Blogging Productivity Tip: Clear the Rubbish

With the success of “multi-bloggers” like Problogger’s Darren Rowse, there’s a tendency for new bloggers to want to build ten, twenty or more blogs in rapid succession, hoping that the volume method of blogging will somehow pay off. It’s scary to some people to have to focus on just one niche, wondering if it can pay off, worrying about whether you’ll miss the boat if you ignore niche X.

One Niche, Two Niche?

However, here are a few things to consider. Firstly, Darren Rowse is a rare individual who could post up to fifty times a day on the weekends while holding down three part-time jobs. From all accounts, he had a lot of support from his significant other and he started early on (over four years now). The blogosphere is significantly more competitive now, and there’s no guarantee that building multiple blogs will result in better online career income-wise. Of course that’s true for building a single blog as well.

Still, my non-scientific research over the past four calendar years suggests that more bloggers who focus on a single blog tend to have greater success than most bloggers who do not. Focus allows you to be more passionate in your writing in general. It’s hard to be passionate when you write in ten different niches. (Even I rarely write in more than five niches at any given time.) Passion is what holds readers, not necessarily posts about “hot topic X”. This is something that all successful writers pre-Internet days understood: passionate writing works.

The Right Niche?

If you’re worried that you’ve picked the wrong niche, just know that various members of Performancing’s Hive have shown that earning $4-6K/month is possible in a wide variety of topics. I’m referring to real bloggers who’ve achieved some success and discuss what they are doing. (Join the Hive!)

Regardless of the topic you pick, the key to a successful blog is achieving high web traffic. Seems sort of obvious, right? That means that your blog can have either lots of posts per day or just a few per week. It really depends on your topic and how indepth you plan to get. Newsy sites simply must have lots of content daily, and because the posts are short, they’re easy to absorb for most readers. Indepth posts require more time to read, and sometimes read again. So you’ll want to limit how many indepth posts you intend to publish weekly.

Clearing the Rubbish

Are you having trouble focusing? Here are a few tips:

1. Drop the clutter.
   Do you have a lot of sites? No problem, but get rid of useless, non-performing domains and websites. They just clutter up your operation. It’s hard not to worry about the money and time you are putting into them. Even if you do all the writing yourself, you are spreading your efforts over everything. If you prefer to have a portfolio of websites, keep in mind that people who build stock portfolios regularly replace underperformers, and not necessarily with another stock. Sometimes they take the loss and put the money into a different investment vehicle. Maybe some of your money is better spent in a long-term, high-interest savings account.
2. Don’t try to be all things to all readers.
   Don’t try to write about the day’s fad topic, just because 3,733 other bloggers did too. Focus on the topics you enjoy and cater to those readers who would appreciate your content. As mentioned above, focus allows your passion to come through, and passion makes readers feel like you care about the information you’re sharing.
3. Writers write.
   Writers are people who write, not just talk, Twitter or Plurk about it. Likewise, bloggers are people who blog, not just plan all the posts they’ll write someday. If you’re having trouble writing, here are some tips for breaking writer’s block.

Ultimately, you have to decide whether you’d rather have a stable of blogs or to focus on just one. I’ve done the multiple blogs thing and realized it’s not for me, outside of freelancing work. So I’m brutally whittling down my own web properties and currently focusing on just one site, building up towards premium content. But that’s a discussion for another post.

Are You Denying Your Creativity? Break Writer’s Block In 30 Minutes or Less

Brett, a long-time Performancing reader and semi-regular contributor, commented on my last post, about indecision, that sometimes you have to just do it to get your articles/ blog posts written. Crack out a thousand, two thousand words, then edit after the fact. That’s his Zeroth Law of writing productivity. A similar approach applies to other types of creative work.

I couldn’t agree more with Brett, and this in fact is the nature of most of this post: building creativity and just writing. In my over-long creative drought since about mid-June of this year, one overwhelming fact escaped me until a few days ago: I was denying my creativity, which is necessary to get your creative juices flowing. Sounds obvious, but this can be become overlooked.

