Sometimes it takes me a while to get to things I’ve downloaded to my computer. That’s the case with what’s lead to the topic of today’s post.
I often download podcasts and interviews but don’t always find the time to listen to them. I’d loaded a bunch of them onto my phone, but I could never find them. I finally figured out about 3 weeks ago how to access those files, and once I finished a couple of the recorded books I had I decided to listen to a couple of them.
I got to one by Darren Rowse, Problogger to some of you (the guy credited with being the 1st million dollar blogger), which was titled How One Humiliating Experience Gave Me a Wake Up Call That Helped Me Build a More Profitable Blog. That I’m 8 months late getting to it is intriguing, yet I’m glad that I did get to it.
Just so you know, there’s about to be some storytelling coming up, some truths about my life and business and such. If you decide you’d rather skip right to the blogging part just click on that highlighted B and it’ll drop you way down to where I start specifically talking about that.
He talks about how he felt like he’d been going through the motions with his blogs and businesses, feeling almost burned out and not believing he was giving his best effort. He came to an epiphany that most of us go through life greeting people by saying something like “how are you” and moving on because we really don’t care, we’re just being polite.
One day he decided to sit down and think about how he’d answer that question if he were to be honest. As he looked at himself in his mind he realized that there were a lot of things going on, both positive and negative, but a lot of the negative things were holding him back, especially those related to health. He also realized that he’d gotten out of the habit of reading other blogs, something he used to do a lot of, and reading other types of articles, to the extent that he felt he was just churning out things he figured he knew based on his experience but was bored by that, and wondered if his readers might be bored by it as well.
At the end of the podcast he challenged those of us who listened to it to do the same for ourselves. If y’all know anything about me I’m always up to some kind of challenge, so I figured I’d start off talking about this one for a bit; I hope you stick with me but if you didn’t, I hope you remember that, once again, you can click on the first letter of blogging and drop down below to see what I have to say about that.
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I figure there are 3 things all of us really need to deal with: health, finances and mindset. As Darren said, anything you identify as a negative gives you time to try to correct it so you can improve yourself and potentially improve your life and blogging; hey, he’s Problogger after all! lol Something that immediately separates me from him is that I’m always thinking about all 3 of these things, every single day. Sometimes I write things down, sometimes I don’t, sometimes I’m on point and sometimes I’m floundering. So there’s not tons of backstory for me in that regard. Instead, I’ll mention what’s going on in general and whether it’s good or bad.
I’ll start with health. In general I’m going along pretty well. If I had to rank myself on a 10-point scale I’d give myself a 7. The best thing is that I’m right now averaging 20,000 steps a day, which is close to 10 miles of walking a day; ouch! 🙂 I thank Fitbit for getting me to do it It’s going to be coming down within the next few weeks, but I’ll be coming back to that one. One more thing to mention about the walking is that this leg issue I had, where there was this vein that throbbed from my left hip to around my knee, seems to have calmed down some; that was some serious pain but for now it’s gone away.
My weight has been steady, and I thank Myfitnesspal for helping me with that one. I know a lot of folks think tracking food and such is a major pain but I can tell you that it’s not only helped me lose some weight but it’s helped me gain control of my diabetes.
Those are the good things. The bad things are all centered around my lack of sleep. I average just over 3 hours of sleep a night, while my goal is 5 hours. Even though I have a CPAP which helps me sleep better, it doesn’t help people sleep more. So far in 2016 I’ve hit my 5 hour goal 7 times from just sleeping overnight. I can bring that number up to 11 if I count those times when I’ve taken a nap and been able to get over 5 hours for the day. That sounds pretty bad doesn’t it?
What happens with that is it affects my concentration, at least during the day. I find it hard to get a lot of things done because I can only focus about 30 minutes at a time, if that. It’s one reason why I walk so much, because when I can’t concentrate I can only do two things, and being on the computer isn’t enough to keep my interest as much so I walk for my health. The strange thing is that when it gets to around 7PM I’m suddenly pretty alert, so I do most of my writing and other work from then until 2AM, only breaking to eat and walk some more.
