Month / September 2015

by Ricardo Sanchez

How To Drive Traffic To Your Blog and Avoid Writer’s Block

Writing is not easy and there is always room for improvement. Attracting an audience is also hard and it takes time. Here are some of the things that have worked for me in the past few years, I hope they can be useful for you too.

  1. Focus on longform articles. People are starting to get overwhelmed with the shortform content abundant in social media. Finding well-written long-form articles is becoming a rarity and so it is becoming scarce and thus valuable.
  2. Use tools to improve your writing. Applications like the Hemingway Editor can help your writing to be more readable. Grammar and spell-checking only go so far, you want your posts to be easy to read and understand.
  3. Write about topics that can stand the test of time. Your posts should be relevant today and 5 years from now. Avoid writing about the hot/popular topics of the day. Also, if your blog platform and/or theme allows it, remove the date from your posts and URLs.
  4. Write for you and not an audience. If what you write is good for you, it will be for other people. This is also a great way to get over writer’s block. Most of my blog posts are a way for me to learn and remember what I’ve learned. Reading and taking notes about specific items you find interesting can also give you an abundant source of things to write about.
  5. Take part in popular blogs and websites by adding smart comments and points of view. Make sure your blog address is part of your profile. People do notice when someone has smart things to say or unique point of views. And, they’ll want to know more about you and your own writing as well.

Hope this is useful to you. If you like this article please subscribe to my newsletter and share it with your friends.

by Ricardo Sanchez

Identify Bad Habits and Create Not-To-Do Lists

There are many to-do lists out there describing what you should do to be more productive. There are many techniques you can follow and tools you can use to be more productive. Yet, the easiest way to gain focus and get things done is to avoid certain things. Below is a list of things you should stop doing that will help you be more productive.

Sometimes is hard to follow to-do lists, too much to do! but not-to-do lists are usually smaller and easier to follow. It allows you to identify bad habits and then spend more time doing productive things. Continue reading →

by Ricardo Sanchez

Ingest Good Books and Avoid Junk Media

The majority of us know the benefit of eating well and avoiding junk food. And yet, we go on and consume junk media instead of ingesting healthy information such as books. Why?

Bad habits and easy-to-digest nuggets of junk information are to blame. We are a society that enjoys instant gratification and quick access to interesting news. We consume information that entertain us and not inform us or educate us about much of anything. Continue reading →

Computer desk
by Ricardo Sanchez

Tips for Remote Employees and their Peers

Working as a remote employee for almost a year, I have been observing some common behaviors that can make the communication between remote employees and their peers either great or very challenging. Here are some tips based on my own experience, and while the bonus tip at the bottom of the post sounds a bit unimportant, believe me, it happens more often than you can imagine so I provided some screen-shots and solutions to the question “How to unmute myself?

Here are some tips for both remote employees and their peers.

Be considerate

  • If a meeting changes, or you cannot make it, cancel or decline at least 24 hours in advance. When you are a remote worker, planning and being ready for a meeting sometimes might take a little more than just attending. Be considerate and make sure you communicate well in advance of any changes to any scheduled meetings.
  • Have a goal for the meeting and be clear as to what your expectations for the meeting are. Attending a meeting without a clear vision about the meeting’s goal or what your contribution to it is, can be very frustrating. This sometimes causes people to feel frustrated and be lost during the meeting.
  • Start on time. Whoever is organizing or hosting the meeting should setup the conference call or video conference before the meeting starts. Everyone else should show up on time.
  • Be aware of time zones. This is one item that we must not forget when working with a remote team, try to setup meetings during mutually workable hours.
Continue reading →