Absolutely Bananas: Seattle mom blog

Fitting blogging into your life without losing your mind, relationships, and waistline

As part four of my Essential Advice for New Bloggers series we’re talking about balance. Specifically, how to balance blogging and the rest of your life.

You remember your life, right? Come on, think really hard. Oh yeah, that!

It’s true, blogging has a way of creeping in, taking over, and destroying everything in its path. Sort of like termites, only more fun. Which is why it’s important to come up with strategies, checks, and balances to keep yourself sane and keep your blogging addiction in check.

I won’t even pretend that I know all the answers here, because I struggle with the b-word (balance) on a daily basis.

There are four main areas where we tend to spend our time “blogging.” These are; creating content, building traffic, reading blogs, and reading and responding to comments. For each, I’ve come up with some tips and tricks to help you manage your time.

1) Creating content

Of all the things to spend time on, I do believe that creating quality content is the most valuable. Still, there are several strategies for increasing your efficiency when it comes to writing posts.

• Keep a notebook
  Ever notice how your very best ideas happen while you’re driving? or in the shower? or just lying down for bed? Buy yourself a small notebook that you can take with you. Or, keep one in your car, another by your bed, and one in your purse. Whatever it takes so that you can jot down the brilliant ideas when they happen. Then when you sit down to write a post, you’ll have a whole list of ideas ready and waiting.
• Write multiple posts at once
  Sometimes the hardest thing is getting the writing started, and once you’re up and running, the words flow like water. Writing on demand can be difficult and time consuming, because you’re forced to “get in the zone” for each and every post. It’s more efficient to get in the zone once and churn out a whole passle of posts. Then, set them up to publish at regularly scheduled intervals and take the rest of the week off!
• Follow a posting schedule
  I learned early on that traffic dips on the weekend… hence not the best time to publish your BEST POST EVER. Set a schedule for yourself. Mine is (loosely) Monday through Friday, with a very rare post on the weekend. I try to publish my best stuff Monday or Tuesday when traffic is the highest. And holidays are rarely worth posting; half the blogosphere is offline.
• Don’t be afraid to take a day… or a week… off
  Remember your priorities. Blogging is not a job (yet, anyway), so don’t treat it like one. Repeat after me: “this is a hobby. I will not let it take over my life.” If you take a day off (or even a week) your blog will still be there when you return. I promise.
• Use guest bloggers
  If you’re going on vacation, having a baby, or just have a lot going on, consider lining up a string of guest bloggers.

2) Building traffic and checking stats

Let’s be honest. Obsessively checking your stats fifteen or thirty times a day doesn’t do anything to help you build traffic. It’s more than adequate to check them once or twice a week. Still, stats are addictive. Every morning it takes a monumental effort for me NOT to leap out of bed and check my numbers. I am a woman obsessed. But on mornings where I do succumb to the urge, I get sucked into the vortex of blogging and before I know it an hour has gone by, I haven’t showered, and CJ is hungry, grimy, and watching TV. Oh, and it’s time to leave for preschool. I just created a highly stressful and completely avoidable situation.

Set aside a specific amount of time for building traffic and analyzing your stats.
Although it’s tempting to check your stats first thing in the morning and then every time you walk past the computer or even think about blogging… this is actually NOT the best option.

Instead, decide on an amount of time that you can afford to spend checking stats and building traffic. Next, write a list of what you hope to accomplish during this time.

For example, your list could look like this:
1) List blog on directory-type sites
2) Read articles on how to better optimize for search engines
3) Submit best posts to Stumbleupon and Kirtsy
4) Look at Google Analytics, Feedburner, and Topblogs ratings. Send thankyou emails to anyone who linked to me.

Now, set a timer for yourself, turn off your email alerts, and focus. You’ll be shocked at how little time it actually takes to accomplish what you’ve laid out!

3) Reading blogs

This is where I can spend a massive amount of time (and I suspect you probably do too)… it’s so easy to subscribe, subscribe, subscribe and POOF! before you know it you’re following a half a million blogs and spending EVERY SPARE SECOND reading them. You become stressed, pale, and weary; a shell of your vibrant former self.

