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Get More Out of Google+

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

This guest post is by Matthew Weber of T3kd.com.

When I first started blogging in early 2010, I was relatively new to social media. I had been a member of Facebook since 2004, but I was not using it to promote myself or my content: I was using to stalk old girlfriends. When I finally joined Twitter in 2009, I was unsure what the purpose of it was. Sure, I used Twitter. I followed some feeds, some interesting famous people, and I had a few followers—most of them very special bots.

But once I started blogging in January 2010, I came to the realization that I was using Twitter in completely the wrong way if I wanted people to actually engage with me, and through me, my content.

Image copyright ra2 studio - Fotolia.com

I realized that I couldn’t just tweet out something and expect people to see it. In order for people to see my content, they would have to have a connection with me, and they would need to remember me.

I tried different ways of doing this. I tweeted more, and I started to retweet others’ content. But this was still not enough. In the end I realized that the only way for other people to have a personal stake in “Matt”, would be to have them feel like we had a relationship beyond just me spewing a lot of content at them on Twitter. I realized that if I wanted the true Twitter experience, I would have to jump in and participate and engage with other people.

I found that once I stopped treating it as a place just for sharing, and started participating and conversing with other people, not only was Twitter much more entertaining, but also the people with whom I interacted started paying more attention to my content.

Amazingly, I’m currently making the same mistake with Google+. I seem to use it only as my own personal soapbox. I spew content, and no one pays attention. I know this problem all too well, seeing as I’ve made these mistakes before.

From everything I have heard, read, and been told, Google+ is an amazing place in which to get people to talk and interact with content. I have not seen this. Originally I just thought that this was because Google+ was no good. Then I thought that it might be because Google+ is so new, and there might not be a big enough audience for my content.

Then I realized that, as usual, this wasn’t the fault of Google+. It was, of course, operator error. I wasn’t using it properly.

In order for people to interact and consume your content, you have to give them a reason to do so.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “Matt, isn’t interesting and original content enough?” No, no it’s not. I know that original and interesting content is very important. But that is not what social media is all about. Your content is not even really in play when it comes to social media.

On social media sites people are not interacting with your content, at least not yet. They are interacting with you. When I share a link on Google+, people will interact with it if they have a reason to.

The biggest reason I can give them to click on that link is to make them think that they are a part of my story. If they think that there is a social relationship between us, then they are much more likely to think that my content is important. Originality and interest only come into play once they click that link.

So how do you become interactive on Google+—or any other social media site? You have to talk to people. I know that sounds almost stupidly simple, but it’s true. When they share something, strike up a conversation with them about it. Ask them questions, and share something related. There are innumerable ways to do it, but in the end it comes down to being social.

Once you have the interactivity down with one person, you will find that they are much more likely to reciprocate that interactivity back towards you and your content.

It is this statement that I have to remember. This is exactly where I was at the beginning with Twitter, and I again need to make sure that I squeeze Google+ for all it’s worth. Google+ represents a unique opportunity not only for me to spread my content out through interactivity, but also for me to gain useful connections to others. Even more than Twitter, Google+ gives me the opportunity to garner great conversations surrounding my content. I need to start using it properly, before I miss the opportunity.

When thinking about social media, we have to remember that it is not about us. We can’t be selfish, we have to be social. Being social, whether it is on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook, means to have a two-way interaction between people. A relationship that is only one way will not last long, if it takes off at all.

Just like your personal, real-life relationships, in order to flourish, an online relationship must be cultivated and fed with communication and good times. That interactivity will make it so the people you share your content with will remember you and be interested in the things you share. So go forth and be social, my friends!

Matt is the Founder of Blogs Media Network, a collection of blog sites covering assorted content. His main site, T3kd.com, is a site dedicated to covering technology news, and providing tech analysis. You can circle him on Google+ here.

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65 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

This guest post is by Satrap of BlogStash.com.

