The Narrative Template

1. Title
2. Opening Thought
3. Multiple Paragraphs of a Single, Flowing Thought

The Well-Structured Template

1. Title
2. Proposition / Thesis
3. Introduction / Hook
4. Transitional Statement
5. Major Points with Elaborations
6. Conclusion and Wrap-up
7. Call to Action

The Seth Godin Template

1. Title
2. Deeply Profound Insight in one to three hundred words.

Seth's Genius

The Money-Making Template

1. Title
2. Advertisement
3. Halfway Relevant but Keyword-Stuffed Opening
4. Advertisement
5. A List With Affiliate Links
6. Pitch a Product
7. Another Advertisement
8. A Plug for Your Email Newsletter
9. Advertisement
10. Another Halfway-Relevant Paragraph
11. Call to Action
12. Call to More Action
13. A pop-up When the Reader Tries to Leave

Oh come on folks, lighten up…

The Copyblogger Template

1. Title
2. Deeply Profound Insight in one to three thousand words.

Simple enough? What’s your template?

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Five Possible Blog Post Templates to Follow

Quantifying successful blogging is challenging. Some blogs that are highly successful in terms of influence can’t boast of large direct revenue while others that make a killing off of pay-per-click ads offer little real value to the world. And traffic alone isn’t always a great qualifier of successful blogging either. Analyzing traffic is tricky because the real story sometimes gets hidden beneath the numbers.

The real goal is readership. One devoted reader can be a more powerful ally than 100 random visitors. So the goal isn’t just to grab attention, but to stimulate real devotion. Great blogs rely on a great community of devoted, supportive fans.

How does a blogger build a community of truly devoted readers? The answer is simple, the execution is challenging – reach the heart. The reason you are loyal to certain brands has a lot more to do with your emotions than your mind. Daily, we make the choice to spend extra money on the things we value rather than going cheap because we’re emotionally devoted. So if you want to build a loyal, devoted readership, aim for the heart.

How do you engage the emotions to win the hearts of devoted readers?

1. Make people think… about themselves. Facts can be interesting, but facts that hit home are compelling. Human beings, by nature, are uncomfortable with change, but change we will when our emotions are involved. People don’t buckle up because they see a road sign – they do so because they’re in a fender bender that jolts them or they see a horrific accident.
2. Be a face and a name, not just a blog. What do Chris Brogan, Michael Hyatt, and Brian Solis all have in common? In addition to being successful bloggers who impact their respective industries, they each have an online persona that can be known in a unique way.
3. Push buttons. I heard a Christian minister say once that his role was to “comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.” In many cases, our role as bloggers is to push buttons – to make people mad… or sad… or uncomfortable in some way.
4. Tell stories. Or at least make sure a story is told about you, your blog, or your brand. In fact, branding is often misunderstood as symbols, designs, and logos. But a brand is really the story associated with a person, product, or organization. It represents the emotional connection people associate with a name.
5. Do it all again. Making people laugh, or cry, or think just once is great, but we’re aiming for devoted readers, which can only be done when we communicate with the heart consistently and repetitively.

This is a partial list. I’ve gotten you started. Now help me out. How else do you gather a devoted community?

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How to Aim for Devoted Readers

1. Attention Grabbing Headlines: if you don’t have an attention grabbing headline your article is dead in the water. How are people supposed to know how great your article is when they don’t notice it? The key to great headlines is in the interest of your readers. No interest no click through. So you have to ask yourself “what does my reader want?” In business blogging it is never about you. Focus on your readers and attract them with their interest. Your headlines have only a few seconds to grab them. Use action words to entice them. But make sure your vocabulary fits your niches interest.
2. Deliver in the body what your headline states: don’t you hate it when you click on a headline only to discover it didn’t deliver in the body of the article? You have to deliver in the body if you want people to take you seriously. After all you are blogging to convert your readers i.e. visitors into customers. I doubt they will buy anything from you if they can’t even trust you to deliver FREE information.
3. Your articles overall tone should be in alignment with the theme of your blog: That means that if your blogging about say email marketing because thats your focus. If your a humorous person then keep that same tone in your blog. As a marketer for 15 years I can attest to one key fact. And that is that some of the most powerful people in entertainment established their authority with humor. And their key to success was doing that consistently.
4. Cite your information with links to other authorities in your niche: want to establish an aura of confidence and authority? Start linking to others in your niche. As long as they are actually credible you have nothing to lose. I have shared over 10,000 sources in the last year and it has paid off. Trust me your readers will respect you for this strategy.
5. Speak the unpopular truth: Don’t be afraid to get controversial in your headlines and body. Sometime ago I posted a concern I had about a internet marketers ethics. I received a lot of attention and some flack about it but I stood strong. People trust people who share the truth. Especially when it doesnt benefit them to do so.
6. Offer specifically detailed information for FREE: When others are charging offer for FREE. Not all the time of course but regarding a specific subject say copywriting course or a email marketing program.
7. Offer a conclusion that invites inclusion (comments): I must admit I don’t always do this. But this is a very effective way to gain input on your blog and feedback. You will know it is really working well when ideas are generated from the comments. products and major sites have sprouted from comments. The results of course lend credit to you.

