Category: Blogging

5 Facebook Groups to Promote Your Next Blog Post

Posted on by Mala

As a new blogger/online business owner, you need to be visible. People should see you. The name of your blog/product/service should start to register. Your brand should intrigue your readers. And you, in turn, need to find your niche audience and gain traffic. One way of ensuring this is to promote your blog/business on social media platforms, including Pinterest and Facebook groups.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned in a post that I am no longer participating in the “all-or-nothing” Facebook promotion threads. To participate in such threads, one needs to set aside a good amount of time. But as someone who not only has a young kid as well as a thriving freelance business, I cannot afford to set aside that much time. But more importantly, I spoke about how these threads often do not comprise of my target audience.

So what have I been doing to promote my blog posts? Well, I am still using social media to get the word around. I am also focusing on Pinterest and Facebook because that’s where the majority of my traffic comes from. So let’s talk Facebook!

I share a love-hate relationship with this platform that has over one billion active users. While I am very nervous about the privacy of my personal page, it would be foolish of me to ignore the reach of Facebook for my business.

Facebook groups help:

  • Connect and collaborate with other bloggers
  • Gain and provide support
  • Promote content (though some groups do not allow any kind of promotion)

So, I continue to promote my work on select few Facebook groups that are well-moderated and have helpful and thriving communities.

5 Facebook Groups to Promote Your Next Blog Post

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  1. Boost Your Blog: Hosted by Helene Sula, this is one of my favorite Facebook groups. The group allows promotion of your blog post any day of the week but disallows “like-for-like” type of threads (YES!). You are also expected to participate in the discussions and add value in return. Blog Your Blog has more than 25K members, so there’s a fair chance your target audience is hanging there J
  2. Blogging Newbs: Hosted by McKinzie Bean, this group is a thriving community of over 16K members who support each other by sharing knowledge. The group allows promotional posts on Tuesdays (direct promo) and Thursdays (via social media).
  3. Bloggers Supporting Bloggers: This group, hosted by Allie Barke, has over 23K members who have a chance to promote their business every day of the week. The themes or source of promotion may vary depending on the day, but its promotion nonetheless.
  4. Secret Blogger’s + Bosses Society: If you haven’t watched the very useful free webinars hosted by Kate McKibbin, you are missing out. But I digress! This was one of the first groups I joined on Facebook and have found the discussions immensely helpful. Kate hosts promotion threads on Saturdays and Sundays.
  5. Women Winning Online: I consider Jennifer Snyder one of my unofficial mentors 😛 But that’s absolutely not the reason her group finds a mention in this list. I have found Women Winning Online to be an extremely close-knit and supportive group of over 4.5K members. The group is alive but not noisy. Jennifer hosts promotion threads on Fridays but the threads during the rest of the week are worth participating in too.

Bonus Group

Pinterest Traders: I am sure you all must have been inundated with articles about the importance of Pinterest in growing your business. That’s where Pinterest Traders comes into the picture. Compared to the aforementioned groups, Pinterest Traders is a small group of 1500+ members. It is open to people who have at least 120 high-quality pins on a single board comprising their own work. I am not a member of this group because I don’t have those many self-promo pins yet but I have kept the group on my radar for when I do hit that number. But I don’t want you to miss out! What I like about this group is their unique promotion strategy, which requires some work from you. In the process, it makes you accountable and comfortable with the pinning process. Join the group only if you can keep your end of the deal. This group is unlike most other FB groups. So, please see the group details for more information and before requesting to join.

Conclusion (and a confession)

So, there you have it: my top 5 Facebook groups for promotion. That said, I hope you also understand that these groups are extremely useful not just for promotion, but also for networking, building visibility, and self-education.

I am not as active on Facebook as I would love to because of certain personal circumstances but I try to spend as much time as I can to participate in the groups that I mentioned above. I would love for you to join these groups, if you haven’t already, and connect with me if you are already a part of the group. I go by the name ‘Mala Magotra’.

See you around.

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5 Ways I’m Eliminating New Blogger Overwhelm

Posted on by Mala

How often have you sat at your desk after putting your children to sleep or finishing your day job, and suddenly did not know where to start? As a new blogger, you feel overwhelmed even before you start working on your new blog post. You are not sure whether you should finalize the post first, or separate your draft from your editing process. You sit at your desk and stare at your computer. Finally, you give up and call it a day. I wrote about my frustrations as a new blogger. But, I wasn’t going to let that keep me down for too long. I needed to address those issues and tackle them head-on.

