How good are you at maximizing your output by using time wisely? If you feel that you are lacking a bit on this front (for how to grow a blog or anything else), no need to worry . . . this article will help you be a better steward of your time. We’ve got some game-changing tips for delegating tasks that will give you a new perspective on team building and productivity.
Delegate Up
Let’s start off with a couple of truths. You don’t know how to do everything. And you aren’t the best at every task. For a specific example . . . if you know the basics of keyword research, there is likely someone out there who has a deeper knowledge who can help you find great long-tail keywords for your editorial calendar. This doesn’t mean that your vision for your projects is invalid, but it does mean that you will do yourself a great favor by learning how to hand off certain parts of a project to talented individuals (or groups). Keep reading for more tips and tasks to delegate for growing a blog.
Consider Your Worth
You are the only one who truly knows what your time is worth. The market can help you set some general parameters for your worth, but you are the ultimate judge in a business sense. Keep the value of your time in mind as you go about your daily writing tasks.
Here’s a great video that talks about delegation, your worth, and more:
Instead of sweating the small stuff — or the major stuff that you don’t have a clue how to handle — consider working smarter by delegating tasks. This way, you can concentrate on the nitty gritty of bringing real value to your blog and clients/customers.
For instance, as a freelance blogger, you’re going to need to invoice your clients. It might be an easy task for you to do, but why not hire a virtual assistant to handle weekly or monthly invoicing so that you can focus on serving your clients? FreshBooks is my favorite accounting software for invoicing and income reporting.
Check out this video to learn more about how FreshBooks can help you with invoicing:
Outsource Keyword Research
Do you know every valuable SEO keyword that you should target for your blog? There’s no way. Outsource or hire a keyword research specialist that will uncover the long tail keyword gems that you need to grow your blog. Here are a few keyword-related tasks that you can delegate:
- Semrush keyword research (a list of Semrush features)
- Keyword position tracking
- Competitor keyword tracking
- Editorial calendar management
- LSI keyword research (latent semantic indexing)
One could easily spend 10-15 hours per week on keyword research. This is precious time that you could use to write posts or form new affiliate marketing partnerships.
Outsource Proofreading and Copy Editing
Proofreading and copy editing are some of the most tedious, time-consuming, and generally thankless tasks that a blogger needs to indulge in. I discuss this in my article about the 3x3 writing process.
You've already spent hours writing up the content. Why torture yourself with proofreading? You could use a fresh set of eyes to help you catch mistakes and improve the quality of your writing.
Hire someone to do it for you. Your eyes and your sanity will thank you.
Power tip: Develop and share a content style guide that you can share with proofreaders, copy editors, and other bloggers. This way, your style and voice can remain consistent on your blog.
Hire a Graphic Designer
Not many writers are also visual experts and that’s okay! When you want to take your visual assets to another level, your basic knowledge of Canva and Adobe Photoshop can only take you so far. You just might be better off hiring a professional graphic designer and/or photographer to furnish your blog with the killer images that it deserves.
Delegate Blog / WordPress Management
If you want to focus solely on writing and move on to your next post after finishing writing one, delegate your blog and WordPress management tasks. Knowing how to manage your WordPress blog is the key to getting the content that you worked hard on to potentially millions of readers. If you don't know where to begin, your best bet is to quickly find an expert who does.
Help with Publishing Your Blog Posts and SEO Metadata
Creating and entering SEO metadata are tasks that may strike fear into your heart. This is particularly true if you aren't up to speed on all of the latest on-page SEO developments. Metadata like SEO title and meta description are too important to ignore. Not entering them into a plugin like Yoast SEO or not optimizing them could lead to a loss of traffic and revenue. If mastering the purely nuts and bolts aspects of learning how to grow a blog through metadata optimization is your Achilles’ heel, outsourcing these matters to an expert is the smart money move.
Help with Security, WordPress Version and Plugin Updates
How secure is your blog? How well can it resist a nasty hacking attack? Do you know how to instantly eliminate spam? The more secure you keep your blog, the more uptime you’ll enjoy for your readers and customers. This is why hacker prevention and having someone on hand to handle matters when a security emergency strikes.
Initiating WordPress version and plugin updates are crucial tasks to handle for your blog’s security. An experienced WordPress blog manager will also help you eliminate unnecessary plugins that could be a gateway for hackers. Having too many plugins will also slow down your blog’s speed, which is a negative for SEO and page rank.
If you don't have the time or ability to properly manage your WordPress blog, you'd be well served to outsource or hire someone who does.
Hire Someone to Promote Your Articles Online
Social media is the most profitable area for you to advertise your blog at mass (unless you have a huge email list). Twitter, Facebook and/or LinkedIn are the places where a single post can go viral in a matter of hours. A specialist in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn promotion can do wonders to promote your blog when you don’t have the time or skill to do it yourself. Since you can't be everywhere on the web at once, it's an excellent idea to hire the services of a social media manager.
Find a Link Building Partner
Link building is the process of getting your site linked to from other websites. It's a discipline that’s built around establishing and nurturing key relationships with other bloggers. Link building can increase your traffic and Domain Authority score over time.
It’s important to be ethical in how you go about securing new links. Offer something of value (a great blog post, eBook, or infographic) in exchange for the link. Securing links in a blackhat or unnatural way will get you in trouble with search engines, so do link or relationship building with good intentions.
Do you have the time to spend cultivating link building relationships with other bloggers? If not, this is another task that is suited for delegation to a professional.
:Gasp: Outsource Your Writing
The biggest and most bitter pill to swallow for a capable writer is the occasional necessity to delegate a blog entry. But sometimes you have to bite down hard on your pride and outsource one of your favorite activities. You can do this through sites like Upwork or Textbroker or by handing it off to a trusted team member.
Power tips: Provide your writer with a creative brief for proper guidance. And do a thorough review of any blog post that you outsource.
Contact Us Today for More Guidance
If you have questions, comments, or concerns to share with us on delegating tasks or learning how to grow a blog, please send them to us. We welcome your feedback and questions.
Check out our massive list of successful blogging tips that will help you grow your blog traffic.
This post was proofread by Grammarly Premium.
