leverage your time<\/em>, which is a skill that every successful person on the planet has mastered. That applies to bloggers as much as it does to anyone.<\/p>\nWith a little planning, you can maintain your blog\u2019s relevance and timeliness. A few minutes of prevention are worth hours of cure.<\/p>\n
Accept guest posts<\/h3>\n
If you\u2019ve ever been approached by people wanting to write guest posts for your blog\u2014and I think almost all of us have\u2014there\u2019s no better time to take them up on it than when you need to commit resources to creating your suite of products. Let someone else do the work, at least temporarily. Besides, guest bloggers don\u2019t exactly drive hard bargains. A backlink or two should be enough to keep them happy.<\/p>\n
Toil away on the task at hand while you delegate what can be delegated, and your readers will marvel at how you managed to create sellable products while your blog never missed a perceptible beat.<\/p>\n
Publish timeless content<\/h3>\n
But what if you\u2019re the kind of blogger who considers every post a uniquely crafted representation of your ability to persuade or engage, and who would no sooner have someone else write for your blog than have someone else raise your children?<\/p>\n
You can still leverage your time, by breaking out timeless content.<\/p>\n
To give you an example, I update my blog with long-form posts three times a week. Occasionally the content is topical and temporal, but most of it is evergreen.<\/p>\n
Write in advance<\/h3>\n
When you know you\u2019re going to be immersed in creating your product for the next few weeks, write as many blog posts as you can, as far in advance as you can. I always have at least a month\u2019s worth of posts ready to go in my content management system, even if I\u2019m not working on a product.<\/p>\n
Not only does it give me peace of mind, it gives my blogging partner plenty of time to shop around for a replacement should I get hit by a train.<\/p>\n
Write hot; edit cold<\/h3>\n
Creating a sellable product from scratch takes more time than does creating a blog post, so you want to be able to set aside sufficient hours to work on said product without thinking, \u201cAlright, that\u2019s enough. I have to stop so I can get to tomorrow\u2019s blog post.\u201d<\/p>\n
The author\u2019s directive to write hot and edit cold applies here. When you\u2019re sufficiently motivated and your muse is feeling prolific, that\u2019s the time to knock out as many days\u2019 worth of blog content in advance as you can.<\/p>\n
Get committed \u2026 and disciplined<\/h3>\n
If any of this sounds daunting, rather than inspiring, save yourself the energy and don\u2019t even waste your time getting started. There are countless bloggers who sell (or more accurately, can\u2019t sell) redundant, uninspired products. Don\u2019t be one of them. Be at least as passionate about any products as you are about your blog itself. You need to have a more compelling reason for selling products than \u201cI probably should\u201d or \u201ceveryone else is doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Creating my own products forced extra discipline on me, which is never a bad thing. Instead of writing until I\u2019d lose interest, I had no choice but to devote certain hours every day to building and formatting my ebooks. For me, that meant 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. for writing, editing and researching products. If I needed to, I\u2019d work on my blog itself later in the day, a few hours removed from the pressing problem of completing each ebook by my self-imposed deadline.<\/p>\n
Maintaining the other parts of my life (physical activity, earning money, feeding the pets) prompted me to get as much production as I could out of the finite time I\u2019d allotted for ebook creation. If I hadn\u2019t, I\u2019d have fallen behind schedule and possibly never recovered.<\/p>\n
Test marketing<\/h2>\n
So, you\u2019ve done everything according to plan, and you\u2019ve finally managed to create a product that you think has real value. As far as you know, your brainchild is ready for its formal debut. The readers you\u2019ve spent years building a relationship with should be ready to overcome their inherent frugality and spend a few dollars patronizing you.<\/p>\n
But how do you know they will? Or at least, how can you increase the likelihood of them doing so?<\/p>\n
You test market your product, just like a major conglomerate\u2019s sugar-free soda or exotically flavored toothpaste. At this point, your product is a hit only in theory, and you need to determine via a sample of people whether you\u2019re ready for the marketplace at large.<\/p>\n
This is the hardest part of the process for many. Most people feel uncomfortable having their work criticized. And among the few who think that they\u2019re beyond that, most of those handicap themselves by selecting test marketers who\u2019ll give them the answers they want to hear.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how you test how feasible the first draft of your product is.<\/p>\n
1. Choose your testers<\/h3>\n
First, determine whom your 12 most critical friends and acquaintances are. You want the ones whom are unvarnished, even caustic in their opinions. Candor counts even more than objectivity does, because the former is a harder quality to find. The fawners and sycophants have no place in this experiment, and your mother will be of little value. They\u2019re not going to help you, and they\u2019re not going to help the only people who matter here\u2014your readers.<\/p>\n
Assess your potential test marketers honestly. The absolute last thing you want is respondents who are going to tell you how awesome you are and wow, you created a blog and every post you write is magical and it\u2019s only a matter of time before the International Herald Tribune comes calling and asks you to share your opinions on budget scrapbooking with a worldwide audience.<\/p>\n
Why do you want 12 test marketers? Because six of them are going to agree to critically assess your products, yet never get around to doing so. Bribe them if you have to. Offer to buy each one lunch or something.<\/p>\n
2. Send them your product<\/h3>\n
Now, give them your product, with explicit instructions for them to be as critical as possible. Tell them to try to find something wrong even in the parts they like. A third party (or the fourth through 14th parties) will notice mistakes and omissions that you\u2019re too close to the action to see for yourself.<\/p>\n
Never send anything to market too early. If you\u2019re a blogger looking to extend your brand (and line your pockets), that might mean nothing more than adding or rewriting a few lines of code. It is far, far better for everyone concerned to improve a product before it goes live, rather than after.<\/p>\n
As far as can be determined, no prototype in the history of commerce has been better than the finished product slated for release.<\/p>\n
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