Let me first appreciate you for running a blog. It is not an easy task nowadays.
The web is getting noisier by the minute and you have so much information put out there. People in fact have overwhelming amounts of information on any topic under the sun.
So even if you are running the best blog out there, the chances are you will go unnoticed by anyone.
But there’s good news. When you see a plateau in your earnings, or traffic, or your progress in general, there are certain things you can do to transform your blog.
The transformation is not only a nice thing to your blog and to your readers, but it is an uplifting thing for your business too.
And it is a mandatory thing to do. Here are 7 blogging exercises that will help transform your blog to the next level. By next level, I mean from sloppy to savvy - resulting in guaranteed success!
Let’s get started.
#1 Write everyday
I’ve already harped about this enough. If there’s one thing that you’ll do to improve your blogging skill and writing skill, it is to write everyday.
Writing everyday is just like working out everyday where you tone those muscles and you burn the excess fat.
The region of the brain that is responsible for your writing (let’s call it the writing muscle) is just like any other muscle in your body. The more you train it, the stronger it becomes and its performance increases.
You also become (and feel) fit if your workout everyday.
Similarly if you write everyday you get good at it, and you become more confident (just as you become fit when you exercise).
As a blogger I am sure you already know the importance of creating content. Not just for written content like blog posts, newsletters but also for video based content you need to do a lot of writing.
First, your daily writing practice is going to help you create the amount of content you ought to create as a blogger. That helps to take the stress out of the equation - you will be having the blog posts, the newsletters or the scripts ready on time and don’t have to sweat it out.
Second, you become good at writing over the time. Eventually it gets a lot easier for you to crank out content in a super fast pace. Your typing pace increases. As does your speed to put out your thoughts in the form of words.
That is the most important bit that makes writers slow - translating those ideas to words! By words, I don’t mean pixels on the screen, but words that carry life, emotions and words that actually connect with people and create an impact.
And with regular writing, fast writing becomes a skill which is much needed for a blogger.
Third, the quality of your writing improves dramatically. When you write everyday, you do a lot of writing. And just like anything, even with writing, practice makes it perfect.
Here’s what Jeff Goins says about writing everyday: Why you need to write every day
To start with you can go ahead and register at http://750words.com/ and start writing. Or use Scrivener, set yourself daily word limits and start doing it.
#2 Practice discipline
The second most important thing to transform your blog is to become disciplined.
This has a LOT to do with your blog.
As a blogger your blog needs you. Your audience need you. And if you aren’t disciplined you won’t be able to give your best to your blog and its audience.
For one, not being disciplined kills a lot of time. And time is a highly crucial asset that you don’t want to waste.
It takes discipline to close Facebook and get back to work. It takes discipline to sit down and write everyday.
It takes discipline to ignore the ringing phone while you are working on your client site; or to abandon WhatsApp for a few hours.
You know, all these contribute the transformation of your blog wherein, you can use the time saved and time gained via these disciplined efforts to improve your blog dramatically.
You can also give your blog that undivided attention it needs.
#3 Learn something new everyday
Blogging is not as easy as writing a blog post and publishing it. There are lots of stuff that are associated with blogging beyond writing and hitting publish.
You probably know that by now, right?
You should be using a CMS like WordPress. And if you don’t know the basics of using and maintaining it, you will be in trouble.
You could be using an email autoresponder service like Aweber. If you don’t know how to use it to send emails, or how to put up optin forms, you will be in trouble.
You could be scared to hear the word “SEO”. But if you don’t know anything about it, you will be seriously in trouble.
I am sure you can outsource a lot of these tasks. But my personal opinion is that (and I take this very seriously myself) - you have to have good knowledge about something you outsource, otherwise you can’t review the outcome!
As you go, make sure you learn something new everyday.
#4 Develop your skill set
Very close to what I discussed just above. But slightly different in the sense that you improve, develop and expand what you already know. And with practice you become good at it!
