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Tips | Becoming A More Consistent Blogger
One of the hardest things to do as a blogger, is to remain consistent throughout. When I first began blogging back in 2009 I was firing out posts after posts on a daily basis. As time went on that frequency dropped back, and these days I’m taking a much more of a relaxed attitude towards creating content and writing only a few times per week, which means I get to focus more on quality rather than quantity.
Regardless whether you blog once a week or multiple times per week, becoming a more consistent blogger requires a lot of hard work and some carefully devised strategies. Here are 5 of these strategies to help you towards becoming a more consistent blogger.
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How to Become a More Consistent Blogger
1. Create a list of post topic ideas
If you’re passionate about the main topic you blog about, i.e. Technology or making money online etc, you should never run out of post ideas. Having said that it’s always a good idea to have a list of post ideas at hand to pick from.
Thankfully most of us will have a Smartphone of some kind, so if you’re out and about and think of something cool to add to your list of post ideas; you can use your Smartphone to do it. A notebook and pen will do the job just the same.
Personally I usually come up with post ideas whilst I’m driving somewhere, as I’m thinking about my blog and usually what to write about next, or if I’m listening to a podcast presentation, an idea will spin off into my head and I’ll need to write it down, but since I’m driving this is impossible, so I’ll use my iPhone’s Siri function to add my idea to my memo.
So strategy number one: Create a list of post topic ideas.
2. Create ‘series type’ posts
A small misconception with blogging is thinking that you have to write everything about a particular topic in a single post. That’s not true at all; you can actually break your content down into mini series or parts.
I do believe long pillar posts are good, but why would anyone sit and read a 2,500 word long post, I certainly wouldn’t, people that consume content on the web are usually ‘on the go’ these days (consuming content on mobile devices), so keep some of your posts short and sweet, and consider creating mini series type posts instead of long ones.
3. Have a well organized ‘blogging editorial schedule’
Creating a ‘blogging schedule’ is essential if you want to become a more consistent blogger for sure. Use a calendar (Google Calendar is perfect) to plan out and schedule your posts for going live throughout the week. If you plan to write three times per week and post Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, ensure that you fill your calendar with what ever posts you have available for going live on these days.
4. Use a variety of post formats
One of my favorite things to do is to vary post formats. Varying post formats always provides something fresh and new for your readers to read. Here is a list of post formats and structure you might want to consider using.
- Top 10 lists
- ‘How to’ posts
- Case studies
- Series posts
- Podcast with show notes
- Video posts
- Review posts
- Cornerstone content posts
- Blog contests
- Interviews
- News type posts
5. Outsource to experts
Lastly but not least, when you really don’t have anything to schedule in your calendar or you’re planning to be away from your blog for a while (like Abhi 
), get some help from other neighboring bloggers in your niche, which is why building relationships is important in blogging.
), get some help from other neighboring bloggers in your niche, which is why building relationships is important in blogging.
Guest posts are a great addition for adding frequent fresh content to your blog. Moreover it’s also a great way to add content that offers a totally ‘different perspective’ on certain topics.
So there it is troops, 5 simple strategies for helping you achieve the status of becoming a more consistent blogger, and as always I’d love to gear your thoughts on my suggestions. Leave me a comment below.
Until next time, keep working hard!
Make Your IOS Devices More Kid-Friendly And Child-Safe
Kids born into the tablet generation are exposed to more gadgets, devices and Internet tools than any other generation before theirs. Toddlers can navigate their way in a mobile device like a duck takes to water but they have little to no way of knowing how to be responsible with what they do to the contents of tablets and smartphones.
Here are 5 tricks you can turn your iOS devices kid-friendly (applicable for iOS 6 and above).
1. Block In-App Purchases
If you have a lot of games on your iOS devices (who doesn’t?) you will need this. With your credit card linked to your Apple ID, you really don’t want to make a purchase as easy as tapping a button, especially when the person tapping it does not understand what a ‘purchase’ means.
To block in-app purchases:
- Tap on Settings > General > Restrictions.
- If this is your first time using restrictions feature, tap on Enable Restrictions.
- You will be asked to set a 4-digit passcode. Enter the passcode twice for confirmation.
- Scroll down until you see the ‘Allowed Content’ section.
- Under ‘In-App Purchases’ toggle it OFF.
Future purchases will require the use of the passcode you have just set to proceed.
2. Disable ITunes, Installing & Deleting Apps
If you are afraid that your kids might accidentally delete off some of your apps or download paid apps without you knowing, you can avoid that disabling this feature under iTunes.
