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How to leave work at work once and for all

At the end of your rope mentally because work is bleeding into your personal time? You aren’t alone – 43% reported doing office tasks at home in 2017, according to a recent survey. Many people hare having issues with the question of how to leave work at work.

Want to create boundaries between work and home? Below, we’ll discuss a few tips that will help reclaim your evening for you and your family.

1) Be organized when you are at work

One of the big reasons why many of us end up taking a pile of work home: we didn’t get all that much done when we were at the office. While the cubicle may not be the most inspiring place in the universe, it is preferable to get your stuff done there than have it creep into your personal time.

If you want to increase your work productivity, it starts the evening before. Take out a sheet of paper and write down 1-3 important things which need to get done the next day – and no more. Very few people have more mission critical tasks than that, so resist the urge to write out a huge laundry list.

Once you pour your morning coffee and plunk your butt down in your chair, it’s go time. If you can’t stop yourself from visiting your favourite websites (like YouTube), download Leechblock and use this program to bar access to them (except during lunch).

By doing this, you’ll force yourself to focus on what needs to get done, minimizing the chance of having to work off the clock because you’re on deadline.

2) Silence / turn off your work phone after a set hour

While some people are compelled by their bosses to be respond to their work phone at any hour, most opt into it by responding to inquiries that can wait until the following day. At 5:00 pm (or whenever you normally leave the office), silence or turn off your work phone.

This can be an anxiety-inducing act, but remember that in order to reclaim your home life, you’ll need to stand up for yourself at some point. Don’t even make up an excuse if you end up getting called out for not responding – be honest with your boss about the stress you’ve been feeling about having work invade your personal time. 

Unless you are in charge of a mission critical post (like a network administrator) or you are on deadline, text messages and e-mails after hours can and should be ignored.    

3) Craft a series of enjoyable activities when you get home

The second you leave work is when you should start creating a clear separation between what you do at work and your life at home. Make your commute an enjoyable one – blast your favourite tunes or listen to an interesting podcast or two. When you get home, make some food which speaks to your soul.

Make time for a hobby which engages you physically/mentally. Have a bubble bath after a particularly tough day. These activities and others won’t just relax you – they’ll explicitly define your home life, and why it shouldn’t be infringed upon by work tasks.

Photo credit – Unsplash

How to increase average time spent on site with Youtube videos

In the last few years, people have become increasingly aware that video adds value to your audience. It’s also important to increase average time spent site. Video can help explain a point, increase engagement, showcase a destination and increase time spent on a page. Yes, that’s right, placing a video towards the top of an article can increase your ‘average session duration’ in your analytics. Here’s how:

By placing a high-quality video at the top of a useful page, one of the following is likely to occur:

1.    The person is lazy or short on time so they watch the video to get the information instead of reading the content. 

2.    They read the content then watch the video they noticed at the top because they found the article valuable and want to see more.

Both of these are great for your blog.

Did you know that the average time spent on a page is logged within analytics only if the page has an “engagement” during that time? 

Here’s a scenario. You have an amazing blog post that someone reads for 10-minutes, they find a range of useful information, and then they simply close the tab or window. This is NOT counted as engagement and therefore the time spent on that page is lost forever. 

However, if they click through to another page, share it or click to watch your video, the time on page is logged in Google Analytics. For more information as to WHY Google calculates the average session duration this way, please read this article.

Now that we know this, how can you use video to increase the average time spent on a page, if you don’t make videos? 

You embed someone else’s video. 

Although I make my own videos, I also post other people’s videos if I haven’t made something suitable. 

Here’s how you can safely and legally find YouTube videos to post in your own blog posts.

Embedding someone else’s video the safe way

This is my preferred way because I know it’s 100% legal and I don’t have to contact the owner of the video for their permission because they have already given it to me!

1.    Search for videos using the search bar

2.    Once there are results (don’t look at them – you’ll be tempted!) click the top right ‘Filter’ button

3.    Filter the results by “Creative Commons”

4.    Check the license of the video by looking in the description area

5.    When you find one that fits the post, feel free to embed it!

When someone uploads and flags their video as Creative Commons, they are essentially giving the audience free use to copy and reuse their video without payment. This contract is usually specified as “with” or “without” credit to the original maker of the video. By embedding instead of downloading and re-uploading you are essentially giving them the credit that is required for the use of their video. 

This is the safest way to use someone else’s video on your blog. You are also free to download this video to use in your own edits if you wish. 

It could take a few tries before you find something good enough to embed on your site. You may have to try a few different search terms, but remember to filter by Creative Commons every time you do a new search because YouTube defaults its searches without this filter. 

Embedding someone else’s video legally

It is within YouTubes terms of service that so long as the embed button on a video is enabled then the owner of the video is giving permission for you to embed that video on your website. However, some Youtube creators may not know about this, or the video they have uploaded contains copyrighted material that the uploader themselves do not own. This is where things can get a little murky.

