Are you a blogger who rarely gets to finish a blog post on time because of your bad habit of setting things aside for later?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. It usually takes me hours just to finish a single blog post, sometimes even days. Procrastination is the habit I’ve been trying to break for months now.
Thank God I finally stumbled upon a solution that works. It’s a tool aptly named Dr. Wicked’s Write or Die.
Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you’re fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences.
In our attempt to become successful bloggers, we rely heavily on the wisdom parted to us by those probloggers who had already gone down the path that we are taking right now. However, there comes a time when some of them contradict each other – One problogger says that sponsored posting is unethical, the other says the opposite. One says that a long post could bore the readers, the other says that a long post is essential. And so on.
With all the conflict in ideas and teachings, who should we believe in? What steps should we follow in order for us to become successful?
The answer can be found in a very interesting free E-book titled “The Zen of Blogging†by Hunter Nattal. I got this E-book from Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net and after finishing it, I got this irresistible urge to share it to my readers.
This book is perfect for those aspiring bloggers who couldn’t decide on what path to take in their quest to become successful. Then again, any blogger who loves to blog could also learn a thing or two from this E-book.
Plus, it only takes 10 minutes to finish the whole book!
You can download the book here – The Zen of Blogging!
If you’re happy with what you have read, go and share it!
Happy blogging!
A lot of people say that anything that is “too much” is bad. Apparently, blogging is no exception to this especially when it comes to the health of its users.Most blogging health risks are caused by too much stress due to over-working, some are from spending too much time in front of computer. Whatever the causes are, we could clearly see that in our effort to do more, we unknowingly risk ourselves to dangers that may affect our future in Blogging.So what are these health hazards that bloggers should be aware of? Here are some of them arranged from the least serious to the more fatal ones:
Tension Headache
Who doesn’t hate headaches? Not only does it hurt like hell, it also hampers one’s concentration making it much harder to finish a task.
Description: Tension headaches, are sometimes called “stress” headaches. The pain can radiate from the neck, back, eyes, or other muscle groups in the body. (source)
Caused by environmental or internal stress. The most common sources of Tension headaches are caused by the stresses of too much work and thinking.
Treatment: Pain relievers such as Aspirin and Ibuprofen could help in treating tension headaches. A therapy on stress-management may also help to help reduce or prevent it.
Physical and Mental Fatigue
A lot of us tend to overexert ourselves working ourselves to a pulp just for the sake of getting more money through our blogs. We work until we couldn’t even move a finger.
Description: Physical fatigue is a direct term for the inability to exert force with one’s muscles to the degree that would be expected given the individual’s general physical fitness. In addition to physical, fatigue also includes mental fatigue, that not necessarily includes any muscle fatigue but can manifest itself both as somnolence (decreased wakefulness) or just as a general decrease of attention. (source)
Caused by stress from too much work. Other causes are jet lag or active recreation, depression, boredom, disease and lack of sleep.
What to do: If possible, try to reduce the amount of workload that you do everyday, this is possible through the use of effective time and productivity management. Also, get enough sleep and eat energy-giving foods.
Other reads: Zen Habits – A blog about productivity. Highly recommended!
Back Pain
Ever notice that as you concentrate more on the task that you are doing in front of your computer, you involuntarily slouch slowly towards your monitor? Then after straightening out, you feel a pain at your lower back? That’s a back pain.
Description: Back pain is not a diagnosis — it’s a symptom of an underlying condition. Common back pain causes include nerve problems, disc problems, osteoarthritis, and muscular problems. (source)
Caused by poor sitting posture and incorrect positions of chair and monitor.
What to do: Observe proper sitting posture at all times. Make sure that the position of your chair from your monitor is not too far enough to avoid having to slouch.
Other Reads: How To Avoid Leaning Into Your Computer From Your Chair, Proper Seating Posture
Eye Strain
Blogging requires our eyes to be fixated on our monitor at all times. We use it to read, to write, to see our stats, and even our Adsense earnings. From this, we could see that the eye is the most important body part to a blogger. However, nobody seems to care if they wear out.
Description: Eye strain is an ophthalmological condition that manifests itself through nonspecific symptoms such as fatigue, red eyes, pain in or around the eyes, blurred vision, headache and occasional double vision. (source)
Caused by staring at the monitor for a very long time.
What to do: Take frequent breaks and let your eyes focus on other things for a couple of minutes. You could also try resting your eyes by closing it. Oh, and don’t forget to blink a lot while staring at the monitor. It helps lubricate the eye making it more relaxed.
Insomnia
Sometimes the hours during the day are not enough in order for us to finish our blogging activities, this is why most of us tend to work over time until midnight disrupting our regular sleeping pattern causing Insomnia.
Description: Insomnia is a condition in which you have trouble falling or staying asleep. Some people with insomnia may fall asleep easily but wake up too soon. Other people may have the opposite problem, or they have trouble with both falling asleep and staying asleep. The end result is poor-quality sleep that doesn’t leave you feeling refreshed when you wake up. (source)
Caused by major or long-lasting stress and emotional upset. Other cases are caused by disrupted sleep routine because of work schedules or activities.
What to do: Follow a healthy sleeping routine and stick with it.
Deep Vein Thrombosis
Bloggers are known to spend hours sitting in front of computers, sometimes without moving at all except for the fingers and eyes. Aside from flattening of buttocks, one more thing that bloggers should be concerned of is the Deep Vein Thrombosis.
