If you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive cash compensation. I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
I have a small confession to make.
I have had a lot going on with my blog (don’t we all…). But last week I realized I was feeling a little lost.
I felt like I was spinning my wheels but not making any real headway with the things I was doing.
I’ve been working on my blog in the morning, during nap times, and as soon as my kids go to bed burning the candle at both ends which makes feeling stuck incredibly frustrating.
There are two main reasons I blog:
(1) To help other bloggers get their blogs up and running faster without spinning their wheels (because that feeling sucks) and
(2) to help improve my family’s life.
Therefore, the last thing I want to do is take time away from my family for nothing.
So I stopped.
I didn’t touch my blog or anything social media related for 4 days last week and it was the best thing I could’ve done because what I did instead has propelled me forward more than I could’ve imagined.
Sometimes taking a step is the best thing we can do to help us move forward.
Things to Do to Grow Your Blog (That AREN'T Blogging)
As mentioned above, I didn’t blog last week. I didn’t post, I didn’t pin to Pinterest, I didn’t circulate my posts on FB.
But, this doesn’t mean I didn’t focus on my blog.
Check out the things I did do, and you can too, to grow your blog moving forward.
Meet With Your Mastermind Group
A fellow blogger whom I barely knew reached out to me when I was only a few months into blogging about joining a mastermind group with her and two other ladies. It was the best thing I could've done for my blog.
Being in a mastermind group allowed me to bounce ideas off of others and kept me accountable. When I’m done talking to them I always feel like my path is a lot clearer and that was definitely the case after last Friday’s meeting.
Moral of the story: If you’re not a part of a mastermind group, be proactive and reach out to other bloggers you’ve gotten to know or create a post in a large blogging group about creating a mastermind to help each other succeed. It is one of the best things you can do for your blog.
Read a Blogging or Business Book
There is a new blogging book coming out that looks at the habits of bloggers who earn 6-figures a year from their blogs. At first, I was leery about it but it was free so I dove in.
Mind. Blown.
It was an amazing book with actionable tips.
It helped me reevaluate what I was doing in my blog and encouraged me to implement systems to keep growing and moving forward.
It was just what I needed at the moment.
Bonus: it also suggested plenty of other business books to read in the future.
Evaluate Your Activities Compared to Their ROI
ROI stands for Return on Investment.
I wrote down everything I’ve been doing for my blog and then I put a 1, 2, or 3 next to them according to how important I felt those tasks were for monetizing and growing my blog.
I then reordered them so I could clearly see the tasks I should be focusing on instead of the ones I had been focusing on.
I’m now working on tasks that are mostly ones in order to propel myself forward quicker and it feels great.
I Gave Myself Permission to Let Some Things Go
So this is a hard pill to swallow but I have been working really hard to grow my Medium account but, for now, I am going to let it take a back seat because I have other tasks I need to focus on right now.
This doesn’t mean I will never get to it- it simply means it’s not a priority at this very moment.
A few other things I decided to let go for the time being include:
Long Posts
Long, in-depth posts are great but I've been doing short, simple, to the point posts and started a 'Quick Tips' section in my blog.
I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback on it so I’m going to stick to those for the moment.
SEO
I AM NOT TELLING YOU TO NOT FOCUS ON SEO.
SEO is huge when it comes to organic search traffic.
But, researching a great long-tail-keyword for my post and then optimizing them adds about five hours to every post.
Therefore, for right now, my marketing efforts are going to be elsewhere where I will be able to get more of an immediate return on investment.
My point is, sometimes you need to make hard choices and do what you feel is best for your blog at the moment.
I may fully come to regret this choice when I go back and have to optimize all of my posts in the future but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.
Facebook App (on my phone)
I was spending a lot of time on my phone sharing posts (mine and others) but I was also burning a lot of time scrolling through my feed.
Since I deleted it, I have read 2.5 blogging and business books which is a much better use of that time.
Moral of the Story
This blogging thing is hard and there is always something else to learn. Learning is important but without executing the right things your blog will go nowhere.
if you start feeling like you’re spinning your wheels, take a step back and reevaluate.
It may feel like you’re losing valuable working time but the clarity you gain will propel your blog forward much faster than the activities you were probably filling your time with before.
Like this article? Sign up below to receive more and gain access to my FREE resource library where you can download Free e-books and a 25 page Blog Content planner.
Great post, Deja. I especially resonated with evaluating ROI. I’ve been spending too much time on my FB page. And while it does have over 20k likes it’s a huge time suck and not much ROI…it’s definitely time to revisit. Thanks for this reminder. 🙂
Sometimes all we need is a reminder about the right thing to focus on- that’s all I needed when I was at a stall 🙂