I’m trying some things to hopefully sleep longer. Every once in a while I try to get to bed earlier, and when I awaken I force myself to stay in bed until at least 8:30. Those days get me close to 5 hours but have you ever realized how tired you get trying to sleep when you can’t sleep? I’m trying some meditation but it only helps me fall asleep and not stay asleep, and falling asleep isn’t my problem. I’ve tried the Sleepy Time tea and some other things, and I’m always changing how I physically go to sleep, but with a CPAP there aren’t a lot of options.
Still, I recognize this is the hardest thing to overcome if I want to push forward with my career and my blogging. I also realize how it affects the next two things.
Finances are an interesting one. My wife and I split the bills and I make enough to pay my share and still have a little bit left. Because I was on a long term consulting gig before that I have some money in reserve. That’s an important business lesson for anyone who works for themselves; when the gravy train is running well be sure to put some away for when it runs out of gas. The thing is, because my mind is often foggy from lack of sleep it’s hard to think out of the box and even harder to do what needs to be done to really be successful. Sometimes I feel like I need more pats on the back for the things I actually do get finished like my book from last year.
Mindset… that’s a big one. I’ll admit that I vacillate between feeling very positive and just “meh”. I’m glad that it’s rare I’m really down, but when I am I can usually get rid of it by taking a nap… which means it’s tied in to the lack of sleep thing.
My mindset will be improving in about 3 1/2 weeks when my wife finally comes home from San Antonio, where she’s been since September. Some of you might remember my story about the ladder back in January but if you don’t, or you didn’t read it, check it out. I’m an only child, so I can entertain and take care of myself. Yet it’s always nice having at least one person who cares about you (besides your mother; I’ll talk more about her in a moment), will go out to eat with you, walk at the lake with you… well, you get it.
I’m also working on my latest book which is on the topic of motivation, and based on an article I wrote some years ago titled 46 Ways To Reach Your Own Super Bowl. If writing a book on motivation doesn’t improve your mood nothing will.
There is one bad thing occurring though, something that a lot of us have to deal with at some point. My mother’s memory is slipping a bit, and she lives alone about 90 minutes away from me. Luckily she can take care of herself but it’s something I have to keep an eye on since it’s just me and her. Sometimes she says things that scare me, and late last year she had a car accident and… well, let’s just say that she didn’t hurt herself but she totaled the car by doing something so inconceivable that I’m stunned she got away with it.
Hey, no one ever said we’re supposed to get through life without challenges right? Anyway, that’s all I’m going to touch upon as it regards my life; anything more and I might as well film a documentary. By the way, if you listen to the podcast I linked to above you’ll hear Darren talking about the same sort of things in his life.
Now it’s time to talk about Blogging. Whether you read all of the above or just jumped to this portion, I welcome you and I’m glad you stuck around one way or the other.
One major thing that separates Darren and myself is that I’m constantly reading a lot of other blogs, mainly because I still follow feeds via my feedreader program. For a while a couple of years ago I was missing out on reading a lot of other things online that had to do with blogging or business because the only news source I had besides local news was CNN. I’m not a Huffington Post kind of person and I had no idea how to find new content.
Thank goodness for Twitter lists and Flipboard, both of which allowed me to set up categories so I could follow people and topics I like so I could not only find entertainment but learn about things I could talk about and share with others, even here on this blog.
Because of those two things I’ve been able to write posts about things like Blab, making your website mobile friendly, how to sculpt your Facebook feed so you see what you want to see, talk about YouTube monetization, the Samsung Galaxy 5 birthdays and calendar issue, and of course my post sharing 31 blogging and social media mistakes.
In essence, you can’t even think about being a successful blogger if you’re not taking in at least a portion of what’s going on “now”. I mean, I could probably write a year’s worth of posts (writing only once a week mind you) on blogging, writing and social media without consuming a single new thing, but within months I’d probably be writing about obsolete things. Change is consistent, as well as ideas, and if I didn’t read things like this monster post on how to get more traffic to my website by Nat Eliason or this truly epic post by Neil Patel on things that could kill your blog posts I might not have newer things to write about, even if I was beating up what I was reading like I did when I wrote this post about a blog whose misleading title drove me nuts because the content didn’t live up to expectations.
Let’s close this post with 7 things you can do to be a better blogger:
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1. Read
I don’t care what you read; just read something. If you read you can write book reviews or figure out how to tie in something else and relate it to blogging like I did with chess.
