Writing a blog

Jun 17, 2012

Infographic for creating great content

Infographic – a picture is worth a thousand words

The infographic below is a great tool to inspire you to write more. It’s the one thing that counts when you’re a blogger. Creating great content for your readers to get them coming back for more is a constant challenge. In my experience people can be lazy when browsing blogs. Unless you capture their imagination and get to the answer they are looking for quickly they can easily shoot off somewhere else.

Videos and images do help the ‘stickiness’ of your blog. People stay around for longer. With many clients I’m finding that an infographic is a useful tool to deliver great content in a visual way. So it was a stroke of luck (well, actually I found it on Twitter!) to find this excellent infographic from copyblogger.com looking at creating great, compelling content.

Take some ideas from the infographic below and let me know how you intend to create great content for you blog.

22 Ways to Create Compelling Content - Infographic
Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

By Andy Britnell Blog content, Writing a blog 51 Comments Tags: , , , ,

Jan 6, 2012

Blog posting desert

Blog posting desert - writing a blogIt happens to the best of us!

Sometimes you are too busy with other projects or get out of the habit of blogging regularly. Obviously if you are making money looking after clients then that isn’t a bad thing but there is always that nagging thought that you are not giving your loyal followers the attention they deserve.

So please forgive me for my lack of content recently. My plan is to remedy that this year – unless I get invited back to Switzerland to deliver more training! One thing that always works for me is committing to do something for 10 minutes every day. After 21 days this becomes a habit. I know there are lots of blogging ‘challenges’ out there but the logistics of doing a blog post everyday just doesn’t fit into my schedule. I think it can become negative as you feel you must keep up with the schedule. That kind of pressure can become counter-productive.

I also think that you tend to write better when things bubble up unconsciously. Better to spend 10 minutes every day doing one of the following:

  • Brainstorm ideas for blog posts
  • Write in a different space – go to the library or a cafe and see if the muse meets you there
  • Read relevant blogs about your niche to get ideas
  • Comment on other blogs – sometimes a blog post arises whilst I am responding to a post or even to an email
  • Clutter clear your newsletter subscriptions – sometimes you get information overload. Be strict about what makes it into your inbox

To get you in the mood you might like to buy yourself a nice notebook and pen. New stationery cries out to be used. Another tip is to do it at the same time everyday – you then start to positively programme yourself to do the right thing in the right way.

So good luck with writing your blog, look out for more blog posts from me and I hope that 2012 is going to be a great year for you.

By Andy Britnell Writing a blog 23 Comments Tags: , , , ,

Aug 31, 2011

Six more useful beliefs for blogging success

Man shouting at laptop - beliefs for successful bloggingYour beliefs can affect you in many ways – some can be really helpful but others can be damaging and limit your potential. For example your beliefs can have massive impacts on your healing. A man with cancer believed that a new drug would be produced that would cure him. When a new treatment was discovered he asked his doctor to prescribe it for him. After two days he miraculously started to recover – his tumours melted like snowballs and he started to look as though he was out of the woods and returning to full health. However later he read an article stating that research had shown that the particular drug he was taking had no significant effect on cancer. Sadly the man went into decline, the tumours returned and his health went downhill.

So what does all this mean for blogging?

Well, here are 6 more beneficial beliefs to have that can help us achieve success:

1. It’s not a numbers game – many people chase the dragon that is the accumulation of Twitter followers, numbers of likes on your Facebook page, number of hits on your site etc. However it is better to have just 1000 true fans rather than 100 thousand people who are transient visitors. Your loyal customers who know and trust you will be the ones who stay with you and be willing to part with hard cash for your expertise.

2. Relationships are important – your readers like to be loved and nurtured. Love them unconditionally for showing up rather than because they comment often or buy your products. Blogging is about building relationships not doing transactions. Make sure you attend to your customers, go the extra mile to interact with them and give them something back by responding generously to their comments and using the CommentLuv plugin to give them a lift up.