You need to get attention and deliver. You need to write in the same consistent tone. You need to cite your information to credible sources and don’t be afraid to be controversial. Offer high quality detail and invite inclusion in your constitution.

Execute 1-4 always and add 5-7 at least 50% of the time. Do that and your blog will prosper. These are just (7) ideas. What do you do to fuel your headlines, body, and blog?

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7 Ways to Build Credibility With Every Blog Post

Every day procrastination threatens to steal my dreams and erase any hope of ever achieving my goals.

I know this, but regardless of that knowledge there are still times when I’ll sit down to work on accomplishing goals and then the next thing I know, hours have passed and so many things are still left undone. How do I still manage to let the time slip away?

When I need to write, it seems like everything else is begging for my attention. I don’t know what it is, but everything else seems so much more interesting than using my brain to write a new blog post.

Seems like that’s the only time I actually feel like emptying out my inbox after months of letting both read and unread messages accumulate to an astronomical number.  It’s terrible, I know. It makes no sense.

When mindless activities like checking my email spam folder or compulsive stat checking become more interesting than writing, I know it’s time to do something.

At this point, you’re probably thinking…”therapy” or at least some other psycho analysis to prove that I’m safe to be around children, but I assure you, it’s just the evil procrastination demon trying to steal my success.

Well, I’ve got news for him, I’m not going to surrender that easily. I refuse to let the tempting allure of the internet keep me from the most important thing I must do for my blog.  Yes, it’s time to get off of the internet, exit out of the Reader, Twitter, Facebook and yes…exit out of the internet browser entirely.

When nothing else works to curb meaningless distractions that threaten to kill my blog, I have to totally shut down Firefox, Google Chrome or whatever other browser I might be using at the moment to avoid the temptation to check my email every time I get a notification.

I have to stop myself from rushing to respond to every tweet I see. Sometimes I have to slap my own hand whenever I get the urge to start reading every new blog update that pops into my reader (they always seem urgent until you read them).

It’s strange how the very activities that help me support my blog can become the very activities that threaten its survival. Social networking is wonderful, but if  social networking and promotional activities are allowed to get out of control, they’ll devour your whole day. It’s easy lose track of time and totally forget to write something new to promote. It can become a vicious cycle.

So until I get my writing for the day done, I’m sorry, but I’ll have to shut this thing down-…! (If I could reproduce that old tube television shutdown spark, I would paste that…here!)

So what do you do to force yourself to stay productive? How do you filter out all of the distractions?

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Get Off the Internet and Write!

With an exception of those dedicated solely to audio and video, the heart of most blogs lie within the written content therein. The blogger’s ability to captivate their readers’ interest, and engage them through their written word can make or break his or her success—so in other words, if you’re a blogger, taking steps towards improving your writing ability is an essential move that you simply cannot afford to skip.

This article will explore the things you can do to improve your writing in general, as well as specific steps you can take to improve each individual article you write. After reading, I challenge you to go through your “already published” works to see if you can improve a thing… or two.

Your Daily Writing Quota

The first step to improving your writing is to write regularly. Nobody was born an awesome writer; they had to work at it, and so do you. A great way to accomplish this is to set a daily writing quota and make sure you meet it everyday. 100 words a day is a great starting point, and can work wonders for your writing ability over time.

That doesn’t mean you have to publish a new post everyday, but at least write in a journal, work on a draft post, or participate in some creative writing exercises. Whatever you do, write everyday and over the course of a year, you’ll be a much better writer than you are today—even if you’re already awesome at it.

Mary Jaksch wrote a pretty extensive list over at Copyblogger on becoming a better writer, which may be worth your while to check out if you want some more general advice. As for now, I’ll get on with the specifics…

Simple, Effective Outlining

Next I’ll cover the little gems that’ll make up a large majority of your blog posts: your individual articles. The easiest way to start a piece of writing is to begin with a general outline of the entire piece.

The first and last paragraphs (or mini-paragraphs) will obviously make up your introduction and conclusion, so what I’m really concerned about here is the “stuff” in between. Write down anywhere from two to four things that are related to your title and these will be the sub-points your article will cover (the main point being the title which should encompass the whole thing).