What is the best way to drive traffic to my site? What’s the fastest way to generate traffic to my site? What’s…?

We all want to know the best way to drive the greatest amount of traffic to our sites. However, the truth is that there is no best or fastest way to drive traffic! What works for me might not work for you, and vice versa. Just because I manage to get 500 visitors a day from an article I submitted to article directories doesn’t mean you can get that much traffic doing the same thing.

Of course, there are some traffic generation methods that produce better results than others. But again, it all depends on you and your situation. Let’s take article marketing as an example. Article marketing is one of the oldest and best ways to generate traffic. But the success of your article marketing campaign depends on many different things, like the number of articles you write, the number of article directories you submit to, the quality of your articles, how many articles a day you submit, and more.

My advice would be to pick a few methods from the 65 I’ve listed below, and start implementing them. Test them for yourself. Depending on your skills, you might find a method that would work wonders for you.

Don’t just follow what everybody else says. I’m not saying, “Don’t listen to experienced people who are successful in generating traffic to their site.” By all means, listen to them and do take their advice—but experiment to find out for yourself which traffic generation methods work best for you and your situation.

With that said, here are 65 simple and (mostly) free ways to generate traffic to your site.

Turn your articles and blog posts into PDFs using free PDF converters like OpenOffice. Then submit your PDFs to document sharing sites like Scribd and DocStoc.Write truly informative and useful articles related to your niche, and publish them on WikiPedia.Hold a contest and give prizes to your readers. Use social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to let people know about the contest. A good contest with good prizes will attract a lot of people.Build a wiki page for your blog. To ensure your page doesn’t get deleted, create an article that is educational, informational, and not self-promoting.Write list posts like the one you are reading. Readers love posts like “10 ways to make money” or “6 ways to drive traffic to your blog”. List posts are amongst the most popular kinds of posts, and people tend to share list posts with others more often than other posts.Make flyers with a catchy title and a description of your blog, and post them on bulletin boards in the entrance to supermarkets and other community buildings.Post frequently, but don’t sacrifice quantity for quality. Both search engines and visitors like to see fresh, quality content. The more content you have, the more chances you have for ranking for variety of keywords, which will mean more organic traffic for your blog.Make a lens (or more) using Squidoo and in it, place a few links back to your blog.Submit your blog to directories relevant to your niche, like InsLink.com (an SEO/webmaster directory).Make it easy for non-technical readers to link to your blog or share your links with other people by making a “How to link to us” page. Here, give readers easy instructions on how to link to your blog with your keywords as anchor text.Submit your blog to search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Or simply use AdMe.com to submit your site to over 25 search engines for free.Use sites like Odiogo to turn your blog into a podcast, then submit your podcast to podcast websites.Answer questions related to your niche on YahooAnswers and other Q & A sites. Include a link to your blog in the resource box.Submit your blog to social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon.Write and submit articles to article directories like EzineArticles and ArticleDashboard.Turn your articles to videos using free video creation services like Animoto, and submit them to video directories such as YouTube and DailyMotion.Build a Facebook fan page for your blog.Make use of plugins like Tell-a-Friend to let your readers quickly share your posts with their friends and family vie email.Use Hi5 to build a page for your blog and create a community around it.Don’t clutter your blog with too many pictures, ads, and so on. Keep it clean and easy to navigate. This will help both search engines and visitors to navigate around your blog easily and quickly.Join BlogEngage to submit your blog and create a community around it.Ping your blog posts using free ping services such as Pingler and Pingoat.Create a hub about your blog on HubPages.Register with few good niche-related forums and use your signature to place links pointing to your blog. Participate in discussions and contribute as much as you can.Make it easy for your readers to share your posts by installing social bookmarking plugins like SocialMarker and Digg Buttons.Readers like to read other people’s comments, especially those who responded to their comments. So, take advantage of that by using a plug-in like Comment Notifier to automatically let your readers know of new comments posted on your blog.Make your blog more search engine friendly by using SEO plug-ins such as Platinum SEO Pack.Target long-tail keywords with low competition and try to rank for them. Such keywords are easier to rank for in search engines and give you much more targeted traffic.Make a MySpace page for your blog.Make business cards with your blog info on them, hand them to friends and family, and ask them to pass them on. Mall parking lots are good place to pass your cards around. In some states you can even put your business card on windshields. You can get up to 250 free business cards using sites like VistaPrint (although you do have to pay $5 shipping).Submit your blog to the free directories like DMOZ (hard to get into, but well worth the effort!).Write a good press release, or hire a professional to do it for you (you can get a pretty decent press release written for you for $5 on Fiverr.com), and submit them to free press release distribution sites like PR.com.Write creative and attention-grabbing ads about your blog, and publish them on free classified ads sites such as CraigsList and UsFreeAds.Controversial posts attract visitors. Write a controversial post. Be creative and bold, but be careful not to cross the boundaries.Ask an expert or