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- Everything's Already Been Said. Now What?
This guest post is by Stephen Guise of Deep Existence.
Over the course of human history, nearly everything has already been written about extensively. Despite this, more people are writing than ever before.
It’s because there will always be more to say.
It is very challenging to write completely original content. Quite often, the best we can do is present known content in a new way or combine it with another idea. There is no limit to the number of ways you can say something, and yet some approaches are vastly superior to others.
Consider the following sentences that carry the same basic message (hint: one of them isn’t any good).
- I want to have good sentences.
- I want to convey information in a manner that is enjoyable to read and accurate to my intent.
Teach an old idea new tricks
A recent 50-word article from the brilliant Seth Godin laid out a single concept: you can’t have success without being willing to fail. I can prove this isn’t new. My second post was titled, “Are You Willing To Fail? It Is The Key To Success,” and you’ll find about 100 more posts like these via a quick Google search.
What Seth did to make his article unique was tie in the concept of innovation. He replaced “success” with “innovation” in the formula, and people loved it. They hadn’t thought about how innovation and failure relate to each other, even though it’s a simple derivation from the failure/success concept.
As soon as you say, “failure is not an option,” you’ve just said, “innovation is not an option.”
—Seth GodinOverwritten, tired topics can be re-energized with a fresh perspective and choice words. Seth’s post was 90% recycled information, but the 10% of new material changed it as a whole. A nasty analogy is that of adding a few drops of gasoline to a gallon of water—it has a dramatic effect!
One way to say something old in a new way is to leverage yourself. Great writers are cherished for their unique style. Every single person on this planet is unique (an amazing fact of reality). In an effort to write “correctly,” we may miss out on opportunities to be our more interesting selves.
Here’s an example. The personal development niche is one filled with serious writing. Changing lives is serious business! This observation and some incorrect assumptions about how a personal development blogger should write were stifling my creativity. Namely, I wasn’t injecting
steroidshumor into my posts like I naturally would.Imitation = Limitation?
How about imitating the greatest writers? Most articles and books I’ve read recommend this. There are some things that you absolutely should imitate, but be careful about taking it too far. If you’re unique in some way, it could be a mistake to disguise that with imitative writing (unless your unique writing attributes are poor). Blogging is a medium that allows for wild creativity and individuality.
I believe that Steve Pavlina is currently the best in personal development blogging. He “gets it.” However, I’m not going to try to be a clone of him. Steve Pavlina is the best Steve Pavlina out there. I may pick up some great ideas or techniques from him, but I’ll be incorporating them into Stephen Guise’s writing style and ideas.
I want to be the best and most innovative voice in personal development and believe I have that potential. What if I fall way short of that? No problem, I’m willing to fail in order to succeed and innovate! You can’t become the best or anywhere close to it believing that 45th best is your upper limit. Do not put a ceiling on your ambition. Imitate great writers on this point—they don’t believe in ceilings unless it is raining outside.
Your ceiling is too low
When you put a ceiling on your potential before you’re exhausted from trying to reach it, you artificially ruin your chances. Like a nervous fan walking up to Jay Z, you’ll be timid about what you’re saying, thinking that successful people have magical powers. In your posts, maybe you’ll throw in some power words to feign confidence. Unfortunately, when the problem is underlying, it will bleed through to the actual content of your writing. You can’t hide it. You’ll play it safe and lose to those who are going all out … like me!
The answer, as I mentioned before, is to leverage yourself and your voice. Nobody can be you better than you. Darren Rowse can’t. Seth Godin can’t. Steve Pavlina might be able to. Their voices are different (and awesome, to their credit). Bonus: If your unique voice is terrible, you’ll find out sooner by trying really hard.
This has been said before
Oops! I’ve just rehashed a couple of cliches in this post.
- “Believe in yourself.”
- “Reach for the moon, and if you fall short, you might land on a star.” Side note: How did this catch on? The moon is closer to us than any star is….
Those are very common sayings. A possible reason you’re still reading this post is that maybe I’ve found a better or more interesting way to say those things (in just a few more words). Do you think I am audacious to invite comparison of my writing to a couple of the most well-known phrases? Me too, but it’s because I refuse to have a ceiling. I will never rule myself out before the umpire makes the call—and neither should you.
Maybe this post did fall short of those popular sayings and it will be forgotten tomorrow. I accept that as a possibility.
But maybe my perspective of this topic connected with you. Maybe my unique construction of words and ideas had an impact on you. That’s what I hope for. That personal connection is what makes blogging beautiful. That’s why we do it.
Stephen Guise lives happily outside of the box and enjoys sharing his ideas for positive life change. At Deep Existence, you’ll find an irresistible combination of critical thinking, creativity, and humor. Say hello to Stephen on twitter!
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Everything’s Already Been Said. Now What?
Переслать - June is '31 Days to Build a Better Blog' Challenge at SITSgirls – Join them Today
If you’ve been blogging for a while now but feel ‘stuck’ – there’s a group of bloggers about to take the ‘31 Days to Build a Better Blog‘ challenge that you really should consider joining.The Group is SITSGirls – a blogging community with over 8000 women bloggers – and for the 2nd time they’re running #31DBBB. Last time around was amazing – by my count over 400 bloggers joined that challenge and the impact that I witnessed was pretty profound.