To disable app installation and/or deletion:
- Go to Settings > General > Restrictions.
- Under Allow, turn OFF iTunes.
- Turn OFF Installing Apps and/or Deleting Apps.
When you turn all 3 features, the icon for iTunes and App Store will disappear from your home screen, thus making the feature inaccessible.
3. Disable Safari And Protect Data
To make your device more kid-friendly, you can disable more features under the Restrictionsoption. You can toggle OFF Safari, so that your kid can’t visit any website via the browser while they are on the device.
To protect data inside your Mail, Contacts and Calendars, under the ‘Accounts’ section, set your accounts settings to ‘Don’t Allow Changes‘.
4. Set Up YouTube Account
YouTube has a lot of great content for kids and is a favorite place for kids to find animation, music, videos and the likes online. It is best to set up an account for your child. From there, you can make a video playlist of content you think are suitable for their consumption. This will also protect your own playlist from being unintentionally tampered with.
As an added step, before handing the device to the kids to watch, enable Guided Access, so you can disable other parts of the screen to make sure they can’t leave the YouTube app, and wander elsewhere unsupervised.
5. Create ITunes Account
Not only can you give them a YouTube account, you can also create an iTunes account in their name. Then, you can either set an allowance for their app purchases, or gift them the app. With this you can control and monitor what they spend on in iTunes
For children who are more mature with their activities online, this is also a good way to allow them to manage their own set of apps, without a credit card linked to the account. Note that if you are sharing a device with your kid, you will need to swap between accounts.
Summary
The tricks listed above are not foolproof especially against tech savvy kids who will undoubtedly one day outdo you when it comes to handling gadgets and mobile devices. So if the abovementioned methods do not work, you can always fall back on getting them to seek for your permission before they do anything on your devices.
Do note however that keeping your gadgets in working order is not as important as regularlychecking in on your child‘s activities online. Keeping an open communication style allows them to speak to an adult if they have questions, or whenever that need arises.
What about you? What are your methods in handling gadgets around users of much younger ages?
Tabbed Browsing And More Finder Shortcuts With Xtrafinder [Mac]
The incoming Mac OS X Mavericks has a few features that we’re very excited about. One of them is the ability to have multiple tabs in one Finder window. Tabs work great on web browsers, and on the PC you can have tabbed browsing on Windows Explorer with Clover.
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However, if you cannot wait for Mavericks to officially launch (some time late October), try outXtraFinder for the time being. Not only can you start tabbing, there are also plenty of keyboard shortcuts that will turn you more productive.
Setting Up XtraFinder
First, download and install XtraFinder, supported on Mac OS X 10.6.8 to 10.9. Upon launching XtraFinder from your Applications folder, you will be greeted with lots of configurable options.
Some notable features are enabling Middle-click to open folder in new tab, backspace to go back, and show Go Up button in the toolbar that lets you go up one folder in the tree.
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You can also enable dual panel Finders to quickly move and compare files in 2 folders. (The keyboard shortcut is Command + U).
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XtraFinder Keyboard Shortcuts
XtraFinder also supports keyboard shortcuts that you can customize. If a shortcut is not something you would use, you can fully disable it so it doesn’t get in the way of your work. Otherwise, you can replace the same key combination to trigger another useful shortcut.
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Keyboard Shortcuts
Here are these default keyboard shortcuts.
Shortcuts Descriptions
Command + W Close current Finder tab.
Command + N Open new Finder window
Command + U Enable dual panel.
Command + Shift +T Re-open last Finder tab.
Command + Shift + W Close all Finder tabs.
Control + Tab Switch to next tab.
Control + Shift + W Switch to previous tab.
More XtraFinder Tips
Here are a few more tips to become an expert XtraFinder user.
Clicking
- Middle click on tab to close tab.
- Right click on tab to navigate folder tree.
- Double click on tab to enable/disable dual panel with following tab.
Dragging
- Dragging folders to tab bar opens it in new tab.
- Dragging folders or files to a tab moves it to the tab’s folder.
- Dragging tabs out of tab bar opens it in new Finder window.
- Dragging tabs from one Finder window to another merges it to the tab bar.
Conclusion
Navigating with keyboard shortcuts and tabs feels natural, especially when it’s the same keyboard combination we’re all used to when surfing on a web browser. It’ll be great to see XtraFinder with a bookmarks bar feature like what Clover offers Windows. However, while we wait to update to Mavericks, XtraFinder is the best temporary solution for a tabbed Finder for Mac.