a trusted, well-known person in your niche for an interview. Then post the entire interview on your blog, either as a text post or as a video.Leave quality comments on blogs that are related to your niche. Make sure your comments add value to the blog. Don’t just spam-comment and hope for the best. It never works, and your links will get deleted. Worst of all, you might get blacklisted from the site. If you leave a useful comment, people will be more likely to visit your blog.Use free banner-making tools like BannerFans to make an interesting banner for your blog. Then find other bloggers in your niche and exchange banners with them.Exchange links with other blogs in your niche. Don’t go overboard with this technique, or exchange links with each and every blog you find—be selective and make sure the context for your link is appropriate. Most people use their main keyword as the anchor text for their link, that’s good for SEO. But, if you want to get more traffic from those links, instead use attention-grabbing text as your anchor text. Don’t use “Make Money Online” for your link text—people are used to seeing those links all over the web. Instead use something like “10 ways to make $10 in 10 minutes.”If you find interesting posts on other blogs, write a post about them and link to them. The other bloggers will notice and might do the same for you.Find good blogs in your niche that accept guest posts. You can either search manually or make it easy for yourself by registering for free with MyBlogGuest, which matches guest bloggers with blogs that accept guest posts. Write and submit your best articles to get the maximum exposure. Don’t just submit the article and leave. Make sure you follow up and respond to comments and questions that readers of those blogs ask.Submit your site to review sites that write reviews on other websites and blogs, like CoolSiteOfTheDay.Submit your blog to BlogCatalog.People love free stuff, so give out freebies that are related to your niche. If you are in “online money making” niche, a free ebook that teaches people who to make money on Twitter might make an appropriate freebie.Write a page on 43things.com about your blog and what you want to do with it.Use your keywords in the title of your posts. Having your keyword in the title makes it easier for you to rank for that keyword, thus bringing you more organic traffic.Use your blog’s name as your username on forums, social networking sites, and other places like YahooAnswers. People are curious by nature, so they may check out your blog out of curiosity and if you have good compelling content, they may become your loyal readers.Make a bumper sticker with your blog address on it, and place it on your car’s bumper. You can even ask your friends and family to do the same for you!Make a Twitter profile for your blog and tweet each and every post you publish on your blog.Register with EntreCard and start dropping your card on other blogs. You will be amazed how much traffic you can get from EntreCard.Register with ComLUV.com and download their plugin.Then use the Global CommentLuv Search to find blogs related to your niche and comment on them. It will return up to ten (recent) posts that will be sent back when you comment on a CommentLuv enabled site. Most are dofollow blogs, and you will get dofollow links back to your most recent posts. This is good for link building and getting some traffic.Make a free ebook with a link back to your site in it, and submit it to free ebook sites like GetFreeEbooks.com.Buy .info domains with long-tail keywords in them and use a redirect to send the traffic they receive to your main site.Rent a mailing list and send high-quality content with a link back to your site to all the subscribers. Take care with this technique so that you’re not blacklisted as a spammer, though. Find a reputable list broker—or, if in doubt, why not start your own?Post a classified ad on eBayClassified with a link to your site.When you eat out, leave a good tip along with a business card with your site info on it.Create a short report with resell rights and and include your links in the report. Give it to people for free: those people can sell the report to others as their own, so long as they don’t remove your links. The results of this technique will surprise you.Come up with a really crazy but buzz-worthy post and submit it to NowPublic.com (Previously known as Truemors). If it’s good enough, it might just go viral!Go to YouTube, find popular videos related to your niche and start commenting on those videos with a link back to your blog. Youtube videos get thousands of views, and since most people are sociable creatures, they will read the comments no matter how far down the list your comment is.Create a page (personal or business) at LookUpPage.com. You can add as many links to your blog as you like. Write a short “about” post about yourself or your blog, and make sure to link to your Twitter and other social networking sites as well. After creating the page, bookmark it using SocialMarker and ping it with Pingler (or any other tools you like).Register with Visible.me for free, and add links and information about your blog. Its a great way to build your brand and get a few backlinks from a high-PR (6) dofollow site.Submit your RSS feed to RSS aggregators. Here, I don’t mean just your blog’s RSS feed: grab the RSS url of every site you have a link on (example: if you submit articles to ezine.com, you will have your own “author RSS” URL), and go to RssMix.com. It will let you make a custom RSS feed. Take that and submit it to RSS directories and aggregators. This will put your RSS feed on steroids—and will give you many more backlinks.Make a few (yard) signs with your blog’s URL and a good title related to your niche, and place them on highway exit ramps, at busy intersections, and so on. Make sure you abide by the laws in your own state or country if you try this approach.Put an ad in your local newspaper. If you live in a small town, it may not be very expensive to have an ad on your local newspaper—or on TV or radio, for that matter.Order some T-shirts with your blog URL and title printed on them and give them away. People will check out your URL!This is just for fun, so enjoy it! Make a big and I mean big sandal (or flip flop) with your blog’s URL engraved on the bottom, go to a busy beach, and start walking all over the sand! Leave your mark for others to see.