It was the first large group of bloggers that I saw walking through the eBook together and to see so many tackling the daily challenges together and supporting each other through them just highlighted how much more effective blogging can be when you take a communal approach to it. In addition to just working through the eBook there was lots of support in the forum area as well as on Twitter.
The SitsGirls challenge starts on 1 Juneand participants in the challenge get the eBook at 33% off. If you already have the eBook this is the ideal time to put it into action.
The coordinator of the challenge is Shelley from I’m still Standing – you can read her kick off post here.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
June is ’31 Days to Build a Better Blog’ Challenge at SITSgirls – Join them Today
Переслать - Behind the Scenes of Our New Ebook Launch at FeelGooder
It’s been six months since I launched my latest blog—FeelGooder—and today it’s entering a new phase, so I thought it might be time for a bit of an update.
You might remember back in November we launched FeelGooder and I outlined some of the backstory here on ProBlogger. The blog was a slightly new approach to me for a number of reasons—partly because of the wide niche (it covers everything from health, to relationships, to finance, to social good), but also because I decided to launch without any kind of advertising, and with the intent of monetization without ads.
It was an ambitious task and something of an experiment, but I was excited by the prospect.
Over the last six months, the focus on FeelGooder has really been to build up an archive of content (and a team of authors), and to build up a core readership. We’ve done both, although the going has been a little slower than I’d hoped, mainly because of the juggling I and my team are now doing across multiple websites.
However today we’re moving into a new phase and are launching an ebook: 7 Ways to FeelBetter.
You can read more about it on its sales page, but in short, it’s a week-long challenge for readers to work through. We think it will lift their spirits, help them to feel better about their lives, and hopefully help them to develop some life-changing habits.
I’m very excited about the reaction we’ve been receiving from those who have already reviewed it, and love the way it looks (we’re getting a lot of positive feedback on its design).
A new approach (for me) to launching products
One of the things I’m excited about in this particular ebook launch is that we’re experimenting with a slightly different launch process. Here’s how it looks:
- We’re giving the first 500 copies away for free.
- We’re then offering the next 500 copies at 50% off ($4.99).
- Then we’ll be selling it at its normal price of $9.99.
UPDATE: due to limitations with e-junkie allowing only 100 free copies to be given away per day I’ve had to put the price up to 1 cent for the first 500 buyers.
This is a bit of a departure from my normal launch process, and is one I’m excited to see the results of. You can check out how it’s going over at FeelGooder today, because as this post goes live, we’re starting the giveaway part of the launch.
One of the main reasons I’m taking this approach is that, with a smaller audience on FeelGooder than here on ProBlogger or dPS, I suspect it’ll be a little harder to get momentum going with a new product.
The aim with this giveaway is to get what we think is a great product in front of as many people as possible. My hope then is that with it “out there,” we’ll have some opportunities to grow the momentum as people begin to use it.
One of the ways that we’ll do this is through a push via social media—particularly Twitter. We’re encouraging those who participate in the challenge to use a common hashtag to document what they’re doing with the challenge.
Time will tell how it goes, but I wanted to keep ProBlogger readers up to date as to what we’re experimenting with on FeelGooder.
P.S. Want to give some copies away on your blog?
If your niche relates to that of FeelGooder (life tips, health, relationships, fitness, finance, social good, etc.), any tweets, blog posts or linkups to this great little ebook would be greatly appreciated.
We’re also open to doing a handful of giveaways on related blogs—feel free to contact me via the contact form here on ProBlogger if you think your readership might be interested. Do include a link to your blog and any details of your audience (size, demographics, etc.) with your email.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Behind the Scenes of Our New Ebook Launch at FeelGooder
Переслать - Why Bloggers Should Also Be Freelance Writers
This guest post is by Ali Hale of DailyWritingTips.com.
Blogging can feel like a long, hard road—especially when you're starting out. You haven't hit 100 subscribers, let alone 1,000, and it feels like you're writing into a vacuum.
And even when you're a little way down that blogging road, it can still be tough. You might be spending two or three hours a day on blogging—writing content, answering comments, building up friendships on Twitter and Facebook. Chances are, you're not making much money from it, though.
I'm not going to suggest that you give up. I'm not going to suggest that you work harder, either, pouring more and more hours into your blog.
Instead, I'm going to suggest something which you might never have considered before: becoming a freelance writer as well as being a blogger.
This might sound like a huge step. But really, you just need two key things:
- the ability to write well
- some contacts who're willing to pay you.
These might well be challenges—but they're not insurmountable hurdles.
Prerequisite #1: Being able to write
You certainly don't have to be a budding Shakespeare in order to write a competent, professional blog post—but you do need a strong grasp of grammar, and the ability to write engagingly.