Here’s what I realized: this feeling of overwhelm is natural when you are being pulled in five different directions. Perhaps you have young kids and they need your attention. Perhaps you have a large family and you want to cook three square meals for them every day. Perhaps you work full-time and have a small home-based business on the side. Which way do you go first?

I knew there are things I CAN do to eliminate the overwhelm from my busy mom life. I decided to apply those same principles and guidelines to my blogging life and replicate the results.

5 Ways I’m Eliminating New Blogger Overwhelm 

1. Make Prioritization your Best Friend

The key to productivity is prioritization. Writing a simple To-Do list in no particular order does NOT count. It is essential to identify and mark the order of priority. Personally, I use the Eisenhower Decision Matrix to determine my priorities but you may have your own system. The important thing is to have a system.

2. Use the Pomodoro Technique

Consider using the Pomodoro technique. For those of you who do not know, Pomodoro is a productivity technique of working for 25 minutes on a single task and then taking a 5-minute break. Each 25-minute window is called a Pomodoro. After four Pomodoros (i.e. around the 2-hour mark), take a longer break of 15-30 minutes. This refreshes your brain and helps you maintain focus for longer durations. The technique by itself is more detailed, and I will write a separate post on it.

3. Simplify and Automate the Systems/Processes

As you gain experience in the blogging field, you will start to see patterns emerging in the way you work, such as tasks that can be grouped together and executed together at a later time. Based on your findings, simplify the processes. For example, I once read a lifestyle blogger who admitted they pass their images through three different editing apps on their phones and then finally through Picmonkey. I think that’s too much. Unless you are a professional photographer, I don’t see why you want to edit your photos so extensively. But to each his own. What is important is that for your unique situation, identify the time suckers in your routines and eliminate those. Additionally, automate what you can. You are not just a blogger; you have other roles to fulfill too. Save some time by automating tasks. As a new blogger, it is not practical to purchase all the essential automation tools at one go. But most of these tools have a free trial you can use for 15-30 days or longer with limited features. Try them out and see what works for you. For example, I have been using the free version of Tailwind for a month now and I have hit my 100 auto-scheduled pins limit. As I go about upping my social media game, I will purchase a subscription from Tailwind. There are other tools I am interested in too, but those will have to wait for now.

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4. Take Time for Self-care

All work and no play make you a dull person. Remember to take some time off every now and then. When you hustle hard, you are likely to burn out fast if you don’t take care of yourself. Using the Pomodoro technique will take care of your work hours but take some time to chill outside of your work hours too. I know it may be difficult for some of you but self-care does not necessarily mean spending a weekday afternoon in the spa (wouldn’t that be nice though?) Self-care can be something as simple as spending 15 minutes in the shower instead of 5 minutes. Or, perhaps watching a few funny cat videos on YouTube for 10 minutes may make you forget your worries. Think about the little things that make you happy. And find the time to do those things.

5. Educate Yourself

Blogging is a fast-evolving medium and you need to keep yourself up-to-date. Every day, I am reading about social platforms changing their algorithm and I don’t even know how exactly that affects my work. By the time you come up to speed with Technology X, another technology will come knocking at your door. Therefore, it is very important to stay up to date. Schedule time in your calendar (daily, weekly, or monthly) to educate yourself, whether through free webinars, articles, blog posts, or through paid courses. My Facebook feed is mostly filled with blogging-related posts because that’s what I am focusing on these days. But I cannot afford to spend too much time reading long articles or watching webinars for hours every day. So, I save the article links throughout the week, and on Thursdays, I open those links and read them. Or, if I have enrolled for a course, I will go through that course.

