Hello, my fellow readers!
As usual, it’s been a busy week. How was yours?
I hope you had an astounding one – filled with tasks being checked out off the list.
This has been one of those weeks where a severe writer’s block decided to pay me an unwelcome visit.
It took me a couple of days to get over it. I had to go on a hunting expedition on Google in search of articles on how to overcome it.
Fortunately, the search wasn’t fruitless.
Here are some of the articles that helped me:
- How to Overcome Writer’s Block: 14 Tricks That Work.
- How to Overcome Writer’s Block: 20 Helpful Tips.
And, Here’s How I Beat It:
I developed a writing routine
I set up writing my blogs at specific times during certain days of the week.
Eliminated distractions
I put my phone on ‘Don’t Disturb’ mode. I closed all my social media accounts. I paused notifications on Slack – but had to peep in after every 60 minutes to see if there was no fire that needed me to put out.
Freewriting
Writing blocks happen when you put a lot of pressure on yourself to get it right from the first draft. Being a perfectionist won’t help during these times.
This reminds me of one of my favorite writing quotes by Anne Lamott:
“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper. What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head.”
Freewriting is about writing without second-guessing myself. I don’t pay attention to grammar and spelling mistakes. That’s for later when I edit the first draft into a second one.
Start writing first, then organize later
I learned that sometimes when I am facing a block like the one I faced this week, I don’t have to write in an organized way. I just have to put the information down.
Sometimes, this means starting with a middle paragraph and finishing with an introduction. And then, later on, I edit the draft and put the pieces of the puzzle in their rightful place.
Take a break
It’s okay to take a break in between your writing sessions. Sometimes you just have to let your ideas marinate.
I can do whatever I want, give my mind a bit of a break, and then return to my blog with a fresh, clear mind.
With that said, let’s take a look at what I worked on this week:
A/B Testing on FigPii’s Newsletter:
If you have been following my FigPii journey, you’d know that I send our newsletter every Monday at 10 am Eastern time.
This week, I thought I should start testing what really resonates with our subscribers and what doesn’t. So, I started by testing the newsletter’s subject line.
I came up with two types of subject lines. Instead of tracking open rates, I had to track click-through rates as my main metric for the test.
So I sent the first to 50% of subscribers, and the other subject line to the other half. Here are the two subject lines I tested:
- Into the World of CRO With FigPii
- FigPii Newsletter #5
Before I tell you, which one won, take a wild guess? 🤔
Yes, you’re right…the first subject line was the winner, with a 1.5% clickthrough rate. It also had a 44.6% open rate, whereas the second subject line had a 28.1%.
So that means I will be sticking to the first subject line for some time.
Creating a Content Calendar
Another main task I had to focus on this week was to create a content calendar for this blog.
As someone who is still new in this field, coming up with good content ideas is an uphill task. It requires a lot of research.
To cut the long story short, I started listening to various podcasts and watching a lot of conversion optimization webinars.
This process of creating a content calendar also required that I pay close attention to the keywords we are focusing on.
After about a day or two, I finally presented my content ideas to our team members, and they were all approved.
Now, I have seven new articles to write about before this quarter comes to an end.
I’d love to learn more about the process you go through when creating a content calendar.
Meeting The Team Face to Face
It’s been two months since I joined FigPii, and I still haven’t met my colleagues in person. The FigPii team is scattered around three different continents, so everyone has been working from home since the beginning of the pandemic.
Although I love working from the comfort of my home, not having that face-to-face interaction with team members is a downside of remote working
But I’m glad to let you know that I will be meeting some of my teammates today, at least those who are also based in Egypt. This is actually one of the things I have been looking forward to this whole week.
Honestly, I can’t think of a better ending to my week than this.
Wrapping Things Up:
It was a bit of a rocky week, but I managed to go through it.
Hopefully, next week, I will master multitasking and managing my time better.
I can’t wait for next week and what I am going to learn next.
