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Getting the Blogging Mojo Back

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For one reason or another I stopped blogging, stopped writing.

Which is a shame as I really like the process and it’s something I do well (haven’t the time to be modest this morning).

Most of the problem is simple distraction, too much going on, too many possibilities, even too much success.

Sometimes you have to reduce. Simplify. Not use the, “but it has to be perfect before I publish” excuse.

So, to get the Mojo back I’m just going to blog. Post a blog every day for 14 days.

It may not be linkable, but from a creative point of view it helps crank up the engine.

And you never know, something juicy may come of it.

Mark McGuinness Reveals the Truth about Internet Marketing

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Mark McGuinness has a new fan.

I read this post on Creativity in business and it rocked my socks.

It’s the price of doing business that you have to wade through thigh high rivers of steaming….. before you get something that resonates, something that connects. Something that makes you blog and inspires you to write and freely give a bit of link love, which is of course is the essence of what linkbaiting is about.

There are two quotes in the blog post that underpins the article for me.

the less your media content looks like advertising, the more effective it will be as advertising.

How cool and zen like is that and how counter intuitive the way most marketing and business people think. Now I am not naive, the blog post that Mark wrote is 100% marketing, I am sure intention was to have people talk about it, link to it, pass it around.

It’s internal and external link structure follows best practice of bigging up your mates and business collegues without breaking the narrative flow, and providing sweeter than sweet anchor text.

It is a joy to experience such a well put together blog post and the fact that I found it connected on an emotional level is testament to the quality of the writing.

The second quote is,

If you really want to succeed online, it will take a lot of time. Let?s face it, if you want to succeed at anything worthwhile, it?s going to take a lot of time.

I realised a long time ago, if I practiced the guitar and hour a day for a year I would be OK. Which I did, but if I practiced it for an hour a day over ten years I would be excellent.

99 out of 100 are good.

But only 1 out of 100 are excellent.

Excellence cost 9 years.

These figures are illustrative of one element of becoming successful. The problem you may have is not one of giving up and failing, but one of getting bored, distracted and trying to do a million other things a the same time.

Don’t believe me? How many windows does your browser have open right now? I have two browsers open and over 30 windows open. Unnnngggg.

What I take from Mark’s blog post is to revisit the ass-achingly simple truths that must be burnt into the brain with a hot branding iron at regular intervals of the journey.

All this of course raises more questions than it answers, but that is what good teaching does.

Cheers Mark, I’m going to check out your Workshop for creative people, looks very interesting.

Long Copy Short Copy

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OK, I admit, my post on social bookmarking was a little tongue in cheek. Designed possibly to raise an eyebrow or two? Most likley, but I also like to play around with the medium of blogging. I was just about to call it an art form, but noooooo.

Posts like that are designed to get you thinking. How long does a blog post have to be. My answer to that is “as long as it needs to be”. The style and objective of the blog will help define, plus the nature of the post. Are you trying to sell, inform, argue?

People bang on about the short attention span of internet users, I do this when talking about crafting headlines. But sometimes a long post is needed to lead people through an arguement to help define the points of view. I have seen successful blog posts that are similar to academic essays. Offering meat when everyone if offering lettuce is an interesting tactic.

This post could be quite long, but I have to go and get some sausage rolls from Truro.

Short is not simple, it's essential

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Should we twitter like we blog and blog like we twitter?

Is brevity needed to cut through the information haze?

If my twitter stream becomes a stream of consciousness, my blog can be more like my twitter stream used to be.

  • I’m shortening my blog posts
  • Reducing the amount of links in my twitter stream
  • Twittering what I think I want to hear
  • Increasing more links in my blog post
  • Sending out as many twitter posts until my thoughts are finished
  • Using the blog to communicate the most useful information in the shortest way possible
  • Ignoring the number of followers I have

Screw those who tell you there is only one way to use twitter, it’s a tool, the way you use it entirely depends on your objectives.

A twitter manifesto? No, it’s way more than that.

Keeping up with seo blogging

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To me, blogging has been a means to an ends. Get clients, establish the brand, wind a few people up. The problem is of course when you get the clients you no longer have the time to blog.

But, I think you still should.

It keeps the mind focused, it keeps the creative gene fed with blood and oxygen, it enables you to start conversations on topics you are interested in. Problem is, if you are late for a client, which I am 80% of the time (have difficulty letting go of the work, just one more tweak) then they may get pissed at what they see as you goofing off on your blog. When in fact it actually helps get the juices flowing and helps you serve the client better. [Read more…] about Keeping up with seo blogging

Don't be Useful, Make Me Think

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What makes me link these days is not something that is obviously useful, but rather something that gets me to think. Members of Linkbait Coaching, hopefully know that if they want a to linkbait me, this is what they have to serve up.

So what got me thinking this morning was this post, titled, Don’t Be Popular, be Useful, which in turn is a response to a Jonathon Morrow at Copyblogger titled, How to Stop Being Invisible.

I also read an article in Wired about Juliet Allison, someone I knew nothing about till today. Maybe I should read Gawker more, yeah right.

The Barone article, crystalised a lot of what I had been thinking. [Read more…] about Don't be Useful, Make Me Think