Tag Archive for: blogging

Being a Better Blogger: One Thing at a Time

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Last week, we talked about being a better blogger through focus. This week, let’s talk about something that I’m struggling with even as I type: doing one thing at a time.

It’s no surprise that as I was looking for an image to go with this post, the word “multitasking” seemed synonymous with “stress.”

There’s a reason for that, and if I sit down for more than two minutes at a time, it’s clear why: I can’t get anything done when I’m multitasking!

Yeah, yeah, I know. Juggling is part of my vocation and part of who we are as a people. What I’m talking about here is a certain kind of multitasking, the kind that forgets my core purpose and reason.

I posit, though, that in our blogging, we need to concentrate on one thing at a time. You can drive yourself batty trying to build a perfect and complete blog all in one hour, one day, or one week.

Here are some of the “one things” I’ve considered over time on my blog:
– quality of writing
– guest posts
– linking to others
– design
– ease of use
– interacting with readers

Is it more important to do them all, or to do them well? It is a quality vs. quantity question, and both answers are correct.

For your sanity, I suggest you focus on one thing at a time. You’ll get to a point in your blogging, down the road, where you’ll be doing everything at the same time and you’ll be doing them well.

What’s your first goal? Great. Do that. Do it well.

When you’ve done it, ask yourself what’s next. Do that, and do it well.

Repeat. You may find that you are going back to revisit earlier goals…and that would make you normal.

Pretty soon, the package comes together. It may take hours, or days, or weeks, or months, or, for some of us, years. With time, it gets easier to juggle more than one task in the blogosphere. At the beginning, do one thing at a time.

As you get more comfortable with blogging, you’ll find yourself revisiting things. Just like the laundry, some of these things are never really done. For example, your design might need some attention, and you work on that this week. Then you move on to focus on some categories and then on to another goal. In a few months, you find yourself revisiting your design.

So what’s the one thing you’re going to focus on this week?
image source: Kylie Makes 3

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Sarah Reinhard is the author of Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent and Christmas Reflections for Families. You’ll find more of Sarah at her blog, SnoringScholar.com. You can also connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Being a Better Blogger: Focus

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A couple of weeks ago, I asked if you were making yourself a better blogger. In the comments, there was a resounding call for “tell us how to be better bloggers!”

So here I am. I’m not sure I’m the right person to do it, but I’ll tell you what I think. Just because I’ve lasted as a Catholic blogger for over five years and 2,400 posts doesn’t mean I know what the heck I’m doing any more than you do.

But that does make a point: you have to stick with it. For longer than a week or a month or even a year.

Let’s talk about focus.

I don’t mean picking a category or description for your blog (i.e., Mommy blog, Catholic apologist, life on a farm). I don’t mean setting aside certain days for themed posts (i.e., Mary on Monday, Wordless Wednesday, 7 Quick Takes Friday).

Those things might help you, and if they do, GREAT! DO THEM!

By focus, I mean setting your sights on the long view.

Ten years ago, when I was a newly-minted Catholic, a DRE convinced me to serve as a catechist. Then she shared this quote at the catechist meeting. I think it holds just as true for me as a blogger as it did for me as a catechist.

It helps, now and then, to take the long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are all about.

We plant seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter

and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

Archbishop Oscar Romero


FOCUS.

It’s easy to get burned out in this new media world, especially as it gets crowded with more good stuff. It’s easy to feel discouraged by the fact that you’re putting a piece of yourself out there for people to see and they don’t comment.

Does it help you to think about who your audience is? Or does that distract you from doing what you opened that blogging window for in the first place? (That’s writing a blog post, and then writing another one, and another, and on and on.)

Do you find yourself inspired by someone else? What do they do well? How might you put their underlying practices to use?

What’s your passion? What interests you? What do you know about, or wonder about, or think about?

Want to hear what others have to say about it? I found these articles interesting, and if you’re struggling with blogging and focus, give them a read:

YOUR TURN: Let’s talk about focus.
How do you use focus?
How can you use it to help yourself grow as a blogger?
What further questions does this inspire?

I find that focus is a version of Dory from Finding Nemo, singing “Keep on posting, keep on posting…”

RELATED:

image credit: The Fordyce Letter

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Sarah Reinhard is the author of Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent and Christmas Reflections for Families. You’ll find more of Sarah at her blog, SnoringScholar.com. You can also connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Are you making yourself a better blogger?

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I blame this weekly column for the folder in my Google Reader entitled “Blogging.” Before this column, I operated mostly by observation, relying on some of my favorite podcasts and blogs to keep me filled in on the geeky stuff I should know.

Now, however, I have hundreds of blogging columns to read.

That’s one way I try to make myself a better blogger. I haven’t been able to read very many of any blogs lately (much to my chagrin–I miss them!), but when I do, I try to skim through some from my blogging folder.

