Excellent Writers

Would a blog by any other name read as well?

excellentwriters — Thu, 17 May 2012 00:31:41 +0000

It used to be that there were newspapers and newsletters. It was fairly easy to tell what came from where. Newspapers hired journalists to report the news Although they’re supported by add sales, the expectation is that the news is independent from advertising. Newsletters, on the other hand, contained the direct news of whomever published them, whether that be a non profit or a company.

Now, however, there’s the Internet and blogs have been tossed into the mix. It’s confused things because anyone can write a blog and say pretty much anything.

In the midst of this, Google News has developed a search methodology that may discriminate against blogs when it comes to people looking for news, according to a post by Matthew Ingram on gigaom.com. He says the criteria seem to be based on whether a publication identifies itself as a blog. This could matter a whole lot to bloggers who consider their work to be a news source. It may matter less to those who use a blog more as a newsletter to promote themselves or their companies.

Which leads me back to the question I urge everyone to ask when starting a blog: Why? The more you know about what you are trying to accomplish with your blog, the better you will be able to plan and maintain it.

North Shore Social Media Conference

excellentwriters — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:56:03 +0000

On Wednesday, June 13th, you can find out just about anything you want to know about social media at North by North Shore, an event at the Danvers Yacht Club. Come for the views, come for the food, come for the great info…I’ll be there talking about blog strategy and setting up the next blog challenge.

Having her cake

excellentwriters — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:01:25 +0000

If you can’t have your cake and eat it too, why not just sell it? Danvers Baker Kelly Delaney, owner of Cakes for Occasions, makes some pretty fancy confections and recently started hawking them on television, starting with a 3 a.m. debut. It turns out there’s a lot more to selling cakes than just making pretty ones…Read all about it in the Boston Herald

Photo by Patrick Whittemore

Make it work

excellentwriters — Fri, 11 May 2012 01:47:54 +0000

If you really want to build readership, then you have to keep at it – when you’re tired, when you’re busy and when you’re uninspired. It will get easier. And then it may get hard again, and then it will get easier…like everything else in life.

I was reminded of this by a recent post by a colleague, Kevin Haynes. He’s past his eye balls and up to the crown of his head setting up WebmaxedU, a new website to help small business owners do great things on the web. Yet in the midst of his frenzy, he’s taken up the blog challenge and turning it into a habit.

One of the best things Kevin has done is to define his goal for the blog and how he plans to achieve that. This is the best way to start. You can change things as you go along, but if you know where you want to go, you are more likely to get there.

So what are your goals? Do you want to get a lot of readers? Are you getting material ready for a book? Are you trying to add value for customers? How will you know when you get there?
Oh, by the way — another great thing Kevin did was to post a link to his blog on Facebook. If you want to build readership, it’s important to think about all the ways you can reach people who might be interested in what you’re writing.

A hot button subject

excellentwriters — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:25:34 +0000

In my last post, I talked about one way to get comments – today, I have an example. This morning, I took the rare step of making a comment on another blog. (Okay, I confess it’s not so rare – I’m not an indiscriminate commenter, but I’m not one to hold back either.)

The subject was one too near and dear to my heart not to say something – it was about grammar rules and when to (gasp) throw them out the window, so to speak. It was written by a blogger for whom I have great respect and who has great insight. Amy Harrison wasn’t saying the rules are bad, she was just pointing out the difference between ad copy and copy that gets you an A in English. As a writer and and editor, I’m generally a stickler for the rules because they generally exist for a reason. When used correctly, they work as friendly traffic cops keeping your sentences moving. Amy’s point was that people get so hung up on the rules that they waste time and drag down the copy. This could be true. At the very least, her post got my attention and made me think about what I think about that.

