1. Anytime you share link love, email the person you mentioned in your blog and thank them. They’ll probably find your post through their Google Alerts eventually, but still, a personal note from the actual blogger is always appreciated. It’s also more likely to stimulate word of mouth AND cement a new relationship, as it is grounded in value, respect and connectedness.
2. Ask your readers QUESTIONS. Here’s why: Questions aren’t questions. They’re catapults. That’s the best part. Once they’ve been asked, it’s neurologically impossible for the human brain not to seek answers. And when you change your questions, you change your world. You also change your reader’s worlds. So: Ask dangerous questions. Ask disturbing questions. Ask dumb questions. Ask killer questions. Ask ouch questions. Ask penetrating questions. Ask upside-down questions. Ask soul-shaking questions. When you do this, when you enhance your Questioning Practice, you stretch your (and your reader’s) mind into unexpected, unencumbered territory, surpassing that threshold level of understanding that so desperately tries to hold you back. What questions are you asking that the other 300 million bloggers out there AREN’T asking?
3. Avoid adverbial garbage. –LY is the enemy.
4. Be a great date for your reader.
5. BE HONEST: Would YOU read your blog every day?
6. Brainstorm: What have you accomplished that people would not only respect, but also desire to learn and utilize to gain the same benefits for their company? Blog about that.
7. But, don’t ask too many questions. This is a seductive writing trap that’s easy to fall into. And the challenge is, without context, without meat and without solid content to support your questions, you look like an amateur writer who couldn’t think of anything good or original to say, so he just decided to ask a bunch of questions. For example, if you were writing a blog post about networking, you wouldn’t start off the lead paragraph by writing, ‘What’s your networking plan? How many people have you met recently?’ Instead, try this: ‘Anonymity is bankruptcy. Anonymity is the greatest barrier to business success. You need to be everywhere. In person. Online. EVERYWHRE. Remember: If you want to be in the right place at the right time then you need to be in a lot of places. How many places are YOU in? What’s your monthly plan for making people more aware of you?’ See the difference? That, my friends, is called ‘content’ ?
8. Close each post with a Call To Action or Response Mechanism. If you don’t know what that is, email me.
9. Compile a Post Cue or Editorial Calendar in your Content Management System. This prevents you from throwing together some half-assed post last minute. I suggest staying at least two weeks – approximately 10 posts – ahead. (Wait. You DO have a Content Management System, right? If not, email me immediately.)
10. Create a writing schedule. This practice will force you NOT to rely on inspiration.
11. Don’t ‘use humor.’ It won’t come out funny. Any over determined action produces its exact opposite, says The Tao De Ching. Just be funny. Allow your natural hilariousness to shine.
12. Don’t make your readers do your job for you.
13. Get Meebo. Coolest thing ever.
14. Give people ideas they can implement TODAY.
15. Give people the meat. If they wanted fluff, they would have taken their Build-A-Bear.
16. Higher quality content earns you the right to be a little more self-promotional.
17. Ideally, your blog and your website should be the same thing. If I had to do it over, I would have designed it that way. However, if that’s not a possibility, no worries. Here’s what you do. Make sure your blog has a few static pages built in about you, your products and services and your philosophy. If your blog host doesn’t allow that, just make your static pages actual blog posts with the comments turned off. Cool little trick. Go to www.hellomynameisblog.com and click on the ‘Meet Scott’ tab for a perfect example.
18. Identify your TRUE expertise and inventory your negotiable personal assets. Then blog about that.
19. Imagine someone was going to pay you $1000 an hour to rent your brain. What questions would they have to ask you to get their money’s worth? Blog about that.
20. It’s not just about the experiences you’ve had. It’s not just about the lessons learned FROM those experiences. It’s the direct and practical application OF those experiences to the daily lives of your readers, hopefully having something to do with making more money.