Description: Deep Vein Thrombosis is blood clotting in the veins of the inner thigh or leg. Also known as the “economy-class syndrome”, a common condition when in air travel (source)
Caused by sitting in front of the computer for hours.
What to do: Take a couple of breaks between tasks and regulate your blood flow by doing some leg stretching exercises or simply by standing or walking around.
News Clipping: A 32-year-old New Zealand man, who spent up to 12 hours every day on his computer, almost died after developing a serious case of deep vein thrombosis. (source)
RSI: Repetitive Strain Injury
Typing and mouse use are two movements that bloggers repeat over and over throughout a blogging activity. Beware, this repetitive movements may cause Repetitive Strain Injury.
Description: A condition resulting from overuse of a tool, eg. computer, guitar, knife, etc. or other activity that requires repeated movements. It is a syndrome that affects muscles, tendons and nerves in the hands, arms and upper back. (source)
Caused by poor posture and repetitive motions of body parts (In a blogger’s case: the wrist and hands).
What to do: Make sure that you give your hands and wrists some exercises between breaks.
Other Reads: Hand/Wrist exercises
Heart Attack
Yes, it happens! (See news clipping below) So even if you are not yet old, you may want to be more wary of a heart attack. Yeah, more reasons to cut on that smoking and eating fatty foods.
Description: A heart attack is the death of a heart muscle from the sudden blockage of a coronary artery by a blood clot. (source)
Caused by lots of different factors. Stress is just one of them. Bloggers who are frequent smokers, of old age, obese, people who have diabetes and high blood pressure have a higher risk of a heart attack.
What to do: Have a healthy diet and lifestyle. For more tips on how to avoid heart attacks, go here and here.
News clipping: Om Malik, the famous blogger behind GigaOM, had suffered a heart-attack last December 28, 2007. It was believed that the reason for his heart attack was because of the overwhelming stress of the management of his blogs.
Like in any other line of work, our health must always come first.
Hope this helps. Happy blogging!
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It is already common knowledge to bloggers that any thing that is placed above the fold of your blog has the benefit of getting more exposure because it is the first thing that visitors see when they visit a blog.
With such a precious and limited space, we must know how to use every pixel wisely.
It’s like having a bangketa down at Divisoria. You have products to sell but they end up in your storeroom because you can only place a limited number of items on your bangketa. What you do is that you only put the necessary items that are enough to catch the eyes of bypassers and at the same time arouse their interest on your other wares.
The same thing can be applied on blogs. You can catch the interest of your visitors by placing important blog items on the space above the fold. These items should pique the interest of your readers into reading your blog.
What are these items, you ask? Read on.
- Blog Title – A no-brainer. This is where your visitors will know what your blog name is. It’s your blog’s signboard.
- Blog Description – Some people prefer having no blog description at all. However, it is equally as important as a blog title because it helps your visitors have a gist of what your blog is about without the hassle of going through your archives.
- Blog Navigation Bar – This is where your visitors could access the different important pages on your blog. Such pages are your about, contact, archives, and advertise pages.
- Search Bar – People use search bars in order for them to easily look for posts that are within your site, thus increasing your blog’s bounce rate.
- Feed Subscription Buttons – Sometimes the main reason why many people don’t get a lot of feed subscribers is that their feed subscriptions buttons are very hard to find. Pull them out of the clutter and give them a special place above the fold to increase your subscriptions.
- Welcome Note – Here in PinoyBlogero.com, you could see that I have allotted space for a little welcome note to my visitors. The “Welcome Pinoy Bloggers†title easily catches the attention of my target audience which are, of course, Pinoy bloggers. As they read the welcome note they get an idea of what to expect on my blog.
- About the Blog – Almost the same thing as having a welcome note where you give your readers an overview of the blog that they will be reading.
- About the Author – Placing a little snippet of information about the author (blog achievements, other blogs managed, etc) is one good way of stirring some interest on a blog. This works to those who are well known or who has already established themselves as an authority in blogging.
- Most Popular Articles – Having a list of popular articles not only increases the chance of people reading them they will also give your readers an overview of what articles they would get once they subscribe or come back to your blog (See a pattern here? It’s all about marking a good first impression on your visitors).
- Rankings – Although not very important, it is a great way to tell your readers about your blog’s authority. You can place your feed subscription numbers, page rank, blog rankings, and site counters. When people see that you have high rankings, it gives them the impression that you have a blog that is worth reading because other people are reading too.
Happy blogging!
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I notice that a lot of blogs I read nowadays are trying to update their blogs frequently than usual. I can see blogs being updated daily, some even post more than one post a day! Though this may seem a good thing, there are times that I couldn’t keep up with the tons of posts that I have to read. I end up being choked up with the posts that are needed to be consumed. *cough*
Too many posts is overwhelming
A ton of unread blog posts are actually not a pretty sight to some people. It’s a psychological effect wherein one feels overwhelmed with the number of posts that needs to be read. Another factor is that not everyone has the time to spare to read a lot of posts, especially if they are very long.
Picture those pile of paper that needs to be done back at your office, doesn’t it feel a little intimidating to see the stacked up pile of work on your desk? That feeling is the same feeling that your readers feel whenever they see tons of blog posts awaiting them.
