Two Office Items Worth Investing In

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 02:47 AM PST

As a blogger or webmaster you might feel that the only things you should worry about are those that happen online. Better hosting plan, backup software and so on. Well, there are two office items that I think are worth worrying about and investing in.

A good chair

Having a good chair is essential, as you will end up spending most of your day sitting on it. First of all it should be ergonomic, meaning that it will enable you to retain a correct sitting position throughout the day. Second, it should also be damn comfortable, for obvious reasons. The quality of your chair will end up affecting how long you can work, and sometimes even how well you will work.

If money is not a problem invest in a Aeron Chair, by Herman Miller. It’s by far the best chair in the world. Another good option, slightly less expensive, is the Ergohuman. Visit a local shop and I am sure it will have more options.

A good monitor with a large screen resolution

Having a good monitor with a decent screen resolution will do two things for you: first it will reduce your eye strain, and like with a good chair, it will enable you to work longer hours comfortably. Second, a large screen resolution will make you much more productive, as you’ll be able to have tabs and programs opened side by side, you’ll be able to view a longer section of websites and so on.

These days I would say the bare minimum you should have is a 23″ inches monitor with 1920×1080 resolution. Again if money is not a problem aim for a 27″ or 30″ with a resolution of 2560×1440.

Some people like using two monitors side by side. It’s an option to give you more screen real estate. Personally I prefer one large monitor as I don’t like to keep switching from monitor to monitor.

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“Help! No-one Even Knows My Blog Exists…” Here’s What to Do

Posted: 04 Feb 2014 08:00 AM PST

In our survey a few months ago, one DailyBlogTips reader asked:

"How do I get people to even know that my blog exists and then to click on the advertising. Also how do I attract sponsorship?"

A lot of bloggers have that “no-one knows I exist” feeling, and advertising is a pretty common monetization method, so maybe this question touches on problems you’ve had too.

Let's unpack it a bit. As I see it, there are a couple of crucial but separate issues here:

Getting the first 100 or so regular readers
Using monetization effectively

Getting Your First 100 Readers

When you're just starting out, there are a few ways you can bring in traffic. These are three great ones to begin with:

#1: Telling Your Friends

While you don't want to spam your friends and family with constant updates about your blog, it's a good idea to email them all and let them know what you're up to.

They'll often be keen to support you (and may well leave comments) – and even if they're not in your target audience, they may know someone who is.

#2: Using Your Forum and Email Signature

If you belong to any web forums that allow you to have a link in your signature, use it! (And if it's appropriate, post on the forum to let people know about your blog too.)

Whenever you send an email, you have an opportunity to promote your blog: add a link in the signature. You may also want to include your blog's tagline, or a sentence or two about it.

#3: Leaving Comments

While this isn't a great long-term strategy, it can be a quick way to get a few readers early on. Choose five or so large blogs in your niche and comment regularly on their posts. (Don't feel you have to comment on every single post).

Make sure your comment adds to the conversation by making or reinforcing a point from the post, or by asking a good question.

If you do those three things, you should have at least a few dozen people who know your blog exists – and some may become regular readers.

Using Monetization Effectively: Considering Advertising and Sponsorship

Let's tackle the next part of the question, then, which is about advertising and sponsorship.

I want to make one really crucial point before carrying on: You cannot ASK people to click on your ads, and you cannot click on your own ads.

(If you do, you'll be breaking the terms of service you signed up for.)

Of course, you can increase the chances of someone clicking on your ads by:

Making sure they're reasonably prominently positioned on your site.
Making sure they're as relevant as possible to your audience.

Some bloggers use other techniques, like trying to make ads blend in as much as possible with their site, so people click them thinking they're a navigation link. This could backfire by annoying readers and making your site look a little scammy.

Sponsorship can mean different things to different bloggers. Some will have "sponsors" who are basically advertisers, with banners in the sidebar. Others will take "sponsored posts" – posts they get paid to publish.

You may be able to attract some sponsors with a small, new, blog, but they won't be willing to pay much.

If you're not getting approached by sponsors spontaneously, you could look for sponsored posts / ads on other sites in your niche and contact those companies, letting them know your rates.

But…

There's a deeper issue here, and that's whether advertising and sponsorship are really effective monetization methods.

The problem with both is that they need quite a bit of traffic in order to work well. You may only get a few cents for each click on an ad (and most of your visitors won't click).

If you're new to blogging and want to monetize fast, a better method is to use affiliate links.

Affiliates get paid commission on what they sell – often 50% on digital products. So if you sell a $30 ebook, you'll get $15.

Plus, with affiliate products, you can go far beyond just putting an ad banner in your sidebar. You could write a review or a case study, or even interview the product creator.

It's still not going to make you rich overnight (I'll let you into a secret – nothing in blogging is!) but affiliate links are a great long-term way to make money from your blog.