Ask yourself, what individual things need to be addressed to fulfill what the title of my article promises? That should provide a good starting point to coming up with good sub-headings for your article.

Get Your Ideas Down

From there, you’ll start by writing an introduction for what they can expect from the article—but don’t give away too much. It’s best to engage your readers by adding a little suspense to your introduction. Keep them guessing.

Next, simply go through your sub-points and elaborate on each one. This is what will make up the body of your article. The point here is to not worry so much about things like spelling and grammar and just get your ideas down. The beauty of having words on a screen (or page) is that they’re not going anywhere (granted you save often!), so you can always go back and fix the spelling and grammar later (which you WILL do).

Once you’ve fully elaborated on your sub-points and feel like the problem that your title imposed has been solved, write out a conclusion to your article and engage your readers one last time by asking them a thought-provoking question to encourage comments and discussion.

Congratulations! The “hard part” is over (mostly).

The Art of Formatting

This takes me to the next aspect of your writing that might not “make” your article all on its own, but it can certainly break it—and that is the presentation of your article via formatting. Fortunately, formatting is very simple, and taking the extra time to “discombobulate” your writing can mean the difference between your visitors staying to read what you have to say, or clicking away due to an overwhelm of TEXT-IN-FACE.

The easiest way to format your work is to turn the “sub-points” you made within your outline into short, consumable headings that encompass the sentences and paragraphs below them. Break your paragraphs into 1-3 sentence “chunks” (separated by blank lines) and make good use of bold and italic text to emphasize key points in your writing.

The bottom line is, formatting makes your content more readable. It’s an art, but that doesn’t mean it has to be complicated. Think of it as art… in 2nd grade. Not so hard now is it?

Finalizing Your Work

This very last but crucial step is the icing on the cake, the tip of the iceberg, the polish on the shoe… whatever you want to call it; just know that it’s very important.

Once you’re done writing and formatting your article just the way you want it, you need to go back and proof-read it for spelling errors, grammar mistakes, sentences that just don’t make sense, etc. And then do it again until you feel like your article is perfect. If you’re really serious about producing the best quality article possible, you’ll set the whole thing aside and do this step over again later.

And that’s all there is to it! If you make a concerted effort to write everyday (100 words a day isn’t that much) and use the simple-but-effective article writing strategy I just described above, not only will your writing continuously improve on a regular basis, but you’ll be captivating your readers in a way that makes you stand out far above most bloggers—which is essential in today’s growing blogosphere.

Let’s Talk About You

What is YOUR current strategy for producing amazing content? How does it compare or contrast with what I just presented to you? There’s always room for improvement, so I encourage you to share your knowledge and opinions in the comments section below.

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The One Big Unavoidable Ingredient of Great Blogging

I once heard it said of a particular speaker that he presented “profundity wrapped in simplicity.” In other words, he was deep and profound, yet simple and straight to the point. Not every blog is the same in nature, but for most, this is a worthy goal. Be profound. Be simple.

How can you do that?

Think and Therefore Provoke Thought

Don’t spell everything out for your readers. Make them think just a bit. Present a scenario or principle shrouded in just a bit of mystery so that readers must come to conclusions on their own.

Say One Thing Well

In their book, Made to Stick, the Heath brothers assert that if you say three things, you’ve said nothing. Obviously this doesn’t universally mean that you can’t make a variety of points on a subject. It’s simply the assertion that if you try to get too many ideas across at the same time, your point gets lost.

Be Abrupt… !

Seth Godin is the master at this. Sometimes you can make people think all day long with a sentence or two.

Eliminate Jargon

Sometimes, jargon is essential. When it’s not, eliminate it. Realize that buzz words annoy people, especially when overused.

Go Minimalist

It may be good for SEO to stock a post with keywords, but it rarely makes for effective written communication. Strip away anything that may distract your readers from the message and then drive your point home.

What else? How can you be profoundly simple and improve your writing in the process?

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The Art of Being Profoundly Simple

1. Keep a list of blog topics.
This is key. When inspiration hits you, write it down. I have been known to e-mail my work address with a blog idea I come up during off hours. I often have at least 10 topics on the list, and each day I go over it to see if something is particularly relevant that day or whether I have more ideas for any of them. A good blog idea is the most important part of the writing process. If you keep a stash of ideas, each day the hardest part of writing is already taken care of.

2. Jot down your points in list form.
Once you’ve chosen your blog topic, write an outline: List your main points and mess around with the order. Weigh the importance of each thought. Often you’ll come up with more things to say as you go.

