How to Write Your Testimony

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As mentioned in previous posts, sharing your testimony online is a great way to encourage others in Christ.  It’s a true example of Christ’s love for all people. Although many may want to publish their testimony online, they may not be sure how to get started.  Sharing one’s testimony is a very personal and intimate story and that can be hard to share for some.

Before you even start writing your testimony out, you should pray about it first.  Pray for God’s guidance and the correct words to use.  This one step makes the entire process so much easier.  :)

In my opinion there are three basic points that need to be addressed in any testimony.

  1. What your life was like before you were saved - Your life before salvation can hard to admit to at times.  We have all sinned and while the God does not make distinctions between various sins, the world does.  Admitting to the world that we lived a sinful life, especially if the sin is appalling to the world, takes courage.  However it’s important that we tell others.  It allows the world to see what you were and what you became after Christ.
  2. What led you to Christ - When sharing your testimony it’s important to share how and why you got saved.  Did a friend invite you to church?  Did you read a blog online that got you to start asking questions?  Did you see a difference in someone else and wanted to know what that change was.  Describe your experience leading up to, during, and after salvation.
  3. What your life was like after you were saved - Not everyone has a visible outward change after salvation.  A lot of times the changes are found inside – in the way we think, in the way make decisions, etc.  But the Bible is very specific, there is a change.

Writing your testimony requires you to be honest.  So above all else whatever you write, make sure it’s the truth.  It’s not only effects you but anyone else who may read it.  You don’t want to cast any doubt on Christ’s love for the sinner but to encourage the lost and other believers and to bring glory to God.

Be a Witness Online by Sharing Your Testimony

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As Christian bloggers we should always strive to be a witness online.  One way to do so is by sharing your personal testimony about how you came to know Christ and the impact it made in your life. I’ve written a couple posts already about sharing your testimony online.

Sharing your testimony, which often includes the admittance of sins you would rather forget, can be a hard thing to do.  Your relationship with Christ is a very personal thing – a heart and soul bearing thing.  It’s hard to convey that type of relationship in a written post, video or podcast but as Christians it’s important that we share it.

By sharing our testimony we are being a witness to the love and power of Christ.  We are being a witness to the glory of God and the comfort that only the Holy Spirit can provide.  Sharing these things can never be a bad thing but can only touch the lives of others.

The purpose of sharing your testimony isn’t solely to reach others either.  It also serves as a reminder to yourself of how you used to be and how you are now – the difference between the old man and the new (Ephesians 4:22-24).  It’s for those times that we become backslidden and we can see the love of Christ regardless of what sins we may have committed.

Have you shared your testimony online?  If so, leave a link.  I’m writing mine to publish over at Faithful Devotions and will leave a link in the comments section as soon as it is published.

If you need help writing your testimony we have a guide which will walk you step by step through the process. "How to Write Your Testimony" can be found free in the members area. You will receive a password to the members area via email when you submit the form below. 

Are You Being a Witness?

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We are told in the Bible numerous times that we are to be witnesses to the world of Jesus’ love and His ultimate sacrifice for us.  A couple of verses that immediately come to mind are Matthew 5:16, Matthew 28:19, and Acts 1:8.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” Matthew 28:19

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:8

What exactly is a Witness? 

A lot of people believe that being a Christian witness is simply the act of speaking to others about Christ.  And while, that’s an awesome thing to do, there is more to being a witness than just talking.  You have to be able to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

If you notice in Acts 1:8 above, Jesus says we are to “BE” witnesses.  This means that we need to live our lives in a way that brings glory to God and in a way that others around you will see the impact Christ has on your life.

Are you being a witness online?

When you blog, visit Facebook or Twitter, or even email, are you being a witness?  Does the content you put online jeopardize or validate your testimony?  In a world where almost everyone is online, it’s important to realize that people you don’t even know can and will be watching what you post and how you react to different situations.

You have to be careful what you put online.  Sometimes all it takes is one negative comment or reaction to turn someone away from Christ.  Of course, the opposite is true too – sometimes all it takes is one sentence about the love of Christ to reach a new believer.

How are you being a witness to Christ online?

Christian Blogs Can Change Lives

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With the explosion of blogging across internet you can find people blogging for a lot of different reasons.  As the trend continues to grow we are seeing more and more Christian blogs and people who classify themselves as Christian bloggers.