21. Just read Seth Godin’s blog and Brian Clark’s blog everyday. Do what they do.
22. Make a list of what do you do that people are eager to pay money for. Then blog about that.
23. Make it easy for people to share your blog using social bookmarking composite tags, i.e., ‘Share This.’
24. Make your own words up. Here’s a fun experiment: Go into the preferences section of Microsoft Word and click on ‘Custom Dictionary.’ Then, click on ‘Edit.’ It will formulate a list of every word you’ve right-clicked on and added to the dictionary while writing. You’ll be able to go back in time and see what terms you invented. Then, write out their definitions. Then blog about that.
25. Make your readers stop, nod, gasp and say, ‘Wow.’ A powerful example is a question like, ‘What are you doing that makes absolutely NO sense?’
26. My blog is beautiful. BEAUTIFUL. If it were physically possible to make sweet love to a blog, I would do it. (Hell, I would even cuddle afterwards.) Anyway, before I get too graphic, here’s my point: Hire a professional blog designer. Don’t download one of those crappy templates from Blogger.com. DEFINITELY don’t try to do it yourself. And certainly don’t commission your sixteen year-old to whip it up on Photoshop during study hall when he should be reviewing for his calculus final. Call Lucia Mancuso at The Blog Studio at 614/447-9811. Tell her The Nametag Guy sent you, and I guarantee your blog will become gorgeous. NOTE: I receive no affiliate commissions or referral fees for this recommendation. I just think The Blog Studio rocks. And my blog won an award for a ‘Top 100 Business Blog on the Web’ within three months of implementing their new design. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
27. Nobody cares what you’ve done. They only what you’ve learned. Is that what you’re blogging about?
28. Notice things and give them names.
29. Pick a lane; take a side.
30. Picture the people who would give their right arm to acquire the valuable expertise you now realize you possess. Then email them every once in a while to tell them you were thinking of them when you published a specific post.
31. Post every single day. If you’re on vacation or sick, have about a dozen posts ready to go in case of emergency. Most blog platforms have future-posting capabilities.
32. Purchase URL’s for specific blog posts. For example, I have a series of articles called, ‘Attributes of Approachable Leaders.’ So, I bought the domain www.approachableleaders.com and now redirect it to the post series. This makes it easier to share the entire sequence with my readers. Plus, this strategy enables me bookmark key topic ideas for future products and protects my copyright, as trademark is a function of usage. So for now, The Approachable Leader is just a series of blog posts. I’m sure it will become a book (er, ‘blook’) eventually. Either way, it’s still MINE. Remember: He who owns the domain owns the idea.
33. Recall what it is everybody is always asking you about. Then blog about that.
34. Remember the headline of this very article? Re-read it. As yourself what drew you to it. Then replicate that persuasiveness in your own posts.
35. REMEMBER: Nobody cares about you. And I don’t mean that literally. What I mean is, people don’t care how good you are; they care how good you’re going to help them become. People don’t care what you do for a living; they care what you’re passionate about. People don’t care if you’re having a bad day; they care how you’re going to help them have a better day. And lastly, people don’t care about your company, they care about the problems your company can solve. Got it?
36. Select either a Niche Topic or Niche Market. Generalism will only succeed if you are (1) really, really good, (2) really, really smart, or (3) have a really, really huge following.
37. Share link love in every post. But don’t overdo it. A confused mind never buys.
38. Sit down and physically write out your answer(s) the question: ‘If everybody did exactly what you said, what would the world look like?’ Once you’ve got 5-7 answers, consider that to be a framework of your personal philosophy. Then, every day when you post, all you have to ask the follow up question: ‘Is what I’m doing right now giving my readers the tools they need to BUILD that world?’ If it’s not, trash it. Simple as that.
39. Some blogs don’t allow comments from readers unless they’re registered users. I think this is a stupid strategy. So you get a few spam comments. Who cares?
40. Some blogs require readers to subscribe before they’re able to read full posts. I think this is a dumb, fan-alienating strategy. If you’re good, they’ll be back. If you’re really good, they’ll be back with their friends. If you’re really, REALLY good, they’ll be back with their friends and their wallets.
41. Stop quoting Einstein, Rumi, Jesus and Seneca. Quote YOU. If you want to position yourself as a Thought Leader, you need to quote yourself, or else nobody else will. For an example of how powerful self-quoting can be, check out the coolest quotation site in the history of mankind: www.stuffscottsaid.com.