With time and with the aforementioned tips, I am slowly settling into the bloggers’ groove and finding my pace. I can literally feel some of my fears and stress addressed. I am determined to create more and better content in the near future. I hope you will stick around. J

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Batch Processing + My Blogging Routine

Posted on by Mala

There was a time I was wildly fascinated with the lifestyle of the French. I wanted to know everything about their lifestyle: how they dress, how they live, how they raise children, what they eat…everything. So, I started following a few bloggers who write about the “Parisian Chic” life. In one of the posts, the writer mentioned how French women build exercise into their daily routines. They walk everywhere. They take the stairs. They grocery shop several times a week. Wait, what?! Call me lazy but I don’t want to step out of the house multiple times a day. When I am out, I better finish all (or most) of the errands, return home, and kick off my shoes. I grocery shop weekly. I go to the gym directly after dropping my son to the school, I visit in in-laws on the way to or back from somewhere else. That’s me, batch processing my life!

And I follow the same principles in my blogging life too. I batch process my blog production.

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What is Batch Processing?

Batch processing, as the name suggests, is a technique to process tasks in batches. It’s based on one and only one principle: single tasking. In today’s day and age, everyone multitasks. When I was still part of the corporate world until five years ago, I was even evaluated on how well I could multitask (can I just say I rocked multitasking?). But let’s be honest: I used to slip up every now and then. Recently, I have seen a lot more articles urging people to adopt a single-tasking mindset.

Remember, batch processing is not a process, it is a technique. It simply helps you group similar tasks that can be processed together. For example, you may choose to write your SEO even before writing your post, or you may choose to create your images before writing the SEO. These tasks are not necessarily linear (it helps me though to keep it linear but that’s the “process” that I follow—more on this later).

Benefits of Batch Processing

Once you start batch processing, you will see the benefits within a very short time. Batch processing:

  • Helps focus: Working on a single task at a time helps bring focus to the task. When you are switching between tasks that require the use of different faculties/abilities, it messes up your concentration. Conversely, while batch processing, you are using only one set of faculties and your brain can supply all the juice to the required faculties.
  • Improves productivity: When you batch similar tasks, it builds rhythm and improves your productivity. On the other hand, if you are constantly switching between dissimilar tasks, your brain has to reorient itself to the current task.
  • Saves time: When your brain doesn’t need to switch modes constantly, it helps save time. Your brain knows the requirements and parameters within which you are working and it’s already optimized to deliver at those levels.

How to Batch Process Your Blogging Business

Quite simply you break down your blogging tasks to the last detail and group them for similarity. Let’s say on the 1st of every month (ideally before), you research all the topics you want to write about during that month. Spend 1 hour coming up with as many topic ideas as you can. Note that you are NOT focusing on ONE topic idea but several topic ideas at a time. That’s batch processing.

Similarly, identify other tasks that you can group but need not necessarily relate to a single blog post or project. Here are some ideas:

  • Populate the content calendar for a month
  • Edit and proofread multiple blog posts for the month
  • Record multiple YouTube videos in one sitting (ok, you can change your shirt for every video if you want!)
  • Schedule social media posts for the week
  • Write invoices
  • Respond to emails OR comments

The options are aplenty.

Once you have identified the task groups, you want to schedule them on your calendar and build a routine around it. For example, I group tasks and then schedule them by days. Here’s a screenshot of my “sample” Trello board:

Trello Screenshot Momchakra Batch Processing Productivity Blogging

  • On Sundays, I come up with several topic ideas. Yes, my work week begins on a Sunday. It takes me about 1 hour and it’s nothing more than a brain dump.
  • On Mondays, I select 2-3 topics and begin researching. I note down the key points and build a wire frame for each post. I also decide if a post warrants a content upgrade. I spend 4 hours doing this.
  • On Tuesdays, I write the first draft of the posts. I do not worry about the formatting or grammar. It’s a free-form writing day. I spend 4-5 hours on this task.
  • On Wednesdays, I go in with a hawk’s eye and edit my content. I have been trying to write the long-form content of late so it takes a lot of time and patience to edit.
  • On Thursdays, I create content upgrades, if applicable. If not, I use the time for self-education or administrative tasks.
  • On Fridays, I create the images, fill in the SEO details, and schedule publish. Another thing: social media. Right now, I am very bad at it but I am trying to become more visible on social media. So, with whatever time I save on Fridays, I plan to schedule social media posts for the week going forward.
  • On Saturdays, I spend about 1 hour to draft the week’s newsletter (no subscribers to read them though :-P)

I am only three-months into the whole blogging system, and I am still learning. In addition, I am a stay-at-home mother with only about 4 hours to spare in a day. Additionally, I like to keep my weekends as open as possible. I know that is the opposite of a hard hustle, but if I cannot spend time with the ones for whom I am doing this, what is the point of doing it at all? I wrote about my new blogger frustrations in an earlier post. Depending on your unique life situation, you may do more or less and take more or less time doing each task.

