The Truth about Blogging

To Blog ot Not to Blog: Is that the Question?

Whether you are blogging professionally or personally, to a wide audience or to a specific group of friends, there are three critical success factors.

#1 Consistency—You have to produce content on a regular basis or your blog is forgotten. It is true, if you don’t read your blog, no one else will either. It helps to have a passion for what you are sharing.

#2 Communicate Valuable Information—People read blogs for information, entertainment, education, to connect with communities of like-minded people that they can interact with online (and often anonymously), to stay up-to-date in whatever content area the blog covers. At 150-500 words, blogs are a quick read. The writing has to provide value or people won’t return to your blog, "like" it or press share.

#3 Know Why You Blog—Are you posting an online journal? Are pushing traffic to your business or product for purchase? Are you connecting your blog audience with your brand (are you a hairstylist, accountant, writer, massage therapist, mom, personal trainer, financial planner, interior designer)? Are you blogging to create passive income? Are you blogging to establish yourself as an expert? Sharing a hobby? Following a team or celebrity? Reviewing movies, music or books? There are as many reasons to blog as there are individuals.

A lot of people ask me about blogging—Why do I blog? (I love the process and it has truly impacted my life in a positive way.) Why don’t I monetize my blog? (It’s complicated). How much time does it take? (It depends on the post). How do I come up with blog post ideas? (People often contact me with ideas on LinkedIn or Twitter. Sometimes I respond or rant to stories in the news.) Do I have any help creating blog posts? (Not really, friends-Patty J. & Patti M. and my Mom edit posts. It is not a multi-author blog although I am open to “guest” posts.  The ideas you read are my own.) What platform do I suggest? (I use a free basic version of Blogger. In the blogosphere, Wordpress.org seems to rule and pros customize their domain name.  Just search online there are many alternatives. There is no one right answer.)

Yes, there are tons of people making BIG $$$ blogging. Will you be one of them? Remember Perez Hilton? His estimated monthly blog revenue was $450,000 at one point for his obsession with celebrities. And in 2005, Arianna Huffington started her political blog and in 2012 it was sold to AOL for $315 million; she reportedly pocketed about 6% in the transaction. Okay, maybe your goals are more modest—everyone from “mommy bloggers” (naturemoms.com/blog) with 5,000 subscribers is making bank off advertisements to Jessica Quirk’s fashion blog, (whatiwore.tumblr.com) has >10,000 Google readers and ad rates to match.

Find your passion and blog about it!

Beyond.com Interviews Brenda

http://www.theconfidentcareer.com/2014/03/how-to-handle-your-career-in-changing-times-the-confident-career-candidate-series-video.html

It's Time for Your Vacation

Vacations, whether home-based or involving travel are important components to work/life balance, productivity and relieving work-related stress. A few days off to move children into their dorm at college or to help your parents relocate to a retirement community don’t count as vacations. Time away from work that includes checking business e-mail and voicemail multiple times a day doesn’t count as vacation either.

According to a Vacation Deprivation Survey, U.S. employees reported “feeling rested and rejuvenated after vacation as well as reconnected with their families.” 34% of employees in the survey stated they return to work feeling better about their jobs and more productive at work. According to a 2013 survey by SHRM, the Society of Human Resource Management, vacations affect employee morale, wellness, performance, retention, productivity and office culture.

I reported to a Sr. Vice-President with the attitude that if your department couldn’t function without their leader for five days, you needed to replace your managers and supervisors. Interesting Perspective!

Forward-thinking companies encourage their employees to recharge their batteries by implementing “use it or lose it” vacation policies. Companies also “cap” or limit the amount of vacation carry-over or pay-out for unused time off in an effort to keep their high-performers at optimal productivity.

There are many reasons managers resist taking time off and most of them are revealing. Here are a few examples:

1.       The “live-to-work” manager who doesn’t own the business. There’s a fine line between at-work martyrs who feel guilty unless they log more hours than their peers and goes on ad nauseam about it and a workaholic.

2.       The “arsonist manager” constantly is on the telephone putting out fires mostly caused by (guess who?).

3.       The “micro-manager” is prevalent in middle management. At the heart of this manager’s reluctance to miss a minute of work is F-E-A-R. Take a deep sniff; you can smell it. This is the manager who can’t miss a telephone call or an e-mail and they are in your workspace to make sure you don’t miss one either.

4.       The “I-AM- My Work” Boss. This is the manager defined by their work. Within moments of meeting any one the, “what do you do for a living” question is blurted out. A week without life-affirming work spells a near death experience.

Individual contributors can also exhibit similar traits, but it is more damaging for managers because they create and control the culture of their work unit. So take a few days off. Recharge your batteries. Reclaim your life outside work and more than anything, Have Fun!