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Growing a blog takes time, patience, and a lot of focus. You can’t just set it and forget it. You have to work on building your blog every single day. Of course, this can be much easier said than done. That’s why so many blogs fail. The blogger starts off with great enthusiasm, but over time, he loses focus and the blog begins to die a slow, painful death.

Here are 3 tips that will help you stay focused on your blog.

1. Create a posting schedule—It’s important to have fun while blogging, but you also have to treat it seriously if you want to get results. One way to do this is to create a posting schedule and stick to it. You don’t have to publish new content every single day, but you do need to create a consistent publishing schedule that works for you. Whether that’s daily, 3 times a week, or weekly is up to you.
2. Make a list of essential daily blog management tasks—What are the things you need to do to maintain and grow your blog? You need to write content, schedule it to publish at the right times, manage your comments, interact with readers, and drive traffic to your blog. Spend some time each day focusing on these essential tasks. Make it part of your daily schedule so that you don’t neglect it.
3. Set milestones—If you’re blogging without any goals, you have no direction and subsequently you’ll lose focus. You need to have something to shoot for so you can stay focused each day on inching toward your milestones. Set goals for the number of subscribers you want to get, the amount of daily traffic you want to average, etc.

What do you do to keep your blogging focus? Share your best tips by leaving a comment below.

You can’t have a blog without having content, and if you want to grow your blog over time, you have to keep publishing fresh, interesting content on a regular basis. This content isn’t going to appear out of thin air. Someone has to create it, and while you might be thinking of tackling this task all on your own, you may wish to consider the benefits of hiring a freelance blogger to help.

Here’s a look at just some of the benefits you can enjoy when you hire a well-qualified freelance blogger.

• Better quality content—Are you a professional writer? Probably not. The truth is that most people aren’t great writers. While you might think that the informal nature of blogging means you don’t have to be a good writer, that’s not the case. Good writing has nothing to do with formality; it has to do with the writer’s ability to connect with the reader in a meaningful way. A professional freelance blogger will be able to create better content than you’re able to.
• Frees up your time—Do you really have time to write blog content on a regular basis? You’re probably already wearing enough hats as it is, so there’s no need to don the blogger hat as well. Save yourself some time by letting a freelance blogger shoulder the content creation load.
• Only pay for the work you need—Thinking of hiring an in-house writer? You’ll have to pay a full-time salary, benefits, and everything else that goes with having an employee. By outsourcing your blog writing to a freelancer, you only pay for the amount of content you need…nothing else. It’s a cost-effective way to get new content.
• Fresh perspective—Sometimes, you can be too close to your subject matter. You’re so close that your perspective is greatly narrowed. By hiring a freelance writer, you can get a fresh perspective to tired topics.
• Avoid blogger’s burnout—Let’s face it, when you’re the only one writing on your blog day in and day out, it can get tiring quickly. If you’re all on your own, there’s a good chance you’ll get burned out and eventually give up on your blog. By hiring a freelancer to help carry the load, you can keep your blog going strong.

Do you have any experience hiring freelance bloggers? Tell us about it by leaving a comment below.

Not a week goes by that I don’t talk to someone about how they’ve been ripped off by a freelance copywriter or freelance designer. I’ve been a freelancer myself for several years, and while I always take a professional approach to handling my business, I’m very well aware that not all freelancers are on the up and up.

Fortunately, hiring a good freelancer isn’t all that difficult. You just have to take these steps to make sure you don’t get ripped off.

• Avoid the job boards—I know that many of you are going to disagree with this, but I don’t think that the best way to find a freelancer is to post an ad on Craigslist, a freelance writing job board, or one of this websites where freelancers bid on jobs. Why? Let’s be honest—any freelancer who is truly skilled at his or her craft isn’t going to spend time trolling around on job boards. That freelancer’s services will be in demand. In other words, you need to find the freelancer. A simple Google search for the type of freelancer you need (e.g. “freelance copywriter” or “freelance web designer”) will get you pointed in the right direction.
• Always ask for samples—Never hire a freelancer without seeing samples of their work first. It doesn’t matter what services you need, you must see a portfolio before hiring. This will prove that the freelancer is capable of handling the job, and it helps to make sure you hire someone whose style and approach meets your needs.
• Be willing to pay a competitive rate—There’s something to be said for the old adage “you get what you pay for.” If you’re offering super cheap compensation, guess what type of freelancer you’re going to attract? A low quality one. You need to be willing to pay a competitive rate if you want to get the best talent.
• Pick up the phone—Spend a few minutes talking to the freelancer on the phone. Tell them about your project, ask them about their experience, find out about their working process, and try to get a feel for whether or not the freelancer will be a good fit on your project.
• Never pay the full amount up front—You should never pay in full for the project before it has been completed. In most situations, the freelancer will request a deposit before starting work, usually up to 50% of the total price. Paying a deposit is totally acceptable. Paying the full amount up front is not.
• Get it in writing—Draft up a basic agreement that outlines the details of your project, the freelancer’s responsibilities, rates, deadlines, and other relevant information. Sign it, have the freelancer sign it, and keep it on file.