To write every day is an important goal if you’re a writer/ blogger, but sometimes the words just don’t want to come. To write is to create, to be creative, and to be creative, you have to create something. It’s a bit of circle, really, and while not a “vicious circle,” if you deny yourself, you sink into a creative block, finding it ever harder to pull yourself out of.

You have to create something each morning, to get your creative juices flowing, and it really doesn’t matter what. Build a morning “creativity routine” and change it as necessary. Spend 20-30 minutes on it each day. Here are some creativity tips that I’ve picked up over the years, either from reading about other writers’ writing processes or simply discovering them.

1. Write a wishlist.
   Write down what you want out of your writing life, but not as a list, rather as a passage in a book, in present tense, as if you’ve already achieved it.
2. Write gibberish.
   Take lessons from Lewis Carroll and Dr Seuss. Emulating their style is not only a great deal of fun, but can often help stimulate creativity. Combine their styles. Come up with your own variations of passages of their work. None of it has to make any sense, and you don’t need to show it to anyone. Though sometimes, if you’re really tapped into your creative muse, you’ll even get “usable” nonsense. At the least, you’ll loosen up, maybe even consciously realize why you’re having a mental block.
3. Ask “what if?”
   Extend the “gibberish” approach by imagining a meeting of two famous figures from different times in history. What would they do together, what would transpire? Write up a passage about such a meeting, even if it’s just that they smoke cigarettes together and play pool, or dissect someone else’s poetry. Just make it fun, whatever you write.
4. Sing, write lyrics or a song.
   Yestermorn, I pulled out my acoustic guitar and for the first time in many many years, wrote a song for someone special — a creative act that I’d been denying myself for several months. The song started off as a bit of gibberish, but the real lyrics formed with a little bit of nudging on my part, and the chord progression revealed itself, based on the cadence of the lyrics and what I wanted to express vocally. My creative block finally lifted, and I wrote two blog posts later that day. That’s a far cry from the 10-12 posts /day that I wrote regularly in 2007, and nothing compared to my peak of 25/day in 2006, but still important. Letting go and being creative in one form helped being creative in another form. When you are in a rut, it’s easy to forget that. You don’t have to write a love song, but playing a musical instrument even for a few minutes each day might be all you need to feel creative.
5. Write your “obit”.
   Write up how you’d like to be remembered/ thought of years from now, the accomplishments you will have made, what people think of you. Try variations, explore. You might discover something new about your goals and aspirations.
6. Write “reviews” of your work.
   Planning to be a top blogger, an author or a novelist? Put yourself in another POV (point of view) and write a “review” of your masterpiece of writing. Why wait for someone else to do it? Write your own reviews, try variations of what you might like to read or hear about your work.
7. Code, draw, design, paint.
   Whatever type of creative work you do, try something else to spark creativity. I am originally a programmer. I sorely miss that work, and it put me in a funk for a few years. Meanwhile I let my skills slide, but just creating a snippet of functioning code often stimulates my writing, as odd as that may seem. A creative act is a creative act. Sketching/ drawing every day also always stimulated my writing. If you can’t do any of these, try mind mapping, as it stimulates both creative and logical processes, which is ideal for freelance writing.

Find what works for you, in terms of stimulating creativity. You might need to try a multi-faceted approach on some days. Ultimately, if you are trying to write, then you must keep writing, even when you don’t feel like it. This is a technique that many fiction writers have used effectively for decades. It also works for non-fiction.

When you are just “exercising” your creativity during your morning routine, you do not have to be entirely original. Most of the exercises above build on something that has come before, be it writing style or musical style, or what have you. Once you’ve spent 20-30 minutes either writing “frivolous” content, or created something, you should feel creative juices flowing. Now give your articles/ blog posts another try.

