“Writing is Easy; Editing is Hard” plus 2 more

Writing is Easy; Editing is Hard
The Yummy Goodness of Laughter on Your Blog
ProBlogger’s Guide to Blogging for Your Business

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 01:03 PM PDT

This guest post is by Greg McFarlane of Control Your Cash.

People regularly say to me, "I can't write." Sure you can. The process of writing – getting words down on the page – is mindlessly simple. Transcribe everything you say and/or think and eventually you'll have something down on the screen in front of you.

Which is precisely the problem.

Any blogger who wants to can bang out a 1000-word post a day. Just write whatever's on your mind, without filter or organization, and press "publish". Unfortunately, that's how far too many bloggers do it.

Greg's computer, after loading one too many uninspired blogs

Taking care while crafting your words is what distinguishes a blogger from a mere muser. Unless you've got an extremely captivating story to tell—about how you climbed all Seven Summits or fed starving Sudanese in Darfur—merely sharing your day-to-day experiences with the rest of us isn't blogging. It's narcissism.

There are too many homogenous bloggers living lives similar to yours and expressing like opinions for your blog to be noteworthy. Oh, you're a mother who's juggling child-rearing with holding a job? Congratulations. No one in the history of the universe ever had to sit in an office all day and come home to her kids before you did. Tell us more about how exhausted you are every evening, and what hilariously precocious thing your 4-year-old said that put a smile on your face and made it all worthwhile.

Yes, you want to find commonalities with your readers, but saying nothing bold or different is no way to build an ardent, devoted audience.

You've got to focus your ideas. It means bringing something unique, whatever that might be. (The harder you have to look for it, the less reason you have to blog.) On the mechanical level, it means not relying on phrases that come to mind easily. If they do come to mind easily, they're likely either clichés (horrible) or plagiarism (worse). And if you're a native English speaker, but can't bother to use proper grammar and spelling, why should I spend my time deciphering your ramblings?

Have consideration for your reader. Assume he'll take it personally if you waste even a millisecond of his time. God knows I take it personally when I'm reading an unfamiliar blog. Trim the excess foliage from your writing, and cauterize the cuts so that nothing useless or repetitive ever grows there again. The form of what you say is at least as important as the content, because no reader's going to be exposed to your groundbreaking ideas if she has to trudge through a verbal peat bog to find them. Job #1 should always be to present something clean, sharp and interesting.

And do you know what magical thing will happen when you take the time and effort to craft something original, incisive and provocative for your audience?

People will hate you.

Yes. Hate. They want to be comforted, not challenged. They'll be expecting the simplistic three-chord riffs of traditional blues-based rock ‘n roll that they've heard 1000 times before, and here you are giving them the shocking wild feedback and distortion of Jimi Hendrix. Readers are conditioned to understand the traditional way of interpreting the universe: if you dare to go full Einstein, telling them crazy stories about how matter and energy are two forms of the same thing and that space-time can stretch and warp, I guarantee the enemies you make will outnumber the friends.

My own blog illustrates the point. I started my blog with a mission that I thought any rational person would approve of. I wanted to show people how to take whatever money they're starting with, however modest, and foster its growth by performing certain basic, straightforward activities and avoiding others. And I wanted my readers to comprehend the complex financial jargon that affects their everyday lives, by explaining it to them in an understandable way. When my partner and I began the blog, we thought we'd have millions of people patting us on the back, nodding knowingly and thanking us for telling it like it is.

Boy, were we wrong. Every strong opinion we espouse is met with various commenters telling us we're mean, insensitive, or unrealistic. A couple of our blogging colleagues—people who run sites more popular than ours—banned us outright for challenging their positions. We were polite in our outspokenness, yet they still wanted us silenced.

But regardless of what anyone wants to hear, the fact is that you shouldn't blame VISA because your credit card payments are high. You owe zero loyalty to your employer. If you buy a house with an adjustable-rate mortgage, you are playing with gasoline and a lit match.

Virtually none of the blogs similar to ours take the same positions. Instead, most offer the same easily digestible advice that's resulted in a society of overextended consumers.

What keeps us going is that the readers who do like our blog, love it. They bookmark it, they subscribe to the RSS feed, and most importantly, they actually read it. Our readers know that three times a week, they can come to us for a long, detailed, carefully researched post. And that that post will challenge assumptions, inspire action, and use undeniable premises to reach conclusions that aren't obvious. Our readers also know that every post will be written in an uncompromising and hopefully interesting style. After all, that's what I look for when searching for a blog to read.

As I write this, my blog’s Alexa rank seems to have plateaued around 122,000. I still want that rank to improve, but I don't obsess on it like I once did. Quality and quantity don't always overlap. Given the choice between having x devoted and demanding readers, and having x+y readers who are just looking for reassurance and nice stories, I'll take the former every time. If you want your ideas to resonate, you should too.

Greg McFarlane is an advertising copywriter who lives in Las Vegas. He recently wrote Control Your Cash: Making Money Make Sense, a financial primer for people in their 20s and 30s who know nothing about money. You can buy the book here (physical) or here (Kindle) and reach Greg at greg@ControlYourCash.com.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Writing is Easy; Editing is Hard

The Yummy Goodness of Laughter on Your Blog

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 09:03 AM PDT

This guest post is by Angela Severance of Wonder Divas.

