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The One Question Every Blogger Should Ask Themselves

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one question every blogger

At my 9-5 I have routine strategy meetings with my boss. We discuss things like productivity and effectiveness of our staffs.  Last month we had a very interesting conversation. That conversation crossed over into my blogging venture and made me realize there is absolutely one question every blogger should ask themselves when working on their blogs. Let me share this story with you first.

My Strategy Meeting

I met with my boss to discuss the usual metrics. Productivity seemed to be down a bit. First let me say that numbers are a big factor in my profession. I am a Certified Forensic Interviewer and the number of  interrogations/interviews I do on a monthly basis directly correlates to closing investigations.

Not homicide or robberies, but private sector retail theft. Embezzlement, credit card fraud, counterfeit money…etc. To say that 4500 people in our respective market are not stealing is naive and is NEVER an acceptable answer. There is always somebody stealing..something. So the assumption, rather the requirement is that an investigation is being conducted somewhere across the country at all times.

Last month, I closed out a significant number of investigations, so I was pretty confident in my productivity. And then it came, my boss asks me…” Lisa, yes you are productive but what I consider of greater importance is, are you effective? Tell me how you have been effective throughout the district.”

Obviously, I sat back for a moment to consider this. It was a perfectly relevant question and has since made me take a different approach to most things I do. Oh, and I did give him an answer…I explained that I assisted several investigators in closing their cases and taught them some new methods of investigating. Obviously there was more to it, but I didn’t want you to think I had no comeback for him!

Effectiveness And Productivity

So, in your blogging venture, are you productive or effective? While we need to be both to attain success, we need to be sure that what we are producing or working on, is effective. For example, we talk about link building. Are you building effective links to your blog?

Are you seeking out like minded blogs and commenting? Guest posting? Writing articles and submitting to the proper sites? Engaging in social media? See, you can comment on 100 different blogs, but if your niche is car mufflers and you are commenting on candle blogs, you are not being effective in your campaign. Yes I know for natural link building you probably should have some links scattered around different sites, but I think you get my drift.

We are productive everyday on our blogs. We write content, we optimize, we submit, we tweak…all of it. When I first stated out, I wrote everyday. I considered myself productive and was pleased with myself.

When the reality of building a successful blog set in, I realized that what I was doing was not an effective strategy. I was not getting results. And now that big boss man asked me that question, I know even more so that what I produce, what I do for my blog needs to bring forth the desired results by being effective.

Tips For Effectiveness

Remember, you do all these things everyday, now tweak what you need to as to ensure maximum ROI. I found a great resource outlining 10 steps to effective marketing online. Originally a full white paper, the above link will give you a condensed version of these tips.  You can apply every one of these tips to your blog.

One tip I can give you right now is this: if you do all this hard work and hide behind your computer without interacting with the community, you are ineffective in your venture. You will not achieve the results you are looking for. Engage your blog community and interact daily with them, either through Twitter, comments, Facebook, Serpd…whatever you choose.

Increasing your blogs productivity and effectiveness will have a positive impact on your business and you should be asking yourself that question..am I productive or effective? Do I have a balance between both?

What are your tips on effectiveness? Let me know in the comments and as always, please share this if you like love or gasp! hate it.

Comments (28)

  • Hey Lisa,
    What a great post, I get so bogged down in the details of my blog, that sometimes I forget to step back and look at the bigger picture. In this case, asking myself “is this effective?”, is really going to help me put things into perspective. Thanks for the insight.

    Reply
    • Author

      Hi Navid:
      Thanks for visiting my blog. And it’s easy for all of us to forget to take a step back and really analyze the benefits of what we are doing. Glad you liked the post!

      All the best,
      Lisa

      Reply
  • I agree you should have strategies for your blog..however as i think you should also do not see blogging as a job..you should love it..i mean you should love the subject about the blod..

    Reply
    • Author

      Excellent point! However, I do think from Internet Marketing perspective, we need to look at certain aspects of our blog as a critical job function. For example, seo and social engagement. Otherwise we will be doing what we love and no one will know it.

      Thanks for stopping by,

      Lisa

      Reply
  • It’s mostly a combination between hiding behind your computer to update blogs, write articles and getting out there to interact with everyone. No small feat.

    Reply
    • Author

      Exactly! As long as we find some way to build a more personal relationship, it should make that feat a little easier!