There is a lot of difference between knowing something and being good (or great) at it.
Knowing to write copy won’t probably help you (though it is certainly a starting point), but being good at it will help transform your blog.
Knowing how to type is fine. But being able to type faster (so you can process those blog posts faster) is certainly a plus.
Knowing some php and html is fine. But being a good (preferably, great) designer will get you clients, sales and real money.
Knowing to talk to people (via email, blog comments, over the phone etc.) is fine. But if you are really good at it, you can build some genuine, long term relationships that will help skyrocket your blog’s success.
I can go on. But you get the idea.
#5 Exercise regularly, keep yourself fit and live your life
What? Exercise? As in “workout”?
Yes.
I am not sure how much you realise that your health is the most important asset to your business. I too didn’t realise until I once fell sick and was bed-ridden for 10 full days.
And then I realised that me and my health are valuable to my business. Just like the expensive, super computer I buy and treat like one. And just like the premium tools I purchase for my business and treat them like treasure.
The most important treasure of all is me. It is you, in your case. So don’t compromise on your healthy habits for anything.
Don’t reduce your sleeping hours just to finish your blogging tasks. It doesn’t matter if you are a morning person or a nightly owl. Make sure you get enough amount of sleep everyday.
Don’t sacrifice a meal to get things done. It is the worst thing that you could do to yourself.
Don’t sit all day in front of your computer. Live your life. Get social. Exercise. Move around. This not only improves your physical fitness, but also makes you creative.
These are just a few things I remember now. I suppose you know better than these.
#6 Develop a blogging community
Do you think you can do it all by yourself? I don’t think so.
Of course you could be a solopreneur who runs the business all by yourself. But your business won’t thrive without other people in the equation.
Who will buy your stuff? Who will do business with you? Who will talk about you? Who will be your fan? Who will give you positive feedback? Who will spread the word for you. Who will support you through hard times?
You need extra hands for all the above. Do you agree?
Having a powerful, vibrant and loyal community for yourself will guarantee the success of your blog. And for sure, this can transform your blog to a greater level.
You never know what those connections bring you. You could end up a big client from just a tweet from one of your peers (assuming he/she is an influencer).
Don’t delay. Start building those relationships both with your peers and with your readers so you have a powerful army beside you!
#7 Revisit your blogging goals on a regular basis
I used to ignore this until recently. But recently I realised that unless I paused and analysed I never know what works and what doesn’t.
If I keep on doing something, and if I don’t review the results, I might be doing the same thing over and over even if it doesn’t work - because I don’t know if it worked or not unless I look back.
You can practice this both on a small scale as well as on a large scale. For instance, I review what I’ve done in a week and what progress I’ve made so far. I then plan my next week based on the progress (or lack of it) made during the current week.
If I adopt a new strategy to do something, I pause at a reasonable interval to see if it worked or not. This gives me an idea to decide whether I should continue doing more of it or just drop it and change my approach.
When you write a blogging goal somewhere and start working on it, you get too busy working and you end up forgetting your blogging goal.
It happens to all of us and it is totally normal. When something is out of site, it is out of mind.
So make sure you revisit your blogging goals. This helps you to correct course if your activities are drifting away from the original goal.
What are you going to do today to transform your blog?
I am sure, this list is not all. I’ve listed 7 key blogging exercises that I found very crucial to my own blogging success.
But I am certain that some or all of these points will help you since you are also following the same journey as mine.
Now, let me know which of these exercises are you going to do today to transform your blog? Or do you have a different blogging exercise that is not listed here? Let me hear that too!
Nirmala says
Hi Jane,
I would say that it is the awesome piece content for the bloggers to do enhanced blogging. Yes, I agree with you that the blogging is not an easy task as we need to handle so much of imperative stuff. Learning something new is really good and I’ll follow your advice.