The simple reality is that you cannot hope to closely follow 50+ blogs AND have a fulfilling life. Really. Put the thought right out of your mind.

This doesn’t mean you can’t subscribe to and/or occasionally read 50+ blogs.

It’s all about priorities.

Realistically, I can read about 5 blog posts per day. Depending on where you are with blogging, this number may be larger or smaller. It may increase and decrease with the ebbs and flows of your life. But remember, you need to be in control of this number. If you feel stressed because you have so many unread posts that you need to read, something is WRONG.

Fortunately, I have a few steps that you can take to bring sanity to your reader.

First, ask yourself WHY you’re reading blogs.

This may seem silly or obvious, but it’s actually really important that you’re aware of your goals behind blog reading. And, you’ll find that you need to re-ask this question as your blogging evolves.

You might find that you’re reading blogs in order to leave comments and drive traffic to your blog and because you’re building relationships and friendships with other bloggers. In this case, reading blogs will go hand-in-hand with commenting… and you’ll rarely read a blog without commenting. You will likely read a higher quantity of blogs, with less concern for their relative quality.

When you’re in this stage, remember that you don’t have to read every single post in order to accomplish your goals. Reading and commenting on one post a week from each blog that you follow will have the same impact as reading and commenting on every single post. Try it! You’ll be surprised.

Consider setting aside one or two evenings per week where you dedicate time to reading and commenting on as many posts as possible; both those you subscribe to as well as some new ones. This works well because you can get into the mood of reading blogs and really focus your energies. Then, the rest of the week, you don’t have to worry about what you’re missing and can focus on your other priorities.

Organize your feeds into categories that work for you.

Another option that can be helpful when you subscribe to a lot of blogs is to organize your feeds in a way that works for you. I’ve heard of some people who organize their feeds by days of the week; for example on Monday they might read five blogs, on Tuesday five other blogs, and so on.

For a long time I’ve organized my blogs into the following groups;

• Favorites. These are my current favorites; the blogs that I naturally gravitate towards and WANT to read whenever they update. The list changes fairly regularly as I grow tired of some blogs and become infatuated with new ones. I try to keep this list to approximately 5 blogs. When I find I’m not as enthusiastic about checking for updates on a blog, I move it to a different category. These are the ONLY blogs whose posts I read immediately when they publish.
• Once a week. As the name implies, I read these blogs approximately once a week. Sometimes more, usually less. Often blogs that were originally in my “favorites” category get moved here when I tire of them.
• When the mood strikes. I don’t read these blogs on any set schedule, but they’re there for when I’m bored, have downtime, or am looking for inspiration. Often blogs that were originally in my “favorites” category get moved here when I tire of them.
• People I know. I try to keep tabs on these blogs because I have a personal connection with the author. I check them anywhere from daily to weekly to monthly depending on how much time I have.

4) Reading and responding to comments

Again, this is an area where you can potentially spend a lot of time. The worst thing I ever did was set my email to ding whenever a new comment comes in. I’m at the dinner table and ding! a comment and it’s ALL I can do to keep myself planted in my seat. I WANT TO READ THAT COMMENT!

Comments are wonderful, gratifying, and fun. However, they’re a little bit like crack; addictive and not entirely healthy.

Here’s some basic rules for keeping comments in their (delightful) place.

• Turn off the ding. Seriously… turn it off. If you don’t hear it, it won’t take your attention away from the other, more important stuff that you’re doing.
• Shut off your computer when it’s not “blogging time.” This makes it harder to “quickly check” your comment count and then get sucked right in.
• Set aside time for reading and responding to comments. This is much more efficient than handling them as they come in.

Final words of wisdom

As someone who’s been doing this blogging thing for a while… I’ve had to learn the hard way. It’s easy to get sucked in and when you do, your life suffers.

It’s worth putting some safeguards in place to ensure that blogging is truly a compliment to your life, and not the other way around.

