May 26, 2016
Note: this episode can be listened to in the player above or on iTunes or Stitcher Seven Ways to Find Time to Create Your Blog's First Product Today I am talking about the topic of juggling priorities and finding time to do the work we need to get done. In our last newsletter, I asked two simple questions. What is your dream, and what is your biggest challenge? The recurring theme of the replies is that for many bloggers a lack of time is an issue. It’s about juggling priorities. There was also tension around the topic of monetizing blogs. One of the emails I received was from Bradley. He writes: “I’ve been building an audience on my blog for the past two years, and to this point have made money with sponsorship and a little affiliate marketing. My dream is to shift my monetization strategy to selling information products like ebooks and courses. I’ve started writing my first ebook. My challenge is that my schedule is full. Between a full time job, kids, writing blog posts, promoting my blog, and looking after my readers, I just don’t have enough time. To get this ebook finished something has to give. I’ve been working on this ebook for the last couple of weeks, when I can, but at this rate, it’s going to take me another six months to complete. I can’t give up my job or my kids, so the only thing I can really give up is the blog itself. Should I put writing new content on hold while I write the ebook?” This is a great question that really taps into what a lot of our readers are struggling with. So today, I am going to talk about seven things that might help Bradley get that product created without giving up on his blog. Further Reading: Check out Episode 67 where I talk about why creating products is something bloggers should consider doing. A Summary of the Advice in Today’s Episode: 7 Ways to Find Time for Product Creation Don’t put your blog on hold completely - I understand why, but I would encourage you not to do it. When you go back to promote your product, your audience will have gone cold. Plus, you need a warm audience to sell your product too. Scale back on some of your blogging activities - There are times and seasons in most blogs. You may be able to pull back a little and have more time for product creation. The same goes for pulling back a little on social media. Think about batching the creation of content and other blog activities - Do two or three posts or podcasts at a time. Batching your time is really useful. You can also do the same thing with the creation of your book. When I was writing my book, I set aside weekends for purely writing. I even went as far as booking a cheap hotel and locking myself inside. Use some of the product content you are creating as blog content - When I was writing my book, I put some of the archives of ProBlogger into the book. I also published book excerpts as a blog post. This made writing the book easier and kept my blog going. Set an aggressive deadline - Parkinson’s Law - Work expands to fill the time available for it’s completion. If you give yourself a year and it will take a year, give yourself a month, it will get done in a month. Create accountability. Accountability partner Announce it to your readers Take pre-orders - once you take money, it really ramps up accountability Create version 0.1 or a beta version - If you are creating a big product, get it to the point where you can sell it as a first version. Break it down and release it as modules. Get the minimum viable product out the door. Can you break it down? Get some help - If you are at your absolute limits and need help, you may need to get someone else to work with you and help you. Get someone to help with the product - find a coauthor or get help with design, editing or marketing Get some help with your blog or business, have a guest post or hire someone to write, edit or proof a post.
