Archive for the Category »Save Time «

11
Dec
Sexy Bookmarks, Toolbars & Time Savers
Barbara Swafford

61006514 eff5ecbcd5 Sexy Bookmarks, Toolbars & Time SaversSince I call this “your blogging classroom on the web”, I decided it was time we talk about homework; or that behind the scenes stuff we often put off.

Today’s Lesson

As many of you have noticed, I decorated my blog for the holidays.

Since I use a theme which has the “custom header feature”, adding the photo was simple. For the RSS widgets I searched for “holiday icons” and then recoded my widgets.

Listed below are a few new (to me) plugins I am testing.

  1. First is Sexy Bookmarks by Josh Jones and Norman Yung which is visible at the bottom of each post.

    The Sexy Bookmarks plugin is easily customizable, looks good, doesn’t take up too much space and is positioned so readers will be reminded to Tweet, Digg, or use StumbleUpon, etc. to share a post.

  2. The “Follow Me” plugin by WP Burn.com can be seen on the right of the page.

    This plugin is to remind our readers they can follow us on Twitter. The customization includes using different colors as well as different Twitter birds images.

  3. The Wibiya toolbar can be seen at the bottom of the page.

    What I like about this toolbar is if you don’t want to clutter up your sidebars with an RSS feed, recent posts, etc., you can include them in the toolbar.This isn’t a plugin, but more of an add-on which requires an invitation. Just go to the Wibiya site and follow the instructions. In a matter of days you should receive an email from them and at that time you can set up an account and customize your toolbar.

  4. Thanks to the suggestions from both Internet Strategist @ GrowMap and Betsy at Passing Thru I added Zemanta and Apture.

    In a nutshell, these two applications which work for all blogging platforms* make blogging easier and faster by suggesting photos, links, related articles, etc. for our posts. (Disclaimer: I’ve only tested them on WordPress.)

    Zemanta adds a interface to your dashboard from which you can drag and drop photos and/or links into your post as you’re writing it.

    Image representing Zemanta as depicted in Crun...
    Image via CrunchBase

    Apture adds icons which when clicked on, does the same.

    Zemanta also adds a “reblog” feature at the bottom of the post which makes cutting and pasting quotes much easier, plus and an option to add links to other posts which may be beneficial to our readers.

Thus far, the only downside I see to using some of the above applications is they do slow down the page load time.

Today’s Assignment

What are your favorite plugins or applications?

Care to share?

signature for blog post.

Footnote: When using Zemanta on a self hosted blog, the Zemanta plugin must be used. For WordPress, the plugin can be downloaded here.

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Category: Archives, Blog Maintenance, Blogging, Blogging Lessons, Linking, Plugins and Widgets, Save Time  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  58 Comments
27
Aug
It’s About Time
Barbara Swafford

It's about time - photo of clock, pad and paper

I don’t know about you, but I have not met a blogger who has a lot of free time. In fact, as I travel through blogosphere, I’m beginning to believe bloggers are over achievers – trying to do it all, and do it good.

Needless to say, the issue of time is often written about in blog posts and/or comments as bloggers struggle to find more.

Today’s Lesson

Although we’ve discussed how to make more of our time in the past, I feel this is a topic worth discussing further.

So, what can we do to give us more time to blog? To visit other sites? To set up additional blogs? To work behind the scenes? Or to join and participate in social networks like Twitter, Facebook or StumbleUpon?

Here are five options I’ve come up with:

  1. Cut back on posting

    One thing we often read is we need to make the Google bots happy and publish fresh content daily.

    Although daily posts will show those pesky Google bots our blog is alive and well, what we’re not taking into consideration is our readers. Will they have time to visit us daily and read our latest post? Chances are, they won’t. Soon our best work is buried in our archives and few have had a chance to read it.

  2. Limit the time spent on social media/networking sites

    Networking on sites like Twitter or Facebook is a great way to connect with other bloggers and possibly drive up our traffic numbers, however, if we’re not careful, a planned 15 minute visit can easily turn into an hour. If this is an issue for you, try setting a timer.

  3. Make blog visiting/commenting time two-fold

    As discussed in the comments of the He Said, She Said, They Said post, many bloggers don’t go back to check for a response to their comment until they visit the blog the next time. By using this technique it will allow us more time for other blogging activities, or life.

  4. Use the post-date feature

    I don’t know if other blog platforms have this feature, but WordPress does. When we’re feeling creative, we can write more than one post and schedule them to publish at a later date. Not only will this relieve the stress of “what to post next”, but in the event life calls and we don’t have time to construct a post, we’ll have one (or more) ready to go.

    Stress management poster - bang head here

  5. Utilize outsourcing

    Many of us do try to do it all, but for each of us there is probably a part of blogging that keeps us beating our head against the wall. Instead of wasting precious time struggling with the parts of blogging that frustrate us, we can hire an expert. This will not only save us time, but we’ll know it is done right.

Okay class, now it’s your turn.

Today’s Assignment

Which part of blogging uses up most of your time?

What are your favorite time saving tips for blogging?

Raise you hand and share your thoughts.

signature for blog post.

Photo Credits: Clock by wan fauzan
Stress relief poster by: ©aius

Category: Archives, Blogging, Blogging Lessons, Comments, Save Time, Writing Tips  60 Comments
23
Aug
He Said, She Said, They Said
Barbara Swafford

Two way street photo
In an ideal world, a conversation is like a two way street. One person talks while the other one listens and then it’s the other persons turn.

If more than two people are in the room, a conversation often develops between all parties present with each one being heard.

Blogs and their comment sections are like that, too.

