How to Grow a Spectacular Blog Even if You Have A Day Job

People are often surprised to hear that I have a “day-job”

Yep, Pushing Social is my “second” job. After working eight hours, I come home, hang out with the family, and then write, plan, and scheme for several hours every night. I have been doing this for the last two years. As Pushing Social has grown so has my time commitment.

While attending Social Slam, I discovered that many people are Moonlight Bloggers. They split their time between a career that feeds their family and a blog that feeds their soul. Sometimes the two goals overlap and at other times they don’t. The common denominator is that everyone is working their tail off.

Since I’ve started Pushing Social, I’ve been filling a notebook with little tips and tricks I use to manage being both Peter Parker and Spiderman.

My grab bag of techniques is split between 5 Moonlight Blogger “Challenge” areas:

Time Management:

Moonlight Bloggers work hard all day from 7am to 11pm. Every minute is squeezed for maximum productivity and quality. I talked a little about how I manage my time in a recent post. I have a lot more that I want to share.

Productivity:

Getting Things Done, To-Do Lists, priority lists, I’ve tried them all. I’ve learned that productivity is blend of passion, energy, and focus. If you have all three then you will be productive. The trick is increasing your passion, energy, and focus and finding balance among all three.

Tools:

The right tool is a force multiplier that creates exponential value from one activity. I’ve tested, discarded, and implemented dozens of tools that make blogging easy and fun. It’s easy to get lost in the expanding jungle of apps, websites, and gadgets. I can help you navigate this jungle and find the tools that are best for you.

Creativity:

I’m “left-brained” to the core. I love language and logic. The challenge is that successful blogging is a mix of logic and imagination. Over the years, I’ve learned ways to hack into my right-brain when I need a burst of inspiration and creativity. I’ve also worked with right-brain savants that need ways to organize their fantastic creative powers. So I’ve reverse engineered my hacks to help creatives organize and implement their blogs.

Balance:

I’m not wired to be calm and balanced. I’m a classic Type-A professional that loves a shot of adrenaline with my morning coffee. On the other hand, frantic multitasking, creating chaos, and disorganization annoys the piss out of me. I’ve had to learn how to balance time management, productivity, tools, and creativity into a system that yields results quickly.

Here’s the deal. Up until now, I’ve been hoarding all of my tricks and tips to myself.

It’s time to share them with you.

The Moonlight Blogger Series:

For the next 5 weeks, I’ll show you what I’ve discovered. These posts will be a mixture of podcasts, blogs, and videos (when I find a quiet moment…tough to do with three boys).

I want to make this series as powerful and effective as possible, so I need your help. Take a moment to share two things with me:

1. Which area you have the most trouble with and
2. How much time you have to blog every day.

Your answers will help me zero in on the information that will be most helpful for you.

Let’s get started.

{Image credit: NotoriousJEN}