Update About the Touch Typing Experiment

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Posted on 24th February 2010 by admin in blogging

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Around six months ago I wrote a post stating that I was going to learn touch typing. When I wrote it I was already using all my fingers to type, but my speed was terrible. I was typing around 30 words per minute….

That is where we left the story. Then a couple of weeks ago one reader emailed me asking how the touch typing experiment was going, so I decided to write an update.

The experiment went out very well and just as planned. I had tried to learn touch typing in the past, but I always went back to typing with two fingers after a couple of days because it was easier. Then one day I decided I would learn all the positions of the finger and make the switch for good (which is when I wrote that post). That is, I would not return to two-finger typing no matter what.

On the first couple of weeks I felt miserable, typing 30 words per minute. Writing emails was a pain, let alone posts for the blog…. But I started to notice fast improvements, and within a couple of months I was already back to 60 words per minute or so. From there I stopped paying attention to how fast I was typing, but I kept getting faster and faster.

How fast? Today I got curious and decided to go back to the speed test. On my first trial I got 100 words per minute. I am guessing that warmed up I could get over 105 words per minute.

touch-typing-test

Six months ago I was typing at 65 words per minute, so I basically increased my typing productivity by more than 50%!

This is probably one of the best skills I have learned in a while, and I definitely recommend anyone who is not touch typing yet to make the switch as soon as possible.

Finally, if you are going to measure how fast you type, make sure to not get confused with the number of characters and words you can type per minute. The comparison is always made with words per minute. On my last post there was a guy who wrote a comment like this: “I swear to God! 152 characters per minute! 29 right and 0 wrong“….

Original Post: Update About the Touch Typing Experiment

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You Don’t Want To Be A Jack Of All Trades

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Posted on 24th February 2010 by admin in blogging

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You probably have already seen a bio like this one on Twitter, LinkedIn or on some other social networking site:

John Doe is a web designer, programmer, SEO consultant, web entrepreneur, author, speaker, business coach, journalist and tech enthusiast.

Not sure about you, but when I come across bios like the one above I immediately conclude two things: 1) the person is not really sure about what she wants to do professionally and 2) she is not going to achieve outstanding results on any of the mentioned fields.

This concept applies to any aspect of our lives, and he is one offline example to illustrate it. I play the saxophone, and I used to study on a local music school. I remember that we had two sax teachers there. One of them had only played the sax his whole life. The other played the sax, but also played violin, guitar, flute, and a bunch of other instruments.

The first teacher was considered a sax master, and as a result he was requested to play around all the time, made a good living from giving private lessons and so on. The other one was seen just as an average player, on all the instruments he played. As a result he struggled to get recognition and financial rewards.

You can find similar stories inside the corporate world, too. There are employees who do a bit of everything. They do some marketing work, move to the finance department, then they spend some months working with the human resources manager and so on. But those usually have a flat career. Employees who are very specialized and deliver outstanding results, on the other hand, usually get promoted and reach leadership positions pretty fast.

If you want to achieve success, therefore, you must specialize in something and be among the best people who do that thing. Sure there are some cases of brilliant people who were the best doing several different things, but that is the exception that confirms the rule.

Great painters only paint.

Great programmers only code.

Great entrepreneurs only build businesses.

Great authors only write.

So on and so forth.

What about you, do you already know what you want to do? If you do, focus all your energies on it and become one of the best people in the world who can do that. If you don’t know yet, well, figure it out instead of trying to do a bit of everything. The least thing you want to become is a jack of all trades. In fact the figure of speech goes like this: “Jack of all trades, master of none.”

Original Post: You Don’t Want To Be A Jack Of All Trades

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3 Less-Known Ways to Find Guest Posting Opportunities

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Posted on 24th February 2010 by admin in blogging

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This is a guest post by Ann Smarty. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

The two best known ways to find blogs accepting guest posts are:

  • Looking around your current contacts. Guest posting at your friends' sites will only make your old relationships stronger and more active. Besides, this is a good way to "learn" to guest post: adapt to various types of audience and blogging atmosphere.
  • Searching Google. I've posted about some advanced tips on searching Google to hunt great (and tightly targeted) guest posting opportunities previously, so you just need to go and check it if you haven't yet.

But as an active (and long-term) guest blogger, I've become somewhat creative in hunting guest blogging opportunities and in this post I am sharing the three of them which turned really effective for me.

1. Look for New, Rapidly-Growing Competitors

Well, the first thing to keep in mind here is that there are no real competitors when it comes to blogging (this is one of the reasons why I love it). Blogs can't really compete because each of them has its unique voice and thus takes its own place.

But there are blogs in the same niche as you are and it is a good idea to find new, emerging and rapidly growing ones and see what they are doing.

One of the best advice I've ever got was: when it comes to competitive research, think young. It is not easy to follow already established, high-authority blogs: they already have solid contacts and fans which help them move further.

New bloggers have nothing; they are hungry and they've got to be creative. Watching what they are doing and following their steps, you can learn a lot. It doesn't mean you have to copy everything they are doing – you'll notice yourself get inspired by watching those active bloggers; you'll notice yourself find plenty of unique ideas and finding your own ways as well.

Look out for "places I guest posted" and "my guest posts" sections to see where those new and active bloggers promote their content and how:

Guest posting opportunities

2. Search and Track Twitter

This is somewhat related to the previous one: you won't be able to (easily) find new bloggers in Google (because they don't have enough link authority to outrank more established blogs) but you will surely find them Tweeting. Besides, Twitter search is real-time – meaning that you'll find new and fresh guest posting opportunities.

There are plenty of tools allowing to search and track Twitter; I am using Seesmic Desktop because it is cool, feature-rich and clutter-free. Here's how it noiselessly updates me of new related Tweets:

First thing to do is to configure its settings to notify you of new search results. Go to Settings > Notifications and put a tick next to "Notify about new search results":

Seesmic settings

You are almost done. Now use Seesmic built-in search option to search Twitter for what you need. I was searching for "guest posts" in general, you may want to restrict the search to your niche like [guest post diet], [guest post money].

Use Seesmic to track guest posting opportunities

Quick tip: create a separate search for each synonym you'd like to track: [guest post money], [guest post finance], [guest post save], etc.

Your search will be saved automatically and from now on Seesmic will quietly notify you of new search results via small pop-ups:

Track guest posting opportunities with Seesmic

Now whenever you have new results, just go ahead and check out the new blogs and what they are doing.

3. Join Blogging Forums

Bloggers' communities are plenty. Some are generic ones where people discuss all things blogging. Others are more focused and targeted like, for example, Blogher (which unites blogging women) and 20 something bloggers that unites bloggers aged between 20 and 30 (and thus having common interested, styles, priorities, etc).

I have recently created another community specifically targeting people looking for guest bloggers and / or guest blogging opportunities. It is called My Blog Guest and if you are interested in guest blogging and plan to do a lot of it, you may want to check it out.

I am doing my best to keep the bar high enough: I don't really want the forum to turn into buy-sell thing, so only join it if you are interested in long-term partnerships and "pure deals".

My blog guest

If you've had some success hunting for guest blogging opportunities, please share your most effective methods in the comments!

Ann Smarty blogs on search, social media, branding and blogging at her SEOsmarty.com blog.

Original Post: 3 Less-Known Ways to Find Guest Posting Opportunities

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