By the way, on one level, there’s nothing that separates this image from any of the hundreds of other happy thoughts I curate. On another, this one is very different; it was curated from my normal workflow executed from a tablet, not a computer. Thanks to Jeff Benjamin at the iDownloadBlog, I learned how to use the ‘Press This’ bookmarklet in the Chrome browser on my Galaxy Tab. I’m finding more and more reasons to use it these days and this is a big one! Comment or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to you and your blogging workflow…
This week one of my eager beaver overachiever students is trying to implement something that I mentioned in class last week; namely, how you can send content directly from Google Reader to WordPress.com. I sent her a link from an article that I found that she’s having trouble implementing my suggestions. Despite the fact that we haven’t covered WordPress in class yet, I’m going to take pity on her [ :-D ] and do a screen cast with complete instructions. Here goes:
A note about icons. The are not necessary but you can use a tool like http://www.favicon.cc/ to create a favicon, upload to your multimedia and use in the icon field like so http://e1evation.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/favicon1.ico
They require intense concentration and time. There’s always something to do and not enough time to do it. Blogs are the only marketing tool that requires such a huge intellectual and emotional investment. I’ve heard many people compare their blogs to children. I agree.
Like children, authoring posts and growing a blog is deeply gratifying. I still remember the day I saw Pushing Social mentioned in another blog post. I still read my first comment. I’ve kept the drafts of every blog post I’ve ever written, like a photo album of my “baby’s” progress.
The problem is that our blogs aren’t children. They are tools that help us achieve tangible goals. Like any other tool, we must keep our blog in perspective. We also need to stay mindful of the tremendous effort a blog requires and balance our energy and time investment accordingly.
Just in time for this ‘milestone’ post, Chris Brogan provided this handy list that I’ll use as a preamble to what it is that I already wanted to share with you…
If you would like to get further into blogging, here is a brief primer:
Get a blog. (Easy: tumblr.com, wordpress.com, blogger.com. Better: host your own -affiliate link.)
Pick an area of focus, but one that has broad sides. (Mine: helping people do digital business in a human way.)
Start writing.
Start by planning to publish 1 post a week.
Get daring and try for 2 posts a week (eventually).
Make the posts more than 100 words and less than 1000 words most days.
Spell-check.
Delete the sentences that don’t matter.
Realize that posts that are helpful to others get shared more than posts that are merely interesting.
Never write a “sorry I haven’t written” post. Ever.
Posts that just comment on other people’s posts and sum things up aren’t all that interesting.
Do NOT get hung up on the tech. Get hung up on passion.
The best way to write better is to read more. Second best: write more (often).
Don’t try to copy other people’s style. Try to copy their proliferation.
My best (most popular) posts were the ones I spent the least time writing.
My least popular posts were the ones that took me more than a half hour to write.
Pictures are a great place to start a post idea.
Inspiration is a verb and a muscle.
Lazy is, too.
You’re doing it wrong. So is everyone.
There’s not a single rule on this list that isn’t breakable. Break all the rules you want and enjoy yourself.
There. Write. Stop what you’re doing. Don’t comment. Don’t even share this post. Go write. On whatever came to mind. Delete it, if you hate it. But write. Now.
Far be it from me to take issue with the great Chris Brogan, but regarding #1 I’ll say choose WordPress.com if you’re just getting started. Tumblr and Blogger are nice, but if you’re looking for traffic, nothing is better for Search Engine Optimization [SEO] than WordPress.com. You can always graduate to the self-hosted version of WordPress later if you want…
Regarding #2, sooner or later, you’ll have to face up to the fact that if you want to get good at it, your blog will have a brand. What is a brand?
“A brand is a “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” Branding began as a way to tell one person’s cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp. A modern example of a brand is Coca Cola which belongs to the Coca-Cola Company.” Source: Brand – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Simply put, if you’re going to find faithful readers, you’ll have to curate or create information on a narrow scope of topics so that people will know what to expect from you – what they come to expect of you is your brand. A blog gives you a share of voice on the internet which gives you a share of mind which may ultimately give you a share of market if you pursue it. You might even become a thought leader like Chris Brogan if you work your blog well enough! Thought leader? To me that’s a recognized expert that can be found in Google search. To become one you only need to do two things well; deepen your expertise [continuously learn – stay on top of your craft] and document your expertise [blog and engage in social media].