These methods will keep you busy for a while. But perhaps the most important tip I can give you is to be patient. Getting traffic to a blog takes time and a lot of work. You cannot expect to have hundreds of visitors after a few weeks, or months of starting your blog. But, if you are a dedicated person who’s willing to put enough time and effort into it, you can’t help but attract more visitors to your blog over time.

Which of these ideas do you like? What has or hasn’t worked for you? Share your experiences with us in the comments.

Satrap writes at BlogStash.com about different work from home opportunities. Visit BlogStash to learn real ways to make money online.

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How to Appease the Blogging Gods

This guest post is by Sriram Reddy of BloggingTipster.com.

In ancient Greece, there used to be numerous gods for almost everything, from music to war. To appease the gods so they could a better life, the Greeks used to pray, pour wine on the ground, build statues, hold festivities, and make sacrifices, among other rituals.

Just as the Greeks had gods for each aspect of life, there was also “Bloggareus,” the god of blogging (mythic, created by yours truly). And boy, was he a tough cookie!

The high respect that Bloggareus commanded in ancient blogging lore was unparalleled. Even now, after all these years, worship and offerings are the least he expects in return for his prized favors. Many bloggers have felt his wrath whenever they have neglected him.

So, how do we god-fearing bloggers appease our beloved Bloggareus so he can shower traffic, ad clicks, and riches on us?

