Hi there, I’m Kate and I’m a creative consultant at Clear Creative Consulting where I help bloggers develop the tools and confidence they need to blog with passion and ease.

The most common complaint I have heard during my time as a consultant is that bloggers feel they simply do not have the time they need to do all they want to do. While it is true that life’s responsibilities can sometimes get in the way of your blogging endeavors, there are ways you can regain control of even your busiest week, simply by making the most of your time. By practicing the following tips, you can build new habits that help you use the time you have now to create more time for yourself later.

Set Realistic Priorities

Trying to do and have it all, at at once, is the quickest way to reach burnout. However, when you set realistic priorities and create do-able deadlines, you set yourself up for success. At the beginning of each day, I set three main tasks as my focus. There may be other things I need to get done, but I only choose the three most important ones to tackle first. With such a clear focus for my day, I am most often able to accomplish these tasks easily and move on to others. Prioritizing in this way encourages me to use my time more wisely, instead of endlessly shuffling from one task to another.

Find Your Productivity Window

Every person has a part of the day that I call the “productivity window.” Your productivity window is the timeframe during the day when you think most clearly, feel most awake, and do your best work. I have found that my productivity window is in the morning and begins about an hour after I’ve woken up. If you don’t know when you work best during the day, you may be working at off hours and this can really harm your ability to get things done as efficiently as possible. Take note throughout each day of how you feel and how well you focus in order to determine where your productivity window lies. Hopefully your life schedule allows you the luxury of taking care of your priorities during your most productive hours.

Take Time To Schedule

The work of keeping up with blogging and all its related responsibilities can feel like a burden when you aren’t making the most of your time, but there are many things you can do to alleviate the burden and make it feel more fun. Batch scheduling (writing multiple posts to schedule ahead of time) and keeping post drafts on hand are both great things to do when you have time and are feeling productive. If you feel like you don’t have time to write extra posts for your blog, consider taking a break from your current posting schedule in order to get ahead. Pausing one week to set up the next automatically puts you two weeks ahead of schedule.

Give Yourself A Break

Especially if you are the borderline-workaholic, entrepreneurial, go-getter type, you can sometimes find it really hard to take a proper break. (Insert hand-raised emoji here.) I am a gifted multi-tasker and this really comes to bat for me when I need to get work done efficiently, but it can really hinder my ability to relax. I often need to remind myself to put away my phone or shut off my laptop in order to truly take a break. Putting away the social media and email-checking while you unwind, helps your mind recharge more fully so you can get back to work later feeling more refreshed.

What are your best tips for making the most of your time?

First Photo: Unsplash

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As I’m winding down for the last two days of the 12 Days of Christmas, I thought it’d be great timing to share some of the best posts of the year. I know a lot of you find this blog through social media and other blogs so you may not have the opportunity to look through the past twelve months of content. No worries! This post is for you. 🙂

Let’s Talk Business: Prioritization

Guest Post: How to Make A Moodboard

The Twenty-Something Entrepreneur

On Giving Blogging Advice (Part 1)

Guest Post: 3 SEO Mistakes You’re Making

Summer Type Picks

Entrepreneurship & Friendships

Blogging 101: Engage More

Ask A Freelancer: Booking Clients

Let’s Talk Business: Scheduling & Prioritization

Do you have any favorite blog posts of your own? Share them below!

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Welcome to day three of the 12 Days of Christmas! I’m so excited to be sharing my first guest post in this year’s holiday posts from my very lovely friend, Charisma Moran of Charisma Moran Photography. Charisma is a very talented photographer and creative who lives here in Orlando. She has such a great spirit and I enjoyed sharing her artist showcase here on the blog a few months ago.

As a self proclaimed Christmas fanatic, I love so much about this holiday season. One of my very favorite things about the holidays is all of the bright twinkling lights. There are so many different ways to capture Christmas lights with your camera but one of the more popular options (and my personal favorite) is a technique called bokeh.

