9 Ways To Not Waste Your Time Blogging

OK, you started a home business and you’ve been told Blogging is a great strategy to leverage in order to grow it.

You start a wordpress.com blog and you’re excited because you’re about to do things that some successful entrepreneurs are doing to build a successful home business.

As nervous as you may be, you build up enough gusto to write and publish your first blog post. And on top of that, you promote it to a couple of groups and social media sites that you’re a member of.

But lo and behold, after a day, you’ve gotten very little to no traffic!

And the only comment that you’ve gotten was from your favorite cousin who was the least bit interested in your topic, but only commented to support you.

So you publish another blog post, and then another, but yet you had similar results each time.

So what crosses your mind?

You think about quitting because you’re not getting instant results.

But hold it there!

Before you do anything, I like for you to read this post! There are a few things that you can modify that will improve your results. Keep in mind that blogging is a great way to brand yourself so that you can attract an engaged following.

So with that said, lets get into how you can stop wasting your time blogging by making your posts valuable and attractive to your specific audience !

Blogging concept

“Successful blogging is not about one time hits. It’s about building a loyal following over time.” ~ David Aston

If you’re not building a following then you’re not building a business.

I’ve heard this quite a few times and many of you have as well.

But many of us still find time to “waste time blogging”. Yes this sounds like an oxymoron but it’s true.

Do you ever just open up your Microsoft Word Document or Pages Document to “start writing” your next post only to open up your email and get on social media, then all of a sudden you get caught up in social media limbo?

Well I do this sometimes, I admit it!

Sometimes we put other things that aren’t going to benefit us in the long run before those important tasks we need to accomplish.

It takes a lot of discipline to be a blogger or a solopreneur. There’s a lot of distractions, and if we’re not doing our due diligence in building our following, then why are we really taking on this journey in the first place?

Another thing you don’t want to do is to just meet a blog publishing quota.

A lot of us get into the habit of just meeting a quota. Yes, we get preached about staying consistent, but what’s the point of staying consistent if you’re not looking to see how to improve, or at least engage our audience?

Have you ever found yourself just posting on a certain schedule just to get it out the way?

Yes, you can say that you’re staying consistent, but how is this really helping you?

If this is you then are your stats are getting any better? Are you getting more opt ins? Are you getting more shares? Is your traffic increasing? If so, is it targeted?

If you’re not satisfied with your results and you’re just “meeting a quota” then maybe you need to make some changes.

What To Look Into To Make Sure You Don’t Waste Your Time Blogging

Your blog and your blogging is like a car. You have to do maintenance on it from time to time.

This is the one thing that gives many people who start blogging the reason to quit. You’ll have to figure out why you’re not progressing and fix the problem from time to time.

Sometimes you have to cut out some activities, while other times you may have to invest some money to overcome obstacles.

But either way it goes, blogging is a continual process.

Most people don’t like this idea, but it will benefit you in the long run, more so than short term.

Why?

Because of the relationships you will be building?

Long Term Relationships are key!

For all of you Solopreneurs, you want to get to the point to where you can market and sell anything that you put out for just about any niche product you promote.

This is why blogging is a great way to go when it comes to branding yourself and connecting with others.

And building Marketing Reciprocity is a great way to not waste time blogging.

So lets see how you can not waste time blogging by following these 9 tips:

Keep Your Topics Geared Towards Your Audience’s Interest

Don’t you hate it when people talk about themselves all the time?

Especially when they bring up topics that they’re only interested in. Then they go on and on and on about it to the point of you trying to come up with any valid excuse to get away from them.

Well in the case of blogging, all that your audience have to do is either click that “Back Button” or “The X” button on their browser.

And whenever they do this it doesn’t help your bounce rate which is a metric that helps you determine if you’re attracting your target audience or not.

So if your blog has a high bounce rate of more than 60%, then you’re content is of no interest to your target audience.

The average bounce rate for a blog is between 40% and 60%.