Set rules for yourself if necessary. Here’s some that I’d propose;

• No blogging in the evening until the kids are in bed and dishes are done.
• No blogging first thing in the morning. Is that really how you want to kick off your day?
• When you feel burned out, take a break. Blogging is not a job until it pays you lots of money.

Now it’s your turn. What guidelines do you have for keeping blogging from taking over your life?

I try to always be positive BUT…

I’m pretty sure I’m having a mid-life crisis.

[Read more at Scholastic.com]

Advice for new bloggers: Turning one-time visitors into repeat readers

As part three of my Essential Advice for New Bloggers series we’re talking about establishing a readership.

So far we’ve covered networking and basic search engine optimization, which means you’ve got the tricks for getting people to your blog. Now you need to know how to keep them there.

It’s all about the content
The single most important element for finding and keeping readers is to publish great content.

No matter how much work you do optimizing your blog for search engine traffic, networking, or building backlinks and buzz, you have to have good content or you will find yourself fighting a very uphill battle.

Readers go where the content is. They flock to blogs that are unique, relevant, interesting, or helpful. If your content is good enough, your readers will promote it for you.

Every post is the most important post
Think of every post that you write as the first and most important post that a new reader will see.

Ask yourself,

• Does this post reflect my best work?
• Does this post represent what my blog is about?
• Is this post likely to convince new readers to keep reading? Will it make them want to subscribe to my RSS feed?

If the answer to any of these questions is no; rethink posting.

Let’s say that a major site links to your blog, driving massive amounts of traffic. Let’s also pretend that you don’t know this site is linking to you until the link has already been live for a full day. If you’ve followed my “every post is important” rule, you’re ok. Readers will come to your blog, immediately see a great representation of what you’re about, and subscribe. You will live happily ever after. If, on the other hand, your latest post is a meme that you threw together in five minutes, or an other less-than-stellar example of your work, you’ll be kicking yourself for a wasted opportunity. (Trust me; I speak from experience here.)

Quality over quantity
So you’re probably thinking, “well gee thanks. How in the world am I supposed to come up with great content day in and day out?” Let me fill you in on a secret.

It’s better to publish less often with high-quality content than to publish daily with crap.

Seriously. Your readers will wait a day or two or even longer when they know your next post is likely to be really good. What they won’t do is put up with a barrage of garbage in their feed reader day after day after DAY.

Try it. Skip a day. Skip two days. Skip a whole week.

Crazy, right? Not really.

One of the benefits of taking some time off from blogging is that you’ll find your mind begins to overflow with really great ideas, until you CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE and you sit down to a veritable stream of bloggy goodness.

Your readers will thank you.

Optimize the new visitor experience
Another important tactic for converting visitors to readers is to provide them context and information that orients them to your blog. You can do this by looking at your blog as if you were a first-time visitor and making sure you’ve provided answers to the questions that they’re likely to have.

Here are some common questions that your first-time visitors are likely to ask,

• What is this blog about?
• Who writes this blog?

Let’s break these questions down, and I’ll show you how to design your blog so that the answers are easily apparent.

What is this blog about?
When a person visits your blog, they will quickly make a decision about whether or not it’s relevant to them. A primary driver in this decision is whether they can find out what your blog is about. And then, of course, the what it’s about has to be relevant and appealing.

There are a few key ways to communicate what your blog is about.

1. Title and tagline. We went into this topic in great detail in the post about SEO, but from a search-engine perspective. Now let’s look at it through a human perspective. Does your title and tagline communicate your blog’s topic or purpose? If not, you’ll have to work harder to communicate this information elsewhere.
2. ‘About’ page. Every blog should have an ‘About’ page that summarizes your blog’s purpose and topic. There are a lot of ways to do this. Surf around some of your favorite blogs to get ideas. Remember, this page is the first place to start building your brand. It says what you’re about like nothing else. Make it personal. Make it in your voice. Make it YOU.
3. Lists of best posts. Sometimes the titles of your best posts communicate what your blog’s about better than a paragraph ever could. At minimum, a list like this urges visitors to dive in and read more of your best stuff. And, if the content is as good as you and I know it is, they’ll fall in love and subscribe.

