I’ve decided to put in more effort this year than I have before. It’s part of a renewed sense of self and how I want more out of life than simply sitting at my desk editing WordPress tutorials. And so far, the effort is proving beneficial – in everything!

If you want to succeed out of anything in life, you need to put in the effort to do so. Awesomeness doesn’t just fall out of the sky, land in your lap and wiggle.

You need to make it happen.

Getting More Attention at WriterSanctuary.com

One of my goals this year was to see just how far I can take WriterSanctuary.com…both the blog and the YouTube channel. And so far, it’s been panning out great.

Because I put in more effort to publish blog posts, the traffic to the site nearly doubled from 612 visitors in January of 2019 to 1,214 last month! And so far in February, it looks as though I’ll have another record-breaker.

I know a lot of this has to do with the marketing I did in 2019 from the YouTube channel and what little time I spent on social media.

Traffic from Followers

I know that some of the instant traffic a blog post gets is from followers. Those who follow directly through WordPress or subscribe to the notification know when I publish a new article.

Which is why I’ll get about 10 visitors within the first hour or so of the post being live.

This means that as long as I create a steady flow of high-quality content, I’ll always reach my dedicated audience. And if it’s something that speaks to Google search, I might improve there at the same time.

Being Active on Social Media

Being more active on sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have been helpful. Although I don’t get a lot of blog traffic from social media, I am quickly building a fan-base.

And the more fans I have, the greater are the chances of someone visiting a blog post when I share.

But perhaps the best part about being more active on social media is…being social.

I’ve met a lot of really fun and interesting people. We’ve had some great conversations so far, and it’s been a lot of fun. I can see how some people get addicted to the interaction.

Growing ColoradoPlays.com

Last month, I spent quite a bit of time working on WriterSanctuary.com and helping GreenGeeks. Unfortunately, I really didn’t get to do much for ColoradoPlays.com.

However, I did get a couple of posts and a page of the charities we support. I would still like to develop the site into something grand. And this is where effort comes into play.

Maintaining a Publishing Schedule

One of the things I need to work on is taking ColoradoPlays.com as seriously as I do with WriterSanctuary. Because it really doesn’t generate a ton of revenue or seems to have an interest, I just don’t put in the same amount of effort.

This month is going to be different, though. I’ve already scheduled quite a bit of content, both for the blog and YouTube channel. I don’t know if it’ll grow as fast as WriterSanctuary did, but anything helps when you’re getting money for donations.

Getting Help

One of the highlights this month, though, is the addition of my son wanting to write for the blog. I’ll test him here in the near future because I want to make sure he’s bringing quality content to the site.

This brought up a good point. I need to start trusting others and doing more delegation instead of trying to handle it all myself. The problem with that, unfortunately, is that I cannot pay anyone.

My son is going to write, and we’ll link back to his blog from his author bio. For the moment, that’s all the pay he wants.

Getting Healthier

The Year of Effort doesn’t stop at just being more productive in terms of my career. I’m also putting in more effort to lose the rest of my weight and build onto muscle mass.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to Hulk out. But, it is kind of cool to be able to pick up heavier objects or have the stamina to shovel the sidewalk without gasping for air.

In reality, living healthy boosts your career path anyway. For one thing, you start to think more clearly, have a better outlook on life and are less likely to overstress yourself.

I know I’ve felt thousands of times better this year than last. I’m getting back into racking up the points in Exercise.com, eating less junk and being far more focused in the mornings when it comes time to work.

If you’re on the fence about what fitness can do for you as a writer, I suggest giving it a try.

Starting a New Project

As part of my YouTube channel for WriterSanctuary.com, I am starting a new project. It’s a series of videos about how to Build a Better Blog.

In this series, I look at what it takes to make a blog that will bring in money and using realistic strategies. That’s because a lot of “experts” out there really don’t get into the nuts and bolts of blogging.

They also want viewers to take actions that are just unrealistic. For instance, one channel advises bloggers to create 150 articles within 90 days. And if you’re focusing on quality and have a job to pay the bills, it’s impractical.

So, while creating this series of videos, I’ll create another avenue of income through the “test blog” I’m building.

It’s quite fun, actually. It’s not like I can stack more onto my plate. But if everything flows as well as it should, it might be far more successful than I imagine.

Here’s to Continuing the Trend of Effort

Although I’ve had quite a bit of success so far in 2020, it’s no time to sit back and relax. That’s one of my biggest downfalls, really…thinking I’m doing enough to get by.

Instead, I am pushing for February to be a record-breaker in a variety of ways.

How do you put more effort into living your life?