      Hope to see you around,

      Lisa

      Reply
  • @mishon88

    Mishon:

    thanks so much for commenting. I appreciate your visit. If there is anything I can do to help you out, don;t hesitate to ask!
    'Lisa

    Reply
  • I enjoyed your article. I am very new and some of the information went over my head. I will be coming back to your site to learn. Thanks for sharing. =)

    Reply
  • @fishing organizations

    Exactly! The balance is key. Thank you for stopping by and for your comment!

    Lisa

    Reply
  • @Marcus Baker

    Marcus:

    thank you for visiting my blog and for commenting! and you said it perfectly…"busy work." when i first started out, that is exactly what I was doing and it was like walking in quicksand. As long as we can move forward with the work we do, then we are being effective!

    Lisa

    Reply
  • @Jayne Kopp

    Jayne:

    thank you so much for your kind words…I hope to continue being effective and maybe just maybe…make this my 9-5!!

    Reply
  • Hi Lisa,

    Effective versus Productive? Ouch… what a great question and perfect for assessing whether one is simply taking up time or achieving one's objectives. I like it, I like it a lot!

    Sometimes it's easy to think we are being effective when in fact all we are being is 'busy' so I think I will keep that question at hand to ask myself during my day.

    Thanks for a useful and thought provoking post.

    ~Marcus

    Reply
  • Lisa, how nice of you to stop by and "make a difference" on my blog! I actually added a little video clip to the end of it, if you're interested in popping back later.

    In any event… WOW. I commend you for holding down a 9-5 AND maintaining your blog.

    It's funny isn't it how it takes us a while to learn how to be effective… and it's a continual learning session. I, like you just wanted to get the heck earning, not realizing that being effective online is an art. It's not unlike being effective offline, in the way that you just have to be you. somehow this takes work. I was just commenting on Marcus Bakers blog on a 'similar' issue.

    I so enjoyed your post… and getting to know you better. You are 'very effective' online (and obviously you are offline too!), and you can tell your boss I said so!

    Reply
  • That is an excellent post. So many times, I see people getting too wrapped up in the "content is king" mantra. They do nothing but focus on bringing content to their blot. Don't get me wrong, this is great, but no one will ever see that content if you do not do some SEO. Sure, great content helps with this a lot, but it is not the end all solution.

    You see, to me it is neither content, nor SEO…..it is both. You have keep things in balance, working a little on both. After this, you will see results.

    Reply
  • Really great article.Thank you for the link to the marketing tips. This is very very helpful.I think everyone should ask if they have a balance between both. Thanks again.

    Reply
  • You could have amazing content, but you still need to figure out how to properly market yourself.

    Reply
  • @James M
    James:

    Excellent! The bottom line is you didnt go down in traffic. I always say as long as you are doing SOME work on your blog then you are being effective. Serpd is a fabulous community of helpful people, so I hope you check it out!

    Reply
  • Creating those links to other blogs is extremely important as it helps stabalize and build your traffic levels. In the month of November, I rarely posted on my blog due to a lack of time, but did spend some time commenting on other blogs and connecting with them. At the end of the month, my traffic was the same as October. Of course, I want to grow the traffic, not be stagnant, but I was quite happy that doing little caused my blog to not drop off the face of the planet.

    I had never heard of Serp, so thanks for introducing that site to me, too.

    Reply
  • @Marcus Sheridan-The Sales Lion

    Marcus:

    Thank you for vising me here. I did the same thing when I first started…I thought I could be anonymous and succeed…I quickly learned it was all about engaging and building relationships, no matter the space between. It was one of the single best changes I made for myself with this blog!

    Reply
  • Wow Lisa, that's a really, really interesting profession you're in, I never would have guessed…but the statement you made:

    if you do all this hard work and hide behind your computer without interacting with the community, you are ineffective in your venture.

    Golly, if I had only understood that very important point early on in my blogging days…But at least I know now.

    Thanks for the excellent post. 🙂

    Reply
  • @Swamykant

    Thank you for stopping by and commenting!

    Reply
  • Nice article. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  • @found

    thank you and yes it is quite interesting and fun…even though it's usually the bad side of people, you learn alot about specific behaviors. I love what I do!

    Reply
  • Lisa:

    Awesome article. Very intersting what you do for a living as well. I'll bet that has to be a ton of fun!

    Reply

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