Example: Here’s a snippet of content, created from combining tips #2 and 3. It’s total nonsense, but illustrates what I’m getting at, in terms of having some fun and stimulating creativity. This is an approach that has often worked for me.

the slithy toves of red oak groves
proves to me that world woves
woves and woves in pithy droves
watch out for the toadstool stoves

dylan thomas meets matt dillon
women and wine and they’re just chillin
music and cusack and bob dylan
leonard cohen sulks in the corner
crushing plum pies with little jack horner

The Dangers of Freelance Indecision

If you freelance write/ blog for a living, you might have run into a problem that’s cropped up for me in the past: that of working on two articles at once for one client, unable to decide which one will get done sooner. While you might have the freedom to decide, it’s possible that neither one gets done on time if you’re indecisive.

The importance of pillar/ flagship/ comprehensive content on a blog has been much touted. However, when you do it for a client, it’s potentially more of a money-loser if you’re indecisive. To wit, if you have the option of six short articles at $20 each or one larger article at $120, which do you choose? That $120 article might take a bit of research, writing and editing, whereas you might be able to write the short ones with little to no research.

Even worse is when you have the option to work on several large articles, all of which might require an yet unknown amount of research. What if you spent half the week scoping out four articles, starting two or three, and then got stumped. Maybe it’s the fifth article that you didn’t scope out that you could have completed by now.

Four articles half-done means no billables for the week. Obviously, this method of writing can be a real money loser, especially if you have too many open options. If you have this sort of problem, here are a few tips to conquer it:

1. Stay in tune. Creative personalities (i.e., us writers) do go through periods where we question our self-worth. It’s natural. Deal with it by keeping up to date in your niche(s). At the very least, maybe you can reflect upon goings on, if you are having trouble with something original.
2. Scope it out. If you have ten articles to write this week and you are not disciplined, you’d better spend an hour or two on Monday (or better yet, Sunday evening) scoping out ALL ten articles. You can make a list, but I prefer to mind map what I’m working on, in a single map, to get an overview of my week’s work. I can add details as necesary. Estimate how much time each article will take, and what type of tasks are necessary to complete each one.
3. Make a decision. When you’ve scoped everything out, trust your gut instinct (built up from your experience) as to which article to work on first. I know that every single time I don’t trust myself, I end up with an unproductive week and no billables.
4. Get to work. Made your decision? Good, now get to work. Add details to your mind map, for your given article, or just simply start writing. It depends on your technique.

Us creative types do get moody, but you can increasing your effective DPH (dollars per hour) with a little bit of planning, and being aware of what your options really are.

If you do get stuck on the article you’ve picked, you’ll have to make a tough decision: stick with it until it’s finished, or pick another article to work on. Before you do the latter, though, try taking a break or a change of scenery. Sometimes, that’s all you need.

Is Plurk a Twitter-Killer?

[Updated with screencast.] If you’ve spent any time on Twitter lately (via Twhirl or any other client), you know that the service has been having growing pains. There is Pownce as an alternative, but for some unexplainable reason, it doesn’t appeal to me. Twitter seems “better” b/c of the well-utilized API and all the desktop/ browser clients. But what do you do if Twitter goes down? Or if the Twitter clients are not showing updates for 20-30 minutes, despite your setting of 3 minutes?

I’m not talking jumping ship, but there is Plurk – something numerous Twitterers have tweeted about. Maki of DoshDosh.com noted on Twitter that Plurk seems more friendly. Consider that as of this writing, he’s following over 900 people and has nearly 3800 followers. Yet, he says that he doesn’t get many responses on Twitter when he asks questions.


When I’m on Twitter, sometimes it does feel like a lot of people talking to themselves. However, I happen to have a number of Performancing Hive mates on Twitter, and often have short conversations with them, as well as with a few non-Hive twitterers. Still, Plurk’s threaded messages interface encourages response. So, probably, does the assignment of “karma” points, which you can acquire in a number of ways. And who doesn’t want to become a “top 10″ member on a new social site? What’s more, you can set up “cliques” if you like.