42. Sure, nobody cares about your dog, but they MIGHT care about the 47 lessons your dog taught you about customer service. Remember: Meat. Content. Guts. Lists. Lessons.
43. Sure, nobody cares about your dog, but they MIGHT care about the blog your dog writes every day. Make it funny and cool and use great pictures. Create a personality and writing voice for your pet. Wiggle over to www.paisleyblog.com for an example.
44. Teach people the secret to something.
45. The attention span of a human being is about six seconds. If you do the math, that comes out to reading four lines of written text. So, unless you want to bore your readers and risk them tuning you out like a Tony Little infomercial, remember two words: LINE BREAKS.
46. The more personal you are in your writing, the more people will relate to it.
47. The more you give away for free, the wealthier you will be. Many bloggers disagree with this. Me? I think it’s a Golden Rule. And while I DO believe you should offer exclusive content that people need to pay for (with their money or their email address) here are ten reasons to give away more stuff for free on your blog:
o Content that you write doesn’t do any good sitting in a folder on your computer.
o You can let the world be your editor. By sharing your writing (for free) with lots of people, you will get unexpected, unsolicited feedback on how to improve it.
o The more content you have out there for free, the more fans you will create.
o The Internet was founded upon the idea of free. It’s the democratization of information. And some things (like information, articles, content,) are so readily available, that if you DON’T have at least SOME stuff for free, people are going to find them elsewhere.
o If you dropped a piano and a plum off of the Empire State Building, which one would hurt more if it hit you? Exactly. The piano. Because More Mass = More Power.
o Who’s more of an expert: someone who wrote 12 articles or someone who write 1,200 articles?
o ‘The act of giving away our knowledge makes it again fresh in our mind,’ says my hero, Julia Cameron.
o Free boosts your Google juice.
o Free increases the odds of someone NEW reading your stuff, thus earning their loyalty.
o Free increases the odds of someone OLD reading your stuff, thus increasing their loyalty.
48. There are 175,000 new blogs created every single day. Mine was awarded a ‘Top 100 Business Blog on the Web.’ Guess I’m doing something right. Maybe you should stop by more often! Go to www.hellomynameisblog.com, see what I do, then adopt the architectural, design and writing strategies to your own blog.
49. Think about what are you so good at that you make look easy. Then blog about that. (Ideally in video form.)
50. Traffic is a worthless statistic. What matters is how many readers become fans. What matters is the number of subscribers you have. What matters is how many readers click on the ‘Send to a Friend’ button after each post. What matters is how often your posts get tweeted, dugg, stumbled upon and linked in other people’s blogs. What matters is how much Google loves your blog. What matters is how many emails you get each day from people who read your stuff that want to (1) say thanks, (2) learn more about you, (3) HIRE you, or (4) take you out to lunch.
51. Tweet every one of your blog posts. But don’t say, ‘My blog post today is about making more money…’ Instead write, ‘Here’s a powerful blog post about doubling your income…’ Got it?
52. Understand The Caveman Effect.
53. Use headlines with numbers. Based on my post and article statistics, they get the most hits.
54. Use lots of lists. There IS a science behind why lists work. I’ve done the research for you here.
55. Use pictures. Personal pictures. Funny pictures from Google Images. Clean, sharp and powerful pictures from Istockphoto. Clip art is the enemy.
56. Use real-world, relatable examples. That means NO Oprah, NO Tiger and NO Trump. Use your Dad, a local businessperson or your second grade teacher growing up.
57. Use series posts or multiple part posts. This keeps people coming back and enables greater depth to be achieved in various topic areas.
58. Use wallet-grabbing headlines that have something to do with making more money. I hate to say it, but that’s really all people seem to care about. They want money. That’s about it. If you look at the benefit or result of anything anyone writes about or sells, it all usually boils down to money. So, make your headlines hit ‘em in the back pocket.
59. Video, video, video.
60. What blogs do you read religiously? Make a list of the reasons why. Then evaluate your current blog and ask yourself if you’re practicing those same reasons.
