Are you overwhelmed with never ending lists of blogging tasks you have to do? It’s time to create a cost benefit analysis to eliminate all of those time-draining tasks that are not producing any results.
I had a light bulb moment this week when I was digging out some dead lilac bushes.
As I dug and yanked and pushed and pulled to get those ugly stumps out of my otherwise beautiful landscape I realized I needed to do the same thing with my blog.
It was past time to get rid of the dead wood from my blogging process. Things that once gave me pleasure or helped build my blog are now sucking my resources and energy and preventing me from building my business.
Does any of this sound familiar?
- Take free course after free course and try to implement them all at once.
- Read countless articles about how to build you blog, your audience, your social media following.
- Writing weekly or monthly themed posts that do not reach your audience (e.g. Wordless Wednesday)
- Oh look, Facebook now lets me have a cover video instead of a photo, I need to create one NOW.
- Spending hours researching how to fix a coding error when you have no knowledge of how to code
- Belonging to 50 Tailwind Tribes, 25 Facebook Share Groups, joining 100 link parties a week
- Hey, a new list of best WordPress plug-ins to use, let me install them ALL!
- That really big blogger says video is important, I need to start making videos.
- Google says I have an error on 100 pages that get almost no traffic I need to go fix them.
If this sounds like you, it is time to stop the insanity and create a workable action plan.
Step 1: Identify what works and what doesn’t
- your top posts and traffic referrers.
- things that might improve with a little extra effort.
- things that are not working or you simply do not know how to do.
Step 2: Eliminate what isn’t working
If linkups aren’t driving traffic to your blog, dump them. No one looks at your 5 Things Friday post that takes hours for you to compile? Stop writing them immediately. Eliminate the Tribes that aren’t bringing you traffic. Not getting much traffic from Twitter, take a break from it.
Eliminate any tasks from your to do list that have no real benefit. Having a beautiful Pinterest profile complete with board cover images is lovely. Less than 5% of people on Pinterest even look at someone’s profile before following them. And it is less than that for a repin. Big effort, no reward.
Look at all of that time you found just by NOT DOING things.
Step 3: Prioritize and delegate
Step 4: Get working
Step 5: Analyze and Adjust
Other Posts to Help Build Your Blog:
Give Your SEO a Boost with a Customized Search Engine
How to Calculate Sponsored Post Rates
Are You Making the One Mistake that Keeps People from Staying on Your Blog?