“A Legendary Copywriter’s Secret to an Unending Stream of Ideas” plus 1 more

A Legendary Copywriter’s Secret to an Unending Stream of Ideas

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 01:00 PM PDT

This guest post is by Josh Sarz of Sagoyism.com.

I’m in love with blogging.

If you’re like me, you marvel that you have your own website. It may not be huge for a lot of people who’ve been in the blogging biz for years, but it’s huge for me.

My first few months of blogging flew by so fast, it seemed like only yesterday when I started writing online.

My first blog was about everything under the sun. Tech, Social Media, Health, Entertainment and turtles were just a few of the topics my first blog covered. I was prolific. Writing two or three blog posts per day was normal for me. I had so much to talk about.

Then came the scourge that a lot of people call writer’s block. I started fearing the blank page. I couldn’t think of anything else to write about. Social Media? I’ve written about it a lot. Entertainment? It was getting really boring really fast. I ran out of ideas.

Sound familiar? I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one who has experienced this before. Coming up to your blog, facing a blank page and wondering for hours on what to write about. I’m also sure that a lot of people will be experiencing this in the future.

That’s why I’ll be telling you about the secret I learned to getting an unending stream of knowledge and ideas. With this in your creative arsenal, you won’t even have to worry about what to write today, tomorrow and the day after that.

The secret is incubation

This isn’t my idea, by the way. I read about it in a book by legendary copywriter Joseph Sugarman. If you don’t know him, then you should. I’ve learned a massive amount of knowledge from his book. I know you will as well.

Joe talked about how he gets creative ideas for his copy. Want to know one of his secrets? He got off his butt and did something else.

“What’s this ‘incubation’ that you speak of?”, you might ask.

It’s the process of getting your mind out of your work, and giving it time to rest. To make it even more simple, it means you get out of you chair and do something else. Don’t even think about what to write for your blog.

“How am I supposed to know what to write if I don’t think about it?”

I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but it works. It really does. The logic behind it is that your mind is always at work. No matter what you do, whether you’re brewing your favorite coffee, or watching Disney’s Up, or even when you’re out partying, you’re brain is constantly absorbing everything that you see, hear, feel, taste and smell.

So don’t worry if you’re not burying your face in your computer. You’re still working. Trust me.

I’ll tell you the reason as to how this will work for you later. But first, let’s talk about the two kinds of knowledge.

General knowledge: This is simply the basic kind of knowledge that you get from experiencing everything in your life. When you’re watching the Discovery Channel, or seeing how your mom cooked dinner back when you were a kid, or the time when you were learning how to draw your favorite superhero … all this would account to growing your general knowledge.
Specific knowledge: This type of knowledge is what is also called ‘niche’ knowledge. This is the knowledge that you get from studying how to write great copy, or how to perform open-heart surgery, or the specific temperature that cooks the perfect fried chicken.

The difference between the two is: general knowledge comes as you experience the world and what it has to offer, while specific knowledge, on the other hand, is something you learn when you have to study or do a certain amount of research.

Have you guessed what kind of knowledge the incubation process can give you?

The power of general knowledge

This is the backbone of your creativity. While specific knowledge will give you the info you need to be an expert on a topic, general knowledge gives you the ability to be flexible with just about anything.

This is also the driving force behind an unending stream of knowledge and ideas. Growing your experience with a variety of things outside your blog will add up to your creative arsenal.

Never again will you have to worry about what to write. Never again will you worry about how you want to portray your next big idea. Never again will you have to fear the blank page.

Now I’ll tell you how you can use your general knowledge to your advantage.

Putting it all together

We know how important taking time off from your blog is. We also talked about general knowledge, and what it can do for your creativity.

Now let’s put it all together and get those creative juices overflowing. This is another tactic that I’ve learned from Joseph Sugarman’s book. It’s not his idea this time, but it’s brilliant nonetheless.

We’re now going to apply what we’ve learned through our everyday experiences to think of unique ways to write your next post. If you think that you don’t have enough general knowledge to work with, think again.

You know more than you think you do. A lot more. So don’t worry.

The technique that I’m talking about is called Lateral Thinking. It’s a process of solving problems using indirect and creative means, usually with ideas that seem totally unrelated to the main topic.

Joe talked about how Edward de Bono’s device, the “Think Tank”, can help you with your creativity. You pick three random words out of a huge pile, and relate them to your topic.

Now let’s apply this to your blog post. This is where it gets interesting.