How do you lower it?

Make Sure To Put Your Keywords In Your Headline

Ok, you published your post but yet no one is coming to your blog.

You ever wonder why?

Well it could be because you’re not using the keywords to attract your target audience.

Plus, in the headline as a whole you want to be able to hone your copywriting skills as well. With good copy you can instantly pique the interest of your audience.

But first, you want to start off with some great long tail keywords that your target audience will more than likely use to find your blog.

This will be based on topics that you consistently write about. You just have to be smart about the keywords you use.

A quick and easy way to do this is through our friend Google!

Here’s an old school technique that I use quite often. Check out this great guest post by Freddy Gandarilla entitled EPIC Search Engine Optimization Tips For Bloggers to find out how you can determine great long-tail keywords

Now you want to come up with some engaging headlines that will get your target audience to instantaneously click on your blog post whenever they see it.

I do have to say that it’s psychological when it comes to your headlines. And when it comes to your audience, there are formulas that you can use to tap inside of their brain to conjure up a specific action you them to do.

So do you want to know what some of these formulas are?

Show Your Transparency

We all heard that in order to grow our audience and convert them, we want people to know, like and trust you.

If you’re blogging, this is a great way for them to do this.

But, some of you aren’t transparent enough for your audience to know, like and trust you.

So what could you be doing wrong?

Well instead of just telling you what you’re doing wrong, why not follow some successful bloggers who lives by example when it comes to this.

As a matter of fact, I can point you in the direction of some great bloggers that you should follow and subscribe to their blogs if you haven’t already. You would do yourself a great service if you do this.

Stay Within The Topic Of Your Blog Post

Sometimes I can go way off the topic

You may find yourself doing this often.

But the more you do this, the more reasons you give your target market to turn their attention away from your blog and look for another that actually stays on the topic.

If you’re headline is entitled “How To Generate Traffic From Facebook Groups” for example and then you subtly turn the attention towards your 2012 summer vacation in Las Vegas, then you’re doing more harm than good.

It’s one thing if you use something from your Las Vegas vacation to make a point about the topic, but it’s another thing if you don’t come back to the main topic of traffic generation from Facebook Groups.

You will waste your time blogging if this is consistent, and this will be another reason why your returning visitors will diminish in size.

Do Not Always Promote Your Products/Services/Opportunities

Have you ever been to a post where the headline piques your interest, you click on it only to run into a landing page.

This has happened to me quite a few times.

Now I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this, but it’s just quite annoying when you have your mind focused on learning something new besides about some type of tool, product or service.

This irks a lot of people, but imagine if you’re constantly promoting your products, services or opportunities?

Yes I know, you’ve been probably taught that this is valuable in and of itself, but it’s not going to come across like the to your audience.

They’re looking at you as someone so desperate that you’ll keep talking about what you promote until you get a sale.

You may not be too proud to beg, but is it really helping you with building your blog?

So instead, focus on delivering value that your audience can easily use and benefit from after reading your blog posts.

If you haven’t read Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook then I highly recommend that you do. This book will help you get into the right mindset.

Make An Effort To Stay Consistent

Some of you may blog everyday, once a week, once every two weeks, or once a month, but whatever your schedule is, make an effort to stay consistent.

Yes I know, sometimes there are events within our lives that are out of our control and this can hold you back from staying consistent.

This is why it’s a great idea to keep a couple of posts scheduled for a rainy day.

Also it’s a great idea to let your loyal email list and following know that you may put a hold on publishing content to temporary focus on some other projects.

In this sense I would equate consistency with communication.

When you’re communicating your plans, this makes a better connection between you and your audience. It show’s how much you respect them individually and how good of a sport you are.

Sometimes when I don’t put out a blog for my email list to read for that week, I’ll send them a training so they can still get some type of value from me.