61. Whatever your blog URL is, I guarantee you it sucks. Nobody is going or (1) remember, or (2) tell their friends, ‘Dude, you should check out www.hellomynameisscott.blogspot.com!’ Too long. Too many letters. Too much to remember. Nobody cares. So, be smart. Register a domain name that’s quicker, easier and rolls of the tongue nicely, while maintaining consistency with your brand. For example, my blog redirect domain is www.hellomynameisblog.com. Much better, huh? How many readers are you losing because your blog domain name is 127 characters long?
62. When you write, just leave out the parts people skip.
63. Write for your ideal reader.
64. Write like you talk, unless you talk like a moron.
65. Write short, list-based posts; then ask people to rewrite the exact same list based on their own experience. Great way to solicit lost of comments, plus it’s a fantastic content generator. Example here.
66. Write shorter paragraphs.
67. Write shorter sentences.
68. Write what wants to be written. Honor thy tingles.
69. Yes, I said this earlier, but it bears repeating: Design is EVERYTHING. To quote Seth Godin, author of the #1 marketing blog in the world, ‘An organism needs to invest energy in being beautiful … Ordinary products are almost never beautiful … Even the most hard-hearted people are suckers for beauty. We treat people and products differently when we think they’re beautiful. The reason people and organizations have invested so much in beauty over the years is that beauty pays off.’ Is your blog beautiful?
70. Yes, stories are powerful. Yes, stories are better than statistics or quotes. Yes, stories are what readers remember and repeat. Yes, stories are what audiences connect with most. Yes, stories are the best way to communicate a message. But you can’t just tell the story. You’ve got to stick the landing. So, when your story is over, don’t just move on to the next story. Figure out the fifteen lessons, the Universal Human Emotion/Experience and the Take Home Value. Otherwise it’s just a story. Here’s a perfect example.
71. You have two kinds of expertise. First, there’s your Content Expertise: It’s topical. It’s a field of study. It comes from your head. It comes from what you KNOW. And, you deepen your Content Expertise through learning, reading, writing and teaching. Second, there’s your Core Expertise: It’s a practice. It’s a way of being. It comes from your heart and soul. It comes from who you ARE. And, you deepen your Core Expertise through being, living and practicing. So, I share that duality with you because your blog needs to write from BOTH categories. Content AND Core. For example, my Content Expertise is ‘Approachability,’ whereas my Core Expertise is ‘Stick Yourself Out There.’ Got it?
72. Your posts are too long. Make it a series, chunk it down or find some other way to deliver it. Nobody has time to read more than about 1000 words. If that.
1. Anytime you share link love, email the person you mentioned in your blog and thank them. They’ll probably find your post through their Google Alerts eventually, but still, a personal note from the actual blogger is always appreciated. It’s also more likely to stimulate word of mouth AND cement a new relationship, as it is grounded in value, respect and connectedness.
2. Ask your readers QUESTIONS. Here’s why: Questions aren’t questions. They’re catapults. That’s the best part. Once they’ve been asked, it’s neurologically impossible for the human brain not to seek answers. And when you change your questions, you change your world. You also change your reader’s worlds. So: Ask dangerous questions. Ask disturbing questions. Ask dumb questions. Ask killer questions. Ask ouch questions. Ask penetrating questions. Ask upside-down questions. Ask soul-shaking questions. When you do this, when you enhance your Questioning Practice, you stretch your (and your reader’s) mind into unexpected, unencumbered territory, surpassing that threshold level of understanding that so desperately tries to hold you back. What questions are you asking that the other 300 million bloggers out there AREN’T asking?
3. Avoid adverbial garbage. –LY is the enemy.
4. Be a great date for your reader.
5. BE HONEST: Would YOU read your blog every day?
6. Brainstorm: What have you accomplished that people would not only respect, but also desire to learn and utilize to gain the same benefits for their company? Blog about that.