Why would one become a Christian blogger or focus just on Christian based topics?

Christian blogging or reading a Christian blog can affect the life of those who write it and those who read it as well. Someone who begins a Christian blog does so with a purpose. That purpose being to spread the word of the Lord. This will impact their life far beyond just words on a page. God will speak through them and guide them not only in the development in their blog but with everything they do in their daily existence.

Writing a Christian blog is more than just writing a blog geared towards the values of God, it’s a heartfelt ministry. Christians are called by the Lord to begin this ministry as per His will and being so chosen by God to spread His word in this fashion will change the blogger’s life.

As you can see beginning a Christian blog is truly an act of love and devotion, but what impact does it have to those who choose to read it?

Because of the fact that the Christian blog is a blog full of words spoken from God, it has the distinct possibility to speak to those who read it as well. The only prerequisite is that the reader must have an open heart. The Lord is capable of effecting the lives who those who seek Him, even through something as simple as a blog. The Lord can show them that to follow His word and His teachings will change their lives in more ways that they can possibly imagine.

A believer who writes a Christian blog and those who are open enough to read it can truly have their lives impacted and changed through the Lord’s strength and love.

 

The Lord Has a Reason for Everything

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Sometimes I just don’t understand why the Lord allows some things to happen or not to happen but I have learned not to question it.  I know that God is in control of my life and as long as I fully rely on Him, everything will be alright. “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

This is true in every aspect of my life – not just my personal life.  You may be running the blog or online ministry God call has called you to run, but it may not be as successful or profitable as you want it to be.  The real question you be asking though is as successful and profitable as God wants it to be?  Just because your blog may be taking longer to take off and reach readers than you would like, just remember that everything is in God’s timing.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you don’t need to work at your blog.  As with any ministry, when we are feeling discouraged we need to persevere in the work God has given us.  If that’s a blog, then you just need to continue working it.  Continue praying for your blog.  Continue writing great content.  Continue connecting with other bloggers and readers.  And most importantly, don’t give up until you know in your heart from God that it’s time to hang in the towel.

Overcoming Blog Jealousy The Christian Way

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In the blogging world you are bound to find some drama, bickering between bloggers, and plain out jealousy roaring its ugly head.  It seems even more prominent in niches with mostly women bloggers.  None of this can actually help your blog. I know I don't want to get in the middle of two bloggers arguing and will usually stop following that blog because that jealousy almost always ends up taking over the blog.

Let's face the facts though.  We live in a sinful world and the bickering, drama, and jealousy is not going to go away.  It is a fact of life.  People are always going to want what others have, weather it be fame and popularity, wealth, or something else.

Thank goodness the Bible teaches us how to deal with jealousy and those same principals can be applied to blogging.

First what does the Bible say about jealousy?

  • "Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another." Galatians 5:26
  • "For ye are yet carnal: for whereas [there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" 1 Corinthians 3:3
  • "Charity suffereth long, [and] is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up," 1 Corinthains 13:4
  • "[Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5

Basically the Bible tells us that jealousy is a sin.  We are not suppose to envy others but be content in the things we have - in what the Lord has given us. If we are too busy focusing our energy on envy or jealousy of other person then we are too busy to focus on God.

So how does this apply to blogging?

  1. If we are constantly checking out other blogs to see how many comments they get, what kind of traffic they have, or what opportunities they are getting, we are wasting valuable time we could be working on bettering our blog.  The truth of the matter is that it doesn't matter what other people are doing, it only matters what you doing.  If you are neglecting your blog because you are stalking other blogs, then your blog will suffer the consequences.
  2. Be content with your blog.  Now I don't mean don't strive for more comments, an increase in traffic and subscribers, or to better your blog.  Just do your best.  Don't get upset if you are not getting as many comments as your favorite blog.  Be thankful for the readers and traffic you do have.
  3. Just remember we live in a sinful world and no one is perfect.  Sure their blog may look like perfection, but I can guarantee you it is not.  I'm not perfect, when I first started blogging, I suffered from blog envy and jealousy - a mean case of it.
  4. Focus on the important thing - your blog.

Of course there a lots of way to deals with blog jealousy.  The age old saying "Do unto others as you would like done unto you" is very applicable in this situation.  If you start fights with other bloggers, then bloggers will start fights with you.

