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What Andy's Doing
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Recently Written
- Passionate People: Get What You Deserve, Become a Career Renegade!
- Featured Blog: Patrick Rhone and His Journal
- Ask The Readers: Can You Disconnect And Still Be Productive?
- Why Working Long, Hard Hours Gets You Behind (?)
- How to Help Great Productivity Blogs Get Discovered
- My Scandelous Confession and A Royal Rant About GTD
- On New Beginnings (And More About Your Host)
- Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow
- How to Use Basecamp and Backback In Perfect Harmony
- How to Chill Out
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Categories
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Archives
How to Help Great Productivity Blogs Get Discovered
It is my observation that writers of niche blogs have a fairly predictable shelf life. Most non-news-telling bloggers that see some early successes last a good 2-3 years before they stop posting. Most of the time the value posts are made within the first 12 months and it goes downhill from there. (Side tip: whenever you discover a new blog on a topic of interest that boasts a solid readership today, find the archives and start from the beginning. You’ll rarely be disappointed.)
There are only so many tips one person can have for how to make widgets, shave your body hair, make money online, collect monkeys, or whatever else may get a bloggers goat for a while. The symptoms are the same: deceleration of posting, the authors posts seem forced and/or repetitive, more guest posters, etc. My gut tells me we’re coming to an end of a cycle of higher-profile bloggers in the productivity world. I think its a shame because many were an invaluable source of inspiration and great ideas.
Here’s to New Blogs With Great Content in Need of Readers
A few weeks ago a fellow named Chuck Westbrook started a movement designed to give up-and-coming bloggers a chance to gain some exposure. Chris Brogan caught wind of the concept and tweeted about it to his ~20k followers on Twitter. Later Darren from Problogger and Guy Kawasaki tossed in some links and really gave the idea some legs.
Chuck is on to something, but my definition of an interesting blogger is slightly different that what has been selected so far. I like reading what helpful and/or inspirational productivity or personal development-oriented bloggers have to say. Since joining The Cranking Widgets Blog I’ve already been introduced to some new authors that I’ve found very valuable and are still loving their blogs. I’m confident there are plenty more out there that I’ve yet to discover.
I want to be introduced to other success-minded bloggers who are still excited about how to help others get more stuff done and reach their goals. I want to share the ones that are particularly valuable with you by giving a more in depth review or interview… Maybe even put something about them in the sidebar for a week or two. (If I get too many submissions, I’ll share my favorites on Twitter — follow me here.)
My Criteria
This one will be a moving target, but generally I’d say:
- I’m not interested in GTD calendars, notebooks or other productivity pr0n. I’ve seen some newer bloggers that appear to be all about trying to make a buck instead of helping others. I can’t blame them, but it adds too much noise.
- Insight and passion are key. That’s the beauty of blogs. “Ordinary” people can write about their passions and it actually shows! I’d like to give exposure to people who are passionate about helping people get more done and reach their goals.
- 5k RSS readers or less. I’m happy to promote the Zen Habits’ and Lifehacker’s of the world since they are definitely high-value, but I’m looking for smaller-scale. I realize 5k RSS readers is pretty significant already. The main objective is finding high-value blogs that aren’t already a “household name.”
How You Can Help
I would be grateful if you could help shine some more light on the quality bloggers that are out there. A couple options:
- Please share your favorite productivity or personal development oriented blog with our fellow readers via comments. Give us a link and tell us why you like it.
- If you have a blog and you feel like it fits the bill, writing up a detailed post that summarizes what you’re all about would be helpful. How do you like to preach productivity/reaching goals? Do you post tips? General concepts? Inspiration? What is your mission (following your passion is a perfectly good mission btw)? Highlighting your favorite articles that you’ve written so far would be value-added (I’m sure your readers wouldn’t mind either.) Include a link to your post as a comment below.
I have already selected the first blogger that I’ll be highlighting. He’s someone that Brett introduced me to a couple months ago and I’m grateful to be able to read what he has to say. I’ll be sharing his blog with you next week.
For now, please submit away! I’m really looking forward to discovering and sharing new blogs!
On New Beginnings (And More About Your Host)
Now that Brett has officialy retired from productivity blogging, I’m sure long-time readers are wondering what will come of The Cranking Widgets Blog. The short answer is easy: CW is, and will continue to be, mainly about productivity. There is, however, a long answer.
What a blogger blogs about and the spin they put on topics will always be driven by their own experiences, interests and values. For Brett, this often led us outside of the realm of productivity, as evidenced by his insightful and entertaining posts about parenting, posts about tattos and posts about drinking games.
The range of topics that I discuss will most likely morph a bit while I find what feels most comfortable. So far all you’ve really learned about me is that I love productivity. If my interests and values will play into what I write about, then the only fair thing to do at this juncture is share more about who I really am and what makes me tick. After much reflection, I’ve come up with a list of 8 things that will have the greatest impact:
I am Productivity (And So Can You!)
Hello, My name is Andy and I’m the new guy here at The Cranking Widgets Blog. While I hope to share far more valuable information in the months and years to come, I’d like to kick things off by getting some answers to the obligatory “who the heck is this guy?” out of the way.