2. Research
You don’t have to do a research project like I did when testing lots of blog content & whether you increase visits but if you did it would give you something to write about. It will also give you insight and knowledge that you can share with others and that knowledge never goes away.
3. Share
Although I’ve linked to a lot of my own posts in this blog I’ve also linked out to 3 other people. Hopefully y’all will not only visit them but let those folk know that I shared their links on this blog, and then think about sharing links to other blogs and sources on your blog.
4. Internal linking
Why did I do all that internal linking? Because it not only helps people find more content that’s related to something I talked about but because it keeps people reading and learning and hopefully commenting and sharing and having a reason to come back for more to see what I’ll say next time. Oh yeah, it’s also great for SEO!
5. Originality
I hope you checked out that link above when I talked about misleading titles. My biggest gripe was the writer didn’t write anything original. There are lots of subjects that we all talk about but if we can’t find our own voice in writing about it then why should anyone care to stop by?
6. Make it easy for “people” to participate
Stop making people create accounts to comment on your blog. Stop making people log in to comment on your blog. Make sure people are receiving email telling them when you respond to their comments (which seems to be happening for me less and less these days) and of course respond to comments. I know so many of you are worried about spam, but getting comments, real comments, is worth it; Heck, even Copyblogger brought them back this past January!
7. Care
Care about your audience. Care about your language. Care about your grammar. Care about yourself. Care about your topic. Care about your neighborhood, family and friends. Care… just care… 😀
Did I miss anything? Let me know, leave a comment, share this with your friends and family… and think about how you are.
I see a lot of commonalities between your situation and mine. AS usual you’ve offered a post packed with good information and lots to think about. I still have that problem with not enough hours in the day, but I guess most of us who want to get things done share that problem.
Arlee Bird
A to Z Challenge Co-host
Thanks Arlee. It’s tough when real life gets in the way isn’t it? Yet, there’s still blogging to do and hopefully doing it right and for the right purpose.
Wow,Mitch the 10 miles per day of walking – I’ve sore from a 6 mile walk I did last weekend. I’m training for a 26 mi walk in September (I hope!). Sleep, oh yes, I cannot function well with 2 nights of missed sleep. I night on 4-6 hours I can get by but not 2 in a row anymore. I could when I was younger. It really does mess with your concentration and your mind.
Oh yes, the balance between all of our lives and then the online life- very difficult! It’s not easy! That’s why I believe so many bloggers quit in the first year and others within 5. I’m on the 5 year now but I don’t pressure myself like I used to – to post every other week etc. I try my best, that is all we can do Mitch.
Sounds like you’ve had a productive time though, congrats!
Lisa, I don’t let things like lack of sleep and pain derail me all that often from stuff I want to do. Course I am getting older and I’m realizing there are things I can’t do anymore. If I had the time I’d think about a 26 mile walk… I just can’t imagine being anywhere by myself for that long a period of time. lol
All we can do is try our best; who could ask for more?
Hey there Mitch! Great blog post dude. I do try to stay up on things that are happening in the blogosphere but gosh its a lot.
One of my go to news aggregation sites is Feedly. Bloglovin is another goody too!
I love where you mentioned that research is important — you are sooo right about this one. Even though blogging is pretty formal, its always nice to see stats and etc backed up with real data 🙂
Cheers and heres to wishing you an awesome week!
Good to see you here Kim! I’ve never been to either of the sites you mentioned; I’d never even heard of the second one! lol Luckily I am taking in lots of new information on a regular basis so I’m covered on that front.
I recognize that blogging isn’t easy. It takes a lot of dedication and effort to keep going year after year. However, if some folks follow a few things I mentioned in the second part of this article I think it could make things a lot easier.
Hey, Mitch!
As always, you hit a lot of points that resonate with me. The old Ben Franklin saw really looks good when broken down this way! LOL — Sorry that the sleep thing is messing you up, though.
I hope bloggers take your advice to heart.
Cheers,
Mitch
Are we talking about this old saw: By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail? No matter; yeah, one of these days I’m going to conquer this sleep thing… well, probably not but I’m going to keep trying until hopefully I get it right, since it seems to be the overall catalyst for everything else going on.
I guess we’ll find out if the bloggers are reading and learning at some point in the future; I’m also hopeful 😉
Hi Mitch,
Have you ever tried BrainFM?