Prayer is a solution too.  Pray that the Lord will open your eyes and not let the envy and jealous feelings take over.

Also remember that your blog is a reflection of you.  Do you want to be known as the blogger who is always looking for fight or to start some drama?

How do your overcome blog jealousy?  I would love to hear your thoughts.

Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use Google Blogger

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I might get some criticism for this post, but I think it’s important to realize what exactly bloggers are getting into by using Google Blogger for their blogs. Like me, a lot of people initially join the blogging world because they found other blogs they love and wanted to join in on the fun.  I will admit, Google Blogger makes it very easy to get started with a blog and it’s completely free, which is a big incentive for a new blogger.

After blogging for a while though and realizing that yes, you are continue doing this blogging thing, you really need to take stock and think about your future plans.  It took me only 2 months to move from Google Blogger to a self-hosted WordPress blog because of the limits Google Blogger had placed.  I’ll also admit Google Blogger has come a long way since I left them in 2008, but there are still some limitations that concern me.

Here are just a few reasons why Google Bloggers limits you and your blog:

  1. Google can delete your blog - By giving Google control of your blog, you are giving them the ability to delete your blog at will.  They are notorious for doing this and have even deleted their own blog on accident.
  2. Limited to 10 static pages – This may not be an issue for you, but it is for a lot of people.  Here at Faithful Bloggers I currently have 24 active pages – I wouldn’t be able to have that with Google Blogger.
  3. Cannot use a page as a homepage - If you want to show something other than you latest blog posts on your homepage (http://example.com) you are out of luck.
  4. You cannot automate your blog backups – While you can backup your Blogspot blog and template, it has to be done manually.  This means it is something you have to remember to do on a continuous basis.  If something happens, like Google deleting your blog by accident, you need to have recent backup so all your hard work doesn’t get lost.

Of course, the reason why you blog play a part of the decision but ultimately if you want to have complete and total control you need to stay away from Blogspot.  If you don’t care what happens to your blog, then go ahead and use Google Blogger.  But if you want to make sure you have the most options available and that your hard work doesn’t go to waste, consider using the self-hosted version of WordPress.

If moving to a self-hosted WordPress blog is something you are interested in but don’t know how and don’t want to pay someone to do it for you, join me on July 24 at 6:00pm for a live workshop where I will show you how to make this move.  You can find more information about the workshop at http://upgradetowpnow.com.

Using a Blog Editor

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Finding the right tools to use when blogging can make all the difference in the world. The right tools can make everything so much easier to do. Of course the right tools vary from person to person.

A tool a lot of people use is a blog editor to manage publishing their posts and articles. There are two type of editor, online and offline editors.  Both of them have their own advantages and disadvantages and it is up to you to choose the one that is right for you.

Offline Blog Editors

Offline blog editors are normally installed and ran from your computer locally.  These have text editors allowing you to perform basic word processing operations.  Basically you create your blog content from your local computer and not through your blog administration panel. Offline blog editors are can be beneficial to those who have limited Internet connection since it allows you to manage the content of your blog without needing a connection to the Internet.  Of course to actually post the content to your blog you will need an Internet connection.

So offline editors include:

  • Blog Desk – Blog Desk is a free offline WYSIWYG editor that works with WordPress, MovableType, Drupal, Serendipity and ExpressionEngine.  There is also a Image Wizard included with allows you to insert images in your posts and crop, resize, rotate, shadow, etc. the images.  Blog Desk also supports tags and allows you to get custom fields in WordPress.
  • Windows Live Writer – Windows Live Writer is also a In altri giochi di casino , basati unicamente sulla fortuna come come roulette o slot machine, questo non e assolutamente. free offline editor that Window and Office user will probably like.  It also allows you to assign tags, use custom fields in WordPress, and allows you to add video.
  • Qumana – Qumana is a little different in that it is a blog editor that allows you to cross publish posts and add keyword ads in your posts with just one click.  It also has integrated tags and even works with Blogger.  It is also free.

Online Blog Editors

Online blog editors are editors that you use online such as your blog’s editor in the administration area.  The nice thing about online blog editor is that there is no software to install on your computer.  It is all internet based.