I’ve been interested in getting as much done as possible with the least amount of effort for as long as I can remember. I guess thats the definition of productivity… Work smarter, not harder! However I’m embarrassed to say that I’m a GTD late bloomer. In fact, we only need to travel back in time about a year to discover my roots…
Cranking Widgets Theme Updated!
I hope everybody is doing well, and thanks for hanging in there during the last few weeks.
Just wanted to invite everybody (especially those of you reading this via your favorite RSS reader) to come by and take a gander at the new look. I’ve completely redone the layout for this site, the goal being simplicity and a more minimalist feel.
At any rate, I will be posting soon - I promise. For now, I’d love to hear what you guys think of the new theme!
Happy Monday: Odds, Ends and other Minutiae
I hope everybody had a fantastic weekend! I’ll start by apologizing (again - seems like I’m doing this an awful lot lately) for the slowdown in posting over the last week - some personal events had most of my attention during non-work hours. Thanks for hanging in there, I’ll be posting new and exciting crap this week, cross my heart. 
But this post is just to let you know about a couple other exciting things happening in the world of old CW. First, I’m honored to have been included in the Lifehacks section of Guy Kawasaki’s newest venture, Alltop.com. The idea is that it takes the last few headlines from all of the top blogs/personalities on the web and gives you a birds-eye view of what everybody is up to. Check it out at alltop.com, it’s pretty sweet.
I got a chance to chat with Dustin Wax of lifehack.org over Skype last week for their Lifehack Live podcast, which was released into the wild today! Though, I must warn you, I tend to ramble a little bit when I get nervous, thanks for understanding You can listen to the episode here, and I highly recommend adding the podcast to your favorite podcatcher - definitely some great stuff happening over there.
That’s all for today, kids. Have a happy St. Patrick’s Day, and we’ll meet again sometime this week for more fun, forest and fantasy. Cheers!
Coming Up: Somebody Interviews Me
I thought this might be a cool thing to mention, especially since I haven’t ever been interviewed for this productivity stuff. This weekend, my new buddy Mike from Effing the Dog and I will be having a friendly conversation that will go out on his podcast at some point in the near future. Should be a good time, hopefully you all will enjoy listening!
Oh, and just because I like being straight with you folks, I’ve made Mike promise to pull the plug on the audio bit if I feel like I’m sounding like a tool But don’t worry - in that event, we’ll still do a print interview for your reading pleasure.
The next post should be a doosey - I got an iPhone for Christmas and it’s turned my notion of “digital” GTD upside down. Stay tuned!
Technorati Tags: gtd, interview, etd, productivity
Site Update - Recent Silence Explained
I wanted to drop a quick one to keep everybody informed as to the dramatic (well, ok, maybe “noticeable” is a better word) drop-off in posts here. Due to a looming deadline, all of my time has been occupied with my job - 14+ hour days, weekends, the whole nine.
Trying to find time to rest and be with my family has been tough, which means that time for blogging has evaporated entirely (for the time being). I’m going to try to get something written tonight, but I can’t make any promises
Just know that I haven’t forgotten about good old CW and I’ll be back in the saddle in a few days, at the latest. Thanks for understanding!
Celebrating Cranking Widgets’ First Birthday
Sure doesn’t seem like it, but today marks the one year anniversary of the first post on this here blog. Wow.
I must admit, this blog is doing better than I would’ve imagined way back then. We’re doing a respectable 3K+ subscribers and roughly a thousand pageviews per day. And while that’s child’s play for some blogs, it’s certainly nothing to sneeze at.
Thanks to all of the regular readers and to those who consistently leave thoughtful, intelligent comments. You guys make this blog what it is and I’m in your debt.
I enjoy writing for and maintaining this blog, it does come at a price. And while I’ll never, ever charge anybody to read what’s posted here, I will occasionally ask for donations (like now).
If you enjoy reading my ramblings and such, might I suggest making a donation (as large or small as you like) to help offset the costs (both monetary and otherwise) of keeping this site up and humming. We’re moving to a new hosting facility soon that will offer faster load times and a generally snappier user experience, but at a greater cost than the current host. If you could spare a few bucks, I would be most appreciative
Anyway, thanks again for reading and here’s to another year of productivity, parenting, my oddball sense of humor - and rabbits with pancakes on their heads.
Cheers,
Brett
Back Online After the Digg Assault
Just a quick one - the previous post (The Definitive Guide to Covering Your Ass) hit the digg homepage 2 days ago, which promptly brought this little blog to it’s knees. After several go-rounds with my webhost’s support staff, things seem to be back to normal.
Anyway, apologies for those who tried to get here over the last 48 hours or so, we should be good to go for awhile (or, at least, until I get ‘dugg’ again)
Have a great weekend, everybody!
State of the Blog
When I started this blog all those months ago, I really had no idea it would do as well as it has. We have a pretty respectable number of feed subscribers and page views and consistently high-quality comments. Among all of the fantastic productivity-themed blogs out there, I like to think we’ve carved out a nice little niche for ourselves here at CW.
So, what’s to come? Well, I’ve got several things in the works…
New Look - (one that I’ll be designing and implementing from scratch). Much of my discretionary time is currently occupied with other obligations, primarily my family, so this will be done reasonably soon (but not tomorrow). But I’m definitely going to clear up some of the clutter that has worked it’s way into the nooks and crannies of the current layout.