You have to write you next post while incorporating those three random words. What a challenge! And a fun one at that. This will force your brain to search your vault of general knowledge. You don’t have to be an expert at these random words, you just need to know how to tie them all in to your topic.

Why is it fun? What does it do to help with my blogging?

Your blog post won’t sound dry, so your readers will have a better experience reading your posts.
It’s going to attract another type of reader aside from the usual ones, growing your audience in the process.
The exercise trains your brain to be more creative, so you’ll get better and better every day, and won’t have to even worry about what to write about.
The entire post will generally sound better with a story. People love reading a story. It captures their attention, and if done right, would compel your readers to read your entire post. Not bad.

But wait, isn’t using three unrelated words a bit too had?

I admit, it’s a little shocking to do at first, but it gets easier in time. Don’t worry, because you don’t have to go “by the book” and use three words. You can choose to go use the Easy mode, and just pick out one unrelated word. As you get used to applying this technique when you’re brainstorming, you can move on to Normal mode (two or three words) and then finally to Hard mode.

I used the same technique to brainstorm a topic to write this guest post on Problogger. I only picked two random words (I chickened out of using three), which were “love” and “sleep.”

You don’t need to have your own Think Tank device to do this. Being the lazy guy that I am, I just searched on Google and found a site where I could generate up to eight random words.

Get those ideas flowing like crazy

It’s going to be so easy, I promise. And fun, too. You now know that in order to get an unlimited amount of ideas, all you have to do is stop working and do something else. Go watch some TV, read a book, train your dog how to sniff out firecrackers, go swimming, hang out with your family—do just about anything.

You’ve also learned how to apply lateral thinking when brainstorming ideas for your next blog post. I’ve given you a link to a page where you can get up to eight random words. You now know how to get creative and search the vault in your brain for ideas.

The best thing about this is: it’s totally free, and you can start doing it right this instant. So get out there and do something else. Forget about your blog for a while. When you come back, so fresh and revived, you’ll be ready to take on that blank page.

This is what I’ve learned to do, and it has helped me tons. I hope it will help you tremendously, as well. But this is just one idea, and there are lots more out there. What do you do to battle the blank page? Has it worked for you? What else can you add to this topic?

Josh Sarz is a freelance copywriter and the founder of Sagoyism.com where he talks about Copywriting and Content Marketing for the Digital Entrepreneur. Click through to grab the ‘Lowdown on Content Marketing‘ free report right now.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

A Legendary Copywriter’s Secret to an Unending Stream of Ideas

Build Blog Products That Sell 3: Develop Your Product

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 07:01 AM PDT

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

Welcome to the third weekly instalment in our series on how to sell products of your own creation, via your blog, in a world in which everyone's reluctant to spend money. If you've been following the series so far, (LINKS), then you've learned how to conceive of a product and conduct market research into its viability, at least in theory.

In the process, you've learned how to identify your clientele, and create a product that:

has unmistakable value
people will want
is a natural extension of your blog itself, and
no one can duplicate.

Today, we’ll look at actually developing the product you’ve spent so long conceiving.

Making time for product development

Identifying what your product should be is one thing; actually creating them is something more. It's a laborious process that requires you to devote hours that you'd otherwise have spent on your blog's day-to-day upkeep, your sleep, or your work schedule.

Do yourself a favor and choose the first of the three. A weary blogger is an inefficient blogger, and a blogger who leaves the office early to work on his blog every afternoon will soon see his mornings free up, too.

That doesn't mean you should let your blog go dormant while creating your ebooks, online courses or series of webinars. Far from it. Instead you need to leverage your time, which is a skill that every successful person on the planet has mastered. That applies to bloggers as much as it does to anyone.

With a little planning, you can maintain your blog's relevance and timeliness. A few minutes of prevention are worth hours of cure.

Accept guest posts

If you've ever been approached by people wanting to write guest posts for your blog—and I think almost all of us have—there's no better time to take them up on it than when you need to commit resources to creating your suite of products. Let someone else do the work, at least temporarily. Besides, guest bloggers don't exactly drive hard bargains. A backlink or two should be enough to keep them happy.

Toil away on the task at hand while you delegate what can be delegated, and your readers will marvel at how you managed to create sellable products while your blog never missed a perceptible beat.

Publish timeless content

But what if you're the kind of blogger who considers every post a uniquely crafted representation of your ability to persuade or engage, and who would no sooner have someone else write for your blog than have someone else raise your children?

You can still leverage your time, by breaking out timeless content.