3. Fill in the list items with a sentence or two.
Expand on your points, but don’t go crazy. Blogs are not meant to be feature length. Aim for a minimum of a few paragraphs, but try to stick to 1,500 words or less. I usually shoot for 250 to 800 words for search engine optimization purposes. When people read on computers, their attention spans tend to last a shorter time than they’d spend on printed materials. So what’s the point of writing a lot if no one reads it?

4. Do an Internet search for relevant links.
There is a difference between blogs and journalism. Articles are where you go to for facts and research. Blogs are interpretations of those articles or extensions. That’s not to say blogs aren’t well researched; rather, blogs link elsewhere to back up their claims. Rather than repeat a well-written article, keep your readers’ attention by linking.

5. Revisit what you’ve written.
Often, once I’ve written a post, it turns out my theme has changed since its inception. I then rewrite the opening paragraph. Blogging isn’t just for educating or entertaining your audience – I’ve learned so much by researching for posts.

6. Proofread.
Never, ever post your blog without rereading it a few times and checking links. As someone whose career started off in copy editing, I am mortified if I let a spelling error go live. Your credibility can be dashed by one typo or grammatical mistake, never mind a factual error.

Blogging is a different animal from article writing. If you plan ahead, your post can practically write itself. Just keep an ear out for topics and then organize your thoughts. After that, you fill in the holes and voila – a blog that doesn’t eat up your whole day!

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6 Steps to Writing a Blog in 20 Minutes Flat

The spring brings me great anticipation of the weather to come. I’m looking ahead to summer and already thinking about going camping. Last summer we sat around for hours just staring at the fire – yes literally gazing, hypnotized, for hours. We started out roasting marshmallows, talking and laughing, having an amazing time and then as the time passed, silence fell among us, and we just sat there, watching the flame sway and pop, mesmerized by its warmth and beautiful light.

But at the beginning of the night, it didn’t start out that way. Just as the sun began setting, there was a race against the impending darkness to get the fire lit and it was quite stubborn in the beginning. Each dry log had to be stacked and placed in just the right position with enough open spaces so that the air could get through, but not so much that the fire couldn’t spread to the adjacent log.

Then we had to stuff it with paper and attempt to light it thoroughly. Just when we thought the fire was going good, it would fizzle and we’d have to start the process again. It turns out we had stuffed it too tightly with paper and had the logs stacked improperly. After we repositioned the logs and took some of the paper out, strategically re-adding as the fire died down, that’s when things began to warm up.

Managing a blog is alot like trying to start a fire. You want to create something that’s just as mesmerizing, but it’s always a race against time. You sit down to write and before you know it, a couple of hours have passed and there’s still nothing on the page. The sun sets on you everyday and yet there are so many blogging-associated tasks that still have not been completed.

But if you approach writing for your blog as if you were trying to start a camp fire, you’d soon discover that there are many opportunities to hypnotize readers in such a way that they won’t be able to stop staring at your content.

You must carefully place your logs

Make sure your content is organized in such a way that makes sense. Then vary the type of posts you write about your niche. Try not to smother your readers with too many of the same types of posts. It’s okay to have recurring series that you revisit each week. In fact spreading them out like this will give your readers a chance to cool off and then re-ignite their interest for that particular topic. Don’t burn out one concept too fast.

Use different sized logs

To keep yourself from getting burned out from blogging, it’s a good idea to vary the length of your posts. Every post doesn’t need to be 600 words. In fact, you’ll do you readers a wonderful favor if you post a few short posts throughout the week. That first night we were amazed by the sheer novelty of the fire, but by the second night our attention span was much shorter. Your subscribers will be the same way, in the beginning they will have more interest, but after a while they may only be able to devote so much time to reading your posts.

Leave enough space

You don’t have to cover every angle – you don’t have to pretend that your blog post is going to reveal ALL the secrets. It’s okay to throw in a few insightful points and then turn it over to your readers to fill in the gaps. We all loved it when it was our turn to put the next log on the fire, we wanted to see if we could get it in the fire ring just right, in hopes that our log would be the one that would take the fire to new heights. Your readers want to do the same thing.

So how do you start the fire on your blog and what do you do to keep it going? Do you provide enough opportunities for readers to place their logs on the fire? Do you have a unique S’more recipe? (Last year we made Reecee cup s’mores…they were delicious!)

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How To Set Your Blog On Fire

Here’s a blogging parable… A Dad once held up a $20 bill and handed his child a tube of toothpaste and said, “Wanna earn a quick $20? Squeeze all the toothpaste out on this paper plate.” The kid had a blast (after all, what kid doesn’t love wasting toothpaste). When he reached for the twenty his Dad drew it back, “No, you can have the $20 when you get it all back in the tube.”

