It’s so easy to get overwhelmed and pulled in too many directions when you first start a blog to make money and build a business. Then you end up frustrated and feeling like a failure. Instead, learn how to stay focused as a new blogger and you will enjoy the success you deserve.
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The question of focus comes up with bloggers and business builders all the time. You’re a passionate, creative mom full of great ideas. You just don’t always know how to harness your creative energy and passion into ways that will get you to your goals.
I get it, cause I’m the same way. And so are my clients. They would often jump from one great idea to the next, until they learned how to focus.
As a single mom, it’s even more challenging, because you must use the small chunks of time you have as effectively as possible. You need to learn how to stay focused as a new blogger when you first start a blog.
If you’re blogging and working at home while also caring for you children, you really need to get creative. I’m doing it, and you can too.
Read 5 Real Moms Share their 10 Best Tips to Successfully Work at Home with Kids
How to Stay Focused as a New Blogger and Avoid Distractions
Get clear on your goals
Start by being clear about what you want. What are your goals as a blogger or business builder? When you first start a blog, after you’re launched, the first goal should be having 10 solid blog posts published.
Once you’ve got those first 10 published – and I’m talking about high quality posts you feel great about and excited to share with the world – then you move on. From there, focus on a consistent habit of publishing a new post at least once a week.
Your next goal as a new blogger, after you’ve got the writing habit down, is traffic. Set a goal for your first 1000 pageviews, than 5k pageviews, and then 10k, 25k and so on. Traffic equals dollars eventually when done right.
At the same time, begin growing your list. Your email list is an essential way to connect with readers that will eventually become your raving fans and top customers or clients. I use and recommend ConvertKit to begin building your list.
Free Weekly Checklist to Keep You Focused
Whether the goal is traffic, subscribers or dollars, put the number down in writing along with a clear timeline. Consider your goals for the first year as a new blogger and break it down into months. Know your goal for this month and write it somewhere that you see it every day.
Keep your goal front of mind daily
At the start of each day – or the block of time you’ve set aside for your blog or business – bring your current goal to mind. With that clarity, write down at least 3 actions you will take that day related to your specific goal. That’s your to do list.
Only after you complete those 3 actions would you spend time on less goal-oriented tasks. Put aside the easier stuff that keeps you feeling busy but never moves your business forward.
Some examples of traffic and income-boosting activities would be:
- sending an email to your list that links to your website
- writing a new blog post that includes affiliate links
- sharing content on social media and Pinterest
- participating in a traffic challenge with other bloggers
- applying to a new affiliate marketing partner or ad network
- creating a free incentive to attract subscribers to your list
- designing new pins for Pinterest with Canva
- reaching out to a brand about a sponsored post
- if you offer services, inviting a potential client to have a conversation
These kinds of activities can actually lead to new readers, increased traffic and income. Hiding behind busywork, like browsing around social media without a specific task in mind, does not.
Resist the temptation to spend hours on things that won’t lead to new business, take too much time or would be better handled by an expert. It’s your job to stay focused as a new blogger and to keep moving forward.
Read Best Social Media for Bloggers to Grow Traffic and Make Money
Ask for help when you get stuck
Too often a new blogger or business builder wastes months or even years trying to learn how to build a website on their own before they ask for help, enroll in a course or hire an expert. Unless you’re interested in being a web designer, you don’t need to know web design beyond the basics you use daily on your blog.
When you stay focused as a new blogger, you stay on task by sharing your message with your readers and writing consistently. Leave the technical stuff – and other business tasks that take up too much of your time – to other experts.
Get in touch if you want to chat about how you can Work with Me to get your blog going and grow your business. I’ve helped hundreds of mompreneurs like you since 2011.
Stay Focused as a New Blogger and Know that Creativity Never Stops
If you’re like most bloggers and business builders, you’re coming up with new ideas and finding new inspiration all the time. And that’s a good thing!
It’s great to have a passionate, creative mind as a blogger and business builder. The problem is the creative mind and the focused mind don’t always work nicely together. But it’s focus that gets things done and moves you forward.
While you’re finding inspiration, you also need to be careful not to fall into the comparison trap and get stuck there.
Consistency is the key to success
Instead of staying focused on the actions you need to do consistently every week, you jump ahead to create an ebook or a new course. The problem is if you skip the traffic and income-building actions, your new offers will never get in front of your readers.
Consistency turns your website into the strong foundation that you build everything else on top of. That foundation becomes the launchpad for every creative idea you come up with in your business for years to come.
If you want to succeed as a blogger and business builder, and see your traffic steadily increase and your income grow over time, you have to stay focused.
Use the right tools to store your great ideas
It helps to use a checklist – get mine for free below – designed to help you focus on what needs to be done consistently every week to grow your blog, before you spend time on the exciting and the new.
Your creativity won’t stop though, so choose one tool to record your great ideas. Some bloggers like notebooks and planners, and I’ve included some great options below, while others prefer using apps such as Trello.
Personally, I like using my favorite pen and notebook for brainstorming, and then I use Google Sheets to save my ideas. I also use Google Sheets to build my content calendar, store affiliate links and track my keyword research.
