ProBlogger: Hey Bloggers! Is it Time to Focus a little Less on Your Blog and A Little More on YOU?

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Hey Bloggers! Is it Time to Focus a little Less on Your Blog and A Little More on YOU? Posted: 19 May 2015 04:48 PM PDT Blogging has been very good to me over the last twelve and a half years, but it’s come at a personal cost that I’m sure many can relate to. Gradually over that time I’ve allowed myself to become more and more inactive. Gradually over time I became less and less fit and gained more and more weight. Along with the weight gain and loss of fitness came a loss of energy and mental alertness. If I’m honest it also began to impact my mental health which in turn impacted numerous other areas of my life from relationships to my personal confidence and even through into my blogging. Four months ago I had a bit of a wake up call after my annual doctors checkup, when I was presented with a list of areas I needed to do some work on. None of the things on the list were super-urgent or life-threatening but the fact that it was a list was enough to grab my attention and sparked a few changes in my life. I recently wrote about my ‘slow decline’ and the changes I made in a post over on LinkedIn titled My New Project: Project Me. In short I began to walk each day and made some significant changes to my diet (you can read the specifics in the post). The impact was pretty immediate. Most importantly I’m feeling so much better within myself. I have more energy than I remember having for a decade. I’m thinking clearer and have more mental alertness and stamina. My confidence has improved so much! I’ve lost 13 kilograms (almost 29 pounds) and am in desperate need to go shopping to buy some smaller clothes! My blood pressure is down! I’m no longer out of breath when I play with my kids. I’m getting more productive and the quality of my work is improving. My mood and outlook has improved and I’m finding myself smiling a whole heap more It’s Infectious One of the other impacts that I had not expected of this journey is that as I’ve shared my story (with the above post) and in conversation I’ve noticed that it’s sparked others around me to make changes. I was at a conference last week when three people told me that they’d started their own ‘Project Me’ campaigns. Each was doing it their own way and focusing upon a different areas of their life but each was sick of the ‘gradual slides’ that had happened in their lives and was doing something about it. Join Us? I’ve been thinking a lot about this over the last few weeks and have been wondering if there’s some way we could support each other more as a community in this area. I’ll declare up front that I’m no expert in any of this. I’m four months into this journey and have been learning a lot but still have a long way to go. But I do know that I’m much more likely to have success if I’m doing this in community and have a little accountability from those around me. As a result yesterday on the spur of the moment and without any planning or forethought, I decided to start a little group on Facebook for those who want to work on improving their health. I’ve set the group up under the name of Feelgooder (the name of an old blog I used to have that I’ve never done much with) with the goal of it being alive for three months. On 19 August we’ll reassess whether the group is being of use to people and I’ll decide if we continue it or not. The group is a closed group but you’re very very welcome to join it. The objective is not to prescribe, teach or share any one way to get healthy. Rather it’s a place for support, share, be vulnerable and have a little accountability. So far we’ve got 230+ people who’ve joined. People seem to be at all stages of the journey with their fitness, diet and other areas of well being. There’s also people from all parts of the world and different age groups. So far the group is largely made up of bloggers or online entrepreneurs. There’s no rule on this but it’s who seems to be joining so I thought I’d open the invitation up to the wider ProBlogger community. Whether this evolves beyond the group or ends up just being a temporary community I don’t know but I’m loving the first couple of days and hope that those of you who feel moved to do so might consider joining us. Is it Time to Focus a little Less on Your Blog and A Little More on YOU? I’d love to see you over on the Feelgooder Group on Facebook. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Hey Bloggers! Is it Time to Focus a little Less on Your Blog and A Little More on YOU?

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ProBlogger: 5 Unmissable Fiverr Gigs that Will Make Your Life Easy as a Busy Blogger

