Show Notes:

Keyword Research
Keyword research is almost always time well spent.
No matter how good your list, there are always better opportunities.
My strategy: find low competition keywords/topics and publish in volume.
Why? Fly under the radar and get traffic easily.

Improve Existing Content
Maybe you don’t feel like writing a new article but you have enough gas in you to update existing.
Updating and improving content is almost always time well spent.
Inject more keywords, add data, update information… improve it for readers and search.

Conversion Rate Optimization
Suppose you have a few pages with affiliate links that get a lot of traffic.
Improving click through rate and preselling can increase affiliate revenue considerably.
It may be adding buttons, more clear call-to-action, better product info or all of the above.

Add schema markup where applicable
If you have recipe, how-to, review, FAQ or other articles that qualify for a specific type of schema markup, adding it can be a very good thing to do.
Schema markup improves you search listing appearance which can help rankings and click through rate from the SERPs.
NOTE: Do NOT try to game schema.

Create some charts and tables for your site
Gathering data and creating charts is a very different activity than writing.
This type of content can dramatically improve your content.
It’s pretty easy to do and it’s fun making pretty charts.

Improve average time-on-site
I consider average time-on-site one of the most important metrics. 
Folks who stick around like your site.  That’s a good thing.
Increasing your average time-on-site is a good thing.

Seek out additional earning opportunities
Some days it’s worth surfing the web looking for better earning opportunities including high-paying affiliate offers for your niche.
If you don’t look, you’ll never find.
Skimlinks list of merchants is a good resource, but so is Google.

Experiment with different pin designs
If Pinterest is in your traffic bag of tricks, spend a day playing around with new pin design concepts.
I’ve spent many days doing this.
It’s worked out well for me having increased my Pinterest traffic to over 300K monthly visitors.

Write a fun opinion piece for your site
Let’s face it, a lot of content we publish isn’t the most exciting stuff to write.
But expressing our opinion and backing it up can be fun.
You can opine about products, trends, styles, events, etc.
Inject some personality into it.
This could be just the activity to break up your “evergreen content writing” doldrums.

Professional development
Many professions and careers have professional development days. 
These usually involve attending a seminar, workshop or conference.
It’s a nice break from the usual wear n’ tear.
There is no shortage of learning opps in our industry.  Take a day and see what’s new.  Just don’t do this every day.

Improve Site Speed
If you don’t have the bucks to hire someone to tweak out  your site, read up on the topic yourself and then apply.
Site speed is becoming more and more important.
Every second you shave is worth every minute, hour or dollar you put into it.

Guest posting outreach
If building a few high-powered “blow your site to the top of the SERPs” is something you want to do, take a day and contact the biggest, baddest, most authoritative sites in your niche and pitch them.
Take time to cater your pitch for them.
I don’t guest post but if I did, I’d focus on a few of the biggies and put my best foot forward with an irresistible offer.

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