How to Write on Goal
If you don't decide on a goal before writing, don't be surprised if you end up with a random outcome. How to choose a goal for your post.
Blogging Goals: What is Your Blog Doing for You?
Before you start a blog, you need to understand why your blog will exist. Before you sit down to write, what exactly do you want your audience to do when they have done reading?
Which Post Types Make a Valuable Blog?
Someone on Twitter remarked that they were sick of all the “Why blogging is like …” posts. To be honest I like them, and I will continue to write posts like that, but I am not surprised this particular person is sick of them. It is like top ten lists and all the other formula …
Moist Robots and Emotion Versus Logic
People are irrational animals. There are a lot of scientists who believe we don’t even have free will. An (otherwise objectionable) writer once cleverly referred to humans as “moist robots” because we merely react to our programming and stimulus. Is it any surprise then other moist robots’ decisions confuse the heck out of us? The …
The Incremental Route to Profit Success
Since I wrote about affiliate marketing I have had quite a lot of feedback. While there are a lot of people saying they are cautiously going to give it a go, many more have told me one of two things: Woooah! Yes there is a great deal of money to be made in affiliate marketing, …
Should You Try Affiliate Marketing?
It was interesting to see Yaro talk about Affiliate Marketing as I had also been having a discussion on the topic and wanted to share my own advice. Do check out Yaro’s post. The key point I want to repeat is this one: Those early days taught me that patience is a virtue when it …
How to Change Your Perspective
Have you ever visited a tourist location then browsed Flickr only to find everyone seems to have taken the same photograph? One of the principal techniques of better photography is to move around, look at the scene in different ways, approach from new angles. The same is true for writing. While the direct approach, the …
Why it is Good to Repeat Yourself
In the previous post I recommended that you should find your own stories or develop a unique take on the news. Basically implying that repeating was bad. Here’s the funny thing … repeating yourself can be good … Now don’t get me wrong, I do not for a minute suggest that you simply drone on …
Do You Lead or Follow?
Where are ewe?, originally uploaded by foxypar4. Several bloggers have complained to me about the number of feeds they find lately that simply echo the same old information. Think about your blog … have you fallen into this trap? It’s an easy habit to get into. Fear of not having something to say, or fear …
What Bloggers Can Learn from my Favorite TV Shows
Lately I haven’t watched a lot of television, for a couple of years actually now I think about it. But, thanks to my handy satellite dish and DVR (Sky+ for the locals) I do keep up with some of the latest geek viewing. This is lucky because Ben over at Blogging Experiment has got a …
Getting to Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience inside out is a critical part of blog success. If you do not know who your reader is and what they need, how can you possibly delight them? Your blog has to be for your reader first and you second. Yes, before anyone comments, there are notable successes with huge audiences who …
Should Any Topic be Out of Bounds?
In normal, polite conversation, people tell us that we should stay away from the topics of politics and religion. Does the same go for social media and blog discussions? There are probably other topics just as controversial, but I think in most cases these topics come under the heading of politics or beliefs for shorthand. …
Blogging for Readers
Is your blog Reader-Centric? Yuk, I know, horrible buzz word, but stay with me! What I am asking is important to your blog success; how well do you cater for your reader when working on your blog? In the programming world people talk about “user centric” where the users needs are elevated and in customer …
Your Feedback as a Mirror
I was at Starbucks yesterday waiting for my caramel macchiato when I overheard a conversation that went something like this: “So I just put my handbrake on and sat there. There was no way I was moving, school or no school.” “What did they do then?” “They had to drive around me. One mounted the …
A Perfect Editorial Calendar for Your Desk
I have mentioned editorial calendars a couple of times here but I have always been thinking of something electronic. As it turns out there is a company who has developed a physical planner almost designed for the job! What you need in an editorial calendar is days laid out calendar style with space to write …
Free Without Exploitation
As most people who read this blog know, giving away information is what I do. I write, answer emails, give away ebooks, give talks. Thankfully I also pay the bills. The way I do that is by charging for information. Specific, bespoke advice, workshops, consulting calls, teaching classes. So many times people have queried the …
Tips for Better Skype Meetings
Since leaving the world of marketing agencies to work from home, my meetings have gone from mostly physical to mostly virtual. The vast majority of my clients over the last few years have been overseas. Whereas before I would hop on the train and go see clients, now I spend most of my time conversing …
Becoming Compelling
Today I have something for you to think about. I figure this is a good time, being as we are at the start of a new year. It’s a word for you to consider. That word is “compelling”. In marketing and blogging people often throw around the word compelling. It is right up there with …
Selecting a Random Blog Comment From Your WordPress Database
Bloggers like to give and win prizes. It offers some excitement for readers, content and links for the blogger, and if the prize is offered by a third party it gives them some exposure too. Darren does this a lot and to good effect, I do it very occasionally when I have something good to …
Charisma versus Innovation
You can be charismatic or be innovative, if you had to choose, which would you prefer? I asked on Twitter and got overwhelmingly “Innovative!” as a response. This is pretty much what I hoped and expected to hear. While most people would say they value innovation more highly than charisma, I look around and I …