You can apologize. You can delete posts. You can backtrack, re-write, and add updates. But here’s the thing about spewing venom, sharing gossip, or harshly criticizing in a blog post – the moment you hit “publish” the damage has been done.

Effective blogging requires critical thinking. And like good journalism, it also requires critical analysis. To avoid controversy is to avoid the potential to influence and change culture. This post isn’t being written to encourage you to back away from trouble, but rather to carefully filter your words and emotions when you write.

Why the Damage is Irrevocable

When you become vehemently angry about something, furiously type out your reaction and hit the “publish” button, your information instantly becomes a part of the real-time web. It’s in the feed. It gets tweeted. Wayback machines are taking snapshots feverishly. Search results are cached and pages are indexed faster than ever before. In case you hadn’t noticed, word gets around quickly these days.

Why We’re Prone to Spew

There are three factors that make blogging a beautiful thing for our culture…

• It’s affordable. You can start a blog for free. Of course, if you want something really good, it will probably cost you something, but nonetheless, it’s affordable.
• It’s accessible. You can start a blog with almost no technical knowledge. If you can get online, you can publish online. Just type and hit “submit.”
• It’s anonymous. Great blogs have personality, and the personality of the blogger shines through. Having said that, it’s still entirely possible to publish content without being identified.

It’s very easy to strike out from behind the safety of a detached online identity. We can yell louder with a keyboard than we normally would face-to-face.

Why We Need to Have a Filter

Again, we would never encourage the avoiding of controversy but there are some important factors at stake when filtering our words. Our credibility and integrity are on the line. Relationships (which are always delicate anyway) can be smashed in an instant. And when our credibility is damaged and vital relationships are destroyed, we lose the one thing more important than money to a blogger – influence.

When we fail to filter our words, people stop listening. And when people stop listening, what’s the point of blogging?

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Be Careful What You Blog – You Can’t Take it Back

1. To get traffic (and thus subscribers, potential customers and buyers, etc)
2. To get links (and thus grow the power of their own domains)
3. To become popular (to get your name heard by many people)

However there are other important benefits of guest posting which are no less important and by forgetting about those benefits you may sacrifice on the strategy quality (by only chasing for links and traffic).

So here are those extra, less known (and almost never discussed) benefits of guest posting:

Get Inspired

It happens to active bloggers: sometimes they are just stuck – no fresh ideas, no inspiration, nothing. In this case the best thing you can do is to blog more! Yes, you heard it right. But this time don’t blog at your own site, arrange a guest post “outside”. This way you will get inspired by:

• Researching someone other’s content and thinking about what his audience might appreciate, what seems to do well at this new platform and which topics seem to encourage more active discussion;
• Getting comments from new audience you will discover plenty of new topics you feel like covering and discussing further. Nothing works better for inspiration than hearing other people’s opinion about your work.

Position Yourself As An Expert

Here’s an awesome post on how guest blogging promotes you as an expert. By guest posting regularly, you will soon notice your opinion valued much higher and your work cited more and more often.

Being seen as a thought leader in your industry certainly has its advantages. As an expert, you’ll attract the top-shelf clients who are willing to pay more to get the services of an industry leader. You’ll also have an easier time earning the trust of new customers, a challenge for all online businesses.

Discover New (Neighboring) Niche

Guest blogging is the great way to look outside the box. Being popular beyond your niche is a great marketing opportunity that should not be overlooked. This way you can:

• Expand your business (sometimes you never know in which direction you can develop your business without looking around)
• Find partners and build mutually beneficial contacts (most successful businesses grow together by backing each other)
• Explore plenty of new marketing models and ideas (which can be implemented to your niche)

And why do you guest blog?

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Three Benefits of Guest Blogging You May Not Have Known

Think of it this way: your “cameo” appearance could be the equivalent of a celebrity featured on a popular talk show! (minus the 5-star hotel and the fancy fitting room, of course). Done correctly, it can introduce your product or service to new audiences, cultivate networking opportunities, increase your bottom line, and elevate your visibility exponentially. As far as free marketing goes, there’s no greater bang for your buck!

But with so many blogs saturating the blogosphere, it can be difficult to decide how to make the most of this medium. Do a Google search on “Blogs” and you’ll undoubtedly be bombarded with options on everything from art to zoology. Where does one start for the best end results?

As a freelancer who’s had my work accepted by some of the highest ranked among award-winning Blogs, I offer the following five pointers to help you make the best decision and make the most of your efforts.