I used to write something daily to advance my writing skills and learning some simple words to attract my blog readers. Of course, fitness should be our priority, I’ve joined in Yoga class to improve the focus and I go for regular walking 30 mins daily.
I agree with all your seven exercises to do better blogging, thanks for spending time to contribute your excellent write-up for us. Have a good week ahead.
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Hey Nirmala,
Wow! You are already on the right track with taking care of your mental and physical health. 30 mins of walking daily should help you a lot physically and as well as help you to relax. That’s wonderful stuff.
And the additional benefit with this type of activity is that you get lots of good business ideas and blog post ideas while you are doing relaxing stuff.
Everyday learning is mandatory - and I realized this when I was falling behind, unable to cope with the advancements in the industry - both technical and non-technical.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts Nirmala
Have an awesome week ahead!
Cheers,
Jane.
Hi Nirmala,
I’ve heard lots of people say Yoga increases focus, I need to find out how that happens, who doesn’t need more focus.
Thanks for pointing that out in your comment.
Cheers
Dan
Dan Ewah recently posted..The Blog Commenting Superstars of Adrienne Smith Community
Hi Jane,
You compiled a good list of things that is a must for the success of a blogger. I have been trying to follow all these like writing every day, practice discipline, learn something new, develop new skills, etc, etc.
Even if we do all those things perfectly, bloggers mostly forget about the importance of health and fitness. They may sit a whole night to finish a blog post and forget that they are neglecting their much-needed sleep for a better health.
Also, when we may forget the fact that too much of sitting in front of a computer without any other exercise in between will ruin our health too. So, it is should not be a bad idea not to forget the importance of the point number 5 (Exercise regularly, keep yourself fit and live your life) mentioned here by Jane.
Hoping to read more posts from you soon.
Keep sharing
Have a great time
Reji Stephenson
Hey Reji,
Yup. Being too hard on one’s health for the sake of blogging is a dangerous blunder most bloggers do.
We all prefer to start an online business so we can have some freedom - either from 9-5 or being able to be present for the family and yet earn some income.
In this aim, our own health becomes a high priority item that we should never ignore.
Thanks for stopping by
Have a good one.
Cheers,
Jane.
Hi Jane
Very unique post indeed as most of the people talk about tips, ways and methods but rarely mentioned the exercises to improve one’s business.
Apart from writing daily and building community rest of the others are quite unique and more than amazing especially for those who take blogging as end of this world and directly hit their own health.
Blogging is just like any other profession and one needs to take it professionally and be consistent as we do in other types of activity.
In the beginning no one can earn millions in any kind of business and he has to wait for quite a long time to fully establish so is the case with blogging.
I fully agree with you that with not taking care of own health one can’t become an energetic and hard working entrepreneur.
Thanks a lot for sharing this very thoughtful post that has an aura of difference and one can easily transform his blog from a weakling being to a powerful magnet.
Have a great rest of the week.
Hey Mi Muba,
I’m glad you found the post unique
It is very important that we take blogging seriously because it is part of our business. But more importantly, our health matters a lot.
Without the healthy self, no blogger can perform things to achieve his/her dreams. And the problem with taking things to an extreme without being health conscious is that, it doesn’t show its ugly face immediately.
While you think you are rocking it by working 20 hours a day, you could be hit by a sudden health related mishap. So it is very very important for bloggers to treat themselves nice and be health conscious while they run their business.
Thanks for your valuable comment!
Cheers,
Jane.
Hey Jane,
Well that’s great advice and I love your headline. It really got my attention so bravo my dear.
I’m not sure I really have much to add. Of course I know there may be times that things slow down and we need to test out different strategies. I know for me personally I’ll never go back to writing more than I am now. I can’t see myself getting less busy although we know how much the search engines love fresh new quality content.
I run across a lot of people who get frustrated that they’re not having success yet when you ask them what their daily tasks are they aren’t being consistent. They’re very sporadic and I do find that a lot of them enjoy spending time on social media. If you’re doing something that will benefit you then fine but if it’s not helping you move forward then get the heck off.