We bloggers will have to offer a post to him every day—or at least (at the very least!) once a week—to escape his fury. Bloggareus, with an insatiable appetite for blog posts, will in return grant us with more visitors, and make them take notice of us.He will only be pacified with the highest quality of content, and will settle for nothing less. Write with passion. Keep your posts fresh, useful, accurate, readable and at times inspirational. He is quick to spot fruitless content, and if he does, you will have to face the repercussions. Symptoms of his displeasure are generally a decrease in page clicks and reputation. A quick secret: he holds a special regard for list posts, as they are easier to scan and read, so offer him as many as you can.Bloggareus holds a soft spot for the readers and visitors. He looks upon them almost like demigods. If he finds out that the content is not engaging the readers, or if readers are leaving dissatisfied and without posting comments, expect his backlash to be unforgiving. Even more so since he is fondly looked down upon by Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, and Zeus will do everything within his power to bring down sinful bloggers, sometimes even send down thunderbolts.Choose the title of your post very carefully before you offer it to Bloggareus. Write a title that delivers a promise of the content to the readers, and ensure your content backs it up. Try to keep the title short, crisp, and sometimes witty. That’s the way he likes them.Include as many links as you can in your posts to earn Bloggareus’s cherished brownie points. Add links to other posts within your blog, as well as links to external sites. Remember, the more relevant information you provide to the readers, the merrier your post will be.Bloggareus looks favorably on those bloggers who promote their posts well through social media, blog commenting, discussion forums, and newsletters.Also, don’t forget to appease ProBloggereus, the demigod of blogging inspiration, as well as other demigods (established bloggers) once in a while with guest posts. They will shower you with loads of traffic, and the odd backlink, of course.

Only the hardworking, truth-speaking, selfless bloggers will be able to stand the tests Bloggareus puts forth. These are the essential qualities of a virtuous blogger. I hope my post has spurred enough devotion in my fellow bloggers, and this post leads their deeds to immortality!

Sriram writes lock stock and barrel about sharpening blogging skills at www.BloggingTipster.com. He would love to have you following him on Twitter.

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4 Essentials to Consider Before Starting Your Next Blog

This guest post is by Nivin of SecretMarketingPlaybook.com.

So, you’ve decided to start a blog?

By now I’m sure you would’ve noticed that every man, woman, and their dogs seems to have their very own blog.That leaves you with the unenviable task of answering the ultimate question for any blogger:

Why should your audience care?

How well you answer the question will be a strong determinant on how successful your blog turns out. And to help you do that, consider these four points carefully.

The first thing you need to understand about a blog is that it’s a continuous conversation about a certain topic. People visit your blog because they have a need your blog satisfies. So, before contemplating starting a blog, you need to clarify what purpose your blog is filling. What needs is it meeting?

One of the best ways to do this is via a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Now, it’s highly unlikely you will be completely unique from everyone out there, but finding a different angle will help define your blog further in the eyes of your audience.

For example, although Copyblogger.com and problogger.net both cater to pretty much the same niche, they have slight differences. ProBlogger focuses specifically on blogging, while Copyblogger targets content creation and effective copywriting. It’s the same niche (online business), but the slight variation is enough for the audience to make the distinction.

The most difficult part about creating content consistently is not knowing who you’re writing for. So, before you begin your blog, you need to be specific about the type of audience you want your blog to attract. The more specific you can be, the better.

As I’m writing this post, I imagine the main reader is a 29-year old male named Bob, married with one child who is starting out in online marketing with limited tech experience because he wants more freedom from his job to spend time with his child. Now, I am sure that not all of my readers will fit the description, but having such a clear example enables me to better understand the motivations of my demographic.

His motivations are:

He has a job, he’d like to leave—I help him believe it’s possible to leave and make a living online, because it is.He’s new to online marketing, with limited tech experience—I go easy on the tech jargon and spend more time explaining the more technical content.He wants freedom—I show him that by implementing simple (not necessarily easy) steps consistently, he will be able to achieve that freedom.

If you are starting out, I can guarantee you there is almost always someone who’s doing it better than you right now. The key is to learn from those who have gone before you. Look at their blogs, see what they write and how they add value to their visitors. Learn how they engage with their audience.