Regarding #11, I think curation is an important part of thought leadership and I think Chris ‘sums up’ more than he realizes! In this age of information proliferation, you have the ability to become a source that people trust through your blog by consistently curating and creating information that is useful to them. Also, I’m following rule #21 by breaking rule #11 and quoting Chris himself twice in this post! Here’s another great post he did this weekend about having a plan and working it;
“It’s a gorgeous and sunny day as I write this. I would like to be outside, maybe grilling up some steaks and drinking a beer or 12. But I’m working because that’s the plan. I have a short window of time to get a bunch of things done before I hit the road again, and because part of my business is to create media, that means writing and creating information that might be useful to you. Work the plan. That’s the message of the day. Work the PlanMy media plan says I should be writing one of six types of posts:
How to
Vision/Perspective
Promotion
Interview
Do it Better
Review
In this case, I’ll call this post a “how-to.” It’s not the best I’ve ever written, especially because it’s so self-referential, but it proves the point. If your goal is to reach into the heads of the people you hope to reach, you’d best have a plan. If your goal is to make money, and this digital strategy is part of the plan, then what are you doing to stick to it?” Source: Work the Plan.
Only you can decide if my post is ‘not all that interesting’ because I ‘summed up’ Chris’ post — obviously I think it’s beneficial or else I wouldn’t do it…
btw, yesterday I passed the 3,000 post milestone on my personal blog and I’m fast approaching 5,000 on my business blog but these are just the posts that have been published! Counting other blogs that I’ve done since I started 7 years ago I conservatively estimate I’ve created over 20,000 posts. I’m no Chris Brogan, but I have developed an efficient ‘lather rinse repeat’ cycle of blogging using Google Reader and WordPress. This screencast shares some of my best blogging secrets with you – I promised you’ll learn at least one time-saving tactic if you watch the whole think…
If you’ve signed up for email updates to my blog and your inbox is overwhelmed why not go here and change your updates to daily or weekly instead of ‘instantly’ — that should take some of the load off your inbox…
I coach a lot of people on how to use WordPress effectively for ‘thought leadership’ marketing. One of the most important things to include in every post is a relevant picture. Why?
You’ll find a fine list of Google Alerts tutorials here…
If you really want to take it up a notch, learn how to use Google Reader to create a virtual newspaper to track the sites and searches that interest you. I’ve written a free ebook on the topic of ‘personal news aggregation’ or ‘How to create your own personal news agency’. It’s free for registering at http://e1evation.com/pna/. Oh, and I started a new category called ‘blogging tips’ for you. If you want more, come follow me at http://e1evation.com…
If you visit your favorite blogging tips and marketing tips blog today, you will come across a lot of tips, ranging from tips on writing well to tips on building an audience.
The reality is that a lot of new blogs spring up every day, and the majority of these blogs are bound to fail right from the beginning. It’s not because there is something wrong with their approach, but because they fail to neglect something really important: their wellbeing.
Do you know that blogging is not only a physical challenge? It is also a mental challenge.
There are a lot of things we bloggers go through every day that no amount of practice will help make easier, but by focusing on being okay in every aspect of our lives (mental, emotional, physical, etc.) we’ll find those challenges easier to deal with.
In this article I’ll be touching some subjects bloggers hardly discuss online, and I’ll be giving tips to help you deal with them.
Go to the source if you’d like the rest of author John Smith’s perspective. Comment or ‘connect’ to talk about how this applies to you and your organization…
Setting up a blog is not that difficult. In fact, most people can easily use WordPress or Blogger to set one up in a matter of minutes.
With the sheer number of blogs today, estimated at 126 million by BlogPulse, only a very small percent of them are actually active and good. The vast majority of blogs are dead or dying on the vine.
Like a garden, you must tend to your blog; water it, give it sunlight and proper care.
So how do you ensure your blog will grow like a healthy garden?
Avoid these 7 causes of blog failure and you are off to a great start. Check out the tips for correcting the mistakes and then see how other bloggers have expertly done so and have planted their seeds to successful blogging.
I don’t know why your blog is failing until I take a peek at it. I do know, however, that this blog is succeeding thanks to our ‘e1evation workflow’. It’s currently ranked very highly by Alexa as you can see…
The best part is that the success is all a part of a repeatable process so we can help your blog succeed as well! You can follow the ‘via’ link above if you want to know more about the 7 reasons but if you want a successful blog, comment or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to your organization…
Bright, shiny objects! 
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