1.    Search YouTube and find a video that you like

2.    Check whether the share and embed buttons are enabled

3.    Watch the whole thing and take note of whether you can tell that this is the original work of the owner of this particular video

4.    If it is, according to the terms of YouTube you are free to embed this on your site

You may want to go one step further and quickly ask the owner of the video for permission to embed. You can do this by writing in the video’s comments section on YouTube. This is courteous and if you get a ‘yes,’ you will be safe in the knowledge that this will never come back to bite you in the butt. 

But don’t just embed any old video to your blog posts. If the video isn’t at the same quality of your blog post, you may do more harm than good. When choosing a video, keep the following in mind:

1.    Is the video relevant to the post?

2.    Does it provide value to the reader?

3.    Has it been created recently? People like the fresh content!

4.    Is it visually appealing? Don’t post ugly videos. This won’t help you.

If you aren’t yet convinced to use video in your blog posts, according to this article, tere are even more reasons to use video on web pages:

•    Video increases SEO: You’re 53% more likely to show up on page one of Google if you have a video in your article

•    Video builds trust for your brand

•    Video appeals to mobile users who are on the go

•    Video marketing can explain important information in a short period of time

•    Video engages even lazy readers and buyers

•    Video encourages social shares

So this is some solid reasoning as to why you need to add videos to your blog posts now. What is your experience with video? Do you use it?

This post was written by Crystal from Castaway with Crystal. You can also follow her on Twitter and Facebook. If you’re an experienced blogger who would like to share some wisdom with our readers, contact us.

How to build your blog’s traffic with SEO

It’s useful to start learning about SEO as early as possible. But as bloggers are also learning simultaneously about many other important aspects, like digital marketing and running a business, it can make SEO feel like a burden. And it’s true, we travel bloggers are not just specialists in one area, we have to master many marketing techniques and tools to succeed. For most, search engine optimization can start with simple steps, like activating the Yoast plugin on WordPress. However, Yoast is just the beginning. As most of your competing travel bloggers also utilize the same plugin and the basic SEO features it offers, you won’t be able to set yourself apart from your competition.

In this how to post for Bloggeries, I explain the basics of selecting winning keywords, something Yoast can’t teach you. A year ago I started a travel blog called Dream Work and Travel, which I used to practice web design and SEO, before I started offering these services professionally to clients. Since I write about travel, we’ll focus on the travel blogging niche but these principles are applicable to all bloggers.

What are good keywords for travel bloggers?

Travel bloggers are in a competitive market, as we compete against large organisations, such as tourism boards, travel operators and popular destinations. For a new travel blogger, it’s important not to choose keywords such as “London” or “New York”, because these keywords have been used online for decades. It’s unlikely that you can get past New York Times on Google’s first page, unless you target more specific keywords. Another aspect to consider, is monetizing your blog and if the keyword indicates “buying intent” or not. Someone searching for London on Google is more likely to search London related news or events in the city, than to search for the best little dog park in the zone 6, behind that particular supermarket. That’s why you should aim for “buying keywords”, such as “where to buy tickets for Thames ferry”. Such keywords are also known as long tail keywords. 

Search volume and competition online

Now that you have established that a new travel blogger should aim for long tail keywords instead of super competed destination names, you need to check if there is actually interest towards your chosen topic. This is one of the most important steps for blogging from the SEO point of view. Why do you need to check the keyword’s search volume then? Let’s imagine the following scenario: thousands of runners have prepared for a marathon. They have invested time in their training and they have invested money in their travel arrangements. When the day comes, the runners gather at the start line. And when the race begins, suddenly everyone covers their eyes.

A few start running in a circle, some trip over, only a few make it to the finish line with their eyes covered, and that’s mainly because of luck or because they have completed the same race a 100 times before. This is exactly what happens, if you are not sure about your blog post’s search volume or existing competition, before you write the post. You may write an awesome piece and as Google says, you need to write good content. But what happens if the content is great but nobody is interested in reading it? By checking the Google search volumes in advance, you can maximise your chances that the right kind of readers see your post. The ones with immediate buying intention.

How do you check the data before writing a blog post

There are different tools for this purpose. Google Trends seems to indicate some search trends, but the data may not be accurate enough. A pro SEO tool called Ahrefs can check the search volumes and existing competition for you, but Ahrefs is so robust, that it does a million other things too. Other tools that you can check out are called Moz.com and Majestic. Some of these tools offer you a chance to try them for free. When choosing a tool, you need to be able to check the volume of Google searches as well as the current competition. Add 50-100 keywords, chosen from your keyword list for each blog post you write. This should bring you organic traffic, even after your social media traffic has died long ago. 

How to improve your old blog posts

You should also keep an eye on your Google Search Console. Log in to check the queries, clicks, impressions and your position in Google searches. It’s good practice to keep going over your old travel blog posts, adding lots of keywords from your Google Search Console results to the blog posts and re-publish the article with the current time and date. Search engines love up-to-date content and by improving your old posts, you show that you are making sure your website stays current. 

Thanks to Raisa for the post, besides her blog, be sure to also follow her on Instagram.