Accountability Plan: Powerful Ways I'm Getting My Ass In Gear.
I got a paid subscriber, so now I need an accountability plan too.
I’m feeling very smug grateful again today. I have a paid subscriber.
One that isn’t me.
Someone has actually taken the time to read my writing and thinks I’m worth a subscription. Not even on my dog newsletter, which is full of useful dog behaviour stuff, btw. But on this newsletter, which is more about ME rambling on about life.
Which is more challenging to write as I have to pretend that I am interesting.
That means I now have paid subs on both my Substack accounts and I am a paid writer.
A real bona fide writer.
So I figured I had better stop dithering about and come up with an accountability plan, so that I stay productive. Because now I have promises to keep.
The Accountability Plan.
To keep myself further accountable, I’m showing you how I’m going about it.
Writing Hours.
Somebody once told me:
“If you treat your business like a hobby, it will only ever be a hobby. If you treat it like a workplace, it will become your line of work.”
So I’m treating it as more than my hobby.
I’m not sure if it can truly be called “work” as I enjoy it too much, but it definitely needs an injection of organisation to make me look a bit more like a professional and less like someone who is just winging it.
So…
Using Notion, I've created a plan to write on all my platforms each week, incorporating both repurposed and fresh content for each one. I’ve added in time for SEO and keyword research, the lot.
I’ve kept to four hours a day on my writing, as I still have dog behaviour 121s to get to, plus dogsitting. Combining writing with behaviour work takes me to full-time hours, with a few hours each day for the family too. Home/work life balance is essential and even more so when you are your own boss as it is easy to get sucked into doing nothing but work constantly.
I suggest, if you are going to make an accountability plan, you factor in your family time too, or you will eventually burn out and quit.
Efficient SEO
SEO, it’s been buzzing around my ears for years, and I never took much notice of doing it, until I took up writing more seriously. Now it’s like a sodding obsession. It does actually work too. I’ve noticed my SERP and views etc going up since I have attempted to implement it.
I cut back my monthly outgoings by about £40, by dropping subscriptions I don’t use, like Audible, or some of the multitude of memberships to things like Find My Past, which I no longer have time for. Which was then enough to buy me a month of Moz instead, so I can sort my keywords research more efficiently for my dog stuff out.
Previously, I was doing all my own SEO research for free, but then falling down a million rabbit holes and taking up hours and hours of precious writing time, which was simply not an efficient use of my day.
I’m keeping with AIOSEO Headline Analyzer which is a brilliant free tool though.
Now that I'm using my money more wisely, I'll have more time for what truly matters. I will put my unused subscriptions money to better use by paying for my SEO upgrades.
I already use Yoast for my on-page SEO for my freyavlocke.co.uk and my scrumperdinger.com WordPress websites. But Moz can help me with the on-page SEO in other places as well as checking out what other keywords and strategies other people are winning with.
Content bins
Instead of writing an entire article from start to finish, for any of my platforms, I shall now create “content bins.”
Content bins are effectively just lists of draft articles.
Drafts that I will create when the idea pops into my noggin of something awesome to write about, but do not have time to write it yet.
Drafts that I will add to when I think of something marvellous and witty or clever to add to an article. I will pop bits in during free writing periods, and then bulk them out into proper articles during research/writing periods.
Drafts for things I want to look further into, and need to make a note of it somewhere useful before I forget.
Drafts I can add to from my phone, upstairs in bed, when my legs are playing up and I can’t sleep.
In this way, I will build up a collection of drafts at varying stages of production, so that I will no longer be short of ideas or content to put out.
This will save me about an hour a day of procrastination as I debate on what to write about.
Today’s Sub Stats
It’s the 7th October 2024, and we have hit a massive milestone or two this week.
I got a paid subscriber AND I’m over 50 free subscribers. I feel like I am going to get found out soon, but I’m told everyone feels imposter syndrome from time to time.
I’m A REAL WRITER WHOOP WHOOP!