Planning Blog Post Topics
It is no coincidence that I am writing this at the end of the year. Traditionally at the end of one year we look ahead to the next. I’m trying to make 2008 much more organized than 2007! I am often paid to manage projects, it is something I am good at and enjoy, so …
Using Mind Maps in Blogging
Mind Maps are a useful technique to learn for brainstorming, note taking, in fact any time you want to get thoughts down on paper. To show you how to use them I have created my first ever full length video/sketchcast. Man did I find this difficult, it is a lot harder than I thought to …
The Reverse-Process Technique of Discovering Blog Topics
Often when I talk to companies about blogging they tell me while other companies might have a wealth of things to write about, their company would probably struggle to write more than a few posts before seizing up. It normally takes me coming up with ten or so topic ideas for me to convince them …
Chunking and Outlining Blog Topic Ideas
Being stuck for a blog post topic isn’t always a case of sitting down and your brain going blank. That was the problem we hopefully had solutions for in the previous post of this series. There are times when you know in advance the overall subject you need to cover but somehow you still need …
How to Generate Post Ideas When You Are Stuck
One of the most challenging aspects of blogging is thinking up what to write about. It is something that impacts all of us at one time or another. While it is true the more you write the better you get at it, you can still sit at the computer one day absolutely blank. When that …
The 80/20 Rule of Effort
The end of the year is approaching so I am looking backwards and forwards as I do every year. As I am sure many of you do too. One conclusion I have to draw from this year that I will take into the next is how I have squandered my time. Squandered might be too …
Friendly Feedback? Priceless.
One of the stranger aspects of being paid for offering your advice is how much easier it is to see in others the same mistakes you overlook in your own work. Have you noticed that? On Saturday I was lucky to meet Liz briefly and she gave me some constructive criticism about my blog. The …
Is Your Blog Opinionated?
Do your readers have a clear idea of where you stand? Does any philosophy or approach come through your writing? Making your blog opinionated could be a way you can make your blog stand out and gather an audience. Gather Your Community Around an Idea Consider what a community is. Would you agree that a …
Should You Take Part in Traffic Exchanges?
Yet again there is another traffic exchange doing the rounds with widgets appearing on blog sidebars. Of course people are asking if they should join in. Here is my advice … Is it really free? – OK, in most cases you don’t actually pay money to be a part of it, but in return for …
Conversation as a Competitive Advantage
What have bloggers got as an advantage that other webmasters do not? I would argue “conversation”. Have a think about which sites you feel a part of, or where you feel a connection to the site and its owners. What are the common elements? Liz has turned blog conversation into an art form and a …
Can You Blog Too Much?
Interesting thought here from David Peralty I think that writing on numerous blogs can be detrimental, but as Chris Garrett has proven, it can also be very helpful, as everywhere I turn around his name pops up Do you think I’m getting over-exposed? As David says, part of my personal branding has been from writing …
Why Blogging is Like Alcohol
Have you seen Jon’s “Drunk on Your Own Words” post at Copyblogger? It’s a good piece, go read it if you haven’t already. After reading it I realized blogging has some things in common with drinking the booze: Inhibitions – For some of us blogging can strip away inhibitions. This could be in the way …
Spreading Your Ideas
In the past week I have been interviewed again a couple of times. Some common questions are starting to come up. It seems that there are a couple of things people know about me. Authority Blogger Flagship Content This pleases me no end. Why? Because these are precisely the things I want to spread! So …
Attention Age Doctrine Free Report Download
Attention Age Doctrine is a free report from Rich Schefren. I am sure I won’t be the only person you hear about this from. In fact I heard about it myself from Yaro. So why am I telling you about it? It’s free – Even though you can be sure Rich isn’t giving it away …
What is New Media?
I’m a little embarrassed to tell you that I have been using the phrase “New Media” without ever thinking about the definition very much. You see, “New Media” is one of those things you know when you find it, but when it comes to explaining to someone else we can stumble. Let me try now …
Do You Block Ads?
I was chatting to a couple of bloggers over the weekend and I thought the discussion was divided and interesting enough to open up to you guys. As we often do we got around to talking about cool sites we have seen recently. I mentioned “Why Digg is Blocked” and almost immediately regretted it. One …
Freelance Blogging: How Much Should You Charge?
Over at the Authority Blogger Forum my friend and super forum moderator, Jen has started a great thread about freelance blogging rates. What would you charge for freelance blogging? As she says, while there is a lot of information out there about freelance blogging, the one thing people rarely talk about is how much you …
Blog Critique: Teevieo
Would you believe I have a blogger doppelgänger out there? Yes, it’s true, and cruelly he is both younger and better looking. Not only that, he is a skilled designer. Luckily for me I can redress the balance somewhat by trashing his new blog. But no! That last piece of evil revenge has also been …
How to Get Banned from Twitter
One of the Twitter personalities I have been following is Sam Freedom who found one day his account had been suspended. It turns out from support there are several reasons this happens, mainly: you’ve followed a large number of people in a short amount of time there is a small number of followers compared to …