1. Recognize that all Blogs are not created equally. There are Blogs, and then there are Blogs. Do your homework. Visit different sites devoted to your niche area. How do they differ? Which ones are user friendly and attractive? If you wouldn’t consider the Blog as “bookmark worthy,” chances are others are not very impressed either.
2. Aim high. Choose the best of the best. When I was exploring the possibility of guest Blogging, I targeted Blogs that ranked the highest in Google searches, had a large number of subscribers, demonstrated artistic integrity, and had received recognition through various awards. You should too.
3. Assess your odds for success. Remember that no matter how awesome a Blog might be, if it’s not updated and maintained regularly and infused with new content, your work won’t receive the best exposure possible.
4. Work smarter, not harder. Some writers might be surprised to discover that often times Blogs will accept previously published submissions, as long as it’s not something that was heavily circulated on the Internet. Consider some of your pieces that have appeared in print publications or perhaps on your own personal Blog for guest posts. Doing so will save you time and energy. Don’t reinvent the wheel.
5. Think before you ink. Know that just as you’re evaluating Blog sites to see if they cut the mustard, Blog owners are “interviewing” you and your site as well. Write tight. Write well. And make sure that your Blog boasts of good clips and clever content, so that a link exchange will be a win-win situation for all parties involved. In the business world it’s viewed as success by association.

Follow these five tips and you’ll reap the many rewards of guest blogging, and become a welcome visitor in new territories.

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Five Ways to Take the Guess Work out of Guest Blogging

Procrastination from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

Let me ask you a tough question… Why should I waste my time reading your blog? I don’t intend that question as any kind of harsh slam against your content. Rather, it’s a question we seriously need to think through. Is your blog worth my time? If not, then you’d have to admit it isn’t worth the time you put into it either.

I wouldn’t begin to suggest that blogging, in and of itself, is a waste of time. It’s the reason this online magazine exists to begin with. We believe that blogging is not only a beautiful artform, but also a powerful mechanism to shape thought and culture. What I would suggest is that the blogosphere is filled with fluff written by people who wasted their time producing the fluff.

No matter your niche, no matter your industry, your blog needs to matter and to justify its own existence. I want to issue some challenging statements to get you provoke you to think hard about whether you should waste time on your next blog post or not. I’m writing as your potential reader, so hear me out…

• I have a certain amount of time in my life to read blogs and I’m afraid of wasting time on content that doesn’t matter.
• I don’t want to waste my time reading another regurgitation of the content I just read in the last five articles I wasted time on.
• I want to read articles that make me think, that add something to my life, or that cause me to think about something I hadn’t thought about before.
• I want to read an article that you felt strongly about. Show me a little passion.
• I’m smart enough to know whether you wrote your article for me, or for a search engine, and if you wrote it for Google alone, I feel cheap.
• I like news, but I read news sites for news. I don’t mind a blogger re-hashing news, but I read blogs for perspective, so tell me why I should care.
• I like your articles even more if I discover that I like you… that is if I can find you underneath your blog somewhere.
• Entertainment isn’t always a waste of time. Don’t be afraid to make me laugh… or cry.

Think like a reader and your writing will change. Think like a content consumer and your blogging is forever affected. Is blogging a waste of time? It depends on how you’re going about the discipline to begin with. If your blog doesn’t waste my time, then you’re not wasting your time writing it.

So don’t waste your time on blogging. Make your minutes (and mine) matter.

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Don’t Waste Your Time on Blogging

As a guest speaker and trainer I have perfected my method of verbal delivery over the years, but the very first time I was asked to speak at a business training seminar I was a complete nervous wreck. My whole mind had gone in to panic, but not over my delivering subject, it was more over the actual delivery of my words and how I was going to engage with my audience in the most productive way.

So I had the training schedule which my client wanted me to work around, and in this schedule was a fifteen minute coffee break one hour in to the seminar. My thoughts and concerns were whether I could keep the audience with me, would they find me so boring that they would make a run for it during this break, leaving me with hardly any audience left.

My nerves were getting the better of me by this point and I would do anything to cling on to even the smallest amount of reassurance. So I purchased a new book called The Jelly Effect. This book was all about effective communication and learning the method of being able to communicate in a way in which the audience not only stays to listen to what you have to say, but they actually take more of it in and therefore your communication become effective in a much more productive way.

By the time I came to creating my own blog I thought back to this book because a lot of its values would help me to engage with my audience online. Before I discuss the methods of The Jelly effect and how I use them within my blog I just want to ask you something…Have you ever gone in to discussion with someone only to find half way through your conversation they are looking at you with a very blank and vague expression on their face?

Well this is the Jelly effect, it is all about how you can fall in to the trap of throwing far too much information at your audience and not getting to the point soon enough. I see bloggers doing this almost every day by bulking their blog posts with too much information and not enough relevancy of what I want to learn or what I thought I would be reading about when reading the post title. Bulking your blog posts with mind numbing content is a direct ticket the blog failure, so to save you from producing such content, I have created a list of what I have learnt from this book and from my own years of blogging, to help you and your blog become an online success.

