By skyforbes 
Blogging is hard work, once you get the basics down, now the real work begins. When you first start your blog it’s exciting and new, kind of like that new car smell. However as time goes by and you realize how much goes into blogging, you start to realize that you have no time for blogging.
Or finding the time to work on your blog is harder and harder. After all, we all have lives to live.
Maybe you’re still working a day job. I know the struggles of trying to build a blog and turn it into a full-time income.
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Well, I am still freelancing for clients. As you know I started this blog so I can move away from freelancing and not have to deal with clients. Plus as I get older, I wanted to have some passive income coming in so I could put away for retirement and enjoy life without having to trade time for dollars.
Growing A Blog Is Hard
I’m not going to sugarcoat it and tell you that you’ll grow your blog overnight. I don’t want you to get into blogging and then start thinking that maybe you’re not doing something right.
The truth is that it’s hard to grow a blog. As you know, this isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve started several blogs in the past and made several mistakes.
Unfortunately, you’re going to have to learn and make your own mistakes. I’d love to tell you that you won’t make any mistakes, but I’d be lying.
We all make mistakes when we do something that we’ve never done before. I know that I’ve made my fair share of mistakes.
Sometimes I still find myself making them. It’s just a part of life and something that we have to overcome.
Treat Your Blog Like A Business
We hear everyone say that you should treat your blog like a business if you want it to grow. But what exactly does that mean?
Does It mean that you need to invest money in your blog? Most of us don’t have a lot money to invest in our blogs. Sure we made the investment to start our blogs on a self-hosted platform.
This doesn’t mean that we want to spend money on Facebook ads or Google Ads. (Yes I know that a blog can grow faster if you pay for your traffic)
Yet most of us started our blogs because we wanted to make money. Not lose money on paying for ads. (I’ve done that in the past)
When you hear people say that you should treat your blog like a business, that means nothing more than doing something to grow it everyday.
Life Gets In The Way
I know that many of you don’t have the fortune of working from home like I do. Maybe you spend 2 hours commuting every day to work.
Maybe you have kids to take care of and you just can’t make it to your computer?
I don’t know what your daily life looks like, but I do understand that it’s not always easy to pump out a new blog post.
That’s why I wanted to share some 30-minute tasks that you can do that will still help you grow your blog. If you do some of these tasks when you don’t have time to write or in addition to writing your blog posts, I have no doubt you’ll see your blog grow.
Create A Pin For Pinterest
I never create my content and my Pinterest pins on the same day. I always write my content first and then days later, I’ll come back and create my social media images and proofread my blog posts.
This is what people call batching. Just by using this method, I have been able to keep my blog schedule full of content for 2-3 months in advance.
Although, right now, I have fallen behind with my content schedule. Life got in the way last month and I wasn’t able to spend so much time working on my blog posts.
However, I plan on sitting back down and working on getting my editorial calendar filled back up for the New Year.
I personally think it’s important to fill up your editorial calendar because it makes life so much easier.
It’s great because it gives me time to guest blog on other blogs and focus on other promotional things I need to do to grow my blog.
If you’re running short on time, maybe you have a blog post that just needs that finishing touch. Why not sit down and create a new pin for Pinterest. If you already have a pin created, consider creating a second pin so you can add another pin to Pinterest.
After you create your pin for Pinterest, you can set up in your Tailwind schedule so you can promote your pins and other people’s pins.
It never hurts to have more than one pin for your blog posts. While I don’t always create a second pin for my blog posts, I have created more than one pin for some of my posts.
For some reason, I just don’t make enough time to create multiple images for my blog posts.
Comment On Other People’s Blogs
No blogger is an island and one of the best things that you can do is start networking with other bloggers. Just by taking the time to comment on other blogs, you are opening the doors to a new friendship.
Related: 7 Blog Etiquette Rules That Can Skyrocket Your Growth
I’ve been doing this for several months and this has allowed me to guest post on other people’s blogs. Plus now my blog gets a lot more direct traffic than it used to.
If you’re taking the time to leave a valuable comment, people will take the time to visit your blog. This means it’s another visitor, which can be the potential for another new subscriber.
Remember, it all starts with visitors. If no one is visiting your blog, then no one is clicking on your affiliate links or subscribing to your email list.
Create Your Editorial Calendar
Believe it or not, when I started this blog, I never took the time to create an editorial calendar. I just posted whatever I wanted. Thank goodness I was able to stay on topic for the most part.
Today, instead of just writing, I’ve actually created a plan to help me create better content that helps you.
You don’t have to invest in any fancy tools to manage your content calendar. I’m old school and I just use Google Drive to help me jot down the posts that I’ll be publishing on my blog for the month.
Just by spending time doing this, it has made my life so much easier. When I sit down to write, I know what I’ll be writing.
No more spending time searching for keywords with Long Tail Pro before writing my post.
BrainStorm Blog Topics
Speaking of keyword research, it’s important to make sure that you’re writing blog posts on topics that your audience is looking for. You don’t want to write posts that are not optimized for specific keywords.
You don’t have to go all out crazy and build gazillions of backlinks. I personally don’t spend any time or money on backlinks to my blog.
