Welcome to the blogging world, new blogger – where the time is never enough, and the to-do list keeps growing! Joking apart, if you’re a beginner blogger, you already know that you must wear many hats simultaneously, which means you must be really organized. If you don’t know how to be more productive as a new blogger, don’t worry – here is the only strategy you need to succeed!
In this article, you’ll get an overview of:
- The one and only rule you need to make important decisions for your blog
- Common time-wasters that bloggers usually fall for
- The 5 blogging tasks you must do for success
- How to put into practice everything learned straight away
So, are you ready to turn blogging from a stressful side hustle into a successful and efficient business?
DISCLAIMER: This blog is reader-supported. When you buy through links on this site, I may earn an affiliate commission (which won’t affect your final price). I only promote products that I consider valuable and beneficial for you. If you decide to purchase something – Thank you for buying me a cup of coffee! xx
What is the 80/20 rule, and how can you apply it to your blog?
There’s only one rule you must follow if you want to grow your blog.
Let me introduce you to the “80/20 rule”, also known as Pareto’s principle. It says:
“The Pareto principle is a phenomenon that states that roughly 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes.”
What does this mean for your blog?
If you spend hours and hours working on it without any result, it’s probably because you’re not focusing on the right things!
Here’s how to translate Pareto’s principle into blogging language:
- 80% of your email subscribers come from one or two of your free resources
- 80% of your traffic comes from your top three or five most popular articles
- And 80% of your money comes from your top performing product
One smart way of using your time would be to do anything in your power to improve or replicate what has been done and is shown to be successful. Yet, why are you still there, focusing on that 20% driving little to no results?
The 80/20 rule invites you to look at your current blogging strategy and do more of what’s already working.
If you’re a beginner blogger, this is how you can be more productive: focus on a few things, but do them right.
PS. Have you only been dreaming about starting your blog? Turn your dreams into reality & grab your FREE “Blogging Launch Plan” to start a successful blog from day 1!
Time-wasters all bloggers should avoid
Follow the 80/20 principle and look at everything you do for your blog.
Then, ask yourself: “Is this necessary? Is it profitable, or am I only wasting time?”.
Usually, new bloggers waste their time on irrelevant tasks such as:
- Finding the perfect theme
- Writing content for themselves, not their audience
- Planning without taking any action
- Tweaking their website every two days
- Compulsively posting on all social media channels
Oh, about the last point – let me warn you: jumping on too many social media from the very start is one of the worst blogging mistakes you could make as a beginner blogger!
If you want to discover the other mistakes you should watch out for, read here: “The 7 Worst Blogging Mistakes Beginner Bloggers Always Make”
5 Things you must do to grow your blog
You might be asking: “Ok, if I’m not doing any of those things anymore, what am I doing then?”. Here’s what you’ve got to do with your time to be more productive as a new blogger:
1. Write high-quality content
Let’s start with the basics. The truth is, I see so many bloggers skip this part and forget about its importance.
What’s the number one reason visitors come to your website? To read your articles.
If you have well-written and engaging blog posts, they will be happy and come back. On the other hand, if your articles don’t add any value or you can tell from a thousand miles away that AI wrote them, you can rest assured they won’t visit that often.
Don’t skip this important step!
And sure, you can use AI to some extent if you want, but don’t let it write entire articles for your site because readers will recognize it (and Google too – and it will penalize you for that!).
Writing high-quality content means:
- Doing your research (in terms of keywords, blog post format, and frequently asked questions)
- Creating an outline for your article (using headings and subheadings)
- Breaking down your text (with bullet points, blank spaces, images)
- Addressing your readers’ problem by delivering a clear message or providing a solution
Never write about something you “just feel like” – at least, not if you want to turn your blog into a profitable business.
Take this article, for example: your problem is struggling to stay organized as a new blogger, therefore, I’m sharing the secret on how to be more productive! 😉
2. Learn more about SEO
The first step to writing a high-quality article is doing your research, especially for keywords.
Keyword research is part of the best strategies for SEO.
What’s SEO? SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimization, is a set of good practices to keep in mind if you want to rank well on Google – meaning, if you want to appear as one of the first results when someone searches something online.
The best practices for SEO are:
- Keyword research (using sites as Moz, Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, and Google Keyword Planner)
- A clear and clean structure for your articles:
- Having headings and subheadings
- Using bullet points
- Adding images
- Writing short paragraphs
- Leaving some blank space on the page
- Internal linking (= linking to related articles you’ve written)
- Linking to external relevant and authoritative websites
- Including your long-tail keyword in your title, headings, subheadings, and where it sounds natural within your text
These are the basics. If you want to dive deeper into the world of SEO, I recommend you check out HubSpot.
