You are a busy parent, leading a busy life, and also trying to start an online business. You are insanely busy. Yeah, yeah yeah, we get it.
Unfortunately, your audience doesn’t give a damn.
Look, you signed up for this gig. You invited all these wonderful folks to listen to you spout off about all the wonderful things you know. You put all of these fancy social sharing icons on your site. You wired up an email list and started collecting people’s inbox details. You posted a few blog posts out there that happened to strike a nerve.
Well, now they are sitting patiently waiting for more of your wisdom.
You have two significant problems on your hands.
- They won’t wait long
- You need to push more content.
By addressing number 2, you win number 1. So, let’s get to it. Let’s find some margin in your life where you can spit out a few more blog posts for your hungry audience.
Here are 7 unconventional ways to generate more content.
1. The Field of Dreams Approach
If you have kids that are over 7 years old, there’s a pretty good chance you spend a significant amount of time at various practices. This includes everything from soccer practice to piano lessons.
These practices are actually a gift!
Now before you click away because I’m obviously delusional, hear me out. What happens when you go to their practice? You typically sit in your car, or some unGodly uncomfortable bleachers, aimlessly watching said practice.
Instead of simply watching the practice, or staring off into the pretty blue sky, spend a few moments working on your blog. This is prime time within your busy day. You are being afforded a period of 1-1.5 hours of time where you can literally sit in one spot and do what you want.
Practice time will turn into the most productive time of your week!
2. The Blogging While Driving Approach
Work on your blog while driving!
Ok, I don’t mean literally when you are driving as that would be frowned upon by society and you don’t want that.
But, if you are at a stop light, quickly type up a blog topic or outline into Evernote while you wait for the light to change. I know some people will blast me for this recommendation but come on…everyone is on their phone at the stop light. At least make it more useful than checking Facebook. And of course put the phone away when the light turns green. 🙂
Oh, another hack you can try is speaking your blog post into your phone. The best option here would be to use a headset to ensure you are still paying attention to the road and your hands are engaged.
Go to Evernote, or even the notes app on your phone, hit the microphone button, and start talking. The speech to text feature will capture everything you need. After you arrive at your destination and are ready to publish, simply proofread the content, correct any errors, and hit publish. Fini!
A blog post will never seem so easy.
3. The Greazy Keyboard Approach
You work a full time job. The nerve of your employer sidetracking your impending blog fame and fortune by making you work! How in the world will you spend any time building your side business if you have to work all damn day?
Lunch!
That’s right. Lunch is your time. You can do what you please during lunch. For the sake of your online business, spend at least a portion of that lunch working on your content.
Just make sure you have plenty of napkins.
4. A Beer and a Blog Approach
You like to watch sports. I like to watch sports. It shouldn’t be complete downtime though.
We are advanced humans. We can walk and text at the same time for goodness sakes! So don’t be a slouch when the game is on.
Watching a game and working on your blog are perfect together. Especially if your sport of choice is baseball. You have nothing else to do during a baseball game but to work on your business. What a yawner.
Next time the game is on, try to spend a little time working on the blog too. Plant your laptop in front of you and do a little work while the refs are figuring out how to screw up the game. Do a little work during the commercials. Do a little work during the entire baseball game…ok, I’ll stop with the baseball hate.
The point is, multi-task and get a little work done while you enjoy the game.
5. The For the Love of God Please Don’t Sit Next to Me Approach
Millions of Americans commute every day to the office. If you are one of those lucky individuals you might spend a little more time than you’d like on a bus, train, or other form of transportation.
While the surroundings may not be ideal, the time allotted is golden!
Instead of looking desperately out of the window, or acting like you are reading the posters surrounding you, spend a little time on your blog. Instead of working on that crossword puzzle or fighting with that Sudoku thingamajig, work on your business!
You’ll be amazed at the amount you can get done on a daily basis when you start to repurpose some of that commute time. Oh, and bring some headphones so the smelly guy next to you doesn’t ask you what a blog is.
6. The Mile High Club Approach
Ok, ok, get your mind out of the gutter. The mile high club is for those folks that blog when they fly.
A large number of us will fly during the course of the year. This presents a prime opportunity for you to knock out some of your side business tasks.
After all, there are only so many times you can read the airplane magazine. And, they took away the fun of SkyMall!
You might as well spend some time using your minimal space to conjure up some killer content.
7. The Precious Cargo Approach (a.k.a the Nobody Move Nobody Gets Hurt Approach)
If you are parent of an infant or young toddler, there’s a very good chance they have fallen asleep on some part of your body or within striking distance. This could be draped over your shoulder, nestled in your lap, or laying directly beside you.
You know as well as me that you are going to be there for awhile. You cannot, under any circumstances, make a significant move in any one direction. Otherwise, the kid wakes up and you start the bouncing, patting, and shushing all over again.
Be prepared the next time you start to put them to sleep and have your devices at the ready. As soon as mini-me falls into that deep slumber, make sure you keep them dreaming by serenading them with the tickling of your keyboard. Bust out some new content before they bust out with their next spine-tingling shrill signifying they are awake and ready to raise hell.
There you have it. Seven unconventional ways you can create content when you thought you had no time. The message to you is this…everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. Start to use your hours in a more productive manner and you will start to see results. You don’t have to use every spare moment building your online platform but you should at least look around form time to time to see if you might be able to use your current situation a little bit better.
I’d love to hear some of the strange times you generate content. Feel free to add yours to the comments below.
