My Back Pages

The Lazy Blogger's Guide to Getting More Traffic

Yes, I've gone and done it. I've hit a critical mass in my day job where I felt the need to write One of Those Informational Articles for the Greater Good.

I could make this guide long, full of lots of examples regurgitated from 5 years' worth of professional wisdom and blog-consuming, or I could make it short and simple and say that there are only 5 sure ways to bring traffic to your blog in the short-run, and none of them works well if you're lazy or pressed for time:

1. Go on television and radio, say interesting things, then drop your domain name liberally. Time-tested method that seems to work.

2. Post good content to your blog, and often (at least once a week).

3. Make friends with other bloggers, blogroll them, and comment on their blogs.

4. Use Google Ads to ask a question, then use your blog to answer it.

5. Offer a useful tool set on your site that requires visitors to register and return. (Then repeat steps 1 through 4 in order to publicize it.)

Well, maybe I'll make this guide long after all.

There Are No Shortcuts - Getting Blog Traffic Takes Work

The above 5 options are pretty much all there is to successful blog marketing for beginners, but for some reason people like to look for shortcuts. 

The good news is, the more you look, the more options you'll find, but few of them work quickly and only some of them work at all.  And most of them involve work.

Lots of work. Electronic labor that either you will need to do yourself, or which you will have to pay someone to do for you. And the effectiveness changes (usually decreasing) on a daily basis, as the tools become stale, outmoded, or over-gamed by marketing professionals.

Still want to try those methods? Okay. Here are 7 of the most common techniques for promoting a blog, which you could find described for free on almost any public relations, marketing or "how to break into blogging for business" blog:

Getting Things Done

So the book Getting Things Done is old news at this point, to the extent that every 3rd personal productivity blogger in existence has stolen and reworked its principles to serve their own nefarious ends. So what? 

I decided to try out the GTD method anyway, to see what the fuss is all about. I thought it might help me make faster progress on a number of self-directed business and personal goals. (Like moving forward with my novel.)

It's kind of funny that I'm trying this, since I'm already very organized, and seem to use a lot of Mr. Allen's methods instinctively. But everyone has things to learn.

I spent this evening creating an In-Box and a stack of papers that represent all my Undone Stuff. Everything from "Walk my bike over to the bike shop for a tune-up" to various technical tasks I need to complete for clients. Sometime tomorrow I'll start the next phase of the process, whatever that may be. I'm still on Chapter 5. I think it has something to do with sorting these tasks and deciding to Take Action, Delegate (to whom?) or Defer. 

So far, the most enlightening point for me has been the realization that I haven't been breaking my To Do List items down into enough steps. If you have something on your list that's too big -- e.g. "Redesign website" -- you're going to avoid it forever, because it's not broken down into smaller, easier, step-by-step parts.

I get that. It makes all the sense in the world. But what I'm wondering is, how do you apply this organizational approach to writing a novel (or a screenplay, or a book of poems)?

I'll try and figure this out and let you know if there's a way.

More later...

Twitter

Twitter isn't entirely evil. Sure, it can be distracting, if you give it too much attention.  But what I like about it is that it unites web workers in a virtual office space. That's a nice thing to have when you work from home and don't have regular coworkers. Especially when you work from home in a city where web workers are outnumbered by some other industry. It's good to talk shop once in a while.  And it's great for fast, effective networking.  Faster than LinkedIn, faster than blog comments. No screening process for comments (yet).

Screw the To Do List - Make a "Did Do" List Instead

In our goal-oriented culture, we tend to focus too much on the negative. Most of the time, when we make lists, they're lists of things we ought to do; and inevitably, at the end of the day, items are left undone. This makes us feel insufficient, as if we've failed to accomplish those final 2-3 items, rather than proud of the items we did complete -- whether they are on or off that list.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, as I struggle with my time management vis a vis being a self-employed self-starter (ergo, CEO, creative department, marketing manager, bookkeeper, and tax professional) a writer, a girlfriend, a family member, a friend, and a person trying to become more physically fit.

Sometimes I think To Do Lists are more a burden than an organizational tool. Too often they leave you feeling trapped or harassed instead of successful and efficient.

This topic loomed large for me last night, after I began to make a list of 100 Things to Do Before I Go, inspired by Maggie Mason. At first this seemed like a fun exercise in life-planning; but it quickly morphed into an opportunity for anxiety as I realized how many things there were left for me to do.

Here's an idea -- instead of listing off the things we have yet to do, why don't we list off the things we've already done?  Most of us are much more fascinating, accomplished and experienced than we think. We need to give ourselves more credit.