So, there you have it: how I use batch processing in my blogging routine.

What your blogging routine? What processes and techniques do you use to work on your amazing blog?

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My Struggles and Learning as a New Blogger

Posted on by Mala

What’s that one thing every new blogger experiences during the first few weeks? FRUSTRATION!

*Minor Rant Alert*

I have been blogging for about three months now but let’s be honest, my efforts are nowhere close to what some other new bloggers put in. The blog is just not among the top three priorities of my life at the moment.

So, two weeks ago, it was time to visit my parent’s house 1000 miles away with my almost-four-year-old son. These were to be his last few days of summer holidays and I was determined to make his visit as memorable as possible. I needed to plan a lot for this trip. Where would the time for all this planning come from? My blogging time, of course. And so it happened one day, and then the next until it was already time to travel. On the other hand, I had nothing planned for my blog for the following two (and then some more), nor did I have any social media promotions scheduled.

As expected, my numbers dropped tremendously and it frustrated me. No, it angered me. It made me feel stupid for treating the blog like it did not matter at all. I wasn’t prepared to see the low numbers but I refused to acknowledge the reason for it. Luckily, better sense prevailed and I started reflecting on my relationship with my blog. In the process, I realized certain areas that frustrate me as a new blogger and what I have learned from it. I wanted to share these thoughts with other bloggers–both new and established–and see if they have gone through the same cycle and how they got their acts together.

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New Blogger Challenge #1: Information Overload

My struggles: Naturally, every new blogger wants their content and products to succeed. But blogging is no longer about online journaling. It has grown to be a very complex medium that requires a lot of analysis and marketing. This means I have to learn about a LOT of things—which theme, which plugins, which social media promotion strategies, and so on. The flip side of this unfamiliarity with all the systems is that I am trying to learn a lot in a short amount of time. I have signed up for several courses, webinars, FB groups, and what have you. It all adds up and swirls around in my little brain all day long, and sometimes even at night. I think about how to apply certain strategies that I have learned from a certain course, or whether I have scheduled all the social posts for the coming week. As a stay-at-home mother to a pre-K kid, I only have limited time on my hands—ideal situation would be to cram in as much as I can during the four hours of school. As a result, some days, I end up spending more time “learning” than actually “creating” content.

My learnings: There are many bloggers who blog about blogging (isn’t that a mouthful?). As a new blogger, it’s easy to get enticed by shiny pin-worthy images that promise to drive my traffic up 3x, 6x, 10x. As of today, I have probably watched at least 25 webinars on how to drive traffic to my blog or how to build my email list. But here’s the thing: I did not scout for the best business minds that I could afford. Upon reflection, I realized there is really no point reading about the same strategies that 10 other bloggers have already talked about. Instead, I should invest the time that I save by not reading the repetitive posts or webinars or email courses into creating my own posts and products. In addition, I need to set aside dedicated time every week to educate myself (perhaps 4 hours a week). And the learning must come from the crème-de-la-crème. I am also going to stop participating in social media promo groups that require me to engage in “all or nothing” type of promos. Because here’s the thing—liking 150 FB pages, or 100 Pinterest pins, or commenting on 50+ blog posts is no joke. It WILL eat into my time and sanity.

New Blogger Challenge #2: Motivation and Direction

My struggles: Okay, so I learn from the people I consider my mentors (all one-sided relationships, I tell you =D) and I implement their strategies. I follow the SEO tips and promote my work in high engagement social groups. But where is the traffic? My numbers soar on the days I engage in promo groups but there is no organic traffic. I have created free opt-ins in the past but no one signs up. It is frustrating because no matter who you talk to will tell you the importance of building an email list. On the other hand, because there is no permanent readership, I will mostly receive positive words from the occasional readers. Because, well, that’s the polite thing to do. I do not go around giving my honest feedback unless asked for. It’s easy to gloat in those positive words of encouragement but I also realize that I have no honest feedback system in place that will help me improve. So I wait. And I wait.

