How to Take a Break from Your Blog
It doesn’t hurt to take a break from your blog every now and then, especially if you’re in a blogging rut. I know sometimes I’m not sure what I want to say some days, or I have blogger’s block. After blogging about the same topic for months, even years, you might want to step back or take a break from your blog. What follows are some tips for doing just that:
- Bring in some guest bloggers - One thing I learned is how other bloggers are more than willing to step in for you. The good thing about guest bloggers is how they give you a break, but they also bring in a fresh perspective. Read their posts for new ideas.
- Take a day off - Yeah I know. We’re supposed to blog every day or we’ll lose traffic. While I agree with that to some extent, I also believe that one day with no post won’t scare anyone away permanently.
- Post a week’s worth of posts ahead of time and take a week off. It’s difficult to take a week off when blogging, but if you schedule a week’s worth of posts ahead of time, you can take some time off.
- If you’re having blogger’s block offer up a link love post. Visit your favorite blogs in your niche and discuss what’s going on there. Don’t forget links!
- Post a fun video or funny cartoon - Who says blogging has to be nothing but words. If you can’t think of anything to say, find something else that will do!
There’s nothing wrong with needed to step away from your blog, even for a day or two. You talk about the same thing day in and day out, it’s easy to see how one can suffer from burnout. Don’t be afraid to ask a guest blogger to step in or even blog off topic for a day. It might do a world of good.
What do you do when you need a break from your blog?
Where I Blog
As Deb posted yesterday, one of our networks is having a “Where we blog” theme happening. Since I’m feeling all icky, and am headed to bed, my slacker post for the day will be to send you off to see my blogging space.
You could also tell me where you blog, that would be cool.
When a Client Crosses the Line
Years ago when I was an editorial assistant I worked for a very high maintenance publisher. She expected me to come in at the crack of dawn and work until all hours of the night. She called me Sunday mornings at 8 and Wednesday nights at 3:00 AM. When I told her she was crossing a line she told me I was welcome to clean out my desk. So I did. I left publishing for the incredibly boring world of accounting, and though I missed the fun of working in an editorial office, I knew I could go home and not have to wonder if I should pretend I’m not home every time the phone rings.
It’s happening again. I have a client who likes to call me at 6:00 PM when my family is eating, at 7:30 PM when I’m putting my son to bed and other times she feels appropriate because she knows I’ll be home. I have caller ID and will not answer the phones at this time. I’m not being petty, but it’s my experience if you don’t tell clients the office closes at a certain point they’ll be calling you at midnight.
Set Boundaries
No one wants to lose a client but if a client isn’t respectful of my family time, I don’t want to work for her anymore. Freelance doesn’t mean open all night. It’s important to establish boundaries.
- Tell clients the best time to call. Strongly suggest they call during these times only.
- If they’re in a different time zone, or calling at your convenience isn’t working for them, set up a mutually agreed upon time to talk.
- If they’re calling too much or at inappropriate times, let them know it’s not going to fly - but be nice.
- Suggest they email requests and changes and only call when it’s really important.
Pain in the Butt Clients
I don’t have many pain in the butt clients at all. Most leave me alone and I never hear from them until the job is done or it’s time to pay me. With the networks I do have regular communication with my editors but that’s usually through the network forum or chats. My pain in the butt client emails constantly for very silly reasons. For instance, she doesn’t know a thing about blogging so she feels her bloggers don’t either. The thing is she hired a bunch of experienced bloggers because she doesn’t have clue. Every week brings step by step instructions on how to use Stumble Upon or how to write a blog post. Plus she’s always changing the dates of my posts around so Monday’s post appears on Wednesday and Friday’s post appears Tuesday. There’s no reason for this, except maybe boredom. She loves to change my headlines and subheads too. I could live with all this. It annoys me, but I can live with it. Once she started calling all the time at dinner time I started getting a little angry.
Nip it in the Bud
If you’re letting your clients take over your life you must stop it immediately! Today it’s a phone call at dinner time, tomorrow it’s like you’re working for Anna Wintour Amanda Priestly. If you offer a pain in the butt client a line, she will indeed cross it. Once that happens things can only get worse.
Troublesome Client Alert!
Here’s a quick tip. If you’d like to hold onto your blogging sanity, don’t attempt to work for someone who says…
“$10 a blog, I need 5-10 Blogs. Please respond with samples. Serious only Thanks.”
It’s a serious pet peeve of mine when clients call blog posts, “Blogs” - right away you know they’re going to be trouble. Why? Because obviously if they don’t know the difference between a blog and a blog post, you’re going to have to walk them through just what a blog is; every tiny aspect. As the client they should already know this stuff. This job will be a lot o’ extra work.
