upon, retweeted on @kikolani, and read in RSS subscriptions this week.

Blogging / Writing

 

How to Make Money Online Through Blogging and Writing

Posted on November 23, 2011 Written by

If you are a blogger trying to make money online and the recommended powerful ways to make money with advertising, affiliate marketing, and creating products is not working out for you, then you need to focus on doing something you’re already probably good at – creating content.

Writing is my number one source of income that has been a result of my blogging activities. The following are ways to earn income through writing that will also help you build your personal / professional brand and become an authority in your niche.

Become a Paid Contributor

Guest blogging isn’t just about getting exposure – there are plenty of sites that will pay you to contribute an article to their site. While the pay range varies, I typically only keep track of sites that offer a minimum of $50 per post and have found opportunities that go up to $200 a post, $1.25 per word, and $500 per month.

I record each opportunity I find in this spreadsheet which includes payment rates, site traffic, blog subscribers, whether the site offers an author bio, and additional details including a link directly to each site’s write for us page. Some sites in the spreadsheet include:

  • SitePoint.com – Submit posts on topics related to business, web design, coding, WordPress, and more for a payment of $100 per post with bonuses based on pageviews. The site has 8,000+ subscribers and requires a 1,500 word minimum word count per post.
  • PxlEyes.com – Submit posts on Photoshop, graphic design, and AutoCAD for a payment of up to $200 per post based on length and quality.
  • UXBooth.com – Submit posts on usability, analytics, and design for a payment of $100 per post.

The following are my tips for getting a paid contributor spot on a great blog.

  • If the site wants writing samples first, be sure to send them only your best and ones that specifically fit their audience.
  • If the site wants you to pitch them ideas, be sure to research their blog in advance and find out what topics are the most popular. I like to subscribe to the blog in Google Reader and use the PostRank Chrome Extension to see the posts with the most social engagement and then send them some great headlines running along those lines.
  • If the site wants you to send a post, be sure to format it as specified in the guidelines, verifying that images will look good at the size the blog will scale them to and that you’ve used a similar styling with regards to headers and other emphasized text.

 

Buffer Review – My Favorite Time Saving Twitter Tool

Posted on November 21, 2011 Written by

As I recently mentioned in my BlogWorld recap, I met Leo Widrich, one of the guys behind the Buffer App for Twitter sharing.

Now as many of you might know, I’m a huge fan of HootSuite for my Twitter management needs. For the longest time, I have heard people raving about Buffer, but I figured I didn’t need another app to schedule tweets since I could already schedule tweets in HootSuite.

What I didn’t realize is how much simpler Buffer really is. Let me demonstrate.

Before I begin, as a disclaimer, I didn’t get any freebies, payment, sponsorship, etc. from Buffer for writing this post. If you choose to use my referral URL to sign up for Buffer, I don’t get paid – I simply get extra Buffer scheduling space.

Tweet Scheduling in HootSuite

The simplest way to schedule tweets in HootSuite is by using the bookmarklet which you can find in your HootSuite dashboard when you hover over the Tools menu.

HootSuite Bookmarklet

Once you drag the Hootlet to your bookmarks bar on any browser, you can click on it while viewing a page you want to share. Then you’ll see a popup allowing you to choose the social profile to share it with along with the option to send the tweet now or schedule it for later using the calendar.

HootSuite Twitter Scheduling

If you need to remember what scheduled tweets you have in the system, you can go to your Publisher menu to see your scheduled tweets.

HootSuite Publisher

Now as you can see, I made an oops and scheduled two tweets to go out at the same time. To change that, edit the text, or reorganize the tweets, you have to edit them individually using the same scheduling calendar.

HootSuite Publisher - Editing Tweet Schedule

Tweet Scheduling in Buffer

Now, let’s take a look at the Buffer difference. When you setup your account, you start by entering your preferred tweeting schedule. I like to send my posts at five minutes after the hour. This means that my tweet will come across someone’s feed after all of the automated Twitterfeeds that usually happen right at the top of the hour.

Buffer Twitter Scheduling

For easy Buffer sharing, you can grab the Buffer bookmarklet for any browser’s bookmarks bar or install the browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Then, when you’re reading an article you want to share, you click on the Buffer bookmarklet or button installed by the extension (I use the one for Chrome) and get the following scheduling popup.

Buffer Tweet Scheduling

Here you can select your preferred profiles to share the tweet with and edit it as you so choose. Then you can post now or add to Buffer. To see your pending tweets, you just go to your Buffer dashboard.

Buffer Pending Tweets

Since you set your preferred tweeting schedule, you can’t accidentally set two at the same time. To edit the text, simply click on the pencil to edit. If you do notice you want to rearrange, you can simply use the Drag to Reorder to move them around.

Buffer - Reorder Pending Tweets

 

Fetching Friday – Resources Mashup & Petting Owls

Posted on November 18, 2011 Written by

This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the best posts of the week in blogging, making money online, SEO, and social media on kikolani.com.

The Resources Mashup

Here are some of the best articles I have stumbled upon, retweeted on @kikolani, and read in RSS subscriptions this week.

Blogging / Writing

 

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