The Struggle is Real: Producing vs. Promotion

Writing a blog has become an amazingly fulfilling creative outlet for me, though at times I find it hard to budget my time correctly as the ‘one-woman show’ of Infinite11s. Since I have started the site, I find my time split into two distinct categories: (1) producing new content, and (2) blog promotion. Finding the balance between the two has become somewhat of a unique challenge for me. I would love to spend all of my time writing new content, but if I do only that, I miss out on the opportunity for an audience for my work. On the flip side, when I spend more time promoting (via social) I find that I get lots of instant gratification, but my source of new material and content to share, quickly start to dry up or become recycled.

The 70/30 split of Producing vs. Promoting:

Producing Content:

I’d love to say that this could be more 50/50 or 90/10 some days, but based on what I have learned so far since I started blogging, it seems like original content is still king, but only marginally more important than promoting the heck out of that content (and giving new life to previous quality content).

Social Media pages should not become ignored while us writers spend all of our time just writing. Also, our social media pages won’t really be that exciting/engaging/fun for our followers if we continually promote the same few articles, or tips, over and over again.

” If you can build a habit of writing every day, awesome. Quite simply, the more useful content you have out there, the better your chances of readers finding your blog. Even if you can’t write every day, aim to post often and regularly so readers will keep coming back for more and you can build a loyal audience base.”

– Lifehacker.com

So the emphasis should really be on producing original and engaging content. Something that can help answer a question for your reader, engage your audience’s emotions, or provide a service. Content curation should take up about 70% of your dedicated blogging time.

Blog Promotion:

Promoting your content will take a back seat to the original content, again, but not by much. Setting up your social accounts, getting a good posting and networking schedule going, building your fanbase, and engaging with your readers/followers will help your original content reach a wider audience. Find similar blogs to engage with, trade likes on #FanPageFriday and engage, engage, engage. Other small business owners and bloggers are a great group to network with, and are more than willing to help you in promoting your brand, because that’s what they are doing too!

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” -Dale Carnegie

Use your “promotion time” wisely. Don’t just take a shot in the dark. There’s some great articles out there about the best way to promote your blog and to help drive more traffic and engagement. Blog Marketing Academy has a good one about promotion and so does HubSpot.