3. It’s not what happens, it’s how you respond that matters – things go wrong and it can be frustrating if a plugin crashes your site, pictures won’t position correctly or your RSS feed goes belly up. The last one happened to me recently on one of my client’s sites. I spent ages trying to work out why the feed wasn’t working, pinging and resynching the feed on Google Feedburner and checking the settings on my Bloggie theme. Nothing worked. So I had to take a deep breath and ask a more useful question than ‘Why is this not working?’. What had I not done that could be causing this problem? Answer – I hadn’t added the Feedburner plugin to the site. Plugin installed – problem solved.

4. It’s OK to ask for help when you are stuck – how many times have you banged your head against the wall whilst trying to resolve a problem on your site? I remember those times and so does my partner! I’m sure you do too. Bloggers know what it is like to be ‘borked by the beast’ and are willing to help out and answer your questions on forums and places like Twitter.

5. The more I write the better I’ll get – it is said that you will be a master of something if you have done it for 10,000 hours. I think I’ve got a way to go in my blog writing before I hit this mark but I have improved over the years with guidance from my partner, Judy, who writes superbly on her blog Work from Home Wisdom.

6. Keep it simple – human beings have a unique capacity to make things more complicated than they really are. In Ki Aikido you can try really hard and nothing happens – then the simplicity of what you need to do is explained and it seems really easy and natural. The same applies to blogging – playing around with your theme, adding lots of plugins and trying out the top ten tips for making your blog rock like a superstar isn’t going to suddenly transform your blog. Keep adding good content – simple and straightforward, not rocket science and no geekery required.

So another six beliefs to think about to get you into the mindset of a successful blogger.

I’m sure I have missed some so I would love you to fill in the blanks for me. Best one gets an hour Skype call to improve your blog.

By Andy Britnell Beliefs, Personal Development, Writing a blog 11 Comments Tags: , ,

Aug 23, 2011

Six beliefs that affect your blogging performance

Giant Tortoise: blogging - are you a tortoise or a hare I’ve been fascinated by the field of personal development for many years both in my own personal growth and that of others. Whilst doing some co-coaching with a good friend of mine we talked about the beliefs we hold as coaches which help us perform at our best for the client. That conversation got me thinking about the mindset or beliefs that you need as a blogger to help you become as effective as you can.

1. There is no failure only feedback – I shared this with a fellow blogger and he thought that this was a very powerful belief to have. It takes away the fear of failure and it helps you to make mistakes without beating yourself up. You learn more when you mess up as long as you look for the learning rather than keep hold of the emotion.

2. A persons behaviour is just information about them – very often in blogging and social media you can get hooked by seemingly negative comments. It’s said that we like people who are like us – so does that mean we dislike people who are not? You will probably find them challenging because they’ll communicate in different ways to you and what you might find to be rude and pointed may be an attempt to give you some valuable feedback. Someone pointed out in a comment that I needed to provide better navigation in my posts which was puzzling me until I realised I’d done an upgrade on my theme and the links were now not being highlighted. That useful comment made me change the link settings and they are now more in tune with my branding. (Has anyone noticed this?)

3. Your readers want you to succeed – since I’m a trainer and teacher I often need to deliver talks and presentations to audiences. It’s all to easy to imagine that they are waiting to see you slip up, dry up and have a CRAFT moment (Can’t Remember A Flipping Thing). The truth is totally the opposite and it’s the same for people reading your blog. They are looking for inspiration, new ideas, a new nugget of information that will help them break through a technical or emotional block. They want you to provide that for them and over a period of time they’ll know that you can speak to them in your unique voice. Never underestimate the value of your knowledge – sometimes what seems obvious to you is a revelation to others.

4. There is no such thing as an overnight success – a big one here – patience, as I highlight in my post about the 7 reasons why blogs fail, is the key requirement in blogging. Expecting to get quick results or trying to cheat the search engines will end in tears and frustration. When I used Site Build It software to build websites they emphasised the saying that on the net the tortoise beats the hare. Consistency and persistence will eventually help to reach that critical mass of readers and build a community of fans. There are few short cuts on the internet.