In less than 12 hours, I’ve gained over 40 friends (some added me first) and 14.71 karma points – whatever that means. I also love the timeline view and the fact that you can very easily embed YouTube video or images from TinyPic, ImageShack, Flickr or Photobucket.

The only drawbacks I see for my continued use of Plurk (but not as a replacement to Twitter) are:

1. No way to only see threaded responses for the Plurks you commented on only. It gets overwhelming to see “145 new responses”, or something of that sort, every few minutes – even when you cleared them all seconds ago.
2. No API yet, so no alternate clients for Plurk msg consumption.
3. Hangs my FF browser multiple times, but only I when I try to view “Alerts”. Not always, but when it happens, it’s because of that link. This could be due to some conflicting FF extension, but it’s annoying.
4. It’s starting to hiccup already, at least as far as my Internet connection suggests.
5. Is a huge time-waster, though that might be because I’m just getting used to it and spending way too much time. Still, a Twhirl-like desktop client might help in that regard – if they can figure out an ergonomic way to display threaded “responses”.

If you want a quick comparison, see LiveCrunch’s Plurk vs Twitter post. Also see Muhammad Saleem’s guest post about Plurk at Read/Write Web for a more indepth look. Muhammad thinks Plurk will be the next big lifestreaming service. I think that an API will make the difference.

Practical Blogging Tips: Focus on One Project at a Time

Even a hardcore multi-tasker like myself has to give in a bit after reading How to Turn Your Dream Projects Into Reality over at ProFreelancing. That post is from late March, but it is the best explanation I’ve read in a while for not doing a million things at once – such as creating multiple blogs all at the same time. It still doesn’t stop me from my style of multi-tasking, but it clarifies what I’ve recently concluded: build one blog at a time.

The serial approach is ideal for any projects that will be ongoing/ long-term. That’s especially true if you can get each project to a self-sustaining state. That is the true value of the serial approach to website portfolio building. Or you can do as I and other bloggers have done: set up multiple blogs at once and never have any of them go anywhere.

My Blogging Revelation: Too Focused on the Dollars

[Flickr credit: preciouskhyatt | CC.] The wonderful late Spring weather of the past few days always triggers “revelation” season for me each year – a time when I (re-)discover some truths about myself, particularly in terms of writing career. For example, it pains me to say this but up until very recently, I’ve unwittingly been focused on the financial aspects of blogging. In my defense, it wasn’t intentional – but that mindset was there nevertheless, and inexcusable. I did once blog because I loved writing, but thoughts of “career” intruded along the way and took over.

In fact, this mostly accounts for why I’ve blogged so many, many niches – probably beyond the average freelancer – in the past four calendar years. That is, other than originally being inspired by Darren Rowse/ Problogger, who made multiple niches work for him. But Darren is a rarity in the blogosphere.

The Truth and Fear

For me, there was always the subconscious fear that if I picked one niche and it was “wrong”, my paltry monthly income would disappear completely. Thus I “had to” make sure that I had my blogging fingers in all the niches that I was interested in – mostly from the times I wrote for the print medium. I would decide “later” which niche I should really be in and could focus on. But “later” never came, until I made it happen.

It was a difficult situation for someone whose entire earnings were dependent on blogging. My old career got away from me, and I had no significant other to rely on financially or emotionally. That lead to a panic state that can either be very obvious, or in my case, a mild, ongoing subconscious issue. Unwitting or not, being in a panic state doesn’t make for great writing. You lose track of whom you’re writing for, and probably end up writing “at” readers. Certainly a big turnoff for most people. (Writing “at readers is not the same thing as being authoritative.)

The Consequences

Instead of being unique, I blogged the same thing everyone else was, and did that in almost every niche I was into. Original content was inching out of my mental grasp. Instead of being truly edgy, I said things that got a rise because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do – not necessarily because I actually felt that way. Doing that meant losing any shred of charisma I might have once had, and alienating some top bloggers. Ruining your reputation for literally a few dollars per post isn’t worth it. Trust me on that one. Unless you’re like shock-jock Howard Stern, shock-blogging probably isn’t going to pay off. When I realized how much of an a-hole blogger I’d become, it became that much easier to stop being that way.