I am not implying that you should copy what they do, but spend some time understanding how they’re practicing their craft. I strongly recommend you take that extra step and introduce yourself. I have personally done that myself, and was actually quite surprised to see the amount of responses I received from the big players. Your worst-case scenario is that no one responds and you end up exactly where you are right now—no loss, really. So, go ahead: reach out, and surprise yourself.

Your blog is only as good as your content, and the more quality content you have, the better. But in order to have quality content you are going to need to consistently publish new, cutting-edge information for your industry, so you’re going to need to come up with a blogging schedule. I’ve found the best way to blog is to break up your post into three main categories:

Cutting-edge: This usually involves commenting about recent/cutting-edge developments in your industry(i.e. news, product launches, new fads). These posts have a diminishing impact on your readers over time.Evergreens: These are self-contained posts, which focus more on principles and concepts that tend to stay true over a longer period of time (this post is an evergreen post).Series: These posts usually involve topics which are so dense that a single post will not be enough to provide the reader with adequate information (i.e. Starting Your Pet Business from Scratch, or a Weight Loss After Child Birth series).

Now, I hope this post hasn’t scared you off from trying to create a new blog. All I’m trying to do here is help you get more clarity on how you should start your blogging adventure. I hope this advice will help you minimize the bumps along the way—and, more importantly, to help get your message out to a very grateful audience.

Nivin is the owner SecretMarketingPlaybook.com and is currently giving away his latest ebook – “7 Critical Things To Outsource To Make Money Online”. Get Your Copy Here.

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10 Surefire Ways to Overcome Blogging Procrastination

This guest post is by Marelisa F?brega of the Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online.

If you keep telling yourself that you’re going to start blogging on a regular basis, and that intention has failed to materialize, it’s highly probable that procrastination is the culprit. My favorite definition of procrastination is the one provided by Timothy Pychyl, Ph.D., creator of the popular web site procrastination.ca, so I quote it often. Here it is:

“Procrastination is the needless, often irrational, voluntary delay of an intended task.”

That is, you intend to write a blog post, but you go off and start doing something else which is not as important to you, and which doesn’t need to get done right away. Below you’ll find ten surefire ways to overcome blogging procrastination, so that you can achieve your goal of blogging on a regular basis.

If you keep telling yourself that you’re not blogging on a regular basis because you simply don’t have the time to do so, ask yourself if blogging is a priority for you. If it’s not, then you should seriously consider giving up your blog. After all, your time is being occupied by other things that are more important to you than blogging.

Image copyright galexa - Fotolia.com

On the other hand, if blogging is a priority for you, then you need to make time for it. The way in which you make time for blogging is by giving it a time slot in your schedule. There’s a huge difference between the following two statements: I will write a blog post this week.I will sit down to write a blog post on Tuesday, at 10:00 a.m.

The first statement is a vague intention, while the second statement is a strong commitment. Which of the two do you think is more likely to render the result of a published post on your blog?

When you have powerful reasons for doing something, you’re much more likely to overcome inertia and procrastination, and get moving. Ask yourself: “Why is it important to me to update my blog on a regular basis?”

Do you want your blog to become the definitive source for quality information in your niche?Do you blog in order to attract potential clients to your business?Do you blog to help others achieve a particular goal, such as to lose weight or get their finances in order?Do you blog in order to create an additional source of income so that you can save up to travel around the world?

Hang up your list in plain sight. Then, when you’re thinking of turning on the television instead of working on a blog post, look at your list. Allow your reasons “why” to fuel your motivation, so that you get to work on your blog post instead of giving in to the lure of the couch and the TV set.

As Piers Steel, Ph.D. explains in his book, The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things off and Start Getting Stuff Done, the more valuable a task is, the less likely you are to procrastinate on it. A task’s value is determined by two different factors:

The first factor is how much you enjoy performing the task itself.The second factor is the external reward that you expect to receive if you perform the task.

When you blog about a topic that you’re interested in, it’s very likely that you’ll enjoy the process of writing. That is, writing blog posts will become a rewarding activity in and of itself. This makes blogging a valuable task, so you’ll be much more likely to engage in it.