7. But, don’t ask too many questions. This is a seductive writing trap that’s easy to fall into. And the challenge is, without context, without meat and without solid content to support your questions, you look like an amateur writer who couldn’t think of anything good or original to say, so he just decided to ask a bunch of questions. For example, if you were writing a blog post about networking, you wouldn’t start off the lead paragraph by writing, ‘What’s your networking plan? How many people have you met recently?’ Instead, try this: ‘Anonymity is bankruptcy. Anonymity is the greatest barrier to business success. You need to be everywhere. In person. Online. EVERYWHRE. Remember: If you want to be in the right place at the right time then you need to be in a lot of places. How many places are YOU in? What’s your monthly plan for making people more aware of you?’ See the difference? That, my friends, is called ‘content’ ?
8. Close each post with a Call To Action or Response Mechanism. If you don’t know what that is, email me.
9. Compile a Post Cue or Editorial Calendar in your Content Management System. This prevents you from throwing together some half-assed post last minute. I suggest staying at least two weeks – approximately 10 posts – ahead. (Wait. You DO have a Content Management System, right? If not, email me immediately.)
10. Create a writing schedule. This practice will force you NOT to rely on inspiration.
11. Don’t ‘use humor.’ It won’t come out funny. Any over determined action produces its exact opposite, says The Tao De Ching. Just be funny. Allow your natural hilariousness to shine.
12. Don’t make your readers do your job for you.
13. Get Meebo. Coolest thing ever.
14. Give people ideas they can implement TODAY.
15. Give people the meat. If they wanted fluff, they would have taken their Build-A-Bear.
16. Higher quality content earns you the right to be a little more self-promotional.
17. Ideally, your blog and your website should be the same thing. If I had to do it over, I would have designed it that way. However, if that’s not a possibility, no worries. Here’s what you do. Make sure your blog has a few static pages built in about you, your products and services and your philosophy. If your blog host doesn’t allow that, just make your static pages actual blog posts with the comments turned off. Cool little trick. Go to www.hellomynameisblog.com and click on the ‘Meet Scott’ tab for a perfect example.
18. Identify your TRUE expertise and inventory your negotiable personal assets. Then blog about that.
19. Imagine someone was going to pay you $1000 an hour to rent your brain. What questions would they have to ask you to get their money’s worth? Blog about that.
20. It’s not just about the experiences you’ve had. It’s not just about the lessons learned FROM those experiences. It’s the direct and practical application OF those experiences to the daily lives of your readers, hopefully having something to do with making more money.
21. Just read Seth Godin’s blog and Brian Clark’s blog everyday. Do what they do.
22. Make a list of what do you do that people are eager to pay money for. Then blog about that.
23. Make it easy for people to share your blog using social bookmarking composite tags, i.e., ‘Share This.’
24. Make your own words up. Here’s a fun experiment: Go into the preferences section of Microsoft Word and click on ‘Custom Dictionary.’ Then, click on ‘Edit.’ It will formulate a list of every word you’ve right-clicked on and added to the dictionary while writing. You’ll be able to go back in time and see what terms you invented. Then, write out their definitions. Then blog about that.
25. Make your readers stop, nod, gasp and say, ‘Wow.’ A powerful example is a question like, ‘What are you doing that makes absolutely NO sense?’
26. My blog is beautiful. BEAUTIFUL. If it were physically possible to make sweet love to a blog, I would do it. (Hell, I would even cuddle afterwards.) Anyway, before I get too graphic, here’s my point: Hire a professional blog designer. Don’t download one of those crappy templates from Blogger.com. DEFINITELY don’t try to do it yourself. And certainly don’t commission your sixteen year-old to whip it up on Photoshop during study hall when he should be reviewing for his calculus final. Call Lucia Mancuso at The Blog Studio at 614/447-9811. Tell her The Nametag Guy sent you, and I guarantee your blog will become gorgeous. NOTE: I receive no affiliate commissions or referral fees for this recommendation. I just think The Blog Studio rocks. And my blog won an award for a ‘Top 100 Business Blog on the Web’ within three months of implementing their new design. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
27. Nobody cares what you’ve done. They only what you’ve learned. Is that what you’re blogging about?
28. Notice things and give them names.
29. Pick a lane; take a side.
30. Picture the people who would give their right arm to acquire the valuable expertise you now realize you possess. Then email them every once in a while to tell them you were thinking of them when you published a specific post.