Among the feeds I follow are Copyblogger, Daily Blog Tips, ProBlogger, and Two Hour Blogger. I don’t read every single thing they write (though I’d like to), but I zip through and read the titles that catch my eye (or I read nothing, if I’m in the kind of whirlwind I’ve been in lately).

I’d love to hear what you have to say about this. What do you do to make yourself a better blogger?

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Sarah Reinhard is the author of Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent and Christmas Reflections for Families. You’ll find more of Sarah at her blog, SnoringScholar.com. You can also connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Lack of Sleep = Lack of Blogging

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There’s nothing like a night of no sleep to put life firmly “in the way” of my blogging and writing, let me tell ya!

My answer to that this week was to put up a “out of office” post and just forgive myself…and try to appreciate the lack of screaming, thanks to the miracle of modern medicine now that the ear infection has been identified as such.

In other, more useful, news, I’ve had some success, in the last two weeks, with a daily email with a writing accountability partner. We thought about posting that dialogue here, but decided it might be too much.

So that’s my useful tip this week: find a writing accountability partner…and if it’s someone who writes and shares some similarities with you in your station in life, all the better. If you’re looking for someone, you might check out the forums at the Catholic Writers Guild website.



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Sarah Reinhard is the author of Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent and Christmas Reflections for Families. You’ll find more of Sarah at her blog, SnoringScholar.com. You can also connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Readability Tool Success and Mobile Posting Fail

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First, something helpful…

This came to mind when, during a class last week at the conference, someone mentioned reading level and being appropriate for your audience (specifically children in a certain age range).

Did you know you can paste your text into an online tool that will test your document’s readability? Check it out here, with many thanks to an editor of mine who shared it with me about a year ago. The same editor also shared this website with me, and it explains fluency and reading levels in more detail.

You might wonder what that has to do with blogging, and I’ll tell you: in my world, everything has to do with blogging. 🙂 The truth, though, is that we can easily write over our audience’s heads without much thought, especially when we’re talking faith and theology and stuff that’s technical.

There’s also the fact that I have found myself writing for children (my current title is one example), though I never intended to be a children’s writer. (God has a sense of humor, after all.)

Second, a frustration that could have been cool…

There’s an option for mobile posting on Blogger (which is what we use right now for the CWG blog). I enabled it, entered my mobile number, and took the 20 minutes to type out a post on my phone’s teeny-tiny screen last Friday afternoon.

Turns out, it doesn’t quite work, at least not with my (non smart) phone. Oh well…it would have been SO COOL to be able to share things on-the-go via texting. It’s not to be (and it’s probably just as well…for you!).

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Sarah Reinhard is the author of Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent and Christmas Reflections for Families. You’ll find more of Sarah at her blog, SnoringScholar.com. You can also connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.

A Resource for New Media Users

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Last week at the CWCL, I received quite a few questions regarding new media. They seemed to stem around these themes:

  • What is it?
  • Why should I use it?
  • How does it work?

I watched people take notes on what “backlinking” meant and how to “schedule a post.”

We’re a group of writers here, but I do think there is a place for discussion about new media. The number of people who approach me about it, asking for help and guidance, is growing. There is a discernment process for deciding whether any of this is right for you, but the trend leads, more and more, to writers being online and having a presence.

Today at my blog, I have a review of The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet, by Brandon Vogt. It’s an excellent resource for anyone and it examines the use of new media in light of our faith. Check out the website as well for more about the book and some nifty features.

I mention it here as something that could serve you in your writing and in your interactions with new media.

I’ll be tackling some of the questions I’ve received in upcoming columns. If you have anything related to blogging or new media that you’re wondering about, feel free to leave them in the comments here.

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Be sure to check SnoringScholar.com for more of Sarah Reinhard’s antics, tales of rural adventure, and writing updates. Her newest release is Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent & Christmas Reflections for Families. You can also connect with Sarah on Twitter and Facebook.

Quantity versus Quality in Blogging

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At the blogging panel at the Catholic Writers Conference Live, a participant raised a great question: Is it better to focus on quantity of posts or quality of writing for blog posts?

We could go around and around about this question. I can’t help but think of the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg.

I think, really, this is something you have to decide.

Recently, someone told me, in a pretty offhand way, that no one’s ever discovered by their blog. So, really, it’s something you do for yourself, right?

Here’s my experience. The first acquisitions editor I spoke with, from Pauline Books, cited my blog as a way she found me AND a reason why she thought I’d be the right person for their project (which you’ll see in March 2012). The second acquisitions editor I worked with, from Liguori, cited my blog as a way of knowing who I was. The third acquisitions editor, from Ave Maria Press, … well, you see where this is going, right? She had been following my blog (as well as Facebook and Twitter) for quite some time before contacting me.

Could this be true for you?

When you put yourself “out there” on the internet, you are sharing a part of yourself. Just as you take time to make sure you are presentable for in-person meetings, you should do the same in your online presence.