Bokeh is a particular quality of blur created in the part of an image that it out of focus. Bokeh is most commonly circular but it is possible to create bokeh of different shapes and sizes. Widely used among photographers and amateurs alike around the year, bokeh is extremely popular during the Christmas season. Even if you are not a professional photographer, bokeh can be an easy and fun addition to your personal holiday photos.

When preparing your camera settings, the most important thing to remember is that you want your aperture to be wide open. The wider your aperture is, the better the bokeh will be. You can achieve these images with the lights in your home on or off, depending on what your preference is. I usually prefer any other lights but the ones on my tree to be off.

Once you have decided on how much additional lighting you prefer, you can set your ISO to the lowest number that will work with your widest aperture. You won’t need an incredibly long shutter speed, the way you would when normally shooting Christmas lights in low light.

Now turn off your autofocus and have some fun! Once you get the hang of it, bokeh is pretty easy and incredibly fun.

Connect with Charisma: Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest  | Twitter

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Most bloggers who have been publishing on the internet have heard about implement Structured Data mapping.

WordPress users also get the added bonus of powerful SEO plugins, like Yoast’s WordPress SEO plugin. Install this plugin and start using it on your website and you’ll be much further down the road to being SEO-friendly. Yoast also does fun extras that help your website’s performance, like enabling Twitter Cards. It’s my most recommended SEO tool for WordPress bloggers!

2. You’re not writing how people search.

What was the last thing you searched for in Google? What did you type in? Google looks for as close a match to a query as it can for relevant information based on a number of different factors. One of those is phrase and keyword matching.

If you’ve been trying to incorporate keywords into your writing, as many bloggers do when they hear about SEO, it can come off as unnatural sounding. In most cases, you’re probably not using the same phrases someone might search for either.

Instead of trying to optimize for a search engine, optimize for a person. What are they looking for? What words will they use? What do they expect to find? If you can answer a searcher’s needs, you’ll be better off in your SEO as well as overall website performance.

3. Your titles suck.

If there is one thing you can do for all aspects of your blog, from SEO to social media, it is writing attractive titles. Post titles appear everywhere your content does and is the first impression your content gives to potential readers. Not only do great titles contribute to SEO, you need attractive titles to make your search successes turn into clicks.

Writing great titles is a learned skill that takes time to develop. The best way to learn is by using Twitter to experiment with titles. When you share a post you’ve written, try out different kinds of titles and see which ones gain the most clicks. It can help you decide how to better write titles to score clicks.

SEO is one of the hardest and most intensive skills to implement for your website because it’s a constantly changing battle. But don’t worry–everyone makes SEO mistakes, even the big guys. I even catch myself doing stupid SEO things too! You’d be surprised what glaring mistakes I’ve noticed on national brand websites.

Just remember, think like your audience and you’ll always be better off.

Connect with Kim:  Bear and Beagle | E-mail | Facebook | Google+ |  Pinterest | Twitter |  The Build Your Blog Vlog | The Build Your Blog G+ Community

Picture Credit

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What makes your logo stand out?Everyone has a different aspect of what a logo is. My definition of a logo is something that someone sees and identifies with before they actually know what the business sells or what services they provide. I recognize logos before I even know the names of certain businesses. Think of it as a child who knows the McDonalds arch but doesn’t know what McDonald’s is or what they even sell. That is how I relate to logos. It represents a business and people get to know your business by what your logo represents. Let’s discuss some parts of the logo that people should focus on.

1. Color

Color is important. Certain colors have meanings. For instance my logo for Kokoa Magazine is orange and blue. Blue means trust, loyalty, and wisdom. My magazine gives you articles you can trust and we are loyal to our core fans and readers. We also teach by what we have learned and that is wisdom. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation. All of the above represents what Kokoa tries to give to our readers. Colors should be chosen not only for meaning purposes but for purposes that convey your overall scheme of things. You don’t want a color that will turn people off but you want a color that will be unique and different to make you stand out. Try to find something in between and always stick to that color throughout all of your marketing materials and on your website.