Apply for jobs like this at your own risk.
Thanks to Deb for the send - it was a nice morning laugh.
Freelance Writing vs. Freelance Blogging: What’s the Difference
A question I’m often asked is, "What’s the difference between writing and blogging? Aren’t the same thing?" Technically they are. Blogging is a form of writing, but there are differences between freelancing for blogs and freelance writing in the traditional sense.
Freelance Writing
- Can pertain to print or web. Freelancers can write scripts, novels, advertising copy and more.
- Must work within specific word counts.
- Must fit the style of the magazine, newspaper or website.
- Follows a more tradition writing format.
- Unless you work for certain web content companies, don’t have to have "X amount of articles in X amount of days."
- Many publications pay only after a piece is published and that can mean months, sometimes years. Others pay on acceptance.
- Many print markets pay more than blog networks or markets.
- You don’t have to worry about building traffic or community - in most cases.
- More formal than blogging.
- Many times requires more research and interviewing of expert sources.
- You have to submit the finished product to your editor who will publish your work
Blogging
- Web based only.
- Most blogs don’t require a word count, though many employers request a certain amount of posts per week.
- Blogging pays less than many traditional forms of writing.
- Bloggers don’t have to wait as long for their paychecks.
- The more you blog the more traffic you receive.
- You’ll be expected to promote your blog, foster a community, and get the traffic ball rolling.
- Most networks offer traffic bonuses.
- A more personal style of writing. You can make it all about you.
- Can be a written post, a video, a cartoon or anything pertaining to your niche.
- You can write as much as you want whenever you want.
- Publication is immediate.
What are some of the differences you see between blogging and traditional freelance writing?
Don’t Forget Your Sense of Humor
Before I forget, happy Blogger Appreciation Day! Show another blogger how he or she is appreciated by offering encouragement and support.
Yesterday I chatted for a bit with another network blogger who was a bit down about the direction her blog was taking. As a health blogger who discussed a chronic condition she felt her posts, and her community’s comments about their health issues, was bringing the community. She felt her blog was so depressing she didn’t want to do it anymore. A couple of other bloggers chimed in and we discussed ways to add positivity to the blog. Especially through humor.
I think as bloggers we feel our primary goal is to teach, but it’s also to entertain. There are people who come to read our blogs not to learn something new, but to read and interact. Humor is a great way to encourage positivity and get some great comments rolling.
The benefits of using humor in your blog posts:
- Humor makes people smile and laugh. It makes them want to show your post to others and encourages them to come back for more humor.
- Laughter is contagious. Laughing makes people positive and upbeat.
- Humor shows a human side. People like to see you’re not perfect or that the same things happen to all of you. "Slice of life" humor is always well received.
- Humor helps others to forget about their problems for a while.
- Humor lets us all stop taking ourselves seriously for a while.
- Humor breaks up the day.
How to use humor in your blog posts:
- Tell a funny story or anecdote.
- Find a funny video.or
- Ask readers for their own funny stories.
- Look for humorous cartoons or articles and bring them to the attention of your readers.
I think bloggers forget they don’t always have to be serious. Bloggers who discuss topics such as illnesses or sad topics especially have to be careful not to become too depressing. Don’t forget to inject a little humor in your blog posts. Watch and see the difference it makes with your community.
So Not On Board With Shyftr
So, the blog post darling of the weekend is likely the whole Shyftr issue. In case you’ve missed it, here’s a little recap, and if you want to learn more background go visit the linked posts. I’m not rehashing it all here.
Shyftr stands for Share Your Feeds Together. They offer all your favorite feeds brought together in one place. Like Problogger? Fine, add that feed. Treehugger? I bet you can find them too. Basically, instead of using your feed service, Shyftr wants you to use them. Not only can you read full blog posts at the Shyftr site but comment as well. What this adds up to is that you never have to visit a blog to read the posts or comment - you can just do it at Shyftr.
Frankly I don’t see how this is legal but let’s see what others think…
On board: Louis Gray; actually this post seems more like a, “careful what you wish for” post or an adaptation than an actual on board, but he is on board.
Seems on board: Scobleizer
Not on board: Tony Hung
Not on board: Me
There are plenty of posts about this topic out there - these three above are linked somewhat so I posted them. Also the comments at each of the posts are interesting, and offer perspectives from both sides, which I like.
The comment issue:
An issue I see with this is comment moderation. Having my comments held elsewhere doesn’t allow me the chance to moderate comments which means my goal of keeping comments related to my work respectful is now out of the picture. From what it looks like, only Shyftr can mod comments, and since they didn’t write my post, and they can’t read my mind, how can they possible mod properly?