I just focus on writing blog posts on topics that my audience wants and needs.
Schedule Tailwind Pins
If you’re like me, Tailwind helps you promote not only your pins but other people’s pins. If you don’t have a lot of time to devote to your blogging tasks, why not set aside 30 minutes and schedule some pins in Tailwind?
I personally hate taking the time to do this, but every week while I am watching The Walking Dead, I’ll sit on the couch with my MacBook Pro and schedule some pins.
This helps ensure that I always have pins scheduled to go out. Yes, I know that it’s a little time consuming.
But if you’re using Pinterest to help you grow your blog, you have to keep putting pins out there. And you won’t have a lot of success if you’re just constantly pinning your own content.
Make sure that you’re using a social sharing plugin that makes it easy for others to share your content. This is the WordPress plugin that I use and I love it.
Create A Content Upgrade
I know what you’re thinking, it takes way too long to create a content upgrade. Well, let me tell you something. I used to think this as well.
In fact, I avoided creating content upgrades because I didn’t have the time to copy and paste a blog post into a Word document.
That’s how I did my very first content upgrade. It totally turned me off from ever doing them again.
That was until I heard about this cool tool called Designrr. I picked it up during the Black Friday weekend and let me tell you, this tool has totally changed my mind on creating content upgrades.
In fact, since I picked up that tool, I’ve already created 2 content upgrades and have put them in my resource library. You can subscribe to my resource library here.
This tool is awesome and will totally change your mind on how you do content upgrades. It is a paid tool, but I know that as I continue using it, the time I save will more than pay for itself.
Plus you can create content upgrades in less than 30 minutes.
Work On Your Avatar
As your blog grows and you continue writing more content, you’ll start to get clearer on your avatar. This is the person that your content is meant to help.
Why not sit down one day and get more specific on who your readers are. I did this last month and it was really eye-opening for me.
Again, I used Google Drive and really just nailed down who my readers were. Who I was helping and even put a picture of my avatar on the document.
Now whenever I sit down to write my blog posts, I am clear on who I am writing for. No more guessing or thinking that my blog is meant for everyone.
Update Your About Page
Your about page is probably one of the most visited pages on your blog. When people land on your blog, many of them will want to find out more about you.
If you’re like me, you probably set your about page when you started your blog and you’ve never touched it again.
Well now’s the perfect time to go back and update. I did that not too long ago and I actually added some of the top blogs that I’ve guest posted on.
Now whenever someone visits my blog, they’ll be able to see that I have actually been featured on other blogs.
Your about page should feature your highlights and tell people what and how you can help them. While I admit that I don’t have the perfect about page.
The great thing is that you can always go back and edit it. Darren Rowse from Pro Blogger shares his 5 step process for writing a great about page.
Don’t freak if you can’t get it right the first time. You can always go back and edit it later. (that’s what I’ve done)
Share Your Content On Facebook
As a new blogger, you’re wearing all the hats for your business. You’re the marketer, writer, video creator, networker and etc.
When you write a new blog post, you may not always have the time to promote it or finish promoting it. Why not take that last blog post you wrote and post it on Facebook.
There are several Facebook groups that allow their members to share their blog posts on their wall. I used to use this technique to help me get traffic to my blog.
Whenever I publish a new blog post, I still share my blog posts in Facebook Groups. The only difference is that today, I don’t always have time to do it.
Reach Out to A Blogger
Remember when I said that no blogger is an island. As humans, we’re social creatures and this means that we crave companionship.
Yes I know that you enjoy blogging because it puts you in your zone. You love sharing your thoughts ideas and passions with your readers.
However, you need blogging buddies. These buddies are going to share your content or let you know when something is wrong with your blog.
For instance: I had no clue that something was wrong with my blog. That was until Vishwajeet from IMBloggingTips.com pointed out that my blog wasn’t working properly.
If I hadn’t made some online friends, my blog would’ve been down all weekend. To this day, I had no clue what happened to my blog. Thank goodness I had a current backup on BlogVault and all I did was restore the latest backup.
Read A Book
I don’t know about you but whenever I can read a book on blogging or marketing, I do. I’ve learned a lot just by reading and then taking action on the things that I learn.
The downside is that there are so many different opinions on the things that you should to grow a blog or build a profitable blog. It can be mind boggling.
This is why I suggest that you only read a few blogs online. Follow some bloggers that you absolutely love and have achieved or are working towards that you want.
Then follow what they do. Of course, you won’t always agree or do everything that they say or do. But if you can pick up little nuggets that can help you grow your blog, then that’s awesome.
If you can’t find any bloggers that you trust yet or are completely new to the blogging world. Here are 7 bloggers that will help you build a successful website.
Remember, you can’t just read and never take action. Nothing great ever happens without action.
Final Take Away
I understand life gets in the way and you don’t always have time to sit down and write a full blog post. However, there are still other things that you can do to help your blog grow.
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You don’t have to spend all day on your blog. However, you do need to work on it every day and eventually, you’ll look back and see the online empire you created.
Do you have any other 30-minute blogging tasks for someone who does not have a lot of time to blog? Share them below, I’d love to hear them and see how they can help us grow our blogs.