5. If someone else can be a successful blogger so can I – there are plenty of bloggers out there who have started from scratch with very little experience of how to use the web. It’s all too easy to get disheartened by following other blogs with masses of visitors and comments a mile long. Notice what they’re doing and emulate them but stay true to your personality and authentic way you communicate. I’ve seen speakers attempting to copy others and the stretch is too much. Steal their ideas and tips and techniques, do it your way and follow belief number six.

6. Always be learning – this is one of my favourites. I love learning which is why I enjoy the internet, making music, and practising Ki Aikido. Like blogging there’s always something else to learn and you can always get better whatever your current expertise. So hunt out those special bloggers who are the teachers in this world – they’ll feed you forever for free.

So those are my first six beliefs about blogging and in the next post I’ll share some more. Nurturing these beliefs and integrating them into your blogging mindset will help you to blog more efficiently, effectively and authentically with less anxiety and fear.

Happy Blogging.

What are your views about what beliefs are helpful to you when blogging?

By Andy Britnell Beliefs, Personal Development, Writing a blog 15 Comments Tags: , , , ,

Jun 28, 2011

The 7 reasons why blogs fail

7 reasons why blogs failMany people start a blog and then lose interest. I’ve seen many blogs with just the bare bones of the theme and little content or the last post was over a year ago. Is it that they lack discipline or dedication, have they lost interest and lack passion about their chosen subject, is the technology getting in the way?

These are my seven reasons why blogs fail

1. No preparation. They haven’t thought about their blog before getting involved with the technology – they just want to get stuck in with no pre-planning or thought. This is a recipe for disaster. Fail to plan – plan to fail!

2. Lack of subject matter/material. Lack of planning what you are going to write about means that it’s more difficult to remain disciplined and have a consistent flow of content. Remember content is king! When planning for this blog I wrote down all the topics that I could cover which has given me a pretty much everlasting pool of ideas to write posts about.

3. Fear of failure. It’s said that people fear public speaking more than they fear death! Well, having a blog is similar in that you are expressing opinions ‘out there’ and others may leave a comment disagreeing with your point. This is probably more scary since there is no body language so you may make a picture inside of an aggresive commenter. That will only increase the fear. The only way to deal with this fear is to take action.

In fact having someone disagree with you is good since it creates a dialogue. When I get challenged in a workshop there is often someone else in the audience with a similar opinion to me who will back me up. The same goes for comments on your blog. Welcome a bit of challenging banter on your blog – it’s interesting and helps you to hone your argument.

4. They are impatient. Blog stardom doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and dedication to make your mark and you will shorten this time if you have a defined strategy, a well defined micro-niche and put the right time and effort into doing the right things to make yourself visible and credible online.

5. Lack of research. They have failed to research significant factors such as the most relevant blog theme, the right settings for WordPress or other blogging platform they’re using, the best plugins to use for SEO and social sharing, who their audience is and what they want to hear about etc.

6. Lack of passion & knowledge. They’re not deeply passionate about what they’re writing about or don’t have the depth of knowledge required to stand out. I am motivated by new ideas, making a difference, lifelong learning and freedom and this is what my blogging and social media business gives to me. I can be authentic and say what I feel rather than having to compromise my individuality by being employed!
(Check out this post by Daniel Priestley on your ‘message’ in social media)

7. They haven’t niched their market enough. Go for the micro niche and go for depth of interest rather than breadth. If you deal with a micro niche problem you will get them asking you about what else can you do.

There are other reasons for a blog failing but usually it’s the planning, research and self-awareness about what motivates and drives you that are missing. So if you want to start a blog make sure you can be sufficiently disciplined and dedicated to make yourself heard.

What are your thoughts on why blogs fail – your comments are always welcome and I always respond.

By Andy Britnell Business Blogging, Writing a blog 19 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , ,

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