31. Post every single day. If you’re on vacation or sick, have about a dozen posts ready to go in case of emergency. Most blog platforms have future-posting capabilities.
32. Purchase URL’s for specific blog posts. For example, I have a series of articles called, ‘Attributes of Approachable Leaders.’ So, I bought the domain www.approachableleaders.com and now redirect it to the post series. This makes it easier to share the entire sequence with my readers. Plus, this strategy enables me bookmark key topic ideas for future products and protects my copyright, as trademark is a function of usage. So for now, The Approachable Leader is just a series of blog posts. I’m sure it will become a book (er, ‘blook’) eventually. Either way, it’s still MINE. Remember: He who owns the domain owns the idea.
33. Recall what it is everybody is always asking you about. Then blog about that.
34. Remember the headline of this very article? Re-read it. As yourself what drew you to it. Then replicate that persuasiveness in your own posts.
35. REMEMBER: Nobody cares about you. And I don’t mean that literally. What I mean is, people don’t care how good you are; they care how good you’re going to help them become. People don’t care what you do for a living; they care what you’re passionate about. People don’t care if you’re having a bad day; they care how you’re going to help them have a better day. And lastly, people don’t care about your company, they care about the problems your company can solve. Got it?
36. Select either a Niche Topic or Niche Market. Generalism will only succeed if you are (1) really, really good, (2) really, really smart, or (3) have a really, really huge following.
37. Share link love in every post. But don’t overdo it. A confused mind never buys.
38. Sit down and physically write out your answer(s) the question: ‘If everybody did exactly what you said, what would the world look like?’ Once you’ve got 5-7 answers, consider that to be a framework of your personal philosophy. Then, every day when you post, all you have to ask the follow up question: ‘Is what I’m doing right now giving my readers the tools they need to BUILD that world?’ If it’s not, trash it. Simple as that.
39. Some blogs don’t allow comments from readers unless they’re registered users. I think this is a stupid strategy. So you get a few spam comments. Who cares?
40. Some blogs require readers to subscribe before they’re able to read full posts. I think this is a dumb, fan-alienating strategy. If you’re good, they’ll be back. If you’re really good, they’ll be back with their friends. If you’re really, REALLY good, they’ll be back with their friends and their wallets.
41. Stop quoting Einstein, Rumi, Jesus and Seneca. Quote YOU. If you want to position yourself as a Thought Leader, you need to quote yourself, or else nobody else will. For an example of how powerful self-quoting can be, check out the coolest quotation site in the history of mankind: www.stuffscottsaid.com.
42. Sure, nobody cares about your dog, but they MIGHT care about the 47 lessons your dog taught you about customer service. Remember: Meat. Content. Guts. Lists. Lessons.
43. Sure, nobody cares about your dog, but they MIGHT care about the blog your dog writes every day. Make it funny and cool and use great pictures. Create a personality and writing voice for your pet. Wiggle over to www.paisleyblog.com for an example.
44. Teach people the secret to something.
45. The attention span of a human being is about six seconds. If you do the math, that comes out to reading four lines of written text. So, unless you want to bore your readers and risk them tuning you out like a Tony Little infomercial, remember two words: LINE BREAKS.
46. The more personal you are in your writing, the more people will relate to it.
47. The more you give away for free, the wealthier you will be. Many bloggers disagree with this. Me? I think it’s a Golden Rule. And while I DO believe you should offer exclusive content that people need to pay for (with their money or their email address) here are ten reasons to give away more stuff for free on your blog:
o Content that you write doesn’t do any good sitting in a folder on your computer.
o You can let the world be your editor. By sharing your writing (for free) with lots of people, you will get unexpected, unsolicited feedback on how to improve it.
o The more content you have out there for free, the more fans you will create.
o The Internet was founded upon the idea of free. It’s the democratization of information. And some things (like information, articles, content,) are so readily available, that if you DON’T have at least SOME stuff for free, people are going to find them elsewhere.
o If you dropped a piano and a plum off of the Empire State Building, which one would hurt more if it hit you? Exactly. The piano. Because More Mass = More Power.
o Who’s more of an expert: someone who wrote 12 articles or someone who write 1,200 articles?
o ‘The act of giving away our knowledge makes it again fresh in our mind,’ says my hero, Julia Cameron.
o Free boosts your Google juice.
o Free increases the odds of someone NEW reading your stuff, thus earning their loyalty.
o Free increases the odds of someone OLD reading your stuff, thus increasing their loyalty.