My learnings: I have already mentioned how certain social media promo threads eat into my time, energy, and sanity. But the other important thing why I am reducing my participation in these threads is that these groups comprise of hundreds and thousands of members but perhaps only a small percentage relates to my content. In a promo thread with 150+ links, who is to say my niche audience will find my blog. Most people will drop their link and run. Others who are forced to visit or comment on or share my work (because that’s the rule of the thread) will often not leave meaningful feedback. Sure, I will see spikes in my numbers on promotion days and feel happy for 30 minutes but then what? Same goes for FB Likes. I have 250+ likes thanks to some of the promo threads I have participated in before, but has anyone engaged with me after that day? The same is true for me. I have liked several FB pages but engaged with only a handful whose content happened to be of my interest. It has been said before but it bears saying again: DO NOT go after traffic. Most of that traffic is not my niche and they will never return and they will not give me compelling feedback to help me grow.

New Blogger Challenge #3: Content Creation

My struggle: At a very personal level, this one is the most difficult one of my struggles. For those of you who don’t know, I am an instructional designer by profession with about 15 years of experience. My role requires me to develop and deliver a course from the scratch…conducting audience analysis to delivery…and content creation is a BIG part of this process. That said, most of the content I have created in the last 15 years is geared towards corporate employees….no room for the creative juices to flow freely, you see. So, now when it’s time to be really creative with my content and make it flow, I find myself staring blankly at the screen for hours.

My learning: Blog writing is a creative process—it needs to be free-flowing and unabashed–very different from the kind of writing I am used to. It is also an art that needs to be developed and requires a LOT of practice. So, this is what I plan to do: I will no longer hold back when writing my first draft; I will not get perturbed by the semantics at this time. Do not be afraid to experiment. It’s easy to get tied down by the tried-and-tested formulas of successful niches and content presentation. But maybe I have an idea that will revolutionize the blogging business. But oops, it doesn’t fit the “acceptable” framework. Therefore, I should drop the idea. Whose loss is it? Mine and only mine. I must become fearless and create content that may not be widely accepted but it will set people thinking.

New Blogger Challenge #4: Time Commitment

My struggle: I am a stay-at-home mom who also owns a freelance business. My business has not been a deterrent because I have not taken up any new project in the last three months. But being a SAHM is a full-time job too. Blogging requires a huge time commitment and very few will tell you that in the beginning. Between my house, my family, my paid job, and my blog, you can easily guess which has the least priority. And therein lies the problem: I haven’t yet prioritized my blog or treated it as a business.

My learning: Don’t let anyone tell you that you can earn a full-time income (or even half) by blogging only two hours a day. It doesn’t happen that way. In the first year or so, I must be prepared to put in a lot of time creating meaningful content and connections. As the blog grows, I may have to spend a little less on creating new content but I will still need to spend the majority of my day overseeing the business aspect of my blog. It will never get easy! Ironically, it is easy to take this profession lightly when you read established bloggers claiming they put in only 2 hours a day into their blog and are earning a full-time income from it. Remember this: these bloggers are either fabricating their stories or they are an exception to the rule. If I want to blog professionally, I should be ready to set aside at least 20 hours a week during which I will do only and only blog-related tasks. No pulling away for 30 minutes to cook dinner or to make a phone call to my family…no, not during the time I have set aside to work on the blog. Because you see, blogging is not just about writing; it involves editing, finding the right images, creating graphics, thinking about SEO, administrative and technical work on the blog, promotion, and so on. And not to forget, the time to educate myself about the blogging profession.

I realize each of my learnings have already been addressed by established bloggers in their teachings. But, I probably did not pay the attention I needed to. But learning that comes from reflection when one is down in the gutter works wonders toward putting them one in their rightful place.

I am working on all of these challenges and frustrations but like I said, in the absence of feedback, it’s easy to lose motivation. I have some thoughts on how I want to prioritize the blog while still juggling the other, more important roles of my life but I just don’t know if I am setting myself up for success or failure by going against the tide. I guess time will tell.

Are you a new blogger? What are some of your frustrations and how are you dealing with those? Are you an established blogger? What tips do you have for us new bloggers? Leave a comment below. If you enjoyed reading or could relate to this blog, please spread the word by sharing with your friends and family.

 

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