3. Repurpose your content
One key step many beginner bloggers skip is repurposing their existing content.
I mean, if you write a blog post, you can use the text to:
- Write an email to promote it
- Create pins
- Turn it into a viral reel
- Publish that video on TikTok
- Design a post for Instagram
- Create an infographic
- Record a podcast episode
- Shoot a video for YouTube
There are so many platforms you can tap into and too many ways to share one piece of information across multiple channels.
How does repurposing your content allow you to be a more productive blogger? Well, you save a ton of time because you don’t have to come up with fresh, new ideas all the time – you can leverage what you have already created.
Take my blog as an example. I usually:
- Write a new article
- Send an email to my newsletter
- Shoot a TikTok about it
- Turn that TikTok into a reel
- Post the video on Pinterest
- Create 5 new pins per article
4. Update old articles
If your 6-month-old article is generating quite some views, ensure the information is up to date. You don’t want to risk losing potential traffic because of a lack of information or outdated content.
So, even if you’re a new blogger, find ways to constantly improve your existing posts. Keep them relevant. Keep them updated.
When updating an old article, you want to ensure you check off these things:
- Do keyword research to see if it’s still relevant or if you have to tweak it a bit
- Change the date, letting new readers know the post was recently updated
- Add new information, if necessary
- Replace old images with new and better ones
- Check for eventual grammar mistakes
Make sure your audience has eyes on your best content. How can you do that? Keep creating and updating great content!
5. Start an email list
Here’s another thing you must do as a new blogger: start your email list from day 1.
Trust me.
I don’t care if you think you have nothing to say – the words will come! Just offer your readers something; they’ll want to hear from you.
What’s the best thing you could offer to your readers? Something FREE.
Create a lead magnet to turn your readers into subscribers – don’t wait to have the perfect product to sell.
What you offer depends on your niche and your audience’s problems. Some general examples of freebies include:
- Checklists
- Webinars
- Workbooks
- Mini courses
- Printable planners
PS. If you want to see what I’ve got to offer, go to my “Free resources – Freebies” page 😉
How to be productive as a new blogger applying the 80/20 rule
Now that you know what you must and must not do when running your blog, you might be wondering: “How can I put the 80/20 rule into practice?”.
Well, here’s how you can apply this rule to your blog:
1. Do a blog analysis
Be specific and identify:
- What’s working
- What’s not working
There isn’t a secret rule to succeed at blogging, but there are some tricks and tips to ensure you don’t waste your time on non-important things, and the 80/20 rule will help you do just that.
What is the 20% of actions that could lead to 80% of the results?
Spend your time doing what matters.
Stop wasting your time picking a WordPress theme, crafting your “About me” page, or writing the perfect first blog post. Just hit ‘publish’!
Stop trying to be present on all social media platforms when you’re getting some real results only from Pinterest.
What is your goal?
Is it increasing your DA (Domain Authority)? Having more subscribers to your newsletter? Or is it driving more traffic to your website? Then, simply:
- Offer to be a guest blogger for other websites
- Create a free printable
- Be active on Pinterest
And cut out all the rest. The rest is noise. It’s only distracting you from the real goal.
Identify your objective, and then take aligned action.
2. Do more of what’s working
Now that you’ve analyzed your blog, you’ll want to do more of what works.
If a particular pin drives almost all of your traffic, then replicate its style and design. Create similar ones.
If an article gets a lot of views, consider writing about the same topic but from a different angle. Or, in what other ways could you expand more on that topic?
If a specific freebie gets you a high conversion rate, can you maybe create a similar one? Or improve the existing one?
You’ve already found what’s working and what isn’t. Now, all you’ve got to do is do more of what works.
Work smarter, not harder. 😉
3. Choose one social media platform and commit to it
If you’re a beginner blogger, the things to do are too many, and time is too little – or you wouldn’t be here reading an article about how to be a more productive blogger, right?
Ideally, you’d want to build a presence on all platforms; realistically, there’s not enough time to create content for all social media channels. Not only that, but also not all social media channels are worth spending your time on!
If you’re starting out, I’d recommend picking one social media platform and 100% committing to it. After some time, you can consider expanding elsewhere, but start with one.
Put all you’ve got into crafting a perfect content strategy to boost your chances of success. That’s how you do it!
My go-to platform is Pinterest. My blog traffic exponentially grew because of a few pins that got quite lucky – and if you know me, I’ve made sure to replicate them! 😉
📌 LIKED THE ARTICLE? SHARE YOUR LOVE! 📌
Conclusion
So, there you have it!
This is all you need to know to learn how to be a more productive blogger – now, all you’ve got to do is put the work in. 😉
Q: “What are your best productivity tips for bloggers?” – Share yours in a comment! 🙂
Until next time,