Use my checklist – get it free below – and choose a note-taking system that works to keep you focused on the regular tasks you need to do, knowing your next project is safely stored away for later in the week or month.
Free Weekly Checklist to Stay Focused
What to Stay Focused on as a New Blogger
Get into solid habits around the foundational tasks. These are the things you will need to repeat consistently 1000 times on your blogging journey. Once those are working make time for all the extras, one at a time, and build on it.
At the start of your blog or business journey, you need to let your ideas gain traction and start to experience what success, and the income that comes along with it, feels like. To do that, you need to build your foundation with consistency. And learn how to attract traffic, connect with readers and grow your list.
Let your success build
What I see new bloggers doing instead is working on three different optin freebies, an email course, and printables, all in various stages of completion. But never learning how to successfully market any of them. Naturally, you end up frustrated that nothing seems to be taking off.
What you learn through the experience of completing and promoting one great idea at a time can later be applied to your next creation. You can channel your creativity, your desire to always be coming up with something new, into trying out new marketing strategies for the one offer you’re committed to promoting.
In time, you will have dozens of products to offer. But you need to focus on completing one at a time until you’ve got a decent size following and some success.
Keep your focus on publishing to your blog once a week, sending a newsletter to your list, and actively sharing your posts on social media.
Let each success you achieve build up to your next one.
Otherwise, blogging and building a business feels like a constant uphill battle, and it doesn’t need to. Stay focused and you can succeed as a new blogger!
How do you stay focused as a new blogger?
I’d love to know your best tips and tricks to stay focused on your blogging success. Share below!
Free Weekly Checklist to Keep You Focused
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Heather Cottrell is a single mom blogger, business coach and marketing professional. She started her first business and blog in 2005 as a health coach, and years later evolved into a WordPress web designer and business coach for women wellness coaches. In 2020 Heather launched Single Mom Bloggers to help stressed moms create freedom with a blog or business to make money working from home. Learn more about Heather Cottrell here and at HeatherCottrell.com.
Indeed, I remember me as a newby being super excited but my new page! Then some ups and downs. It’s rather common that the blogging enthusiasm decreases if the traffic does. 🙁
There’s always ups and downs! It helps to keep long range goals in mind, and then smaller ones that keep you moving forward from week to week, month to month. It’s a lot of work, but can be so much fun too 😀
Thank you for the reminder that focusing at one point at a time is so important as a new blogger! It is so easy to get distracted but it is possible to learn on how to do things right.
You’re welcome! It is so easy to get distracted especially when you’re getting started and still unsure about what works and what doesn’t. Glad you found the post helpful 😃
This is such an awesome post, you hit some great points x I really resonate with creating a list of specific tasks, mindless scrolling is so easy!
Thanks Karen! I’m so glad it was helpful. It’s so easy to get off task, it helps to set goals and use a checklist or other kind of list that works for you!
As a blogger whos been at for 2 years or so, one thing that I would advised for any new blogger, as you;ve mentioned is consistency. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been impatient or inconsistent with my blog. I had to finally realize that if this was online business I had to build then I had to stick to it. Period. It will be difficult, as you written, goals are a must and will definitely help you get clear on how you go about your blog. Thank for the post!
Thanks Alia – you’re right about consistency. It can be so hard to stick to, but it’s the only way to reach your goals!
I just started blogging about 2 weeks ago and it’s so easy to get overwhelmed and loose focus! Thank you for sharing these tips!
Yes I know! There’s so much to learn and so much to do as a new blogger. But if we lose focus, we will never get to celebrate success! Glad you found the post helpful 🙂
Great post. Thanks for sharing! I’ve recently started a blog, but to be honest I have dragged the process out over two years! Lots of starts and stops. I had no idea there was so much to learn and do! I love lists, and goals are a must! I downloaded your weekly checklist for new bloggers and am eager to use it. It has great suggestions and helps me to not feel so overwhelmed. Thank you!
Thanks for your suggestions on goals for new bloggers, it was perfect timing. I’m just creating my blog (not yet launched) and was being distracted by so many things (and being perfect) that last week I decided I’d take time out to create goals for the remainder of the year (i.e. June = write 6 posts & launch the blog, July = learn Pinterest, etc). I’d love to get some more ideas for goals for new bloggers to set such as those above….
These are great tips! I’ve worked with some new bloggers who would get excited about every feature they saw on other blogs and wanted to have those too. It’s important to ask yourself how those features will help you achieve your goals!
Exactly! It’s so easy to get distracted by the next “shiny new thing” you see, not even understanding what it is and whether you even need it. Focus is so essential to getting anywhere on this blogging journey.
lovely post! as a new blogger, I can relate to so many points in this points.
thanks for sharing!
These are great tips. I’ve had my blog for over a year now, but I tend to get distracted and will go weeks without creating new content. I’m hoping to really stick to a schedule and reach my goals.
Thank you for this post! I agree that it is important to have a clear vision for what you want to achieve as a new blogger. Having blogged for (gosh over a year now) I am still getting used to working to a schedule and setting reasonable goals, but I think all good things take time 🙂