A Secret to Getting Blog Comments

excellentwriters — Thu, 03 May 2012 03:29:59 +0000

So you’ve got a pretty good blog following and people like your blog – well, at least your best friend and your mom assure you it is pretty good. But, your comment section remains an empty echo chamber. You’ve asked questions. You’ve begged for comments and yet there is a big ole’ goose egg in the box.
If you really want to get ‘em talking, you have to take off the gloves. Say something mean. Say something controversial. Say something people will have to be compelled to respond to.
Let me give you an example. If you are walking down the street in Boston, (not the friendliest of cities) and you say to someone, “Hey, nice tie.” He may give a half-hearted smile but he will more likely raise his eye brows and step quickly away. On the other hand, (and I’m not recommending that you try this) if you say, “That is the ugliest tie I have ever seen,” you are likely to get a very colorful response perhaps laden with some words I can’t repeat here.
I’m not suggesting that you randomly go around insulting people just to get a response. What I am saying is that an effective way to get people’s attention is to say something that’s hard for them to ignore. Write about the reasons you hate Twitter or write about why you love Walmart. In other words, take a strong on stand on something. Open up the debate.
There are good reasons to do this with caution. You may not want to run the risk of offending your readers, especially if you are running a business. Or, you may not want to wade into online arguments with people. There are ways around this. You can write about a controversial topic but stay neutral. Find something that will get people talking. Find something that everyone can get upset about.
What’s a good barometer? Pay attention when you’re offline to what gets people gabbing.

Here are some other people’s thoughts on how to generate comments that you might find interesting:
6 Ways to generate more B2B Blog Comments

How to Generate Blog Comments

Are you looking at a Dinosaur?

excellentwriters — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:51:08 +0000

Blogs are so passe, it’s all about Facebook now, according to a recent article in USA Today.
This is, on the surface, a tad bit alarming to me as someone who is devoted to helping others develop their blog strategies. Is this mode of communication really on its way out?
I don’t think so. Rather, I think the falling numbers support what I’ve long contended – that blogging is not for everyone and that in order to be effective, a blogger should have a strategy.
The article sites a University of Massachusetts Dartmouth survey that indicates that the percentage of companies maintaining blogs dropped to 37 percent in 2011 from 50 percent in 2010. The number of Fortune 500 companies maintaining a blog was flat after rising for several years.
Blogging is “free,” but it’s not cheap. It requires the most valuable thing we have – time. The question you have to ask is whether it’s worth it. I’d like to unequivocally say the answer is yes, but more realistically, I say it depends. Is blogging badly better than not blogging at all? Would spending more time on Facebook or Twitter be better? Can Pinterest serve as a decent replacement?
All forms of social media have benefits, but they also have their limits. What do you want to get out of it? How do you want to connect with your readers?
Will blogs significantly decline in popularity? Please, dust off your crystal ball and let me know what you think.

Need a blog subject? Start asking questions

excellentwriters — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:43:26 +0000

We’re now three weeks into the challenge and ideas should be flying off your fingertips, right? You’ve got tickler files onyour desk and your computer. You’re scouring other people’s blogs for inspiration. And you’re all set with a long list of ideas that will carry you through what’s left of the 90 days and beyond. Or maybe not. The reality is that the theory of how to do this can make it seem simpler than actual doing of it.
You are surrounded with great material. The trick is to see the potential. Having an abundance of subjects comes from developing an inquisitive mindset. It’s a different way of thinking about the things you encounter every day like conversations, news reports, other blogs, television shows, books and even conversations while standing in line. You don’t just passively absorb what’s going on, you think about how it’s all connected and you ask questions in your mind (and sometimes out loud):

What does this bit of info have to do with that bit of info?
Why is this or that happening?
Why does it matter?
What does this mean?
What could it mean?
Why is this interesting?
Why should someone care?

If it is of interest to you, then it is probably of interest to your readers. You just need to figure out how to show them. It can help to write for just one reader rather than all of them. Think about just one person you want to reach and what you would tell that person about your current topic. If you’re stuck, the way out is more questions:

Why does this interest me?
What about it first grabbed my attention?
What point do I want to get across?

If you are having trouble getting your piece going, start with a basic lead that you can fix later, something you would say to grab a friend’s attention, something like, “The most amazing thing happened yesterday – I was at the beach in April in a bathing suit…” then keep writing. Don’t go back to erase until you are done. That just slows you down and makes you think too hard about what you are trying to say. Sometimes you won’t know exactly what you want to say until you write it and sometimes you can’t get at it right away.