2. Versatility

You want a logo that will reach across all platforms. For instance if you take photos you want your logo to be placed on every picture that you take. You don’t want a lime green logo on a picture that takes away from the picture you want something that can go everywhere on anything. You want something that can go on brochures, something that can be placed on business cards, and something that can be changed without changing the entire logo. Have a logo that prints well on things also. You want to make sure you check out printing costs for colors. I did a logo for someone who wanted 5 different colors. After we went to the shirt shop and she found out how much it would cost we had to tone it down. Of course I don’t argue with customers but I could have told her that in the beginning get something with no more than 3 colors and stick to it especially when wanting to factor in printing.

3. Appropriate

You want something appropriate and something that goes with the time. If you have a salon you don’t want a logo that has flowers in it. What do flowers have to do with cutting your hair or styling your hair? You have confused the consumer. Don‘t confuse people and don’t do something that is out of date. Pepsi changes their logo every so often but if you look at it its subtle changes nothing extreme or that takes away from the original logo. Think of your business name and how you can make sure the name matches the logo in every way.

Last but not least make sure your logo tells a story. My logo for my magazine which is below tells a story.

The story is that life is not perfect and it’s scratched on the surface. My Kokoa looks scratched and it’s not perfect. My magazine is about the real life people live and the ups and downs we face it’s scratched and not perfect so that is the story behind my logo.

Connect with Kita: Kokoa Magazine | Focus Dezigns | Facebook | Google+ | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

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My name is Kate, and I’m particular. I like listening to a particular type of music (certainly not country music), I only watch particular movies/TV shows (ones that stimulate my mind), and I like cleaning the dishes a particular way (rinse then sponge). It goes to follow, then, that I am very particular when it comes to my blog, Clear the Way.

When I first had the idea for my guest posting series called One Word Inspiration I was really excited; I knew it was a great idea. Each month I’d choose one word, share that word with a guest blogger, have that blogger create something based on only that one word, and then I’d share it with all my dear readers on Clear the Way… I mean, that’s so cool! But I still hesitated.

What if someone posts about something that I don’t agree with? What if the writing isn’t worded how I would word it? Would Clear the Way still remain my creation if I invited other voices to the table?

When you invite guest bloggers to write for you on your blog, you are relinquishing control and putting yourself in a vulnerable space. There is no way around that. When you decide to take guest bloggers you must understand that all people are different and all people are particular in different ways. But, as scary as giving up control is, there is something really beautiful about other bloggers using your space to open up to others that really makes it worth it.

In my experience, the One Word Inspiration series has been really interesting, eye-opening, and popular. Inviting others to share more about themselves on my blog has helped me feel connected to the blogging community at large. It has helped me become friends with some really interesting people. It has shown me that sharing really is caring, and caring is the best thing you can do as a blogger.

So if you have been thinking about starting a guest posting series or simply accepting more guest posters, I say go for it! Remember that you can always lay down guidelines and be clear about your expectations. In the end, only you can decide what gets posted to your blog. Don’t let the fear of the unknown or of giving up control keep you from experiencing a whole new level of blogging and relationship with other bloggers.

P.S. Did you see Angel posted for my One Word Inspiration series this month? She shared about the word “capture.”

Connect with Kate: Facebook | Google+ | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

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1. Pick a theme or reason for creating it. For example, for your brand or for fun.
2. Collect the images. I collect my images from Pinterest, although you could create a real pin board to reflect the aesthetic you want to give or just use images off the internet.
3. Pick the most important images that reflect your theme the best.
4. Choose a programme to make your moodboard in. For example, you could use Photoshop or PicMonkey. You can check out my tutorials for using PicMonkey on my blog if you want too.
5. Add the images into the programme you have chosen.
6. Change the layout, mix about the images.
7. Add in a few colours that reflect the colours in your images. To do this I use this programme to get the exact colours I’ve found in the image.
8. Check that it looks perfect, reflects the theme and can be interpreted into a brand or design if needed.

