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The Prepared Blogger: Recap

July 26, 2010 By

In the past week, I’ve shared 4 strategies to help streamline your daily blogging tasks.  The resources provided through the Prepared Blogger series will make it easier to blog on a consistent basis.  The idea is to cut out the manual labor of starting from scratch everyday.

In case you missed all or parts of the series, I’ve posted all the links:

  1. Designate a Blog Pizza Night
  2. Get Blogging Done With Checklists
  3. Develop Blog Post Templates
  4. Use Plugins to Increase Productivity

My Thoughts:

After all the tips and strategies I provided in the Prepared Blogger series, you may think I have my blogging routine polished and down to a science.

Not true!

This past week I’ve learned that preparation (aka organization) is a skill.

And like any other skill it takes learning, practicing, implementing, tweaking and the list goes on.

I will say that I have my tools and framework in place to streamline my blogging.  This is very freeing to me. Now I’m more confident in what I can accomplish.  The overwhelm of all the moving parts of blogging have been brought into perspective.  They’re within reach and I’m not pulling ideas out of thin air, just winging it.

I’m motivated to keep moving forward because I’m better equipped with resources like the blog post templates and checklists (a work in progress).  I don’t feel like I’m starting from zero everyday which in itself is energizing.

Also I realize it’s not always about the creativity, but the contingency.

It’s easy to make it happen when you’re in a creative flow and everything is clicking.  Even if you’ve been working fourteen hour days, with little downtime, and even less money.  You’re in the zone and just about anything would work  in that state.  But what about those times when things are in place-time, money, tools-and you still can’t produce?

The Prepared Blogger series was written for those moments-and all other crisis moments.  And I would like to think that the next time you find yourself stuck, a resource I’ve shared will help you pull through.

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Are You Losing Blog Subscribers?

July 23, 2010 By

RSSOne of the topics for Kelly McCausey’s Hot Seminar Series was RSS feeds.  The guest expert was Suzanne Franco.  For those who have never heard of Suzanne, she competed against 140 bloggers worldwide to win the Blogging Idol-Season 2 competition hosted by Daily Blog Tips.

A key factor of her winning the contest was being able to bring her RSS subscribers from 50 to over 600 in 30 days. That comes out to just over 18 new readers a day-impressive!

If you’re like me, you probably never gave much thought to increasing your RSS subscribers or even subscribed to others list through RSS.  Most of the time, I subscribe to lists through email and would only choose RSS if an email option wasn’t available.

RSS feeds are a non-threatening way to allow visitors to subscribe to your blog.

Where I subscribe to blogs of interest without hesitation, some visitors are hesitant to give out their email address.  By offering a RSS feed you’ll capture the attention of those readers who you would have lost. Also, it’s a FREE way to build a list if you’re not ready to commit to paying a monthly fee to an auto-responder service.

Suzanne revealed several tips to make your RSS subscription buttons and boxes more appealing. She gave tips on what types of graphics to use, where to position them, and even how to format your blog posts so they display properly in feed readers.

The call was so intriguing that Kelly Mccausey has set her own personal challenge to increase her RSS subscribers to 500 in the next few months!  Obviously, it’s time to put RSS on your marketing radar both as a blogger and subscriber.

Start by subscribing to this feed and Kelly Mccausey’s feed. Then get over to Suzanne Franco for her free e-book “Blogging Idol Secrets Revealed” to learn how to do it right.

Creative Commons License photo credit: juliomarcoss

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The Prepared Blogger: Use Plugins To Increase Productivity

July 23, 2010 By

In the Prepared Blogger series I’ve talked about Blog Pizza Night, Checklists, and Blog Post Templates.  On this last day of the series I’ll share one more tool of the trade-plugins.

Plugins  increase your productivity.  These mini “computer programs” designed to automate common functions are a big Support Open Source. Use Firefox.
asset to busy mom bloggers.  If you’re not ready to pay for outsourcing or purchase expensive software to handle tasks, they’re effective substitutes.

If you use WordPress, you’re probably familiar with the concept of plugins. But this time around,  I’m talking about  plugins for the Firefox internet browser.  Firefox is definitely a browser for bloggers.

Like WordPress, it’s open source and highly customizable.  Thousands of Firefox addons (another term for plugins) have been created for every internet function imaginable.

Eliminate some of the grunt work of blogging and free up time with these productivity boosting plugins:

CoComment

I was elated to find this plugin.  Keeping up with blog comments spread all over the web can drive you crazy.  Working in real time, CoComment pulls all of your blog conversations into one convenient place.  No more clicking all over the web trying to remember where you left comments.

Fox Splitter

The ability to open multiple tabs within your browser is a nice feature.  Fox Splitter kicks it up a notch by displaying the content of the various tabs in one screen.  You can research different sites and write a post all from a single screen.

Morning Coffee

Speaking of multiple screens, Morning Coffee opens all of your bookmarked websites in one click.  You can create groups of websites for each phase of your blogging process-research, editing, social media etc. Plus, if you follow a weekly routine, it allows you to assign websites to days of the week.

