How do I eliminate the … Okay, to minimize distractions and get more done

Today, I asked my followers on Twitter what their biggest challenge as a blogger was. There were hundreds of responses, but the word that was me again and again was "time".

Finding time to blog is something most of us are struggling with at one point or another, if not every day. So today I thought I would share a strategy that I spent a week to keep me on track (one that actually worked!).

Okay, so Farmville is not a problem for everyone, but I suspect that we all have a corresponding distraction (or two). I have a few: Twitter can be my Farmville, Instagram, all kinds of Tower Defence game on my iPhone. A walk down to the lounge room to wrestle with my children may be another "… the list could continue.

None of these things are evil. Some, may in fact be useful, and a part of your company (which blurs the line and makes it difficult, because you can start being productive and wasting your time in the end). But everyone can take us away from what we do know we should be focusing on.

Finally, it comes to knowing what distracts you and eliminate it (or at least introduce borders around it).

It is easier said than done, of course, so today I would like to you about something I did recently in the week where I needed to be super extra productive and eliminate distraction.

What I wrote on the whiteboard that sits in front of me:

Okay, is this the sexiest productivity tips I can give. It is not an app to keep you on track, and certainly not any kind of research revealed that I made to productivity.

There are two issues that I decided to ask me all the time, this week in an attempt to keep me on track and away from the time-sucking distractions that pulls me away from those things that I feel I need to achieve.

My reason for asking these questions was simply that I realized that I needed to challenge myself to question my decision about how I spend my time. You see, I think that if I don't, but my day developed simply form a thing to another — and many of the activities that do not have the productive.

For example, let us look at Twitter. Twitter can be a good way to spend your time if you are a blogger. It helps you research articles to write about, it may be useful for networking with others in your niche and it's a good way to drive traffic to your blog (among other things). But it can also be a time-suck — it may be responsible for the day completely disappear.

Ask "Why do ye this?" which looks from Yigg news now with adjustable forces me to think about what I do on Twitter at that moment, and if it takes me closer or farther away from my goals as a blogger.

Answer it leaves me with few alternatives:

I realize that I waste of time and I do something else that is more productive.I realize that I don't use it effectively and refocus when using Twitter to move toward my goals.I realize that Yes, I'm using Twitter well and continue.

The problem with this approach is that I tend to lie to myself sometimes. I suspect we all do …

"Of course I use Twitter productively right now. I am … Errr … build relationships with people … and … um … networks … and become better at communicating in short sentences … and honing my … social media skills … "

We are pretty good at justifying anything we want to do, don't we? Or am I alone?

So I ask myself the same question, but slightly different: "You have to?"

I know I'm sounding like my mom, but perhaps she was into something. Once again the question makes me consider how I use my time and I change either what I make, or continue accordingly.

Finally, "really?", which again is a bit of parental leave. But it is often on this point, has challenged me three times, that I realize that I'm fooling nobody – I really need to snap out of it and get back on track.

I am not saying that I have not been distracted this week at all (you only need to verify my Instagram and Twitter streams to know this is not the case) but what I have found is to simply ask me through the day on how I spend my tidJag has been more focused and more deliberate about how I spend my time.

This is what works for me. What do you think? How is track you and focus on what you need to get done?

Have you outgrown your blog?

We've all been there.

Have you been Blogging for months, even years, and your blog is going nowhere fast. Traffic is stagnant. Your subscriber count dropped. AdSense is paying just that: cents per day.

What is a blogger to do when they hit "wall?" Important thing to remember is that each blogger hits the key is to break through this wall or scale over it.

In order to overcome the wall, you need to see yourself in the mirror and ask yourself the question: have you outgrown your blog, or have you managed to grow with your blog?

Like our blogging platforms (WordPress, for example, two or three large updates every year), individual bloggers have developed also.

If your blog has the Lisbon due to lack of promotion (you spend as much time marketing your blog as you write it?), content development (have you tried to supplement your writing with images, podcasts, video?), SEO enhancements (are you the keyword phrases in titles open points, subtitles, captions, and attachment file names?), it is you that grow.

But if your blog has the Lisbon strategy because your niche is too niche, it's time the blog's subject matter developed.

In today's saturated blogosphere, is all the talk about niche sites and niche is a great way to make a quick buck: to quickly get your site to rank for specific keywords, phrases, super, and making a name for yourself in a small industry or at a local level.

But is this micro level impacts your long-term goals for your blog? Or are you looking for something more?

Don't limit yourself. If your existing blog will be a big part of your life, your business and your brand, you need to think long-term.

Can you break through "the wall" with better or more content? Can you add topics or categories on your blog without it feeling bloated or misplaced?

If so, it's time to write about something else, what is the easiest way to block blogging barrier. Writing about new topics, with a new set of keyword phrases, and it is only a matter of time before Google starts sending you fresh visitors based on these keywords.

But if, deep down inside, you know your blog has a shelf life, and you are unable to expand your content with additional categories under the existing title or URL, it is time to move on … and redirect/lift up existing content in a category or tag on a new blog with a broader range of subjects. In some cases it may be the only way you ever smash through the wall and enter yourself for long-term success.

Suggesting a friend, colleague or family member ditch an existing blog for slightly larger is not an easy thing to do. And I would never encourage unless the blogger know in their gut they had outgrown it.

