What are you wasting your time on today?

We all waste time on our blog business stuff.

Some of that time is trying to find info that will help us do what we need to do that will turn into us making more money.

And some of it is stuff that has no ROI value for us at all.

Hello happy site owners and webmasters. I thought I would share a bonus podcast with you today from the Hobby to Money Making Site series that you can find on BlogAid.

My Criteria

I use a pretty simple criteria to help me decide whether I’m wasting my time, and if a thing has any real ROI for me.

Here I will share 3 examples of what was a waste and what was worthwhile to me.

Example 1 – Theme Design

When I’m ready for a new theme, the only time I spend on it is to email my designer.

I get a new theme anytime the underlying code changes so significantly that my current theme is way out of spec.

And we usually freshen up the design a bit to something that looks more current too.

And that’s pretty much the limit of my involvement in it. Nothing else is worth my time because that design is not what makes me money.

I’ve seen folks make mid six figures a year with the ugliest, most outdated theme you’ve ever seen. I doubt it was even in vogue when they paid to have it made.

But, it has the info folks seek and a buy button.

And the bottom line is that’s all you need – a way for folks to easily consume your content and take action, whether that’s buying something or following you online or signing up for your newsletter.

I see way too many newish site owners waste 80-100 hours designing their theme, only to have to hire a designer to fix it or make it do what they want anyway.

And while it may be pretty, it usually doesn’t stand up to best theme design practices, much less speed, ADA compliance, or SEO output. And it likely has an over-the-top wow factor that actually competes with their content.

To me, theme design is a complete waste of my time. 

I’m far better off outsourcing it to a webmaster designer who actually knows about CTAs, ADA compliance, speed, SEO, and more. In other words, they know more than pretty too.

I show them my content, CTAs, and colors. And I may show them examples of sites I like and exactly which elements on those sites I like.

And then I walk off until they are done.

There may be a few tweaks after that, but not much.

And I’m happy and can go on with my life and keep focusing on my content and what makes me money.

Example 2 – Photography and Videography

Here’s another example. 

A few years ago I got a fancy DSLR camera so I could start making pro photos and videos for Heartwood Art.

I know nothing about photography or cameras.

And while I was an electronics engineer for 30 years and enjoyed reading and writing tech manuals, I found the manual that came with the camera to be impossible for me to truly understand.

So, I hit YouTube, of course.

And being that the camera I got was so new, there were very few tutorials on it.

So, I looked at video after video of similar cameras, and even basic photography tutorials, and I was able to kluge together enough to get a few decent shots and such. 

But I never felt like I knew what I was doing.

And I certainly didn’t feel confident straying from the few settings I did get to work okay under some conditions.

All of that research was a major waste of my time. 

I even asked in my city’s Facebook group for a photographer that I could hire for a private consult. There were no takers.

And I couldn’t find anything other than a generic photography course that would take months and cover a billion things I didn’t need to learn. That would have been an even bigger waste of my time.

I finally kluged together enough info to get me by for a while.

But I recently made a new video and while it was okay, I didn’t think it looked as good as it could.

So, I went back to YouTube and sure enough, there are many more tutorials on that camera now.

I learned how to reset it all and get at least the basic settings I needed to do better. And then I tried various ones out, as I also had a better clue what I was changing too.

But I would still like to hire a pro to come to my location and give me tips on my exact setup.

That would be worth paying money for. In fact, it would have saved me a ton of money in all of the time I wasted.

Photos and videos are a huge part of Heartwood Art. And there is most definitely ROI in investing in good equipment and learning how to best use it.

And I already have good photo and video editing software. The money and time I have spent on it has paid for itself many times over.

Soon I’ll be looking for courses that teach me how to make and edit videos on my phone so I can do quickie recordings for publication on platforms other than YouTube too.

Videos are super hot and getting hotter and that will be a good investment of my time and money as well.

Example 3 – Bad Course

A few years ago I purchased a Pinterest course. That was back before the bubble started popping on it and it was still a fairly stable source of traffic for folks who could make nice graphics.

It was a pretty high-dollar course but I soon realized that it was better suited to folks who already had an active Pinterest account and were well beyond the basics.

This, after having contacted the course creator saying I was a newb and asking if this course covered basic account settings and such.

I could not tell from the course tutorial titles, as they were vague.

The course had time released modules to ensure students stepped through it the way the creator intended.

So, I had no choice but to watch a lot of strategy tutorials that were way over my head for a month or so.

I complained to the course creator.

And I guess enough other folks did too because 8 months into my 1-year membership she started adding more basic, beginner tutorials. And it still didn’t cover it at the level of a newb.

So, that ended up being a big waste of my time and money too.

I finally found someone who did private consults.

She walked me through my Pinterest account settings, and she told me why things were set certain ways.

She showed me how to make a good pin. And told me about pinning frequency and other tactics that were getting results at that time.

She also looked at my photographs and cover images and gave me pointers.

That was time and money well spent. And it was cheaper than the course too.

After that, I was able to follow Pinterest news in blogging groups on my own and I could understand what they were talking about.

Is part-time blogging a waste of time?

I did a live session with a site owner last week who just needed a live consult to get some things squared on her site, not a fully audit, at least not yet.

And in just seconds of seeing the backend at the host and on the site, I identified at least 10 things that needed to be done to improve not only speed and security, but SEO and discoverability as well.

And in the brief look at the front of the site, I saw decent content, but few CTAs.

And there was no big promotional push on the content either.

She mainly spent her time on the hamster wheel of cranking out more content.

Here’s the thing.

She pays for the same things a full-time blog earner does, like:

• Domain
• Hosting
• Premium theme
• Premium plugins

She spends more time cranking out content than a money-earning blogger does.

And she has no idea how that content is performing.

And then I have other clients who came to me early in their blogging journey.

They wanted to invest up front in a speedy, secure site and how to keep it that way themselves.

They also bought the top courses from folks who did not promise the moon with results.

Instead, they promised a solid foundation first.

They came into the whole thing with a business mindset and an idea for making money with their content.

They learned keyword research and how to mine their analytics for the precious feedback they need to generate effective content that gets them traffic quickly.

And they work it full time, even if they have another full-time job.

They are serious about making a real living from their site.

It’s a job, not a hobby, and they clock in every day.

I have clients who are part-time bloggers. They have spent years getting their site and income to the point that they can now take time off. 

And what time they do spend is on improving existing content or in promoting in whatever way is getting juice at the moment.

And they outsource what doesn’t bring them direct ROI, like coming to me for site audits. And they follow me through Tips Tuesday and our BB Hub group because I make it fast and easy for them to keep current on what they need to know. 

And that also keeps them out of panic.

It’s a lot easier for them to budget the time and money required to keep their site in top shape and getting all of the perks Google and such are offering.

What are you wasting time and money on?

So, what brings you direct ROI (Return on Investment)?

Is that what you’re spending most of your time and money on?

What is something you wish you could outsource, and have you actually looked into doing that?

We all have a limit of budget in both time and money.

I hope sharing some of my experiences helps you find ways to spend your budget well, and get you where you want to go even faster.

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