The Plan

Since my revelation, I’ve vowed to myself to do two things. First is to get back to writing “for” readers, sharing what knowledge I can. Second is to narrow my focus down to just a very small handful of niches – something I’ve slowly been transitioning to all this year anyway. Now, I have a goal and a plan – to be constructively critical, not just critical – and a much shorter list of niches to monitor.

Having a goal, even for blogging, helps keep you focused. Having focus means having the time to get better in the few areas that you want to focus on, instead of spreading yourself thin. Getting better at what you’re writing about lets you write with streamlined clarity and confidence. This is what will get you the readers you want.

Have you had a blogging revelation? What have you done about it? Care to share that in the comments?

Who Are You Writing For?

[Flickr credit: matsuyuki.] Lorelle spells out, at Blog Herald, the three sources that your web traffic comes from: search engines, links, word of mouth. Which one are you writing for? She offers some of the most convincing reasoning for focusing on “word of mouth” – a powerful form of communication now and throughout history. Write for word of mouth traffic, she says, and traffic from other sources will follow.

Another facet of that question is, “Who are you writing for?” I’d like to pass on some advice about writing that I learned a long time ago, which I’ve just rediscovered scribbled in an old notebook of mine. If you want your writing to be impactful and/or meaningful, write for someone that cares about you and what you have to say.

To clarify, while you write, imagine that you are writing directly for this person – in order to tell them a story, relate an experience to them, or teach them about something. Choose anyone that you know will listen to you in person, no matter what you’re talking about. (When I wrote for print, that person was my maternal grandmother. She doesn’t understand much English, but she enjoyed listening to her oldest grandchild. Since becoming a busy blogger, though, I’d forgotten about this technique.)

When you consciously write for someone that “cares”, your writing takes on an intangible quality that other readers will appreciate – whether they realize why or not. You’ll also find yourself taking care about how and what you write.

If you do this – that is, write from the heart, for the heart – then it doesn’t matter how many other bloggers are writing about the same thing. While being unique is preferable, your writing will still stand out. The links will come, and as Lorelle says, the search traffic will follow.

My own best writing in print – at least from my point of view – was produced with this approach. My forgettable writing – not so much. If you’ve never done this before, it’s something you might have to work at. In the bustle of blogging, it’s easy to forget even after you’ve achieved it. So ask yourself every so often, “Who am I writing for?”

Could You Work on a Mobile Phone?

[Flickr credit: Coyotejack.] Around late 2006, there was a report that the number of mobile phones had outstripped landlines in North America – a pattern headed for duplication elsewhere in the world. Then the iPhone, a revolutionary communication device, appeared and those lucky Americans that got one probably rejoiced. The iPhone offers true mobile browser access in a handy package – reportedly with an expensive two-year overall contract cost.

But what about the rest of us? There isn’t another phone that comes close to the size of the iPhone and simultaneously offers true mobile browsing. If there is, after a year of looking, I haven’t found it. (The iPhone still hasn’t come to Canada.) Well okay, there’s the CECT T5 T32 iPhone clone [via RedFerret], though I’m talking about something official, from a known phone manufacturer. (If I’m going to spend over $200 on a phone, it’d better be something I can rely on.)

Here are a few questions for you. Even if you could afford the overall expense of an iPhone – which according to numerous bloggers is pretty high for a two-year contract – would you actually want to do your web work on it? What about one of those UMPC (Ultra-mobile PC) style of “laptop” computers? Do you find these handy? For those of you with iPhones, how do you use them? For browsing or actual work? If you work on your iPhones, how long do you spend at any given time?

If you’ve ever worked for several hours consecutively on a laptop with a touchpad instead of a mouse, you know how much your fingers or hand aches afterwards. Back in 2005, when I first started blogging regularly, I used a large laptop with touchpad, spending 4-8 hours on any given day. Hand cramps were a regular experience. The word ergonomic certainly doesn’t apply to touchpads.