As a blogger, connecting with your readers can sometimes be a challenge. If you're new to blogging or you haven't quite "found your groove" you may even be struggling. You want to make an impact on your readership, but the “how” of it kind of escapes you.

The answer often lies in giving your readers a good laugh or even just coaxing a smile from them. Once you've managed to do that, you've also managed to connect with them on some level, engage their interest, and hopefully make them excited for more.

So here are a few tips on injecting a bit of humor into your blog and giving your readers (and yourself!) a few tickles to the proverbial funny bone.

Duh! Find the funny

It may sound oversimplified, but injecting humor into your blog means finding the funny events happening in your life around you and finding a way to tie them into what you're trying to say in your blog post.

Maybe you use a funny story to illustrate a point or a funny example to showcase "what not to do". Maybe you just share something funny you heard on the news or tell that witty joke your co-worker told you at lunch yesterday. Look to the experiences happening in your own life, whether they are positive or negative and try to find the humor in them. Then share those humorous (and human) moments with your readers!

Choose your words—literally

When you polish up your vocab skills and use different words that may mean the same thing but carry different connotations, you increase your ability to write not only effectively but with humor if you so choose.

Often something that might not be construed as comical at first glance becomes comical if you use the right language to express it. A thesaurus is a great tool to help you in the "wording" department, by the way.

The upside is that, as you increase your vocabulary, you increase your ability to communicate and find your true "voice". Or even "voices" if you desire! And sometimes using colorful adjectives can throw a reader just enough off-guard to incite laughter!

Don't be bossy

It's not your job to tell your readers something is hilarious. It's your job to tell the story, describe the situation or express the character, and allow them to come to their own conclusion that something is hilarious.

You can do this by using words to paint a picture for your reader. Pull them into your world, immerse them in your words, and allow them to discover the funny all on their own.

Dress it a little differently

Sometimes what you're saying might not be smashingly unique. That's fine, but you can still make it witty by finding a way to say it a little differently than the next average Joe. You can also use things like metaphors, similes, silly clichés, and irony to inject humor as well.

Just remember that when you're using metaphors, similes or silly clichés to choose ones people can relate to on some level, that engages their senses and creates a "picture" in their minds. Don't use some obscure cliché that almost no one has ever heard before or you'll be shooting yourself in the foot. People find the most humor in things they can relate to, not things they've never heard of!

Get up and flow

Finally, remember that to write with humor, whether it's a blog post, a novel, or a letter to your friend, requires a certain amount of cahones. (It's okay if you've only got the proverbial kind, ladies.) No subject is taboo and when you start writing you shouldn't censor yourself too much.

Sure you can go back later and edit if need be, or if you don't want to be quite so "balls-y" you can censor a bit after you have something written … but don't let it be your first impulse. Write what you think and feel, let it flow freely and worry about who you may or may not offend later.

And remember that you don't have to be a stand-up comedian to write funny material and make your readers laugh. Often you just have to be you and be willing to let your guard down a bit. Now get out there and tickle some funny bones people!

"What if you tell a joke in the forest, and nobody laughs? Was it a joke?" – Steven Wright

Angela Severance is a Certified Holistic Life Coach, image consultant, writer, and Chief Happiness Officer at Wonder Divas. She enjoys dance parties with her daughters, baking cupcakes, roller skating, traveling, learning, inspiring, and laughing. Subscribe to her blog, and join her on Facebook.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

The Yummy Goodness of Laughter on Your Blog

ProBlogger’s Guide to Blogging for Your Business

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 05:59 AM PDT

Today I’m really excited to announce a brand new ProBlogger eBook - ProBlogger’s Guide to Blogging for Your Business.

The idea for this resource came from regular emails that I receive from business owners and employees within businesses who want to start blogs to assist them in achieving their business goals.

Their problem though is that they don’t know where to begin.

Business owners don’t have the time to take the trial and error approach and often need help from someone who’s done it all before and can show you how to build a successful blog for your business, right from the start.

As a result – I got in touch with Mark Hayward – a blogger that I’ve known for a few years now who not only coaches businesses in blogging strategy – but a bricks-and-mortar business owner himself who has used blogging and social media to build his business.

Mark has put together an A-Z of blogging for your business eBook that is going to help a lot of people move from being convinced that a blog is a good idea – to actually have one up and running with a great strategy moving forward.

Step-by-Step Advice to Save Hours of Time and Endless Frustration

By the time you’re finished this eBook will have helped you:

Set up a WordPress blog… without any technical know-how.
Conduct targeted keyword research… even if you've never done it before.
Understand your online competition… whether they're next door, or on the next continent.
Build a strong social media footprint… even if you don't know the first thing about finding "followers."
Set a successful business blogging strategy… no matter what your product or market.

This eBook is over 140 pages in length and full of practical advice with exercises to complete at the end of each of its 12 chapters – so you’ll not only learn but you’ll immediately have opportunity to put the theory into action and move towards building a fully functioning blog for your business.

For more information on what is covered in this great new eBook check out the ProBlogger’s Guide to Blogging for Your Business information page – or order your own copy below for just $49.99 USD by clicking the ‘download it now’ button.