We’ve all been there-you’re having a hell of a week, (really–could life get any crazier?) and before you know it, it’s already Thursday and you have done next to nothing with your blog. BAH! You say to yourself, “I’ll be better next week!” And then the cycle begins again.
Blogging is kind of like working out in this way–if you can find just a half-hour per day to do SOMETHING, it’s so so much better than nothing at all. Plus, you’ll find that when you get in the habit of finding 30 minutes, eventually you’ll regularly end up finding an hour, or more!
So, make a promise to yourself right now, that each day, you will do SOMETHING to better your blog. It doesn’t have to be much. Even if it’s just 10 minutes, it’s better than nothing!
Here are some quick and easy ways to make a big impact in 30 minutes or less.
Have a mini brainstorming session
A half-hour is plenty of time to crank out at least two weeks’ worth of post ideas! (Ideally, you would dedicate more than 30 minutes to this, but hey–we gotta take what we can get, right?) A great time to do this is the second half of your lunch break. Take a few minutes to relax and eat your lunch, and maybe refill your coffee cup. Then…
Get through as much as you can in 30 minutes–ready, set, go!
Check your website for broken links
Broken links lead to a bad user experience and aren’t good for SEO! Run the broken link checker plugin and it will identify any links that need fixing!
Finally, sign up for hosting + install wordpress!
Speaking of plugins–if you don’t have WordPress yet, there’s no time like the present! It only takes a few minutes to sign up for hosting and create your WordPress.org account! There’s a reason every blogger we know uses WordPress–because it’s the best. We walk you through how to do it right here.
Schedule as many pins as possible in Pinterest
Pinterest is by far my most lucrative social media channel. Why? Because it’s really more of a search engine! The best part about it is that you can generate tons of traffic even if you have a tiny Pinterest following.
We use a tool called Tailwind for Pinterest and it’s been the best social media tool we’ve ever invested in!
Create a pin for a popular blog post
Something else we discuss in our post, “8 ways to skyrocket your Pinterest traffic” is creating fancy Pinterest pins. You know, the ones with the titles? These have a re-pin and click-through rate that is way higher than just a regular photo alone. We make ours in Photoshop, which you can get for less than $10 per month (and it includes Lightroom, too!)
Draft a quick round-up style blog post
Not sure what to write about? Short on time but need to get a post up? Create a round-up that refers back to older content that you’ve posted in the past! Do a quick once-over of all your content over the last year.
Do you see any over-arching themes? Maybe you’ve posted 5 cute photos with white jeans–you can do a “How to wear white jeans” roundup.
Or maybe if you cover travel–” My top 5 favorite travel destinations ever.” You don’t have to re-invent the wheel every time! These posts often perform really well and they’re a snap to pull together.
Install google analytics
Do you have Google Analytics installed yet? You should! It’s been instrumental in fine-tuning our content, figuring out what time to post, which social media channels to focus on, and so much more. It doesn’t take long to install and is SO important for growing your blog!
Grab your Camera and Start Snapping
There is never a bad time to pick up your camera and start snapping photos. You don’t have to wait until it’s time to do a blog shoot to get your camera out. In fact, you should be shooting a TON just for practice!
Switch your camera to manual mode, give your best guess as to which settings to use, and start shooting. Take a look at the results, adjust, and keep shooting.
Photograph the same object from several different angles and notice how different it looks based on the direction of the light.
Move that object next to a window. Move it to a darker spot. Simple trial and error will teach you so much about photography, and you can learn a lot in 30 minutes!
Add internal links in old blog posts
Internal links are a great way to boost your SEO, and they also drive a lot more pageviews!
This is as simple as going through your old posts and adding a “P.S. You might also like X post and X post” or installing a related posts plugin. Think of how many of these you could get done in 30 minutes!
Schedule evergreen content on Facebook or Twitter
We don’t just promote our new content on social media, but our old content, too! The life of a Facebook and Twitter post sadly only a few minutes long before it sinks into the social media abyss and is never to be discovered again, which is why you should be posting your older content more than once! Chances are, most of your audience didn’t see it the first time!
Here’s a challenge for you: See how many older (yet, still relevant, obviously. Don’t post a Christmas post in June) posts you can schedule on Facebook or Twitter in 30 minutes.
Not sure which platform to pick? Look at your Google Analytics, see which one drives more traffic, and pick that one! (And if you don’t have Google Analytics installed yet, refer to the above!)
which of these updates will you implement today?