For More Inspiration

Check out my Moodboard pinboard on Pinterest

Check out another moodboard I created myself

Check out my favourite moodboard creators – I’m Breanna Rose and Holly Marie Designs

Connect with Hannah: Blog | Pinterest | Twitter | Tumblr

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Let’s be honest, there are a LOT of mistakes you could be making on your website: not having a domain name, using too many fonts, having a cluttered sidebar–all these things have been covered again and again in articles just like this one. I’m not going to repeat all that.

Today I really want to talk about big mistakes I see, even on professionally designed websites. At first glance, the website looks amazing, but after a little reading and clicking around, something’s not right. Visitors are leaving without making a purchase–why?

Inconsistent branding

I see this ALL the time from awesome business owners who I KNOW have potential. But the problem is that they can’t nail down their brand. They change their minds about what colors to use, what “voice” to write in, and what kind of photos or images to use. The result? An inconsistent brand, even on a beautifully designed website.

Creating a brand takes time, but it’s so important to focusing your website and pulling in the readers and clients you want! Find (or create) your dream client, and always write, take photos, and create your brand with them in mind. Everything you blog, Tweet, post, photograph, or create should feel like it was made for the same person. If it helps, pretend your dream client is a friend, and you’re creating just for her. Need help? I have a dream client video and worksheet here!

Not having a goal

What is the primary goal of your website? To sell products? Educate people? Book coaching sessions? Whatever it is, write it down and make sure everything you do on your website leads back to your goal!

If your goal is to sell your services, don’t write a blog post just to write. Write a blog post that helps your dream clients solve their problems, which in turn establishes you as an authority on the topic and encourages them to hire you to solve bigger problems. See why having a dream client is so important? It helps you know exactly how to lead visitors toward your goal! And yes, I have a video and worksheet for choosing a goal too!

And by the way, if you have elements on your website that don’t take your visitors a step (or two) toward your goal, eliminate them!

Disorganized navigation

Again, you should always be leading visitors toward your goal, and your navigation is no exception. Think of your navigation like chapters in a book–does the order make sense?

Visitors should ultimately end up at a page that calls them to action on your goal. For example: if you sell one-on-one coaching services, the final step of your navigation should be a page that calls visitors to action on booking a session with you.

Everything leading up to that last stop on your navigation menu should educate visitors on WHY they should act on your primary goal’s page. About, Services, and Portfolio pages serve this purpose–they let visitors learn about you, see what you can do, and see examples of how awesome you are!

It doesn’t make sense for them to visit your contact/booking page before even knowing why you’re so great, so build up to it—by the time they get there visitors should be excited and ready to work with you!

Not having a newsletter

I know, email newsletters seem so 1999, don’t they? But the truth is, most visitors won’t be ready to purchase from you on a first visit. Bummer.

But, if visitors see the helpful blog posts you’ve written, read your About page, and feel like they’d eventually like to work with you, a newsletter is a great way to stay in their minds! They may not remember to check back and read your blog every week, but if you show up in their inbox a few times a month, you’re a lot less likely to be forgotten. Make sure you provide top-notch newsletter content that continues to lead customers toward your primary goal!

Not sure anyone will sign up? Offer something free like an e-book that gives them a taste of what you have to offer!

Take action!

Stop what you’re doing right now and go look at your website! Are the images, language, and feel consistent throughout? Do you know who your dream client is? Is there a clear goal on your website that you lead visitors towards? Does your navigation make sense? Do you have a newsletter? If the answer is “no” to any of these, take some time right now and plan out what you need to do to get your website on track! And then, of course, do it!

Connect with Erin: Blog | Twitter | Pinterest | Newsletter

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