  • Weppad – Weppad is an online blog editor that you actually install on your servers.  It not only allows you to post to your blog but also to email or upload files, and has a find and replace feature.
  • WriteToMyBlog – WriteToMyBlog is a website where you can type up your blog posts and have them automatically uploaded to your blog.  You post to mulitple blogs at he same time and the service also allows you add photos from Flickr and videos from YouTube.
  • ScribeFire – ScribeFire is actually a Firefox addon that allows you to publish to your blog.
  • Flock – This browser has a blog editor built in.

I usually type up my posts in Microsoft Word and then copy it over to my blog.  Of course there is usually some formatting issues I have to fix.  I am trying out a few of the editors listed above and still if any of them will help make the process easier.  I have tried Blog Desk and Windows Live Writer but think I would prefer an online editor.

What about you?  Do you use a blog editor to construct your posts?

Why You Should Link to Others

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Linking out to other sites in your posts and articles is a controversial issue because many people will tell you that it will lower your search engine ranking. Like with most opinions this one is both right and wrong.  It’s right in that you do not want to link to others without consideration about where you are linking them. But it’s wrong that you should never link to others within your posts and articles.

Before linking to others consider the following:

  1. Reputation — Is the place you’re linking to reputable?  If it’s a helpful, reputable person, website, blog or resource, then linking to them should not hurt your rankings. It is nicer if they have an affiliate program, so check before linking so that you can get credit. Search engines also judge the sites you’re linking to so if it’s a quality site, you will be seen as a quality site too.
  2. Usefulness – If the other site is a great resource to your visitors that already exist why not link to it, affiliate program or not?  You can’t be everything to everyone, and there is no reason to be repetitive, duplicating exactly what someone else has done unless you truly believe you can do it better.
  3. Interactivity — Linking out to others can create a sort of interactive sharing of information across other channels. If you’re linking to them, they may link to you, and you can have cross blogging conversations, and other joint endeavors if you choose.

By linking to others you are going to create a conversation that starts at your blog, and leads across the web. Some ideas for links out include:

  1. Lists — Create a list of valuable resources, tools, and even people to link to. Usually the recipient of such link love will return the favor. This can garner you a lot of traffic if the people you’re linking to are more popular and you wrote something particularly favorable, or even controversial.
  2. Expert Interviews — Interview successful people in your area of expertise, or the area you want to be an expert in. Link to their blogs, sites, and products, and offer the interview in podcast form and written form. Linking to the person who is more popular than you can often create fans out of them and their own visitors.
  3. Link to yourself — Yes, don’t forget to link to your own articles and blogs even if the appear elsewhere. Have articles on Associated Content, Ezine Articles, Idea Marketers, or other content sites, show people! If the post you just made relates to another post you made in the past, link to that too.

Linking is how the Internet works. Pretty much every site, and every blog is somehow linked to each other. Therefore, as long as you strive to include reputable, relevant and useful links both inside and outside your blog or website the search engines, and your visitors will appreciate it.

Jesus, Our Status Bar

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Hello, fellow bloggers! My name is Dee and I am assistant, editor, all-around Girl Friday, and non-tech techie to Christian Author D.I. Telbat. It's a busy, but exciting, life! I enjoy editing and fine-tuning David Telbat's manuscripts and blog posts, but I have also found it's easy to miss things, no matter how much time I spend on a project. The Lord has blessed me with several Christian teacher friends, and they have been gracious enough to come alongside to add fresh eyes and perspectives when I need them. And they always find something that we've missed!

It used to cause me great consternation and stress that I couldn't be perfect. But I've come to accept the facts that no one knows it all, and we all need others, no matter what road of life we are traveling.

Having manuscripts professionally edited is so important, and I think even more so if one is publishing in the digital world. There has been much publicity about poor writing being published digitally because it's so easy to do nowadays. It makes our jobs as editors that much more important to produce quality material in order to raise that status bar.

But the same is true with our blogs—whether you blog for an author site, like I do, or for your own pleasure—we have an obligation to do the best that we can do, because, as Christians, we not only represent ourselves, we are representing the Lord Jesus.

There has been a lot of news about several well-known authors moving from traditional publishing to epublishing. They have certainly helped to raise the digital publishing status bar.