In any case show your respect to those that are loyal to you by keeping them informed or sharing some type of value with them whether it be other blogs, videos, webinars, etc…

Reference To Blog Posts Other Than Your Own

The one thing I learned is that I don’t have to know everything about internet marketing and blogging.

Same goes for you as well.

If you’re not well-informed about a certain topic, but you know someone else who is, then by all means link out to their posts from your blog.

And when you do, let them know.

I use to not do this myself. But once I started, my popularity rose a couple of notches.

On top of that, search engines love it when you reference out to other blogs that relates to each topic you talk about in your blog.

Some of you may be afraid that you’ll lose traffic, but on the contrary, if you know of people that will reciprocate the value back to your blog, then it’s a win-win for you and them.

Write An Blog Posts Other Than Your Own

The one thing that I started doing some years back is expand on the headline more with an engaging introduction to the rest of the post.

It helps with the flow of your post so your visitors can stay engaged with you.

This is one of the ways that will help keep your visitors on your posts longer.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Yes, you will want to hone your copywriting skills as well.

Like there are formulas to create engaging headlines, so are there formulas for your blog itself. I tend to use these formulas mainly for the introduction while I mix it with with some great NLP Techniques.

Write About Benefits And Solutions

And yes, I’m about to repeat myself!

Here’s the one thing that’s so great about living in the Information Age

If there’s something we want to know whether they are “How To’s” or Problem Solving steps, we don’t have to call tech support or go to the library like we did some 20 years ago.

We can just Google it!

I found out about Google in the late 90s but I really didn’t use it like it do now until 10 years ago.

Then on top of that, Youtube came out, which made my world even better.

So many regular people like you and me put so much great information out there on the web that we really don’t have to leave our homes like we use to.

As a matter of fact, our smart phones became a great convenience for all of us!

So if you’re blogging, why waste your time talking about things that doesn’t benefit your audience or even provide any type of solutions?

Yes, I know, your products and opportunities are beneficial enough and will help them get out of their situation. I hear you!

But you know what?

They don’t care! They hate being sold to.

They’ll only listen to anyone that will help them solve their problems and make life more convenient for them.

For example: If anyone in your audience is in between jobs and bills are piling up, what would they be more focused on?

Your opportunity and it’s products with all the bells and whistles?

or

A job that’s going to catch them up with their bills and other responsibilities so they’ll stop stressing out?

You be the judge of this.

In Conclusion

It’s sad to say, but many of us are wasting our time blogging.

Why?

It’s not because a lot of us don’t have the skill set or can develop them.

It’s really because a lot of us don’t put up the energy to build up the skill set or even make the time to see why we’re not getting the results we want.

Some of us are stubborn to keep doing what we do as a routine but never see any improvements.

Yes, there’s going to be highs and lows when it comes to blogging, but should that deter you?

If you’re really serious, it shouldn’t at all.

I’m not one to judge since my blog isn’t perfect, but I can definitely say that I’ve visit quite a few blogs and the only thing they talk about is their opportunities, products and services.

Once in a while they’ll deliver some type of value, but apparently it isn’t enough.

If you want to see some improvements, make sure that you read the blog posts I suggested here as well as read Gary Vaynerchuck’s book.

And not only read them, make sure you apply the tips afterwards. If you just apply 3 of these tips, you will definitely start to see some great changes.

Once you do, apply another, and then another.

Also make sure that you connect with the bloggers I listed, and also I encourage you to subscribe to their blogs. You’ll learn a lot from them and also you’ll meet some other successful bloggers within their comment section that will help you along your blogging journey!

Now It’s Your Turn!

Do you feel like you’re wasting your time blogging?

If so, what are you doing about it?

If you’ve done anything, did you see any improvements? If not, what other solutions did you find?

If your blog is growing and you’re reaping the rewards, what advice do you have for others to not waste time blogging?

What are some of your experiences?

What would you add or take away from this list?

Please share your comments below and share this post with your friends! I look forward to read them!

FAQ’S