Who writes this blog?

One of the strengths of blogging is the very personal connection that is formed between the blogger and her readers. It is CRITICAL that you take advantage of this by introducing yourself to your readers.

Early on in evaluating a blog, a reader begins to wonder about the blogger behind it. Why should I care what she says? Is he credible? Would I like her? Do we have anything in common?

Help your readers out by making this information front and central.

1. Profile picture. There’s nothing more personal than a picture. A mugshot of your smiling face is completely unique, totally personal, and 100% you. If you blog anonymously or under a pseudonym, use an illustration as your mug shot.
2. ‘About me’ paragraph or page. In addition to your profile picture, it’s a good idea to have a sentence or short paragraph on the sidebar that says what you’re about. You can also build an “about me” page that gives readers an overview of who you are and what you’re into. If you’re an “expert” in your blog’s topic, this is the place to establish that expertise!

Tip: When it comes to building brand recognition it’s best to use the SAME mugshot everywhere, always, in all your social networks. People should be able to recognize your face (or the face that masquerades as you) with barely a glance.

Make it easy to subscribe
Finally, the tip that should be obvious, but isn’t always… if you want visitors to turn into subscribers, make it easy to subscribe!

For example, post a “subscribe” link in a prominent location (I prefer top right or left column). It’s also useful to duplicate your subscribe link below each post.

For readers who are new to blogging, social media, and RSS, it can be helpful to provide a “what is RSS” link to introduce them to the idea of viewing content in a feed. There’s a great example here: What is RSS?.

Related articles from around the web:

• 5 tips to increase your blog subscribers
• 50 simple ways to gain RSS subscribers
• 7 ways to get readers to stick
• 10 ways to turn new blog visitors into subscribers

So let’s discuss.  What makes you subscribe to a blog that you’re visiting for the first time?

(And if you haven’t already, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to make sure you get the rest of my blogging tips!)

Thanks, I think…

I’m folding laundry in the bedroom when I hear him shout from his seat atop the toilet, “MOM!”

“What CJ?” I holler back.

“Mom!  Come here!” 

“Just a minute!”  I continue folding clothes.  Just a few more…

“MOM! COME HERE!” his voice is getting more demanding.

I don’t answer.  Almost done.

“MOMMY!  I SAID COME HERE… THIS MINUTE!”

There’s a pause, and then, “I AM GOING TO START COUNTING!  1, 2, 3…”

Wearily I walk into the bathroom.

As I enter the doorway, CJ blasts me with a big smile followed by a rousing, 

YOU’RE A GRAND OLD FLAG

YOU’RE A HIGH FLYING FLAG

AND FOREVER IN PEACE MAY YOU WAVE

YOU’RE THE EMBLEM OF

THE LAND I LOVE

THE HOME OF THE FREE AND THE BRAVE…

Well, yes I am, CJ.  And don’t you forget it.

The birthday party list

I pull up outside the school yard and CJ climbs into the car.

“Mommy mommy I have something VERY IMPORTANT to show you!” he shouts, waving a crumpled piece of paper in front of my face.

“Ok…”

“Now mommy, pay attention.”  CJ carefully unfolds two pieces of paper and hands them to me.  He has drawn lines across each sheet, lines on which are written in childish scrawl the names of children in his school.

There are a lot of names.

“THESE are the kids who I’m inviting to my birthday party!” CJ announces.

“Ok…”

Before this moment, when I thought about CJ’s sixth birthday party, I was picturing a smallish group of 3 or 4 of his closest friends. I even considered whether I could bribe CJ to not have a party this year.  You know, we could stay in a hotel or something instead.

I was definitely NOT planning to host an extravaganza for the entire school.

“So… how did you get all these names?” I ask.

CJ is very proud of his approach. “I went around to each kid and asked them to write their name if they want to be invited to my party.”

Which means it will be exceedingly difficult to NOT invite them.  Since they think they’re invited and all.

I’d applaud his creativity if my hands weren’t already busy pulling my hair out.