But, as believers, our ultimate editing and publishing status bar is Jesus, and we long to hear His words: "Well done, good and faithful servant." (Mat 25:23a)

Keep polishing those manuscripts and blog posts! And when you hear "Well done!" and "Sold!," you'll be glad you did! :)

About the Author: Dee K. Borah lives in the NW with her husband of 39 years. They have four grown children, and four wonderful grandchildren. She edits and publishes Christian Author D.I. Telbat's eBooks and blog posts, and spends much time on their website at http://ditelbat.com.

Where to Promote Your Giveaway and Contest

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A lot of blogs host product giveaways and various types of contests.  It's fun to do and can bring you a great deal of traffic too.  However to get max results, you have to promote your giveaway and below is a list of some places to do so.

  1. Mom Giveaways
  2. 5 Minutes for Mom - Around the Blogoshpere
  3. Nerd Family Things - Contesting Monday
  4. A Frugal Friday - Giveaways Link Up
  5. Jabbering Jessi - Weekly Linky
  6. Frugal & Fabulous
  7. Outnumbered 3 to 1 - Contest Tuesday
  8. The Mom Reviews
  9. A Hen's Nest
  10. All Things Bloggy
  11. Blog Giveaways
  12. Tip Junkie
  13. Contest for Moms
  14. Contest Listing
  15. Coupon Clippin' Mommy - It's Giveaway Wednesday
  16. Any Lucky Day

Just make to sure to read and follow the directions for each site - they are all different.  Good luck with your giveaway!

Blogging Events Calendar

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I'm excited to introduce a new feature at Faithful Bloggers - The Blogging Events Calendar! If you are hosting a special event, giveaway, contest, blogging series, meme, link-up, etc, please feel free to add it to the calendar so that other Faithful Bloggers can find it too.

To add an event to the calendar, all you have to do is fill out the form here and then once approved it will appear in the calendar.

It is my hope that this blogging calendar will be a valuable resource for Christians looking for events happening on other Christian blogs.

Posts We Love – Edition #17

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Every Friday I post links to some posts that I recently read and loved. You can also leave links to any posts you loved too. If a post stands out to you, encourages you, teaches you, let us know about it. Leave a comment with a link to the post so that we can visit, leave a comment, and show some social love.

Here are some posts I enjoyed this past week:

I have also created a Tumblr casino online blog, Posts We Love, where I will link all the posts I come across that I love. If you have a Tumblr account and would like to be a member of that blog and submit posts as well, just shoot me an email with your email address and I"ll add you as a member. Every Friday, I will add some of the links from the Tumbr blog to the Posts We Love edition here on Faithful Bloggers.

Posts We Love – Edition #16

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Every Friday I post links to some posts that I recently read and loved. You can also leave links to any posts you loved too. If a post stands out to you, encourages you, teaches you, let us know about it. Leave a comment with a link to the post so that we can visit, leave a comment, and show some social love.

Here are some posts I enjoyed this past week:

I have also created a Tumblr blog, Posts We Love, where I will link all the posts I come across that I love. If you have a Tumblr account and would like to be a member of that blog and submit posts as well, just shoot me an email with your email address and I'll add you as a member. Every Friday, I will add some of the links from the Tumbr blog to the Posts We Love edition here on Faithful Bloggers.

Posts We Love – Edition #15

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Posts-We-Love

Every Friday I post links to some posts that I recently read and loved. You can also leave links to any posts you loved too. If a post stands out to you, encourages you, teaches you, let us know about it. Leave a comment with a link to the post so that we can visit, leave a comment, and show some social love.

Here are some posts I enjoyed this past week:

 

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courtneysig

Back to the Basics – 5 Ways to Promote Your Blog

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Most people blog to connect with other people.  If you are not one of these people, then this post probably doesn’t apply to you.  The internet is so saturated with blogs that it can be hard to get people to visit your blog much less stay around and actually connect with them. In order to connect with other people you have to promote your blog in some form or fashion.  You may even be doing this without even realizing it.