I think we should never stop learning, there are always new things coming out all the time or maybe something we can learn how to do ourselves. I definitely agree with that.
My favorite piece of advice though is of course join a community. I like to think that my blog is it’s own community but I also have one with my course although I can’t seem to get everyone active in there. It’s another issue with them not being consistent or doing the work or even going through the entire course. This is a big issue for a lot of people.
Great share Jane, thanks a lot and I always enjoy reading the advice you give us. It helps us become better bloggers.
Hope you had a wonderful day and enjoy your week.
~Adrienne
Hey Adrienne,
Ah yes, I spent two days cooking this headline in my head - I wanted something that really really suits the message of this post. I won’t claim that this is a killer headline, but the fact that it got your attention means it served the purpose
Thanks for mentioning that.
Well said dear - we don’t have to push ourselves too much as well as don’t have to cut down working hours (as in writing or doing any kind of blogging work). Once we find our sweet spot, if we maintain that tempo, things should be totally fine.
Continued learning is a crucial thing that keeps me afloat. And this kinda became a mandatory thing to me, because if I don’t learn I really really miss out a lot.
Ha! I know you’d love my tip about joining a community. For every blogger their own community starts with his/her blog.
Thanks for the wonderful comment Adrienne. Have an awesome week.
Cheers,
Jane.
Hey Jane,
Building a community and revisiting your goals are 2 that are important to me.
Sometimes you come to a point in your business where you’re not going anywhere. This is when you revisit your goals and plan. In my case I did add one tweaking and got myself out of a jam.
Building a community is a big challenge. Especially to us introverts. But it can be done and the rewads that we get from doing this is priceless!
Thanks for the share Jane! Have a good one!
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Hey Sherman,
You have added some valid points here. Thanks for the insightful comments. Looking back is highly crucial especially at times when we hit a plateau.
Without looking back and analyzing it is almost impossible to pin point the reason why we’ve hit the plateau.
Thanks once again for stopping by Sherman! Have a good one
Cheers,
Jane.
Hi Jane,
Great tips!! I heard from few bloggers that write content everyday but i am not able to understand why they suggest me to write content everyday. Now i get their point throguh your post why they suggest me to write content every day. I am not write content everyday before because i tried from office work and then i have to start writing for my blog but now i have decide to write content with fresh mind everyday and anyhow. I know that if you do same exercise regularly then you will get best and positive response and I beliver that practise makes a man perfect
Thanks for sharing inspiration post
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Hi Jane,
I’ve been writing professionally for the past 2.5+ years but I’m just entering into blogging and your post is so timely for me.
Writing daily as a practice is so true since that’s what helped me build my writing career.Even though I made mistakes I’ve learned from them and hence improved.
Developing new skills is so important especially when there is something new everyday
Loved all your points and nothing like starting my blogging journey on a good note with you post.
Thanks and have a great day !
Thanks for the useful article. Despite the fact that there are many new blogs and many other internet projects launched every day I believe that the blog created now may be promoted and made popular.
In order to become an expert in the niche and attract people you need to learn and grow constantly. People want to read bloggers who are developing to grow with them.
Hi Jane,
I’m newbie blogger. As I’m new to blogger I do not know much about blogging but yet I’m learning something new everyday.I do not write everyday as one of my friend suggested me to make 3 or 4 post a week and spend the rest of time sharing blogs. After reading your blog I guess I’ll going to do same as mentioned in post.
I really enjoyed reading this blog.
Hi Jane,
All the points you mentioned are important. What I found interesting is 3rd point “#3 Learn something new every day”. Nowadays doing blogging is not an easy task. It has to be something new to learn everyday if you want to be in this world of Bloggers.
Not even in blogging; learning something new every day should be the habit of everyone.
Thanks for sharing valuable points.