The blog author writes a post; visitors read it. Each visitor has the option of leaving a comment and the blog author may or may not respond.  The original commenter might  then return to see what the blog author had to say. During their visits, they might also  read the comments left by others.

Today’s Lesson

As we all know, it’s often the comment section where the post blossoms.

If fact, comment sections can become an extension of a post and will often hold equal if not greater value than the post itself.

Thus, reading comments can be very beneficial.

But in order to all we’d like while blogging, this encompasses more reading. And, more time.

This also raises the issue of checking back to see if the blog author replied to our comment – another demand on our time.

So how do we do it?

Should we subscribe to the comments on each blog we read?

Should we continually go back to the blogs where we left comments checking for updates?

Or, should we not even worry whether the blog author replied to our comment, skip reading the other comments, have our say and move on?

Since it was Hilary of  Positive Letters who contacted me and asked me to discuss this issue, I’ll repeat Hilary’s questions.

Today’s Assignment

Do you take time to read all of the comments on blog posts?

Do you go back to a blog to read the replies from the blog author?

If so, how do you fit this activity into your already crowded schedule?

signature for blog post.

P.S. Thank you Hilary for these thought provoking questions.

Photo Credit: photographer padawan *(xava du)

Category: Archives, Blogging, Blogging Lessons, Comments, Save Time  87 Comments
08
Jun
The Biggest Challenge Of Blogging
Barbara Swafford

Time - Blogging's Biggest Challenge
Blogging often starts out as a hobby and/or money making endeavor and we’re led to believe it is something we can do in our free time. But, for those who have been blogging for any length of time, we find blogging has a major challenge.

Many declare, “Blogging takes up A LOT of time”.

Unfortunately, if we are using blogging as a stepping stone to catapult us to another goal, it becomes vital we invest our time wisely.

Today’s Lesson

When we look at what all a blogger does, it’s no wonder “time” becomes an issue.

Let’s take a peek at how bloggers use their time AFTER their blog(s) is/are set up.

    1. Thinking of topics for our posts
    2. Writing posts, including adding links
    3, Editing posts
    4. Finding and/or taking appropriate photographs for our posts
    5. Reading and answering our comments
    6. Reading other blogs and the comments
    7. Writing comments on other blogs
    8. Tweaking our themes
    9. Working behind the scenes, doing maintenance on our blogs
    10. Answering emails
    11. Partaking in social networking – Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, etc
    12. Learning SEO (search engine optimization) and other techniques needed to “get found” and putting it in place
    13. Checking and studying our statistics
    14. Updating, maintaining and/or tweaking our feed reader and social networking accounts.
    15. Updating our about page, categories, tags, sidebars, etc.
    16. Updating plugins and the current release of our blog platform
    17. Backing up our blogs
    18. If monetizing, adding, changing, and/or modifying our ads/layouts
    19. Writing guest posts for other blogs
    20. Writing ebooks or other online ezine articles and/or Squidoo pages
    21. Setting up additional blogs and doing it all again.

Just looking at the list, makes me say “Whew”. :)

For bloggers who plan on sticking around, it’s essential we hone our time management skills. Anything that can shave off a few minutes each day is a huge benefit.

I’ve found setting priorities has helped, as has minimizing the time I spend checking stats, answering more that one comment at a time, and writing posts in advance when I’m feeling creative.

How about you?

Today’s Assignment

With all of the demands blogging puts on your time, how do you manage it all?

Do you have any shortcuts or tips you use?

Care to share?

signature for blog post.

P.S. Ricardo of Ribeezie.com recently shared the results from a poll asking bloggers what their biggest challenge is. Forty five percent of those who voted chose “time”.

Photo Credit:nicksarebi

Category: Archives, Blogging, Blogging Lessons, Save Time  45 Comments
29
Sep
Strike While The Iron Is Hot
Barbara Swafford

1250977572_22401fe420.jpg

Last week we discussed how many of us are blogoholics and spend massive amounts of time blogging. Although blogging is a great hobby, it can interfere with our daily lives.

Decreasing the amount of time we spend blogging can not only improve our real life social skills, but can free up more time to spend on other goals.

Today’s Lesson

Like many of you, I need to become efficient in my blogging activities. Listed below are five tips I’ve come up with for streamlining our blogging routines.

Set a timer when visiting blogs in your reader

Although I don’t do this each time I visit the blogs in my reader, when I do, it makes me realize how fast an hour passes when I’m reading other blogs and commenting.

Answer your comments less often

If you’re receiving a steady stream of comments, let them build up before joining in. Often commenters will “feed” off each other and an interesting discussion can ensue.

Pick one or two favorite social networking sites

Each time we add another social networking site to our list, it eats into our blogging time. Use the ones you enjoy the most and discard the rest.

Write when creativity strikes

Bloggers often have spurts of creativity followed by dry spells. When creative juices are flowing, write several posts at once. When the dry spells hit, we have something to fall back on.

Post date your articles

For those using WordPress, we can take advantage of the post date feature on our WordPress blog. In WordPress 2.5.1, the option is under “Edit” of your “write” screen.

Today’s Assignment

How do you streamline your blogging time?

Can you add other suggestions to the list?

Feel free to join in the conversation, share your time saving tips, or let us know how ideas posted by others will help you.

6d61b32587b54553fb32d6e3f55d87d6 Strike While The Iron Is Hot
.

Photo Credit: AMANITO’s photostream

Category: Archives, Blogging, Blogging Lessons, Comments, Networking, Posting, Save Time, Social Networking, Writing Tips  Tags: , , , ,  58 Comments
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