For example, let’s look at Tony Hung’s post above. His post at his blog has one set of comments. Now if you go to the Shyftr page with this same blog post, there is a whole other set of comments, one of which says, “Oh, and I”ll up you a “I think Tony Hung is an blow hard”, and say, see if you can moderate it.” Maybe the person is joking, maybe not. Say they’re not - that’s so not cool.
The big issue:
How Do You Know You Have Passion?
Bloggers talk a lot about "passion." Indeed, if you’re discussing the same topic several times a day on a daily basis, you should have passion for your topic. Someone the other day asked me, "I know I enjoy talking about my niche, but how do I know I have passion?" Before we answer that, let’s talk a little about the definition of passion.
What is Passion?
According to Dictionary.com, passion is "a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything." That sums up how I feel about blogging and writing. Is that how you feel about your topic? Many bloggers, network bloggers especially, accept a gig to blog on a topic they know a little about but passion doesn’t necessarily show through. The blogger soon tires of his subject and the audience soon tires of the blogger.
How do you know you have passion?
So how can you tell if you have passion for your topic? Here’s how I know:
- It’s all you want to talk about.
- It’s constantly on your mind.
- It’s all you want to talk about.
- You read everything you can on your topic and still want more.
- You post several times a day and yet never run out of ideas.
- It’s all you want to talk about.
- You form posts in your mind when you’re showering, walking the dog, and sitting out the dinner table.
- It’s all you want to talk about.
What happens if you don’t have passion?
As mentioned above, if you’re not into your topic it shows.
- You will become bored.
- You won’t want to do your job.
- Your audience will know.
- Your traffic will suffer.
It’s not always enough to just "like" a topic
If you’re passionate about a topic, you don’t have to ask. You just know. We all have things we like to do, it’s the things we truly love to do that are our passion.
Image: stock.xchnge
Is Blogging Really This Dangerous?
My pal Kori sent me this piece from the New York Times a couple of hours ago. Scary stuff - go read it, then come back and we’ll chat.
Honestly, this article sort of freaked me out. While I do love blogging, this article covered a lot of the negatives. Long hours, the constant story hunt, links, networking, no time to eat when I’m in full on work mode, and more. Some of this stuff is scarily true.
It’s worse when you’re on someone else’s dime too. I remember blogging just for me, back in the day. The big difference was that if I felt like stopping, taking a break, I could. I did. I do remember blog breaks. Now, blogging for others, supporting my son with blogging, I rarely have time to breathe when it’s work time. I just don’t stop.
Recently (last month) I realized that something had to give. I sat down with my schedule to think things over. Among other things I went down to part-time at one position and dropped another gig altogether. We’ll have less money immediately, but in the long run, I’ll be more productive at the blogs I’m keeping.
I have some other ideas as well. If you’re a frazzled blogger here are some things that may work:
Read more
Why You Need Stats
I used to have a client who refused to let me know my blog’s stats. She was all about traffic and community building but wouldn’t let me in on too many details. This can be a problem. If you’re not privy to your stats you have no clue what is driving people to your blog. Clueless bloggers don’t do well. Here’s why stats are important:
Keywords: How will you know if your keywords are driving in traffic if you can’t see your stats? When you have regular stat access you can experiment more and find a formula that works. Your stats tell you your highest ranking keywords and also, what other keywords are being used. For instance, through my stats with my blog Freelance Writing Jobs I learned teachers use my blog as a way to find summer work. Now I know to include writing jobs for teachers’ resources and educational materials.
Traffic: Wouldn’t it be nice to know how many people read your blog? It would suck if you were doing all that work and had no visitors. It would equally suck if you have huge mega traffic and no one is telling you. Knowing the days people visit most and least can help you plan your editorial calendar or posting schedule. You’ll also want to know where your traffic comes from. Is another blog or forum discussing one of your posts? If so you’ll want to join in. Did you make Digg or a newspaper? How will you know without your stats?
Content: Knowing what posts performed the bests and which were the clunkers is important. No one is going to want to visit you if you talk about the same lame subject all the time.
Info for Publicists: One thing my former client didn’t understand is that in order to get press releases, product info and even products to review or give away, I needed to give publicists numbers. Telling them, "I’m sorry but my employer won’t let me know stats" doesn’t give them a reason to have confidence in you. They want to know their products and news are going to reach a lot of people.
Payment Info: If you receive bonuses based on traffic, you’ll want to know how many page views you’re receiving. Not that you don’t trust your client of course, but mistakes happen.
I don’t believe any blogger can truly be a success without knowing stats. If your employer isn’t allowing you to receive this information, convince her of why they’re necessary and make sure she knows you can’t do your job properly without them.