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5 Unmissable Fiverr Gigs that Will Make Your Life Easy as a Busy Blogger Posted: 19 May 2015 07:04 AM PDT This is a guest contribution from Pooja Lohana. Ever get mad at yourself? Because your blog is not going the way you'd like it to? You come to your desk, stare at the computer and realize there's so much to be done. You're tired before you've begun your day. But blogging is supposed to be fun. At least that's what you were told, right? Thankfully, you can prevent that feeling of dread and overwhelm from the bulk of everyday tasks in business. Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard of Fiverr. It's a marketplace where users sell and buy various services starting at five bucks. You heard it right – be it a prank call, drawing a caricature or a song dedicated to your significant other – you can get it all on Fiverr. Some of these gigs are practical, super-creative and even bizarre things you may never dare but these providers will. On a serious note, I assume you're reading this because you're a blogger and like to get a lot of things done during a day. If that's you, there are tons of time-saving gigs on Fiverr. Here's a sample of what you get: I will write an EXPERT Press Release for $5 I will fix you WordPress problems for $5 I will design a killer Landing Page for $5 I will do a 15 second commercial for $5 You get the drift. Business comes with a lot of work and you may not always have the right skill set, inclination or time to accomplish everything. So without further ado, here are 5 unmissable Fiverr gigs proven to be super-helpful for serious bloggers: Ebook Covers If you're ever to write a Kindle book or an ebook (and you should), you can safely forget the saying "Never judge a book by its cover". Because buyers are going to judge it that way. A catchy cover can make all the difference between your ebook turning out to be a best-seller or a dud. Most of the times, you can't just use a print cover as its ebook counterpart. You need to consider if the typography reads well in the thumbnail version (60 x 90 pixels on Amazon) and how well the design uses available real-estate, among other things. This is where a professional designer can make your life easier. Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur.com recommends that when looking for an ebook cover designer, you go after the one who is just starting out on Fiverr. "You want the one who has a good portfolio, but is new enough that your positive review is life or death to their Fiverr business. You'll get a lot more out of them this way than just going after the others.” But regardless, there are plenty of Fiverr fish in the sea and new ones sprout up every day. There are many good designers on Fiverr who use their own image library to create stellar, unique results. To make your job easy, I've listed two of the top providers below. Providers to consider: Pro_ebookcovers Ravsingh Video Marketing Since a majority of people in the world are visual learners (40—65%), what better way to introduce your brand than using a video? An intro video, or a logo intro as they call it, is a great way to engage your reader's visual senses. It's best to keep it super-short, like a teaser of about 30 seconds. But if you want a longer video of about a few minutes, you can get it for a few extra $5 gigs. Or, if you want to explain a concept, try one of Fiverr's "whiteboard drawing videos" which feature a hand drawing little figures on a whiteboard animation. Providers to consider: Ydrawing Studio 4 Transcription If you do a lot of interviews and publish case-studies on your blog, you'll need to transcribe your audios and videos. Your readers might prefer readable PDFs to listening to an audio file. Transcripts come handy to create blog posts, feature stories and content for your website, or when you want to throw in a freebie with a video course. Thankfully, Fiverr offers gigs for grammatically accurate and well-formatted deliveries that you might as well use with little or no editing. Providers to consider: Transexpert Adnanjilani90 Mobile Apps and Websites Recently, Google announced they will be using information from indexed apps as a factor in ranking for users who have the app installed and logged into it. What does that mean? Search engine page results will take into consideration indexed apps more prominently. As an estimate, there will be 4 billion Android and iOS users by the end of 2015. The human population is about 7 billion at the moment, so it's obvious that a majority will be using these devices. If you offer a product, creating a mobile app sounds only logical. Fiverr lists some cool app creation gigs. However, remember a complete app will cost you more than $5. So it's always better to contact a provider before buying a gig. That said, sometimes you just need a mobile-friendly website, not an app. Apps are applications that you can download on your handheld device, versus being rendered in a browser. If you're offering something specific like a game, an app is your best bet. But if you want to share your blog posts over a wider range of audiences, start with a mobile website. Providers to consider: Iphone_ipad It_service Seoparam Create Something Different How many times have you been told that? If you want to succeed at your marketing, be different. Yeah right, but how? A gig I found on Fiverr can help you through that block. This guy will go underwater and hold his breath to deliver your message. Pretty interesting, right? Or, take this lady who will write a short message on the froth of a cappuccino. More such gigs are waiting if you really like to experiment and zig when others zag! How to Get the Most Out of Fiverr Before you start using Fiverr for business, here are some tips to remember: Make sure you check the "Positive Rating" of the provider you're considering. I like to shortlist providers by pressing the "Favorite" button at the top of each profile so I can compare a few in one go. Look at the number and type of reviews at the top of the profile. Check how many orders are in queue. Usually, a lot of awaiting orders should point to good quality results. Look at the average response time. If I need something fairly quick, and the response time of a provider is in days, I would look elsewhere. Always contact the provider before buying a gig. Most sellers encourage this. Tell them exactly what you need, how much it will cost (sometimes you will have to buy an "upgrade" or extra gigs) and what's the turnaround. Make sure they are the right person for your job. How do you use Fiverr for your business? Share your expriences in the comments below! Pooja Lohana is a freelance writer, ghost writer and online marketing mentor featured on Problogger, Firepole, JeffBullas, MarketingProfs, Hongkiat and more. If you're an aspiring writer and want to become self-employed, create wealth and live a better life by launching your online writing biz, steal her free mini-course to make your first $1000 (and more) writing at home. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger 5 Unmissable Fiverr Gigs that Will Make Your Life Easy as a Busy Blogger

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