I haven’t really answered the question, though. Should you write more often or write better stuff? Here’s my three-pronged answer:

1. Find a posting schedule that works for you. If it’s weekly, fine: make sure you stick with it. (Weekly bloggers are a gift, in many ways, to those of us who follow a lot of blogs.) If it’s three times a week, fine: same advice as above. If it’s sporadically, well, so be it.

2. Don’t put any writing out there that you wouldn’t want an acquisitions editor to read, but don’t let the thought of your audience bind you and keep you from being able to write. I think there’s more forgiveness with online writing than with print, BUT that’s no reason not to write quality stuff. Practice makes perfect, right? So use your blogging space to practice. Don’t get so caught up in “perfect” that you can’t ever post.

3. Have fun. We’ve talked before about reasons you might not want to maintain a blog, but if you don’t have passion for what you’re writing–whether it’s online or off–that will come through. Fun doesn’t mean “easy” and it doesn’t always mean “enjoyable all the time.” I have fun as a parent (which I still find surprising), but it’s not easy work or even always smile-inducing.

What’s your take on this topic? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments!

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Be sure to check SnoringScholar.com for more of Sarah Reinhard’s antics, tales of rural adventure, and writing updates. Her newest release is Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent & Christmas Reflections for Families. You can also connect with Sarah on Twitter and Facebook.

To Blog or to Guest Post

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Among the things that came up during the blogging panel of the Catholic Writers Conference Live last week was the subject of guest posting.

One of my favorite authors shared with me after the session that she’s really struggling with blogging. She has REAL writing commitments, paying gigs. Blogging is a distraction, in many ways, from the work she needs to get done.

On the other way, as she pointed out to me, it helps keep her in touch with her readers in between books.

A few months ago, I was a loud proponent of her beginning a blog. (What can I say? I’m a fangirl!) Now, after talking with her and considering her situation, I’m not so sure.

Guest Posting Options

Guest posting is a real option and even an alternative to blogging. In fact, I offer it to anyone who’s interested and can think of a good topic to share at my place: come on over and guest post. I’ve had a number of interesting folks in the past, and I’m happy to share my space with others. Email me!

Lisa Hendey also offered CatholicMom.com to those interested: you can be a regular columnist or write guest posts there as well. You just need to contact her.

I haven’t talked to our Blog Editor here, but I’m quite sure the Catholic Writers Guild blog could always use more guest content as well…so check out the schedule and contact the appropriate person.

Benefits of Guest Posting (whether or not you blog)

1. It gets you exposed to a different audience, or, if you’re not a blogger, to an online audience.

2. It’s a win-win, in many ways. The blogger gets good content; you get a chance to tap into their audience.

3. It might stretch you to write in a different way, for a new subject, or for a set of people you might not have a chance to connect with otherwise.

Should You Blog?



I can’t answer that for you. There’s a discernment that has to happen…but I can point you to a discussion we had before and offer my one-on-one advice.

What’s your take on this? Do you have a preference or a way you approach guest posting?

Related posts:

– To Blog or Not to Blog

– Coming Up with Blogging Content

– Blogger’s Block

image from Abnormal Marketing

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Be sure to check SnoringScholar.com for more of Sarah Reinhard’s antics, tales of rural adventure, and writing updates. Her newest release is Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent & Christmas Reflections for Families. You can also connect with Sarah on Twitter and Facebook.

Links from the Blogging Panel Workshop

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One thing I love to do when I speak about blogging is to send a piece of paper around the room and collect everyone’s blog links and then SHARE THEM. This goes along with the generosity I believe we should all have with our online space (within reason).

This list includes everyone who filled out the page I sent around the room as I moderated the panel. I’ll list our panelists first:

Now, for those who participated:

Thanks to everyone for your wonderful participation in the panel! I hope we can expand it in coming years and continue to connect.

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Be sure to check SnoringScholar.com for more of Sarah Reinhard’s antics, tales of rural adventure, and writing updates. Her newest release is Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent & Christmas Reflections for Families. You can also connect with Sarah on Twitter and Facebook.

Is Your Blog Mobile?

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I was scanning through my blogging feeds in Google Reader the other day when I found this article, “5 Ways to Make Your Blog Available on the iPhone.”

I’m not a smartphone user, so maybe that’s how this never occurred to me before. I also read blogs primarily through a feed reader, so that’s certainly part of my blind spot.

When I read this article, though, I knew what I had to do.

I had to make my blog available on the iPhone! Now!

As it turns out, it took about two minutes to install the WordPress plug-in and activate it. I grabbed my husband’s phone and checked, and there was my blog, newly mobilized.

Next on my “things to do when I should be writing” list is to make my own blog icon…

If you have any tips or tricks for making a blog mobile, I’d love to hear them in the comments. Questions welcome, too!

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Sarah Reinhard is a Catholic wife, mom, blogger, reader, and farm girl who blogs at SnoringScholar.com. She is the author of Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent & Christmas Reflections for Families. Connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.

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