Scrapbook Plus

Copy, snip and clip webpages and content to your heart’s content with Scrapbook.  Organize all of your web finds directly from the sidebar.

ReminderFox

Schedule to-do lists, alarms and alert notifications with ReminderFox.  At the bottom of your browser, it will display a panel for you to easily handle pending items for the day.  On day 2 of the Prepared Blogger series I suggested using the GTD online app to manage your checklists.  ReminderFox is a good alternative if you’re not ready to implement the GTD method.

Creative Commons License photo credit: dimnikolov

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The Prepared Blogger: Develop Blog Post Templates

July 22, 2010 By

So far in the Prepared Blogger series I’ve suggested Blog Pizza Nights and Blogging Checklists to make blogging easier.  In this post,  I’m introducing blog templates.

I would imagine every mom blogger wants to write top-notch blog posts. Blog posts that readers rave about and re-tweet with a passion.  You know the ones that show up on everyone’s recommended reading lists.

Unless you’re a content machine, those kinds of posts are not going to come out of you every day. In most cases, they take a lot more time and creative thinking than the average daily post-and they should.

A common suggestion among top bloggers is to write certain posts according to the day of the week.  For instance, a review post on Monday, a how-to post on Wednesday, and a link bait post on Friday.

For routine posts, use blog post templates to speed up your writing time.

[Read more...]

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The Prepared Blogger Day Two: Get Blogging Done With Checklists

July 21, 2010 By

On Day 1 of the Prepared Blogger series, I talked about designating a Blog Pizza Night.  Today I will talk about blogging checklists.

I’m a checklist kind of woman.  Checklists, to-do lists, grocery lists-I like and use them all.blog checklist

Checklists are energizing.  Momentum builds as you mark off completed tasks. Point by point they can show you what it takes to get from here to there. When you feel like you haven’t accomplished anything on a given day, they are friendly reminders to whip out as proof you have done “something” that day.

Creating step-by-step lists for your repetitive blogging tasks will free up the energy needed to stay consistent and creative-characteristics of all profitable bloggers.

Some of you commented you liked the video about using Google Calendar as a blog editorial calendar.

Blogger beware. A simple entry to “write blog post” on your Google calendar is deceptive.  Hidden behind that three word phrase are many tasks.

As you go through your daily blogging activities, write down each action you take to get to what you consider done for an activity.

Develop a routine and capture it in a checklist.

An organization style that will help you get checklists down to a science is the “Getting Things Done” method by David Allen.  The core of his teaching is to get everything out of your head, identify projects, make a list of actions to complete the project and create systems.

Use these nifty online apps built around the GTD method to get started with your blogging checklists.

Vitalist

  • Offers a free level.
  • Great for users new to the GTD system.

Smartytask

  • Offers free 7 day trial.
  • Clean, intuitive, drag and drop interface.
  • Use straight from browser

For ideas on documenting internet marketing tasks, I highly recommend Melissa Ingold’s Sweetie Saturday Report Club. Every month she creates a report, checklist and action plan detailing a marketing strategy.

Creative Commons License photo credit: alancleaver_2000

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Use a Blog Editorial Calendar to Beat Writer’s Block

July 12, 2010 By

Everyday moms abandon their blogs, not for lack of passion, but lack of direction.Youblog editorial calendar want to blog. You know you need to blog, but you’re stuck on what to write.

How much  time and energy have you wasted just thinking about your next post?  As with other projects in my life, I feel more confident when I’m prepared.

Use preparation to move out of  procrastination. Start by developing a blog editorial calendar to overcome writer’s block.

Here are a few helpful posts I found in my search for blog calendar ideas:

Creative Commons License photo credit: Meepness – Daniel C

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How Can My Blog Make a Profit?

May 6, 2009 By
piggy-bank

piggy-bankI’ve been blogging for three years–and guess what:

My blog has never made a single penny.

That’s three years of me putting myself out there on the internet, writing all my personal stories and thoughts down, reformatting my blog for it to be super cute and up to date– all for no money.

This was okay with me for a while. In fact, I actually debunked the idea that my little personal blog needed to make money. I mean–it’s just me talking about the random stuff that happens in my every day life. Why would anyone want to read that?

Then I discovered something. There’s an entire network of mommy bloggers out there making money on their random mom stories every day!

Well, let’s just say that was my Oh Snap! moment.

For the next few weeks, I am going to attempt to take my tiny mommy blog and turn it into an actual profitable blog.

I challenge you to join me!

If you have a blog that you’ve been writing in for a while, but it’s just sitting there making no cash, then take this opportunity to learn with me and see if we can’t make these blogs turn a profit!

Who’s with me?

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Howdy from the Lone Star State!

May 5, 2009 By
avatar2

avatar2Hi ya’ll! I’m new around here in these parts, so I thought I’d take a minute or two to tell you about myself.

I’m Jamie Harrington, from Dallas, Texas. I’ve been blogging for a while, but frankly I don’t know the first thing about getting my blog to turn a profit. So I have decided to learn, and in the process–I’m hoping that I can convince you to come along for the ride.

I have a beautiful daughter that is a complete loon, and a husband that is cool enough to support me through my crazy misadventures. [Read more...]

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