I went through the gut check some years back when I abandoned a pretty popular regional fishing blog and forum for a became fishing site. The site attracted a much larger audience, and gave me hundreds of new fishing destinations to write about, I realized I still confine myself quickly to keep the blog within California's borders.

But I still had room to grow as a blogger, and instead of rushing to launch a national fishing blog — and redirect all my content again – I focused on developing the content I had. I went from writing a few posts a week, to write several posts per day. I brought on user-generated content and created my first ebook.

The next thing I know I'm signing it with the No Nonsense fishing guides to write a second edition of this book to be printed. That led to another book include Wilderness Press, and later, paid blogging to cover national and international air fishing topics for About.com.

I took the same route with my Sports blogs, starting with a Blogger site focused on small local college, before moving to create a popular West Coast Sports Blog, and then National Sports blogging community, BallHyped.com.

There is something that speaks to build your expertise on the blog niche and expand on these experiences to a larger audience. Just make sure you don't accidentally leave behind a blog and a niche that has enormous growth potential in itself.

What does your gut tell you reading this?

There is still room to grow on your current blog? If so, take this opportunity to develop the content and take your blog to the next level.

Or have you outgrown your blog, and feel the need to expand your Blogging views? If so, you probably think it quite long.

Now the only question remaining is: what are you waiting for? The best thing you can do if you have seriously considered expanding your blog is just to do it, instead of writing another for a lame duck blog, channel that energy into the new location, because it will take time to get, Announce your existing community, and if all of your awesome niche content.

But if you do this correctly, this wall will come crashing down in no time at all.

Have you outgrown a blog? I would be interested to hear how you overcame the wall in the comments below.

What is Google + 1 … and what does it mean for your blog?

On 30 March, Google announced the release of its latest addition to the search engine, a small button on + 1. As with all Google notice, will always be consequences — both large and not so great – for the average and professional blogger. Understanding the potential effect of Google's new + 1 function better, you can prepare for the next six to 12 months on your blog.

Google + 1 is essentially a way for people to vote up results in Google but that it appears as a Digg-installation.

In other words, if someone thinks that they found on Google, they hit the button + 1 and then move on with their lives. When someone is doing the same search, this person has done, will see that there is a + 1 linked to specific search results, and that, at least in Google's eyes, will encourage them to click on the result.

If you decide to allow your name to appear, people within the network will look to you, especially liked this result. But this last aspect is voluntary.

For a long time now Google has spoken on how social media and social networks will be directly in line with search engine optimization. It used to be that we just built a bunch of links to rank for keywords. But what I noticed as a SEO is other aspects are becoming increasingly important, including how a website is about social media.

We can tie this increased use of social media that Google strives to provide the very best results possible. Here is an example.

Darren Rowse operates this site on how to make money Blogging. He has received 173,000 readers via RSS, Twitter followers and 128,000 almost 23 000 people who like his Group on Facebook. In other words, he has lots of readers.

Now, you are a Google and you're trying to figure out who to place that results for the keyword "Professional Blogger". Sure, maybe someone has a ton of backlinks, all containing the text as an anchor, back up the claim that they deserve a result.

But how can Google that these backlinks are genuine and not say, bought? It is not.

The only way for them to really know if this site is considered to be an "authority" is to see what people think. And what better way to do it than trace how Darren doing in social media and networking world?

I look at this update as a proactive measure for bloggers. Because we have learned that we should not put all our eggs in one basket, we all have a focus on social media, search engine optimization and other aspects to get traffic to our blogs.

Now that social media is in part connects to search engine optimization, doubles the amount of work we are doing now for both social media growth and the search engine of growth. But there are still more than that.

Google will release a similar to the Facebook like button. And if you click the button + 1, you are automatically given your vote to that search result. You say that Google, "Yes, I like this." And the search engine will remember that.

What this means, as a blogger, is that you need to produce the highest level of quality as you can. If others are given as + 1 and is not, you will be missing if potential Search rank? I would say you are.

If Google deems it important to create a new button and include it on their SERPs, they will definitely take this into account when trying to determine which Web site to make number one. And if there is a difference of + 1s determining who should be first, I would bet anything that the person with more + 1 votes will receive a rank.

Since 34% of people click the first result, first and second to fourth results have less than 34% clicks, total, it is very important to get this number one rank.

Because it was just announced on the 30th, but this is obviously a component that will take time to roll out. That doesn't mean you should not get ready for its full implementation. Here are some steps to get ready.

First, make sure you publish content that is of high quality. No longer can you remove write garbage content or ripping content from other sites. Google's Panda update slammed people with this type of content, and no one will give you a + 1 for that.Secondly, play with it yourself when you start to see it pop up. If you go over to Google's experimental page, you can join in the attempt and placed in the program to start working with it.Thirdly, not to start abusing it, one of the things that I think will play a major role in + 1 success is voting on it. If this is the same few people, maybe Google does not give the votes as much credit as other pages that get votes from random people. So, don't start searching for each article that you wrote that give it an a + 1.

Google + 1 is not a social network, per se. However, it is a voting system which will give Google a better idea of what content people like and don't like. And when they place for inclusion on your Web pages, you get the chance to encourage readers to + 1 your Web site.

With Google's love for social media grows, this is definitely an important step in your blog growth. How do you + 1 that affect your blog?