There are certainly a few sites out there which will pay you for sloppy, lazy content—but the rate of pay will be abysmal. If you're going to write for a good, reputable blog, your writing needs to be solid. That doesn't mean flawless (even professional authors have copy-editors) but you should know:
- how to construct an engaging blog post, with a gripping introduction, clear message, and strong conclusion
- how to format your posts for easy readability, using subheadings, short paragraphs, bold text, and bullet pointed lists
- how to adapt your writing style for different purposes—some blogs will want a much more casual approach than others.
I firmly believe that writing is a skill. It comes more easily to some of us than to others, but everyone can learn and improve. (Reading the posts here on ProBlogger is a great start.)
Prerequisite #2: Contacts who can pay you
You might not have many contacts yet, but if you're thinking about freelancing, you'll want to start getting to know editors of big blogs and websites. Sure, plenty of jobs are advertised (you may well have taken a look at ProBlogger's own job boards), but most higher-paid positions never get publically advertised.
If you feel a bit intimidated by the idea of networking with editors and blog owners, take the pressure off. Believe it or not, big bloggers are human too! I've met several of my blogging heroes—like Darren Rowse and Daniel Scocco—and they're lovely, friendly, normal people.
A great way to strike up contact is by using Twitter or Facebook to send a friendly message letting an editor know how much you enjoyed a recent post. Don't be smarmy or fake about this—focus on blogs which you personally love.
My first few blogging jobs all came from sending in guest posts. A well-written, targeted guest post is a great way to get an editor's attention. It proves that you can write, and that you know their audience. (And even if you don't land a paying job as a result, you'll still get some traffic to your own blog, plus great exposure.)
You've probably got your hands pretty full with just your own blog. You might think it's not worth taking the time to improve your writing ability, or to build up your contacts.
But here's why you might want to think again.
You'll make money (fast)
Of course, money isn't everything, but if you're in the problogging game, chances are that you'd like to see some financial reward for your hard slog. Problem is, you can't attract big advertisers and you don't have any products to sell yet.
If you write a piece as a freelancer—whether that's for a blog, a magazine, or a newspaper—then you get paid. For a typical freelance blog post, you'll receive around $40–$60.
Doesn't that sound a lot more efficient than watching the pennies trickle into your AdSense account?
The money from your freelance writing might let you quit your day job, so you can put more time into your own blog or other projects (that's how it worked for me). Or, if you keep your freelancing as a job on the side, it'll at least let you afford hosting, premium themes, and training materials for your own blog.
You'll build your blogging network
When you're Joe Newbie in the blogosphere, you're probably used to big bloggers ignoring you. It's not personal—they just don't have the time to reply to every single comment and tweet.
But when you're a freelance writer, your editor will definitely know your name. In fact, they'll probably get to know you while you're building up your freelancing contacts—perhaps you'll have been a regular commenter on their blog, or you'll have sent them a couple of guest posts, before landing that paid gig.
Plus, when you're regularly having work published on large blogs or websites, other big bloggers will start paying attention to you, too. Instead of trying to get attention to your own blog, you'll be able to leverage an existing audience—quite possibly one of tens of thousands of readers. And you'll be getting paid to do it.
Even if you only freelance for a few months, you'll have made contacts which you can maintain throughout your blogging career.
You'll get audience feedback
When you publish a post on your own blog, how many comments do you get?
It's probably not as many as you'd like. Maybe most of your posts seem to sink like pebbles dropped into an ocean—no-one ever sees them, and they don't make any ripples.
If you write for a blog that's big enough to pay writers, you'll get feedback. That might be:
- comments from readers who loved the post
- comments from readers who hated the post—this can be tough to take, but it can also teach you what doesn't go down so well
- tweets about your post, or Facebook "likes" for it
- indirect feedback from the editor—if bits of your post were edited, try to work out why the changes were made
- direct feedback from the editor—they may tell you to do more of the same, or they may ask for something different next time
- emails from readers—there's nothing better than a heartfelt message from someone who was really touched by your writing.
As a writer, you need to get feedback on your work: this is how you know what's going well, and what's in need of improvement.
You can write about anything you want
This might seem like an odd reason to freelance—but it's one of the reasons I love it: you get to write on a whole range of topics, and you can often choose exactly what you write about.
If you find it hard to stick with one interest—perhaps your own blog is suffering because you post about several diverse topics—then freelance writing will give you an outlet. You might be writing one post every week or every month, so you won't run out of things to say.
Plus, writing about lots of different topics is a great way to stay fresh and to continually hone your writing skills. You might end up researching an area that you knew very little about—or writing for an audience of people who have a very different background from yours. Getting out of your writing comfort zone is an essential part of your growth.
I know that the problogging dream is to have your own huge, successful blog with hundreds of thousands of readers, a line of products, some great advertisers and lots of affiliate income. The truth is, though, that it takes an awful lot of time and hard work to get to that stage. So while you're working your way up, why not give freelance writing a try?
Have you done freelance writing? Share your experiences in the comments—I’d love to hear about them.
Ali Hale is a writer, blogger and writing coach. You can read more from her on DailyWritingTips.com, where she also offers a course for those who want to get started with freelance writing.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Why Bloggers Should Also Be Freelance Writers
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