Have you ever been burned by a freelancer? Tell us about it by leaving a comment below.

At some point, you may find yourself needing the services of a freelance writer. Maybe you need someone to create sales copy for your website or brochure. Or maybe you need a blogger to create a few posts each week. Or you could even need an article writer if you’re still relying on article distribution as an internet marketing strategy.

Whatever the case may be, one of the first things you’ll need to do is decide how much you’re going to pay a freelance writer for the project. Now, if you’re like a lot of people, you may want to know just how little you can get away with paying to get the job done. After all, the less you have to pay, the better, right?

Wrong.

Here are 5 reasons you shouldn’t hire a cheap writer.

1. Quality will almost always suffer—There’s an old saying that applies perfectly—“You get what you pay for.” If you’re going to hire a cheap writer at rates far below the industry average, you’re almost certainly going to get work that’s well below the industry average in terms of quality. If you want good work, you have to pay competitive prices. It’s that simple.
2. You may not get original work—How are some writers able to produce content for just a few bucks a pop? It might be because they’re actually stealing the content from somebody else. That’s right. Many companies have been burned by cheap writers who simply stole content off the web, maybe spun it a little bit, and passed it off as fresh and original.
3. Cheap writers often lack experience—Think about this. If a freelance writer was good and experienced at their job, would they be scouring the job boards looking for work at dirt cheap rates? I didn’t think so.
4. Cheap writers may also lack professionalism—If you’ve ever dealt with a bad freelance writer, you know how much of a nightmare it can be. They promise to deliver the work by a certain date, and then miss the deadline. They drop off the face of the earth and stop responding to emails for days or weeks at a time. They come up with insane excuses about why they’re behind on their work. Spend a little more money so you can hire a true professional.
5. Good writing takes time—Writing anything takes time. It takes time to do the research, outline a plan, create a draft, edit the draft, and rewrite the content until it’s just right. When you’re paying someone a dirt cheap rate to write something, they’re not going to spend as much time on it as they should. Time is money.

Have you ever hired a cheap writer? How did things turn out for you?

Guest blogging is a topic I’ve spent quite a bit of time writing about. I think it’s an important thing to talk about, because many people are finally starting to realize the benefits guest blogging has to offer, and they’re jumping aboard the bandwagon. That’s great, but you have to make sure you’re approaching guest blogging in the right way if you want to get the most out of it. More simply stated, you have to make sure you’re not a bad guest blogger.

How can you tell if you’re a bad guest blogger? Here are a few warning signs.

• You act like the blogger owes you something in your pitch—I’ve received pitches from guest bloggers who come across as alarmingly entitled. They pump themselves up and try to bully me into accepting their guest posts. It’s insane just how clueless some of these guest bloggers are. News flash: nobody owes you anything. You don’t deserve any guest blogging opportunities.
• You don’t take time to learn about the blog—A good guest blogger spends time researching the blog, reading old posts, learning about the blogger, and interacting with the readers in the comments before making a pitch. The better you understand the blog, the more able you’ll be to pitch a topic that’s a good fit.
• You write your guest posts as quickly as you can—If you’re just interested in cranking out as many guest posts as you can so you can build tons of links, you’re in this for the wrong reasons. It’s your duty as a guest blogger to provide the very best content you’re capable of creating. You owe it to the blogger who’s publishing your content, the readers, and yourself (your reputation is on the line!).
• You change the topic you agreed to write about—If you tell the blog owner that you’re going to write a guest post about a certain topic, that’s what you need to write the post about. You can’t change your mind without notifying the blogger and turn in a post on an entirely different subject.
• You don’t respond to comments—Don’t be the guest blogger who turns in a post and disappears. Part of being a guest blogger is interacting with the readers who respond by leaving comments. You need to stick around after your post is published and create meaningful conversations with the readers. And while you’re at it, help promote your guest post too.
• You don’t thank the blogger for letting your guest post—It’s common courtesy. Send over an email thanking the blogger for publishing your guest post.

Are you a bad guest blogger?