Here are 4 simple ways to do so:

  1. Comments – Visit other similar blogs and comment on their posts.  The trick here is to leave real comments that add value to the post.  Comments that offer value not only catch the eye of the blogger but of other people reading the post too.  Also be sure to respond to comments on your own blog.  Make sure your readers know you appreciate the time it takes to leave a comment, especially if it is a well thought out comment and adds to your content.
  2. Offer guest posts on other blogs – If done correctly, writing guest posts for other blogs can be a great way to get your name in front of people.  You don’t want to submit content to just any blog though.  Do your research and make sure the readers the blog you are guest posting on are the readers you want for your blog.
  3. Join in memes or linkups – A lot of bloggers do this just for fun and don’t even realize they are promoting themselves.   To be effective, just make sure that when you link up that you give a good description of what you are linking to.  For example, if you have a post titled “5 Ways to Lessen the Stress of Parenting” don’t just say “parenting” but be more specific with “stress free parenting” when adding your link to the meme.
  4. Connect with other likeminded bloggers on Facebook and/or Twitter – Social media is so popular right and specific types of people tend to spend more time one social media site than the others.  For Faithful Bloggers, I have found that I get a better response from Facebook than Twitter, so I focus my time connecting with others on site rather than other social media sites.

Of course these are just a few of the different ways you can promote your blog and not all of them maybe for you.  This is where testing comes into play.  Test! Test! And Test!  See what works for you and your blog and repeat.

Posts We Love – Edition #14

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Every Friday I post links to some posts that I recently read and loved. You can also leave links to any posts you loved too. If a post stands out to you, encourages you, teaches you, let us know about it. Leave a comment with a link to the post so that we can visit, leave a comment, and show some social love.

Here are some posts I enjoyed this past week:

I have also created a Tumblr blog, Posts We Love, where I will link all the posts I come across that I love. If you have a Tumblr account and would like to be a member of that blog and submit posts as well, just shoot me an email with your email address and I'll add you as a member. Every Friday, I will add some of the links from the Tumbr blog to the Posts We Love edition here on Faithful Bloggers.

Back to the Basics – The Time Commitment

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No matter why you blog, one thing is certain, blogging takes time.  So before you even start a blog you need to take a look at your life and determine just how much time you are willing to commitment to your blog. When I first started blogging I was blindsided by how much time it took to run a blog and, of course, as your traffic and readership increase the amount of time required increases as well.

So when you make your plan for your blog keep these things in mind and try to estimate how much time each of these tasks is going to take you.

  1. Creating Blog Post – For me creating posts is the most time consuming blogging activity for me but that might not be the case for you.  Keep in mind that a post might need research, recording of a video or audio, searching for images to use in the post, and proofreading and editing.  I give myself a least an hour to create a blog post and sometimes more depending on the topic.
  2. Marketing – If you want people to find your blog you have to do some sort of marketing.  Marketing can include promoting your blog on Facebook and Twitter, commenting on other blogs, writing guest blog posts, and participating in blog carnivals or memes.  All these things take time.  I spend about 30 to 45 minutes a day on marketing.
  3. Responding to comments – To create a sense of community on your blog you should respond to any comments left.  It shows your readers that you really do care about what they have to say.  I have to admit I’ve been dropping the ball on this and haven’t been doing so here on Faithful Bloggers.  When I was responding to comments regularly, I was spending 15-20 minutes doing so.
  4. Responding to emails – While you may not get many emails in the beginning, the longer your blog the more emails you will get.  I’ve found it best to set aside time to devote solely to email.  In the beginning you may only need to devote 5 minutes, but I devote about 30 minutes a day.
  5. Maintenance and blog upkeep – Depending if you are technically savvy or not, maintenance and upkeep can take up a lot of time.  You want your blog to be spam and virus free.  You want to keep your blogging software up-to-date to prevent hackers from gaining access, and you want your blog appearance to stay nice and not too cluttered.  I spend about 15-20 minutes a day on maintenance and upkeep.

On average I spend about 3 hours working on a blog.  That may not sound like a lot, but that’s 3 hours away from my family and household obligations.  That’s 3 hours I won’t get back so I have to make sure I use those hours wisely.  And I’ll be honest, sometimes I spend less time and sometimes I spend a lot more time working on the blog.  It all just depends what is going on that day for me.

The point is to be aware of amount of time you will have to commitment to your blog before starting and determine what you are willing to give up for that time.  For me, I give up free time to get some work done when my kids are napping and I give up some sleep to get work done before the kids wake in the morning and after the kids go to bed.

It’s important to know just how much time you are willing to commit to and to stick to it.  It’s easy to let it get out of control especially in the beginning, been there, done that, and it wasn’t fun.