The Juggle- Creating Content For Other Sites, While Growing Your Own
By Jenny Batt and guest contributor Brittni Mehlhoff. Photography by Meredith.
We all have a seemingly never-ending list of to-dos. So how do you cram in content for others while maintaining and growing your site (and your sanity)? Very carefully. Here are some tips for juggling content for others while growing your own site.
1) Plan ahead
Plan out your contributed and personal content well in advance, and create designated times to work on each. If you contribute to multiple sites, be sure to vary the due dates. You don’t want everything due at the same time of each month.
2) Don’t get overwhelmed
This happens to all of us sometimes. Set aside a day on a weekend, and produce as much content as possible. This will get you ahead of schedule and back on track to producing great content with less stress.
3) Don’t forget to make content for your own blog
Remember, your contributor posts are getting great new eyes over to your blog, and you are trying to keep them interested! Give them great content to read and they’ll want to come back.
4) Step outside your own niche
While trying to establish yourself as an expert in your niche, you don’t want to take on too many projects that compete with the core content of your blog. By creating a variety of content, you are showing off your skills in other genres, and reaching new audiences you might not otherwise have reached.
Oct 3, 2012
Reader Comments (4)
Great post--and much-needed tips! Thanks ladies!
Glad to hear that Melissa. Hope our series gets you well on your way to freelance success. :)
Great points!
As my contributor work grows, I'm finding I am much less stressed if I've listed out post ideas for the contributor sites going several weeks out, even if the ideas aren't plugged in to specific dates, knowing I have a list to pull from makes me much calmer.
For open-ended posts - I keep a running list of links to potential ideas (to be fleshed out later) in Evernote. Though I might be switching to SpringPad ...
Great tip Mari. I do that too and it helps A LOT!