Hello everyone. Jon here. Can you believe that we are already into episode 77 of the Marketing for Owners podcast? I couldn’t either. Time flies when you’re enjoying yourself.
However, no matter how time flies, it is not easy getting all this stuff done. And believe me, I do lots and it is overwhelming day after day after day. Despite the fact that I do get things done, there’s a never-ending list of things that I don’t get done.
There’s a phrase that is popular around the internet —
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
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So that’s what I’m going to encourage you to do. All you have to do is break all your tasks down into smaller tasks. Bite-size chunks if you like, and get those done. Each little mini tasks adds up to a major task and then it’s done.
There are lots of methods. I’ve tried them all. But when it comes down to it, most agree that anything should be broken down into bite-size chunks that all add up to get the whole thing done. So we’re going to use that same concept but in reverse.
Writing
Now, take for example, something like content creation. We talk a lot about writing. We have told you that you need to write, and you need to produce content. Of course, you don’t have any time. You already had a full time job before I came along and told you you have to do all these things to make your life easier.
Unfortunately, to make your life easier, it has to get difficult before it gets easier.
So, let’s look at something like blog creation. Let’s say that you don’t produce the content on your site. You outsource it to someone in your team or a freelancer writer.
So first of all, you have this project that you want to get accomplished. You goal is to get three posts written per week. Just because you chose 3 posts per week doesn’t mean that is what everyone should choose. The goal here is to be consistent.
Whatever you can commit to, is what’s best — whether if it’s one a week, two a week, or three, you have got to be consistent and stick to it because that’s what people will come to expect from you.
Don’t try to do it by the week either. We actually organize ours in quarters. We do three months worth of writing at a time. We organize our entire content calendar in three months chunks.
So, we’re going to just tackle one month right now. Now, three posts a week for a month is exactly 12 posts that you need to come up with.
If you look at writing 12 posts, give yourself a goal of around a thousand words–We generally shoot for around 1400-1700 words because we like to give you that little extra.
Now, if you think about it — we’re shooting for 12 posts, a thousand words for each post, you’re going to think, “where on earth am I gonna get to do that?” But firstly, look at the goal. Don’t look at the “ugh…” Look at the goal.
The goal is to have constant content on your side to produce more leads and to give information to your clients. The result of that will be increased sales, happier clients, and more leads. So start with a goal in mind, then look at the problems.
So –What is the problem?
If you have problems you need to make a list. For writing a list might look something like this —
- I don’t have time to write.
- I don’t have any titles.
- I don’t have any key words.
- I don’t have images.
- My grammar and spelling and English is not really good enough.
- Once the post is written how do I upload it to my website?
Write them all down in a list. Of course, there maybe many other things. Now those would be your problems.
Once we have discovered the problems, now we can look at how to solve them. So let’s say for example, I don’t have any keywords, and perhaps you don’t know how to do keyword research.
Use a site like Fiverr. For a mere $5 each thing that you don’t know how to do gets done. If you are unsure of how to do keyword searches, the answer is to outsource to a specialist Fiverr keyword researcher.
What if the problem is you don’t have a blog title? Once your keyword search is done, ask staff members questions about what the customers ask about your products. This will help you to come up with titles. Include the keyword in the title.
Do you see how I’m doing this? You do this one by one and you work through the list. So for instance, you get to item on your list that says, “My English is not good enough. I’m not a good enough writer.”
Then you look on outsourcing sites and find yourself a great writer who can write an instructional brief or summary or synopsis. Give them examples of a couple of good blogs written about similar subject good to use for research, and give it to your writer.
What about editing?
If editing the articles is another item on your list of things you don’t have time to do, use Fiverr again. There are people on there who you can hire that will proofread your articles. They are professional proofreaders.
These are not people in Timbuktu. These are American, Canadian, Australian, and English native speakers of your language who choose to offer their services for $5 because they’re very good at it. They will do generally 1500 words for five dollars.
That could be one post, or you could split that into two posts. You get it proofread professionally. Some of them will do the edits for you. It will get done and that is another task you can mark off of your list.
Once you’ve got all of those tasks in a line, you can then start to map it out. So the process would be keyword research, followed by getting those titles, followed by writing the summaries, followed by giving it to a writer, followed by proofreading, followed by image creation.
Now, with the graphic image, you are going to choose something that’s easy like Unsplash or Dollar Photo Club. You can find the list of what we use for images on our Tools page. From there you can see all of our blogging tools.
Now, create a timeline in a calendar, that way, you can estimate how long these will take. I recommend if you’re giving out 12 articles to someone, ask them to finish four at a time that way you are not overwhelmed with all 12 at once.
With somebody who’s written all 12, they will want payment for them all because they have finished finished, and you’ve got to read and proofread all 12 in one go. So map that out in a timeline.
Now, give yourself so many days to get the expert keyword research done. . Then you need to set a couple of hours aside each day for you to come up with the titles.
On another day set a time to write the little synopsis list, and then another day to go to the writer. The writing portion will take a few days to get back. On the day that your writer turns those in to you, turn right around and give him some more.
While the writer is writing a new set of articles, you can send the ones he just sent you off to the proofreader to edit. While the proofreader and writer are doing their part, you can be designing or doing the graphics and the uploading the coding.
If you don’t want to deal with uploading, you can find people to do that too. It’s all about breaking it down into smaller tasks so that you get it done.
All of a sudden, you realize that each task is like a one or two-day thing that takes two hours of your time instead of an overwhelming “I’ve got to write 12 posts, a thousand words, where am I gonna fit that in?” Before you know it, two weeks have gone and you’ve got 12 posts.
You’ve got a month’s worth after your two weeks. It took maybe on average, an hour or two hours of some days during those two weeks. It’s not that hard. It gets done.
Tuesday Toolbox Tip
Today I want to share with you about the Commit App. This app is something to help you commit. It’s written by a guy called Nathan Barry. It’s very simple.
Click here to instantly download our FREE Book
“The 71 Ultimate Marketing Tools”
The cost for this app is $2.99, but it’s worth it. It sends you a reminder at the end of every day at the times you set on your iPhone or Android that says, “Did you do x?” “Did you do your ten push-ups three times today?” “Did you write 500 words today?”
When you’re trying to develop a habit, it reminds you to do it. You do it, you take it off. It says you have done that for 173 days in a row. It just works. It’s simple, honestly. Trust me. Piece of cake. Go have a look. It will change your life.
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What does your list of things to get done look like?