To this end, yesterday I started a new habit. I'm going to jot down, at the end of each day, everything I accomplished that day.

Here's an example of my entry for Sunday:

• Watched 2 episodes of "Six Feet Under"
• Typed up some more notes for my novel
• Invoiced clients
• Drew a sketch for my business website redesign
• Went on a vigorous staircase walk in Hollywood (500+ steps climbed!) with a friend, then took her out to dinner for her birthday

That's not bad for a Sunday. I felt pretty good looking at this list, realizing I'd packed a lot of living and a little bit of work into a single day. It felt great recognizing the good things I did rather than looking at my To Do List and beating myself up over the things I didn't do.

Now I'm wondering what kind of list I'd have if instead of tallying "100 Things to Do Before I Go", I tallied "100 Amazing Things I've Done Already".

I'm going to work on that later today and try and post it tomorrow.  If anyone else out there feels inspired to take a stab at a list like this, let me know and leave a link when yours is up. I'd love to read it.

Roadmap to a Pleasant Day

1. Wake up to find your man has already put the coffee on.
2. Drive across town. Complete an hour of work on your laptop at a pleasant, breezy coffee shop a few miles from the ocean.
3. Get up to feed the meter, then go in the soap shop next door to restock on hippie soaps that smell like lime and eucalyptus. Pet the lazy golden retriever lying in the patch of sun by the door.
4. Go back inside the coffee shop for another hour of work. Knock 2 items off To Do List.
5. Go out to the patio outside, away from street noise. Sit in the shade (it's sunny, and in the 70s or maybe 80s today in L.A.) and take a 20 minute business phone call.
6. Drive a few miles south to get lunch at your favorite taqueria. Chicken soft taco, guacamole, salsa verde, nopales gordita, horchata.
7. Walk a few doors down to visit the used furniture shop. Pet the owner's chihuahua. (That's two dogs in one day.)
8. Walk into the corner store and buy two Quick Picks for tonight's lottery.
9. Get whistled at by construction workers on the way back to your car.
10. Drive to a beautiful, quiet public library near the ocean. Plug your computer in and knock out the rest of the day's work. Make progress. Feel awesome.
11. Your man texts you, says he's coming to the library too.
12. Shortly after he arrives, you see a friend at the end of the aisle, staking out a table. You wave hello. He comes over and everybody chats quietly. Then he goes back to his study area, six desks away. Three friends, all working quietly in the same library; you feel like you're in college again.
13. After 2 hours, leave and go to another coffee shop, even closer to the ocean. Plug into the free WiFi, pour some Moroccan Mint tea, and start eating a bagel. 

This is a pretty good day so far, and a really good argument for being itinerant once in a while, just to shake up the freelance lifestyle, which can suffer from all the same doldrums and sameness as any cubicle job. I plan to have a day like this every week.

Trying Something New

I posted a few days ago about my having a poor relationship with time. The problem I have is common enough -- I am self-employed and I have many self-motivated, somewhat isolating hobbies and avocations (like writing). This is more often than not a recipe for Time Wasting:

Home Office
+ Web-Based Job
+ Creative Writing Habit

-------------------------------

= Where Did Those Last 5 Days Go?

I always get my client work done, but what I find is that when it comes to my personal goals, I fall short again and again, because I fritter time away on meaningless tasks and busywork.

This week I'm trying something new. On Saturday I sat down with my planner and wrote down firm commitments on the calendar through the end of this week.  Today, for instance, I have to leave the house and go write from 4-6, right before an early evening commitment.  Same writing schedule for tomorrow: 4 to 6, somewhere outside the apartment. 

Wednesday is different. I'm taking a Professional Development Day at a public library -- the entire day is a one-person conference pertaining to my business/day job, complete with a 4-part Schedule of Events. There are articles I'm making myself read, brainstorming sessions I'm forcing myself to have.  Yes, I'll break for lunch. That's when I get to read the first selection of my new Book Club (The Painted Veil; a damned great selection if I may take a moment to pat myself on the back).

Thursday and Friday are business as usual, with discrete writing slots set aside.

A one-day Writing Retreat, locally, is set aside for Feb. 29.

I have a feeling this is going to work well for me. I react poorly to schedules that project too far in advance and leave no room for contingencies or flexibility. But 7 days at a time is do-able, and I'm still allowing plenty of time for work emergenices, exercise and life. Still, like anything else, sticking to a predetermined work schedule is a habit, and will require 3 weeks' practice to stick. I'll post about how well (or not) it works.