1. Read & learn more – It is a fact that the more we read and learn about our subject and audience, the better writers we will become. Learn how to become a better writer by reading similar blogs to your own, and learn more about your audience by reading the comments to a particular blog post.
2. Don’t beat around the bush – If you have some interesting industry news to tell your readers…well tell them then and stop bulking your content with irrelevant content. A typical example of a writer beating around the bush is one who is writing for the search engines instead of their readers; do not fall in to this trap.
3. It’s not about you it’s about me – The last thing I want to read on a blog is a post all about you and your achievements, whether that is your turnover, awards nomination, new member of staff etc. I want to read and learn more about this industry and how I can improve myself, whether that be through a list of relevant tools & tutorials, industry news, and even inspiration.
4. Don’t lose your passion – This is something I have been told time and time again after delivering a training course or speech, I am very passionate about what I do and people are drawn in by that passion. If you lose your passion for what you are blogging about, this will come across in your posts.
5. Keep it real – When I read your blog I do not want to feel like the writer is talking at me, I want to feel like you are talking to me and therefore you are able to capture my imagination and I am able to engage in much more discussion from your blog post because I will feel like talking back to you. Asking questions & opinions is a clever technique to use when trying to bring your writing to life.

Only a short list but a relevant one, and each point can either make or break your blog depending on whether you choose to act upon them or simple ignore.

The methods above will enable you to engage with your audience and make your message stick, rather than your message being thrown at people and basically falling away because none of it has been taken in by your reader. Although I purchased The Jelly Effect to help me with my public speaking, its methods have helped me with how I communicate as a blogger and I would recommend it to anyone.

photo credit: horizontal.integration

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Stop Throwing Jelly at Your Readers

You may have heard that you can build your blog readership by guest posting on a prominent blog. But how do you get that prominent blog owner to accept your guest post? And what should you do to make the best possible use of this opportunity?

Never fear. Here’s everything you need to know about guest posting:

Go for the Big Guys

A lot of beginning bloggers are afraid to reach out to the big names for fear of being smacked down and perhaps mocked. I can see why, because if you tried to do this in the offline world, that’s probably just what would happen.

Imagine some stranger interested in marketing walking up and asking for a prominent place at the next Coca-Cola meeting to talk about his ideas? Yeah, not likely.

This isn’t the same world, though. In blogging, it’s a lot different. The big guys remember being little guys, and they want to help you out, especially if you have serious value to give to their readers.

These guys also have a more selfish reason for helping you: they’re really busy. They’re the big guys, after all. Taking the pressure off them to come up with a new post every day is a nice thing for you to do. Always remember that you’re doing them a favor in exchange for the favor of getting your writing in front of this big guy’s audience.

He gets something, you get something. Who wouldn’t say yes?

But Don’t Go Empty-Handed

That said, the big guys need to see that you have value to bring to their readership, which means you’re going to have to put some thought into what you’re pitching. Simply saying, “Hey, I blog about such-and-such, can I guest post for you?” isn’t going to cut it. You’re going to need to walk in with a proposal for a specific post.

Better yet, you’re going to need to walk in with that post already written and ready to go.

Consider the big blog’s readership. What do they want to know about? Why are they reading that blog in the first place? Whatever kind of advice they’re looking for, it’s best not to deviate from that general topic. You can bring a unique perspective to it, but you really shouldn’t guest post about fishing on a blog that’s all about vegetarianism.

That said, if you can figure out how your experience relates to the blog’s readership, that’s a unique post in the making. Maybe you’re a chef, but you’ve discovered a tactic from the kitchen that would be really brilliant for marketers to put to use.

Go knock on the door of a big marketing blog and hand them your post.

Do Your Best Work

You’re going to be posting in front of a much larger readership than your own. This is like the comedian who kills every night at the local comedy club finally getting his chance to go on The Late Night Show.

You only get one shot, so you better wow their socks off if you want them to seek you out after the show is over.

Work hard on the article, and make sure it’s your very best work. Think about organization, and triple-check for spelling and grammar errors. Make the benefits to your (borrowed) audience extremely clear.

Write your heart out.

Remember to Pitch Yourself

At the end of your post, you’ll get a link back to your own blog. You’ll also probably get one at the beginning if the blog owner introduced you to his audience beforehand. Some do, some don’t, but every single guest poster always gets a little one-to-two sentence paragraph at the end of the post to explain who they are and where they usually blog.

Don’t go for the obvious here. The impulse is to simply state what your blog is about, link to it, and run away.