I use it daily and find it is a real nice resource for quieting my mind and helping me sleep, relax and or focus.
It has been a very useful tool for nights where I couldn’t sleep and was too tired to focus on reading.
I had to look it up to remember. Yes I have tried it; didn’t quite work for me. Actually, most of the time it’s not falling asleep as much as it is staying asleep I have a problem with. I’ve tried a few things on that account but haven’t found anything that works to date.
Hi Mitch,
Thank you for opening up and for introducing us to Darren. I am still new to the blog world so I have to admit that I don’t know him. I will take a look at his work as well.
Health, finances and mindset are definitely things that pop up on a daily basis, it is just hard to ignore them. A cold can be distracting. Bills that we need to pay cannot be overlooked.
At least when it comes to mindset, I have to admit that it is a lifestyle for me so I don’t pay attention to it 24/7 but instead, I am constantly in tune. After many years of practicing meditation and mindfulness, it has paid off.
Now when it comes to blogs, apart from SEO, I really like interacting with people and getting to know their stories.
Great article, thank you!
Zaria
Zaria, I visited your blog and you certainly seem to be in full control of the meditation side of things. Maybe one of these years I’ll figure it all out; at least I haven’t given up on it.
We all have to deal with the essentials in life. How we handle these things says a lot about each of us. When I find people who are scared to think about their finances it tells me that they’re not focused or ready to even think about being successful. Not that it pays to always have it on one’s mind but we have to be honest with ourselves so we know where we need to be. And relating that to blogging… well, I’m good at that. 🙂
Bloody hell Mitch, why do you have to make your posts so long? You’re the main reason I don’t have enough time to update all of my blogs 😀
My health is pretty good and my finances aren’t a problem yet, even though I have my daughters engagement and wedding coming up. Good thing I’ve put money away for such things.
My main problem with blogging is that I allow myself to get sidetracked too often. I’m cursed with TV shows such as the Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.
I know I should read more blogs and I probably would if you didn’t make your posts so long 😉
See Pete, I don’t watch TV so I have more time to write these posts. lol Actually, I don’t set out for any of them to be all that long; I just go where the words take me. For the most part that is, since I’m planning and hoping my next post here is much shorter. Still, no one can say I’m not giving value. 🙂
@Peter, I never watched a single episode of The Walking Dead until this year. Now I’ve seen every episode of every season and can’t wait for the next season to start. Wow is that a great show.
As far as no time for other blogs, just read mine. I have no time to write so that will be a perfect match. 😉
That’s an inspiring thing. 10 miles at the age, I am 21 and can’t complete 3 miles without sore footed. Surely this is gonna motivate me.
We shall see lol
@Mitch Mitchell, hehe./ yeah.. and I will complete it. Challenge accepted boss.
I haven’t been around as much as I’d like Mitch so I was a little surprised to see how many parallels in recent life we share.
I went with a Garmin instead of a Fitbit. Basically the same thing. I use it to track my sleep, heart rate, and, of course, my daily steps.
I’m also a big believer in MyfitnessPal. That little app is disrupting my scheduled weight gain. lol
I’m also doing the smoothie and protein shake thing.
My sleep, like yours, is so unstable that it is affecting other areas of my life.
My activity watch sets a daily steps goal for me based on my progress and I crush it before I even hit the gym. I do over 10K steps at work alone.
I’ve really fallen behind on every aspect of blogging. That includes reading and writing. Not good.
You sound like you could benefit from a mastermind. Is something you’ve considered?
I know I’m all over the map here and I’ll blame it on work. Thirteen hours today and it has turned my mind to mush. I do still have enough wits about me to at least make this conversation all about me though. LOL
Oh, and I’m meditating too. I use the “Stop, Breathe, and Think” app.
Oh man, I thought I was done. I use a paid podcast catcher app but check out Stitcher. That will solve the download and find issue.
Hey Brian! I’ve tried setting up mastermind groups but I can’t get anyone to join. I guess it’s a harder concept for people to understand than I thought it would be.
I have the Stop Breathe & Think app also, but only use it when I need to slow my heart down enough to fall asleep. I’ve never tried it during the day; I’ve tried other things but none of it has worked to this point. I always feel guilty about taking time out of my day to just sit and try to get into a zone when I don’t know what my zone is supposed to be. lol
We do seem to have a lot of the same issues. At least you have a better excuse than me.
