Are You Holding Back from Taking Action? Here’s How to Get Moving

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 04:28 AM PST

"My biggest problem is action. I know how to do a lot of things, but for some reason I don’t 'just start'."

One DailyBlogTips reader wrote this in our survey last month.

Do you have the same difficulty?

Let's take a quick look at some of the causes of this stuck-ness, then go through some ways to get moving.

Problem #1: Too Much Information

Having too much information can cause problems. Like the reader quoted above, you might know a lot about blogging … but you may feel you have to get everything right first time round, so you put off getting started.

Tip: Don't even try to learn everything you need to know before you begin. Learn enough to take the first step – and gather new information and ideas as you move forward.

Problem #2: High Levels of Resistance

In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield talks about "resistance" as a force that stops us moving forward with important goals. It's a natural, normal part of life – but it can be crippling if you let it build up. If you've ever put off a small task (like a phone call) for weeks, you'll know how easy it is to spend much more time worrying about it than doing it.

Tip: Tell yourself "I'll just login to my blog" or similar. Once you get started on a task, resistance magically melts away.

If you feel that you've got enough knowledge to make a start, but you're struggling to take action, try these three ways of getting moving:

#1: Set Yourself a Clear, Short-Term Goal

If your main goal is "build a wildly successful blog", it's very tough to know where to begin. You need a specific, short-term goal, like:

Write one blog post each week this month, and one guest post every two weeks.
Get 100 likes on my Facebook page.
Set up my newsletter landing page and send out one newsletter this month.

#2: Schedule Your Blogging Time

It's very easy to let week after week slip away, with little or no time to work on your blog. Putting a "blogging appointment" in your diary is a great way to keep some time clear, and to make a mental commitment.

When you do this, think about when in the day you're at your best: some people are focused and energetic at 8am; for others, it's 8pm.

#3: Take a Class or Course

A few years ago, I'd lost my motivation for writing fiction – something that I'd loved doing since childhood. I started a Masters course in creative writing, and found that the motivation came straight back. It was easy to take action, too, with weekly classes and regular assignments.

And on that note … Daniel and I are going to be launching Get Blogging very soon. (Look out for an announcement and full details next Monday.)

It's a four-week course designed to help you get your blog up and running, with clear step-by-step instructions to get you past any technical hurdles, strategic advice to help you get things right from the start, and much more.

We're aiming it at DBT readers who've not yet got their blog online, but if you've started work on your blog and are struggling to make much progress, it should help you too.

What are you stuck on this week – and how can we help? Drop a comment below…

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

Six Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog – Without Getting Penalised by Google - DailyBlogTips

Six Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog – Without Getting Penalised by Google

Posted: 08 Nov 2013 04:58 AM PST

In our recent survey, one DailyBlogTips reader asked us to write about "Traffic without backlinking stuff that will penalize you every time there is a Google update."

Quick definitions: "Traffic" means readers coming to your blog – the more, the better!

A "backlink" is a link from another site, pointing to your site. It might go to your homepage, to another page, or to a specific blog post.

As this reader's request suggests, there are some ways to get traffic which might work in the short-term, but get you penalised long-term. If you try to get traffic to your blog by dubious methods, Google will sooner or later crack down and you'll find your traffic gone.

Instead of seeking quick fixes, you want look for long-term solutions that not only bring you traffic but make the web a better place for everyone.

All these tips are ones that you can do right from day one … but they'll also help you out if you've been blogging for years and struggling to get traffic.

#1: Write Content That People Want to Read and Link To

Before you put any other traffic-generation tips into practice, you need to make sure your content is as good as it can be.

To get traffic, you need to have content people want to read. It needs to be:

Useful or entertaining (or both!)
Well-written
Nicely formatted for easy reading

When other people link to your content – with no prompting from you – then you'll know you've got it right. These links are also really valuable, as Google views them as natural and trustworthy.

Go further: It's OK to occasionally ask someone for a link, but only do this for your very best posts. Don't ask the same people all the time – and don't target top A-list bloggers when you're just starting out.

#2: Use Social Media

If you aren't already on Twitter or Facebook, get started with one of them.

You don't need to be on every network out there: focus on one or two that you're comfortable with, and that are a good fit for your audience. (If you've got a business-focused blog, for instance, you might find your readers are more likely to hang out on LinkedIn.)

As well as getting traffic from links shared on social media, you'll get new followers, plus some bloggers will use links they've tweeted as the basis of a weekly round-up of their niche.

#3: Leave Comments on Other Blogs

In the early weeks and months of blogging, leaving comments on other people's blogs is a great way to get some extra traffic. You might only get a handful of visitors from a comment – but if you leave five comments every day, this will soon add up.

Make sure your comments add value to the conversation, and use your real name (or pseudonym) not a keyword.

Go further: Reply to other readers' comments and questions, rather than just adding your own thoughts. This is a great way to connect with them as well as with the blogger.

#4: Be Generous in Linking Out

How often do you link to other bloggers? If it's rarely – or never – then you're not giving them much reason to link to you.

By being generous with your links, you'll often find that a blogger will return the favour. You may also be able to strike up a relationship them, potentially helping one another out in other ways too.

Go further: Link to other bloggers in your guest posts (see #6); if they receive a link from a high-profile blog as a result, they'll definitely be grateful.

#5: Use Your Email Signature

Email signatures are often overlooked as a source of traffic. Look at it this way: you probably send multiple emails every day, and some of those will be to people who don't know about your blog (or who haven't visited it in a while).

Include a link to your blog in your signature – perhaps with your tagline, or a few words describing what your blog is about.

Go further: Do the same with your signature on any forums you belong to, if this is allowed.

#6: Write Guest Posts for Other Blogs

Guest posting is a great way to grow your blog fast. It gets your writing in front of a new (and usually much bigger) audience, and you'll have a short bio at the end of your post to link to your blog, or a post on it.

You'll get traffic directly from your guest post, but the link itself is valuable too and will help your blog rank more highly in search engines.

Google regularly cracks down on low-quality links, however, so make sure you're only guest posting on high-quality, reputable sites.

Go further: List the top five sites in your niche that you want to guest post for, and study them carefully to find out what types of post they publish.

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