What you want to do is intrigue the audience and bring them over to your blog to learn more about you. So craft a paragraph that talks about the most interesting thing you’ve done on your own blog. Try these:

• Johnny Cash writes about music, cocaine, and prison over at BluesJohnny, and you should check out his free ebook on how to get started in the music business with nothing but slicked-back hair and a dream.

• Karen Love is all about harmony, tweety birds, and never using curse words, but she also recently wrote a post about why you should sell your soul to the devil that’s well worth a read.

Remember to link to something interesting or free, and make sure to tell readers what you blog about so they know whether they should check you out. Which, if you landed that front-page position on that big-name blog, they should.

Happy guest posting.

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How to Guest Post Properly to Build Your Readership

Could my Christian blog really make it?

I’m sure SEO experts all around will surely sneer and turn their noses up at this one. Let them, it will only make those nose crumbs more visible. (Will someone please hand that guy a tissue already?)

When I started my Christian Blog eleven months ago, I did all the research I could and learned all I could learn about blogging and how to get readers and what not. I downloaded and read every ebook I could get my mouse to click on, and when I finally got to a point where the information became repetitive, I realized that I had a firm enough grasp to dive in, set up my blog and start writing.

I knew the rules, use your keywords, keywords, blah blah blah… but when I started writing I found the rules too constricting; too creativity sapping; too paralyzing. I didn’t feel like writing a post about the least competitve keywords with the highest search volume – so I didn’t. I tried, but it was so uninspiring. It made writing feel like a drag. Oh well, I guess the search engines wouldn’t be stopping by my spot.

Call it naivete, ignorance or flatout stupidity – whichever you like best (it won’t hurt my feelings, I promise), but this time last year, I couldn’t tell blogging from a whole in the ozone layer – but as I began to navigate through the blogosphere, I learned some very valuable lessons about blogging (and life).

Truthfully, what I’ve learned from blogging has far out weighed my feeble earnings. I’ve learned that persistence and perseverence pays off in the long run and I’ve learned a valuable life lesson – to make real connections with people, you’ve got to be willing to help and offer something of value. I learned that part the hard way – it really didn’t make any sense, that’s how things work in the offline world – why did I think it would be any different online?

That part of what I learned didn’t come from any of the hundreds of ebooks and reports I had read about blogging – it came from actual experience. It came from two very kind and loving people who decided to reach out to me and help me for no apparent reason. I didn’t have anything to give them in return, yet they went out of their way to Tweet my posts, to comment, to follow me on Twitter and become great inspirations to me.

Blogging also taught me to believe in my writing gift and utilize all the other talents God has given me to the fullest.

Blogging taught me that, while it does take a deep passion to undertake, the reward possiblities are infinite.

So I just decided to write the best content I could, in spite of the search engines – and somehow (Divine intervention, I believe), people from all corners of the world began to trickle on to my site. Even if Google wasn’t going to cooperate, there were infinite ways to get traffic.

This is what I did:

I started following and posting authentic comments on some high traffic/high ranking blogs.
I increased my following and began engaging others on Twitter.
I wrote guest posts.
I helped others by retweeting and promoting their blog posts.
I set some goals for everyday, and I don’t quit until I at least get close.
I wrote and wrote some more…every day, even if only a little.

But the greatest thing I did for my blog, was this: I began to allow others to see me in my writing. I often reluctantly reveal my flaws and share my unpleasant experiences with others so that they might benefit from what I’ve gone through.

Blogging has taught me to take what I learn and share it with others. I’ve come to realize that is my responsbility to do so. Just like you – I have countless of unique experiences that have taught me things that would benefit others to know as well. It makes those hard-learned lessons really mean something – I didn’t go through those trials for nothing – I went through them so that someone else might have an opportunity to change their life for the better. Use your unique experiences to your advantage to create valuable content.

That’s what valuable content is – content that makes life better for others in some way. It’s the kind that uplifts and encourages; that teaches and inspires; that provokes thoughts and shapes thinking. It’s the kind that can break through search engine barriers.

To wrap this up and to clarify things – I do take steps to optimize my site for search engines – I use the All-in-Seo plug-in for Wordpress – but optimization is what I do last – after I’ve already written my content. I use Google’s keyword tool, enter my title or potential tags, and then I search to find a keyword phrase that best fits with what I’ve already written. I look for keywords that have at least 500 Global Monthly Search Volume. If I find something that won’t ruin what I’m going for – I use it, if I don’t find anything, then I go with what I had originally. The point is, I write quality content first, then I go back and optimize whenever possible. SEO shouldn’t rule what I write – benefiting people should.

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I Threw SEO to the Wind