My challenge to you this week is to come up with at least three blog ideas from totally unconventional sources and write at least one of them. Bonus points if you comment here on where you got your inspiration.

How Twitter Can Make You a Better Writer

excellentwriters — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:32:46 +0000

I promised to post ideas that bloggers could use for their own blog posts and I thought I had this week’s post nailed. I was planning today to suggest using the blog to share news and then demonstrating with an announcement of my own, but technology got in my way.
I was going to announce that I’m developing a newsletter and that anyone interested in learning more about writing better could sign up on this blog. As of the posting of this post, however, no such sign up exists. I signed up create the newsletter using Mail Chimp. This is easy. Then I went to WordPress to set up the sign up. This is not easy.
At this point, I could have just put off posting until I get it figured out, except that I sort of started this blog challenge and how would it look if after telling everyone how easy it is to post at least once a week, I didn’t?
Just turn to the tickler files, right? Well, as will sometimes happen, nothing there inspired me. So I went on the hunt through other people’s blogs (as suggested in last week’s blog) and came across an excellent explanation on how to use Twitter by J Cambell. It’s a great post about how to effectively and efficiently use this quick-hit social media too.
At this point, I’ve fulfilled the requirements, found something to say and I could file and flee. That’s fine if you’re pressed for time and you feel you have fulfilled your overall goals for your blog. But what if you want to say more? What if you want to go beyond summarizing what someone else says? How do you find something original to add?
Picture the subject as a stone just large enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Turn it over and look at it from a different angle. Do it again. Do it again. There are at least a few and more likely dozens of other things to say about the subject. How is this relevant to your industry? What else do you know about the subject? What does the original post make you think about?
It took me awhile to think of anything to add about Twitter. I came up with a few lousy ideas but decided to spare you the agony of reading them. And then, something clicked and I saw the connection I needed.

As a writer, I have naturally dismissed Twitter as anything but a quick way to toss out a message. But this undervalues a significant opportunity to hone our writing skills. In good writing, every word counts. Every sentence conveys meaning and is relevant to the one previous and the one coming. Twitter sets constraints against which wordy writers strain. How could you possibly say anything significant in 140 characters or less? Very carefully. Very thoughtfully. In forcing us to limit our words, Twitter can push us into a new realm of creativity. We have to exercise different muscles. And this makes us stronger for when you have more space.
I recently ran the Harvard Stadium steps of death – a 15-minute torturous trial that easily matched a 13.1 mile run. By the eighth “run” up, I was cursing and crying and begging to be left a couch potato content to eat bonbons all day. I’m over that now, and I trust that I’ll be able to run further and faster.
Twitter can be your stadium steps. Instead of just casually throwing out words, play with the sentence, find clever ways to say what you want to say. Try cramming big ideas into the little space. Note when you come across well written tweets and think about what makes them good. Take chances because even if what you write isn’t great, it’ll soon be swept away by the sea of other tweets.
The best part is that your legs won’t be sore for three days after.

To succeed in blogging: set yourself on fire (but not literally)

excellentwriters — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:28:35 +0000

One of the best resources in your ongoing challenge to find fresh blog material is other bloggers. As you surf the web, you may come across other posts that spark your interest or that you think might be relevant to your readers. There are a few ways to do this. You could get permission to reprint the blog with credit, but generally the better alternatives are to summarize the post and refer to it, or add your two cents about the subject and refer to it. Allow me to demonstrate.

Marvin Kane, a web developing colleague at kaneworks.com raised the complex issue in a recent blog post of how to define success. His conclusion is that it varies from person to person and changes over time.

What struck me is how relevant this topic is to blogging. What is success in blogging? How will you know if you are a “successful” blogger? Is it the number of posts? The number of readers? The number of comments?

Once you’ve determined what success is, how are you going to get there?

In his post, Marvin offered a few quotes on the topic. My favorite is this one:

“Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.” –Arnold Glasow

Regardless of how you define success for your blog or yourself, you have to make it happen. For instance, you have to write posts – even if you’re not sure they’re good enough or you’re afraid what others will say about them. Simply put, you will get no more out of a blog than you put into it.

What is your definition of success for your blog? How will you know when you’ve achieved what you want?