As I explained in the previous point, the bigger the reward that you expect to receive for performing a particular task, the more valuable that task is, and the more likely it is that you’ll do it. Therefore, you need to ask yourself how you can make the task of blogging more rewarding.

The reward that most bloggers seek is to have their posts read by a large audience. So set up a strategy to make it more likely that others will read what you write. Here are some examples:

Optimize your posts for the search engines so that what you write is more likely to be found by your target audience.Tweet your posts and share them on other social media, such as Facebook and Google+.Each time that you publish a blog post, visit from five to ten popular blogs and leave comments which add value to the conversation so that others are likely to click back to your blog.

When asked what was the most frightening thing he had ever encountered, novelist Ernest Hemingway said, “A blank sheet of paper.” A lot of people share this same fear, and they procrastinate on getting to work on a new blog post in order to avoid the prospect of staring at a blank screen, without knowing what to write about.

You can lessen this fear if you keep a list of possible blog topics that you can choose from. And that’s where your notebook comes in. Write down any potential blogging topics that pop into your head as you go about your day. Ideas can be triggered by anything:

a question a client asks youa comment your two-year old makes as she trying to get out of eating her vegetablesa slogan you read on a billboardan article you read on another blog during a coffee break.

Inspiration is fleeting, so make sure that you carry an idea capture tool with you at all times. Then, when it’s time to work on a blog post, you have a well of ideas to choose from.

The bigger a task seems, the more likely it is that you’ll look for ways to avoid it. The way in which you make a big task look less threatening is by breaking it down into tiny bite-size pieces, or subtasks. It’s even better if you can assign a specific amount of time to each subtask. Here’s an example:

Spend 40 minutes researching an article on the relationship between humor and creativity.Spend 15 minutes creating an outline for the blog post.Spend 25 minutes developing the first idea.Spend 25 minutes developing the second idea.Spend 25 minutes developing the third idea.Spend 25 minutes writing the introduction, the conclusion, and a catchy title.Spend 15 minutes editing the blog post.Spend 15 minutes formatting the blog post and adding an image.

If a task lacks structure, we’re more likely to procrastinate on it. When we know exactly what to do next, we’re less likely to procrastinate. Therefore, it’s a great idea to create a checklist of everything that you need to do in order to get a blog post published. Then, when it’s time to work on a blog post, you can just work your way down the checklist.

Stop telling yourself that you can’t write a blog post unless you have a large chunk of time available. If you only have periods of about 20 minutes scattered throughout your week, put that time to good use. Make holes in the task of writing a blog post by working on it during small pockets of time, on a consistent basis. Soon, by writing a little here and there, you’ll have a published blog post.

One way to make sure that you sit down to write your blog post at the scheduled time is to create a ritual that signals to your brain that it’s blogging time. Your ritual can be anything: light a candle, put on classical music, say a little prayer, or get yourself a cup of tea—whatever helps. Your lizard brain is much more likely to cooperate if you train it to recognize a certain series of actions as a firm command that it’s time to get to work.

We’re much more likely to keep promises that we make to others than we are to keep promises that we make to ourselves. Use that fact to your advantage and bolster your willpower by relying on others to hold you accountable. Here are two ways to create accountability:

Put an “About” widget on your blog’s sidebar and make a commitment to your readers about how often you’ll be posting on your blog.Join a group of other bloggers and agree to hold each other accountable.

The good news is that there are many ways to overcome blogging procrastination. Get started by applying these ten surefire ways to overcome blogging procrastination presented above. How do you overcome blogging procrastination? Please share in the comments below.

Marelisa F?brega blogs about creativity, productivity, and getting the most out of life over at Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online. She’s the author of the ebooks “How to Live Your Best Life – The Essential Guide for Creating and Achieving Your Life List”, and “Make It Happen! A Workbook for Overcoming Procrastination and Getting the Right Things Done”.

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