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Nanda Rahmanius says
Hi Jane,
Glad to be back here after a little gap. Also, what an awesome post here!
I fully agree with you. Yes, when I write every day, either from written comments or others, I feel that my writing skills increase. I can write fast and flowing like water.
Indeed, as you said, transform ideas into words is difficult. It requires a lot of practice writing. I am grateful to have done so.
I could not agree more with you about discipline. I have to discipline myself to be able to pursue all of my pace with the others.
Oh yes, my health is one of the things I care about. Although a little embarrassed to admit it, but I was a former athlete. So, I would not let my health deteriorated because of blogging. I would assume the exercise as obligatory menu in the list of my activities.
I don’t know how to say it, but I have done half of these exercises. I will raise it later on.
Thanks for sharing this with us, Jane.
I will bookmark this link. I believe that I will use this article in the future.
Keep up the good work!
~Nanda
Hey
I always write knowledgeable articles.
Thank you for sharing
Can you tell me how many post we should post in a day ??
I’m waiting for your reply!!
Good point about revisiting your goals often. If you don’t examine how you’re doing, how can you ever expect to grow??
Hi,
Your seven points are very great tools for a beginner like me and just started my blog and the same is under construction. No doubt, I will implement all the points mentioned in your article. Off course , I am already doing Heath exercise like doing yoga, meditation and regular morning walk to keep myself fit. I vouch your point that health is very much important and can’t be compromised for the sake of work.
Thanks for your support and this is required for a beginner like me.
well all the points you have composed are awesome, to write it short
1. you need to practice more then you need to have the topics on which you can write so the best source is quora to get tips on the topics which are most searched for.
2. yes writing will definitely increase you writing skill, but be patient it will take time.
3. finally building relationship is the tough job but if your content is good then it would be easy to build relationship.
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Hello Jane,
Writing blog post might blow my brains up
but seriously, I wonder how bloggers who post plagiarism free contents daily do it…
One of the tips you mentioned here that I so love is the “Create a community” tip. Bloggers not doing so should really try doing so because one man can’t run the blogging world alone.
Thanks for dropping such a wonderful post. Have a wonderful week ahead…
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I don’t know how to say it, but I have done half of these exercises. I will raise it later on.
Thanks for sharing this with us, Jane.
I will bookmark this link. I believe that I will use this article in the future.
Keep up the good work!
Great post. I’ve recently started writing blogs as a part of my profession. I have a difficulty in the subject of what to write. I found this very valuable. Thanks for sharing this.
Hi Jane,
What an awesome and insightful post.
I like when you referred to our writing muscle and I think it’s quite true, the more we write the more comfortable we become with our writing - THANKS for emphasizing this point.
I also like the building a Blog Community aspect of your point; as a matter of fact I agree with all your points.
Thanks and cheers my friend
Dan
Hey,
It’s really worth reading this above tips are my daily routine but still I have to try to write daily at least I should post 3 content in a week but those above points are all very sensitive from a expert who got success in blogging….
Thanks
Thanks for sharing some awfully sound advice Jane!
And I really like the way you compared writing every day, and or creating
some form of content every day, to the equivalent of exercising and or working out
every day.
That process will definitely lead to all the positives you attributed to it, plus the
many physical health benefits you mentioned as well.
I also really like the way you expertly demonstrated that without our health, everything
that’s important to us,including our family life is in total jeopardy as well!
That is such an important topic and so easy to temporarily lose sight of!
Thanks for putting things in the proper perspective! Another outstanding post!
Now I have to go complete today’s writing/daily content creation exercise!LOL!
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A very awesome post Jane,
These are actually some of the most basic things every blog needs in order to stand the test of time but most of usually ignore them.
Just as there are so many different types of spices for cooking a delicious meal, that’s also how blogging is, if you miss any of its spicy, it will no longer become delicious.
So i know any blogger than can apply all these tips on his blog, even if his blog is already dying, he will be able to revive it again.