@Brian Hawkins, Brian, if you liked The Walking Dead then you’re going to love Fear The Walking Dead by the same people. It begins when the Zombies first came into being.
Have you got rid of Disqus Brian?
@Peter, I actually just started watching Fear Of The Walking Dead. It is a great show. I have a long way to catch up with this season.
I did remove Disqus from Hot Blog Tips. I didn’t want to but Mitch forced me. 😉
All “Mitch” did was communicate some common sense towards an uncommon guy 😉
@Mitch Mitchell, That’s for sure Mitch, if there’s one thing you’re good at its giving value 🙂
I do what I can 🙂
Hi Mitch,
When it comes to mindset, I think it is the most important thing we need to work on constantly. I’m still working on mine to exercise. You mentioned fitbit..Hubby wanted to buy it for me (hint hint) just to get me to walk more, but I rather swim 🙁
You also mentioned the time it takes to look into your mom. I was doing that also but found it easier and a great time-saver to bring her into our home when we moved. No more of those nagging thoughts if she is OK.
All in all, being a blogger is a lot of work from researching, reading to actually writing a blog post that people will enjoy…learn from (hopefully) and share.
We all need to write with others’ in mind. If not, crickets!
Thanks for another great share,
-Donna
Donna, my mom lives 90 minutes away and she’s dead set in staying in her own home. Not to mention she & my wife don’t quite get along; that would be messy. lol Yet it’s always on my mind and I check on her often and hope I know when I have to and legitimately can pull my weight to get extra help at some point.
As for the exercise, I’m not sure if you also have Myfitnesspal but if you integrate it with Fitbit then it tracks those calories also. There are a lot of different settings for tracking swimming and they’re all based on time; just so you know 🙂
When it comes to writing our blogs, I think there has to be a nice symbiosis between writing for others and writing for yourself. If people hate the writing process it’s going to show in how and what they write and I come across that sort of thing all the time; ugh. In my mind I start out writing for myself because writer’s gotta write, but I not only make sure what I have to say will resonate with others, but I make the commenting process fairly simple… notwithstanding my commenting policy that absolutely no one’s reading anyway. lol
Hey Mitch,
I read the entire thing (even though I was tempted to click the bold “b”) – just because it was sitting there, calling for attention 😉
I’m glad your health is at a decent place. The sleeping thing though, I figure that would have to be frustrating.
Kudos to you for finding ways to navigate around that.
Personally, I’ve seen life hit a lot of people (and me) lately for various reasons. I think things happen to show us there is a different perspective – or simply because it’s time for a change. Similar to what you said about Darren’s observation.
I’m sorry to hear about your Mom. Can’t imagine that’s an easy situation for many reasons. Time goes by – so quickly at that. We watch the ones we love age and we witness every challenge that goes along with this.
I also hear what you’re saying about the podcasts and books that sit there, not being paid attention to. I have plenty of those as well. This reminds me it’s time to delve into some of them and see what gems they may have for me.
Anyway, I appreciate your openness in your posts. There’s plenty of info out there on how to do such and such. I write those as well.
But connecting with others just being human, that’s comforting. And that’s what I’ve been needing as well.
Enjoy the weekend Mitch 🙂
Thanks Dana. I think sometimes it helps to lay out some of these more personal things to show others that we all have issues to deal with, while also having a point for all of it. I’m not sure I’d have thought to do it this way if I hadn’t listened to that particular podcast; I think it came at just the right time for me.
@Brian Hawkins, Good thing too Brian. I know spam was probably an issue but there are better ways around that than forcing prospective commenters to jump through hoops to leave a comment.
You’ll be seeing a lot more of me now that its gone. 😉
Hi Mitch,
It feels great to be here again, Life is filled with a lot of challenges which we have to deal with every day, from personal to family, finances, relationships, health, name it, challenges of life are quite numerous and we must find a way of dealing with it.
Not getting enough sleep is a challenge that I’m battling with right now. Probably it’s because I work full time during the day and the only the time I can spare for blogging is in the night, it’s not easy though but I must look for a way to balance up everything.
The blogging tips that you talked about in the article are things that I do on a regular basis and I have seen good result engaging in them. The truth is that you can not go far in blogging if you’re not practicing all of those things and even more.