If you want to read more about monetization, check out these posts:

When Should You Start Monetizing Your Blog?

How Should You Monetize a New Blog?

Seven Ways Blogs Make Money – Which is Right for You?

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

ProBlogger: Content Week: How to Deal with Your Blogging ‘Inner Critic’

Content Week: How to Deal with Your Blogging ‘Inner Critic’

Posted: 04 Feb 2014 08:31 AM PST

Do you have an inner critic? That little voice in your head that whispers in your ear as you write… chipping away at your confidence… making you second guess yourself… scattering seeds of doubt and fear through every paragraph you write… resulting in the ‘delete’ key being the most used key on your keyboard!

Or maybe that’s just me???

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It is content week here on ProBlogger this week and while we want most of our posts to inspire and equip you to create great content on your blog, it would be remiss of us to ignore one of the biggest challenges that many bloggers face – dealing with their inner critic.

I asked readers about their inner critic and how they deal with it on the ProBlogger Twitter account and Facebook page earlier in the week, and it was fascinating to see people’s reactions.

For starters it seems most bloggers have an inner critic – the response on that front was quite overwhelming!

How to Deal with the Inner Critic

There are no right or wrong ways to deal with your inner critic, and depending on the situation, you might want to take a number of approaches.

Ignore or Banish It

It is easier said than done, but when your inner critic has nothing constructive to say and is stopping the creative process, banishing it can be one of the most useful things you can do.

There are a range of ways of doing this, as illustrated in these responses on our Facebook page:

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This simple technique of redirecting your brain when you notice negativity is something that works for a lot of people. It aims to break the moment of negativity and then allows you to move on. You can try a word, like Karen does, or you can try to force your brain to think of something else to crowd out your inner critic – long enough for you to move on and be unaffected.

Then there’s the ‘willpower’ approach which some seem to favour:

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I find this willpower approach tougher and generally like to try to find a way to work with my inner critic.

Partner With It

I love this response from Erin White:

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This rings true for me and has become my default position for dealing with my inner critic. You see ‘critique’ is actually a useful thing. When used at the right time and in a constructive way, it actually makes us better.

I’ve come to peace with the fact that my inner critic is often actually my inner quality control inspector.

The key is to keep it in its place and only allow it to do its thing when the time is right.

So for me, when I begin to hear the whispers of doubt as I’m writing, I don’t ignore them, rather, I defer them until later – at which point they can go to town with their critical thinking. I also work the same way when I’m finding new content – first, brainstorm, then critique.

Note: This doesn’t mean I never allow myself to be critical of what I’m doing until I’ve finished. Sometimes some critical thinking is useful earlier in the writing process and idea generation stage.

It just means that there are times to bring critical thought to bear, and other times to suspend it and let one’s creativity flow.

So for me, I have a time for writing and creating, and a time for critiquing and judging what I’ve written.

If the doubts get loud to the point that they’re crowding out my creativity, I often find it worthwhile to jot down the nagging feelings I have on a piece of paper next to my keyboard before getting back to writing. I tell myself that I’ll pay attention to that doubt I have later… but now is a time to create.

It’s not always easy to take this approach but I’ve found that the more I do it the better I get at putting off and then, at the appropriate time, embracing the inner critic.

A few Questions to Ask When Working with Your Inner Critic

Working with your inner critic as a parter takes a little practice and is something you need to balance.

Without them, your work can be shoddy and of a low quality. But let them have too much influence, and you may not actually produce anything! If you let your inner critic overrule all the content ideas you come up with, it can be hard to keep producing them, and you might find you’re writing about the same old thing and never stepping out into new territory.

As a result I think it’s important to learn to ask yourself a couple of questions to help get the balance right (note: these are the same questions I recommend asking when another person is being critical of what you’re doing):

1. Is their truth in the words of my inner critic? - sometimes the whispers contain no truth and are just holding you back – but sometimes they have truth in them and are signals that you could improve what you’re doing.

2. What can I do to improve? – If there is truth in what you’re hearing – what do you need to do to improve what you’re doing? Turn the critic’s words into a constructive direction and use them to help you improve what you’re working on.

This second question is really important for many of us to do as often we let the inner critic paralyse us and stop us in our tracks. Rather than getting wrapped up in the turmoil of the critique – let it be the launching pad to better things!

Lastly, try to decide upon an action you can take that will move you on from your critical thinking. It is easy to get bogged down at this stage so I find it is important to move back into ‘action’ and ‘creation’ after having a critical review of what I’m doing. This gets the momentum going again and me back into a more positive frame of mind.

A Word About Fear

The other inner turmoil that many of us face as bloggers is fear. While some of the above probably applies I have previously outlined 3 quick questions to ask when you’re paralysed by fear. If fear is crippling you (as it has me at times) – I hope those questions help get things in perspective.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Content Week: How to Deal with Your Blogging ‘Inner Critic’