With the iPhone there aren’t even any physical buttons. Could you fathom having to work for long hours on an iPhone or something similar – or worse yet, something smaller? (Especially with no physical buttons or toggles – only touch-sensitive screens?)

Probably not, right? Well software manufacturers must think some of us intend to actually work on small mobile devices, not just browse. I’m assuming this based on the increasing number of complex software apps that are showing up on small screens – for example, video editing. Seriously? Do they think we’ll come around after we try it?

Of course, there’ll always be some hardcore geek that thinks this sort of thing is fantastic  – until eyestrain sets in. For the rest of us, it’s unlikely that we could comfortably work for extended periods on the smaller mobile devices. At least, no amount of cool app for small mobile devices is going to entice me.

Consider an alternative: An affordable heads-up display (HUD) goggles (aka HMD – head-mounted display) and wearable devices to support true ultra-mobile computing. Some of these goggles have virtual screens equivalent to viewing a 60-inch monitor, maybe larger, and they’re projected in front of your retina – supposedly safely – while allowing you to still take in your surroundings. (Think of the helmet displays that Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark has in the Iron Man movie. Except without the clunky helmet.)

Provided that the data input devices are comfortable to use and compact (possibly digital pens with virtual interaction, or gaming-style toggles), then you’ve got me salivating. Instead of the older “brick” style of computer that you’d drop into a large pocket, you might be able to power such a mobile “workstation” with the next generation version of the iPhone. So what if it all looks geeky if it’s comfortable and works well?

What about you? Am I full of it? Could you work on a small mobile device such as the iPhone? Or would you rather have an HUD/ HMD setup possibly driven by a more powerful version of the iPhone?

Enabling the Do-It-Yourself Blogger

There was a time on the Web when sites were built by a select few people who understood HTML and JavaScript. Then came graphics programs that would generate some of the code for you web page design for you – but you still needed to know how to design. Then came WordPress and other open source blog platforms – arguably as important a technological innovation as Gutenberg’s press, because these platforms have enabled the “masses” to communicate.

More recently, there’ve been a number of JavaScript code libraries – such as Script.aculo.us or jQuery – that have enabled many non-programmers to add advanced user interfaces to their sites. In a similar vein, CSS grid frameworks are enabling non-designers to jazz up their sites with quickly-prototyped, slicker layouts.

To wit, here’s a snapshot, below, of a homepage template I’m working on, designed for freelancers to promote themselves. There’s a “gallery” of projects, and a sidebar that uses an “accordion” menu. Of course, since I’m not a trained designer, this template is very minimalist and lacks much “style”, but for me it’s sufficient. What’s more, I put it together in relatively little time using a Blueprint CSS grid and jQuery interactions.

True, there are few presentation glitches to be ironed out, but had I coded the necessary HTML and CSS from scratch, it would have taken far too long and not been worth my time – especially due to cross-browser technical problems that have already been resolved with these libraries and frameworks.

Granted, the average non-coding, non-designing blogger will not be embracing JavaScript code libraries or CSS grid frameworks any time soon. However, these options are there for you if you need/ want them.

Do You Get Negative Comments on Your Blog?

The common wisdom online seems to be that if you’re getting critical comments on your blog – even the kind that say “you suck” – then you’re definitely starting to be noticed. Of course, that’s a type of notice most people can do without. (Note that this does not necessarily mean you are not being noticed if you are not getting negative comments.)

Some bloggers moderate comments and remove anything rude or insulting. Others leave all but the most offensive. But if you do leave them up, should you respond to negative comments? Ignore them? If you respond, how should you do so? Chris Garrett offers some great advice on when to answer critics. If you visit, read the comments as well, which provide even more insight and advice. Also check out Deb Ng’s advice on handling negative comments, published here on Perf last year.

So, do you get negative comments on your blog? How have you handled these?