Good to see you here Odobo. I assume you don’t have any time to write on weekends? I write the post for this blog most of the time on Sundays, although every once in a while I get inspired and write a bunch of posts at one time. Then again, with 5 blogs I need to try to space my thoughts out a bit.
Getting older isn’t easy, and the hardest lesson of all to learn is that you also have to concern yourself with the health of others. If I only had myself to worry about I probably wouldn’t care so much; that’s the only depressing part about it all. Yet it’s a part of life so it’s important to find a better mindset to deal with it.
Wow. I can relate to nearly everything you said!
I have Diabetes and am also using MyFitnessPal as well as MapMyWalk.
I am currently striving for 5000 steps a day. I weigh 296 and weighed 356 nine months ago.
I blog regularly too… on my main site. I have 4 now… and think I need to get my head checked! Lol
And I help my elderly parents.
I have seen your name before… not sure I have commented on your blog before, though.
Nice to meet you.
Max Ivey aka The Blind Blogger also uses a CPAP and his story is amazing too. He went from 512 lbs to 250 in 2 years!
He is a blogger, author, and amusement equipment broker. Famously known for being motivating!
Perhaps you could benefit from his book.
Check his site theblindblogger.net for info on book LEADING YOU OUT OF THE DARKNESS INTO THE LIGHT: A BLIND MAN’S INSPIRATIONAL GUIDE TO SUCCESS.
Surely it will help you move forward.
Thanks for visiting Lorraine; we have seen each other in lots of other places, and I even caught a podcast interview of yours.
Thanks for the book recommend, but right now I’ve got a major long list of books to get through, including the two I’m presently reading and the one I’m writing. It’ll have to go on the list, but it will take a while to get to. lol
We share the diabetes thing it seems. Are you on insulin like I am? I haven’t lost quite as much weight as you have, and I congratulate you for that. I think I’ll be better once my wife gets back home, as she’s the conscience I don’t always have when I’m by myself.
I figure we do what we need to do in order to survive. However, I have major league big dreams so survival isn’t in the plans for me. One of these days I might have to give up some of my blogs to have time to do other stuff unless I figure out a way to monetize the couple of blogs that could use it so that I can do more of what I want to do. After all, it’s not living if we can’t try to live the life we want is it? 🙂
Hi Mitch, I do believe this is my first time on your blog. I enjoyed listening to the podcast version of your post. Awesome stuff. I try my hardest to read other blogs, but finding the time these days seems to be a struggle when you’re flat out busy.
I use a Fitbit too, the Charge version as I like to keep tabs on my heart rate when I’m exercising. I think it’s super critical for bloggers or anyone spending a lot of time sat down in front of the computer to make an effort to exercise.
One thing I’m struggling with right now is sleep. I try and get about 6 hours per day, I perform better as a blogger, family man when I’ve had some good sleep.
Anyway, great tips you’ve outlined for becoming a smarter blogger. For me it’s all about learning new things, the more I learn, the more I can experiment with and share and teach others.
Have a great rest of the week buddy 🙂 – Fabrizio
Welcome Fabrizio; always glad to meet another blogger. 🙂
You’re sleeping more than me, although I’m really giving it a shot. In the last 10 days I’ve had one night where I actually slept 5 hours and two days where, with a nap, I passed 5 hours but that’s about as good as it gets. However, that’s actually a step up for me so I’m seeing it as a positive. In the long run nothing matters if we don’t have enough health to enjoy it right? 🙂
Glad to offer the blogging tips as well; it’s a big part of what I try to do, along with telling stories and hopefully getting people to think in different ways. I’m glad you’re taking care of yourself.
Yes, as a part of all bloggers at the time of night work, it would be very difficult task to do continuously two more days. Every health will not work properly even mind too. As a night blogger, i am feeling very bad about this night work every day night 3-4 hours. Just publishing a article would take 3-4 hours of my night time. At first, i have felt very difficult, but now i have separated my work time into two as in night 2 hours & morning 2 hours. Now it would be better to relax myself at blogging daily. Keep try it. Will may helpful of anyone.
Thanks for sharing ! Keep sharing !!
Karthik, all of us can only do the best we can do, even when it brings about difficulties. I think you’re working on ways to make it better for you; that’s always a good thing. I wish you the best of luck on your journey to success.