To give you an example, I update my blog with long-form posts three times a week. Occasionally the content is topical and temporal, but most of it is evergreen.

Write in advance

When you know you're going to be immersed in creating your product for the next few weeks, write as many blog posts as you can, as far in advance as you can. I always have at least a month's worth of posts ready to go in my content management system, even if I'm not working on a product.

Not only does it give me peace of mind, it gives my blogging partner plenty of time to shop around for a replacement should I get hit by a train.

Write hot; edit cold

Creating a sellable product from scratch takes more time than does creating a blog post, so you want to be able to set aside sufficient hours to work on said product without thinking, "Alright, that's enough. I have to stop so I can get to tomorrow's blog post."

The author's directive to write hot and edit cold applies here. When you're sufficiently motivated and your muse is feeling prolific, that's the time to knock out as many days' worth of blog content in advance as you can.

Get committed … and disciplined

If any of this sounds daunting, rather than inspiring, save yourself the energy and don't even waste your time getting started. There are countless bloggers who sell (or more accurately, can't sell) redundant, uninspired products. Don't be one of them. Be at least as passionate about any products as you are about your blog itself. You need to have a more compelling reason for selling products than "I probably should" or "everyone else is doing it."

Creating my own products forced extra discipline on me, which is never a bad thing. Instead of writing until I'd lose interest, I had no choice but to devote certain hours every day to building and formatting my ebooks. For me, that meant 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. for writing, editing and researching products. If I needed to, I'd work on my blog itself later in the day, a few hours removed from the pressing problem of completing each ebook by my self-imposed deadline.

Maintaining the other parts of my life (physical activity, earning money, feeding the pets) prompted me to get as much production as I could out of the finite time I'd allotted for ebook creation. If I hadn't, I'd have fallen behind schedule and possibly never recovered.

Test marketing

So, you've done everything according to plan, and you've finally managed to create a product that you think has real value. As far as you know, your brainchild is ready for its formal debut. The readers you've spent years building a relationship with should be ready to overcome their inherent frugality and spend a few dollars patronizing you.

But how do you know they will? Or at least, how can you increase the likelihood of them doing so?

You test market your product, just like a major conglomerate's sugar-free soda or exotically flavored toothpaste. At this point, your product is a hit only in theory, and you need to determine via a sample of people whether you're ready for the marketplace at large.

This is the hardest part of the process for many. Most people feel uncomfortable having their work criticized. And among the few who think that they're beyond that, most of those handicap themselves by selecting test marketers who'll give them the answers they want to hear.

Here's how you test how feasible the first draft of your product is.

1. Choose your testers

First, determine whom your 12 most critical friends and acquaintances are. You want the ones whom are unvarnished, even caustic in their opinions. Candor counts even more than objectivity does, because the former is a harder quality to find. The fawners and sycophants have no place in this experiment, and your mother will be of little value. They're not going to help you, and they're not going to help the only people who matter here—your readers.

Assess your potential test marketers honestly. The absolute last thing you want is respondents who are going to tell you how awesome you are and wow, you created a blog and every post you write is magical and it's only a matter of time before the International Herald Tribune comes calling and asks you to share your opinions on budget scrapbooking with a worldwide audience.

Why do you want 12 test marketers? Because six of them are going to agree to critically assess your products, yet never get around to doing so. Bribe them if you have to. Offer to buy each one lunch or something.

2. Send them your product

Now, give them your product, with explicit instructions for them to be as critical as possible. Tell them to try to find something wrong even in the parts they like. A third party (or the fourth through 14th parties) will notice mistakes and omissions that you're too close to the action to see for yourself.

Never send anything to market too early. If you're a blogger looking to extend your brand (and line your pockets), that might mean nothing more than adding or rewriting a few lines of code. It is far, far better for everyone concerned to improve a product before it goes live, rather than after.

As far as can be determined, no prototype in the history of commerce has been better than the finished product slated for release.

Key points

Don’t sacrifice your income to develop a product: plan development up front.
Accept guest posts, publish timeless content, write in advance, write hot and edit cold, and develop discipline and commitment to what you’re doing.
Test market your product with actual readers of your blog.
Take their feedback and use it to improve your product. Run the tweaked product past your most reliable testers again if you wish.

Alright, enough about "what?" and "why?" Next week we address the most critical question of all: "How much?" But stick around, because later today, ProBlogger will be taking a closer look at a technique to help you generate an unending stream of post ideas. It might just help you save some time to put toward developing your product.

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

Build Blog Products That Sell 3: Develop Your Product