“The 5 Must-read Books for Bloggers in 2011” plus 1 more

The 5 Must-read Books for Bloggers in 2011

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 01:02 PM PDT

I’ve read dozens of marketing books in the past six months, and these are the titles that really stood out. Reading these will dramatically help you improve your blog. I promise!

Launch

I used to work for a launch coach so assumed I knew everything about product launches. Until I read this book. This is the best business book I have read in the past year.

The author, Michael Stelnzer, focuses on the "Elevation Principle." He talks about how to give away digestible how-to content that creates a loyal, well-fed business community.

He applied these concepts to Social Media Examiner which was started at a time when he had little industry experience. Within two weeks of its launch, Social Media Examiner joined the ranks of Technorati’s Top 100 Small Business Blogs and remains in the Top 10.

This book will resonate with bloggers who are struggling to launch products from their blogs, or who are shying away from aggressive launch tactics. You can also use the book as a case study on how to create a popular, profitable blog.

The last chapter focuses on the “momentum launch,” which is the concept most Internet marketers are interested in. If that is your main interest, I’d recommend getting Ebook Evolution or How To Launch The **** Out Of Your Ebook instead.

Learn more.

Curation Nation

Many bloggers are embracing the concept of the human curator. There is too much information to filter, and aggregation tools aren’t as good as a real person. We’ve developed a need to go beyond aggregation to break through the digital noise. Learning about curation will become increasingly important for bloggers who want a competitive edge due to their knowledge about content marketing.

In Curation Nation, Steven Rosenbaum "curates the curators". He does the homework by interviewing collection of thinkers from the fields of media, advertising, publishing, commerce, and web technology.

This book is essential reading for those who want to stand out. It’s not a “how-to;” instead, Steven takes you on a journey that shows you how curation is relevant to your business. I believe that all micro-publishers should read this.

Learn more.

The Accidental Creative

A lot of demands are made on a blogger’s creativity. It goes beyond content creation. We have to be creative when it comes toother parts of our online presence, like marketing and monetization.

It’s hard to separate yourself from your blog. A lot of us use the Internet for fun and it’s easy to allow work to creep into our recreation time.

The Accidental Creative taught me that a lot of the activities I’d been doing were contributing to the exhaustion I’ve been feeling. This book taught me about managing my energy, fostering the kinds of relationships that aid creativity, and how to create a rhythm that supports my creative process. Since reading this book, I’ve had so many creative ideas that I can’t keep up. I also feel a lot happier and more engaged with my work.

If your blog or client work involves a lot of creative energy, then this book will really help.

Learn more.

Clout

Creating compelling content isn’t easy, but it’s the only way to influence online. This book will guide you through planning, creating, and evaluating your content.

The information would be familiar for many bloggers, however Clout gives you an insight into how content marketing can support businesses. You’ll learn:

how to increase the influence of your blog content
how to measure the effectiveness of your content
how to develop and implement content strategies.

Clout helped me realize that my haphazard approach to blogging was causing issues which resulted in a large drop in income. Since then, I’ve adopted many of the ideas and am enjoying a lot of success with my latest blogging venture.

I would recommend this title if content marketing forms a major part of your blogging income.

Learn more.

Real Time Marketing and PR

Real Time Marketing and PR is primarily written for businesses, but a lot of the information still applies to bloggers. Social media is real time, and you will have times where people rally against you. Writing a blog post may take too long and allow a negative situation to get worse.

This book will teach you how to respond in real time. You’ll learn the tools and strategies that will help calm angry community members and foster positive discussion. If your blog is a part of a larger community, this book is a must-read.

Learn more.

Over to you

A number of good books have been released in the past year, but these were the ones that helped me improve my blog. What books have helped you in the past year? Are there any upcoming releases you’re looking forward to?

This post was written by Jade Craven. She used the information in these books to create Launch Watch—a site that covers the latest information products for bloggers and online marketers.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

The 5 Must-read Books for Bloggers in 2011

How to Make Getting Sidetracked Work for You as a Blogger

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:03 AM PDT

If you’re ever stuck for ideas to write about on your blog, here’s a little discipline that I’ve gotten myself into over the years that helps me a lot.

It’s all about capturing those moments when you get sidetracked while writing blog posts.

Make getting sidetracked work for you

I doubt I’m the only one who gets sidetracked while writing.

It happens for me with almost every post I write. I start out writing about one topic and at some point through the post I find that I’ve gone off on some tangent. The tangent starts off relating to the main topic that I’m writing about, but quickly takes me away from what the post is really about.

When the realization dawns on me that I’m off on a tangent there are a few choices that can be made:

Leave the tangent in: Sometimes. getting a little sidetracked in a post actually works. It can add a bit of interest, serve as an example, and make your post better.
Delete the tangent: This is what I used to do most often. I’d sigh to myself about my rambling, highlight the offending paragraphs, and hit Delete.
Use the tangent as the basis for a new post: One day as I was about to delete a tangential paragraph, it struck me that while it didn’t belong in the post I’d been writing, it still contained value and could probably be used elsewhere. Instead of deleting it, I copied and pasted it into a new text document, which I returned to later to turn into a new post.

These days, I do it all the time (in fact this post started as a tangent in another). I’ve now extended the idea, and almost every time I finish writing a post I take a moment or two to re-read the post and look for places where I could have gone off on a tangent.

Look for those parts of the post where you could have said more, where ideas weren’t completely finished, or where you think the reader might be left asking questions and wanting to know more about something that you’ve said. It’s those parts with which you could start your next post.

The beauty of building this discipline—of making tangents and getting sidetracked work for you—is that you not only come up with new things to write about, you also build momentum on your blog. One post leads you to another one, and you’re able to take your readers on a journey with you by linking the posts together.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

How to Make Getting Sidetracked Work for You as a Blogger