48. There are 175,000 new blogs created every single day. Mine was awarded a ‘Top 100 Business Blog on the Web.’ Guess I’m doing something right. Maybe you should stop by more often! Go to www.hellomynameisblog.com, see what I do, then adopt the architectural, design and writing strategies to your own blog.
49. Think about what are you so good at that you make look easy. Then blog about that. (Ideally in video form.)
50. Traffic is a worthless statistic. What matters is how many readers become fans. What matters is the number of subscribers you have. What matters is how many readers click on the ‘Send to a Friend’ button after each post. What matters is how often your posts get tweeted, dugg, stumbled upon and linked in other people’s blogs. What matters is how much Google loves your blog. What matters is how many emails you get each day from people who read your stuff that want to (1) say thanks, (2) learn more about you, (3) HIRE you, or (4) take you out to lunch.
51. Tweet every one of your blog posts. But don’t say, ‘My blog post today is about making more money…’ Instead write, ‘Here’s a powerful blog post about doubling your income…’ Got it?
52. Understand The Caveman Effect.
53. Use headlines with numbers. Based on my post and article statistics, they get the most hits.
54. Use lots of lists. There IS a science behind why lists work. I’ve done the research for you here.
55. Use pictures. Personal pictures. Funny pictures from Google Images. Clean, sharp and powerful pictures from Istockphoto. Clip art is the enemy.
56. Use real-world, relatable examples. That means NO Oprah, NO Tiger and NO Trump. Use your Dad, a local businessperson or your second grade teacher growing up.
57. Use series posts or multiple part posts. This keeps people coming back and enables greater depth to be achieved in various topic areas.
58. Use wallet-grabbing headlines that have something to do with making more money. I hate to say it, but that’s really all people seem to care about. They want money. That’s about it. If you look at the benefit or result of anything anyone writes about or sells, it all usually boils down to money. So, make your headlines hit ‘em in the back pocket.
59. Video, video, video.
60. What blogs do you read religiously? Make a list of the reasons why. Then evaluate your current blog and ask yourself if you’re practicing those same reasons.
61. Whatever your blog URL is, I guarantee you it sucks. Nobody is going or (1) remember, or (2) tell their friends, ‘Dude, you should check out www.hellomynameisscott.blogspot.com!’ Too long. Too many letters. Too much to remember. Nobody cares. So, be smart. Register a domain name that’s quicker, easier and rolls of the tongue nicely, while maintaining consistency with your brand. For example, my blog redirect domain is www.hellomynameisblog.com. Much better, huh? How many readers are you losing because your blog domain name is 127 characters long?
62. When you write, just leave out the parts people skip.
63. Write for your ideal reader.
64. Write like you talk, unless you talk like a moron.
65. Write short, list-based posts; then ask people to rewrite the exact same list based on their own experience. Great way to solicit lost of comments, plus it’s a fantastic content generator. Example here.
66. Write shorter paragraphs.
67. Write shorter sentences.
68. Write what wants to be written. Honor thy tingles.
69. Yes, I said this earlier, but it bears repeating: Design is EVERYTHING. To quote Seth Godin, author of the #1 marketing blog in the world, ‘An organism needs to invest energy in being beautiful … Ordinary products are almost never beautiful … Even the most hard-hearted people are suckers for beauty. We treat people and products differently when we think they’re beautiful. The reason people and organizations have invested so much in beauty over the years is that beauty pays off.’ Is your blog beautiful?
70. Yes, stories are powerful. Yes, stories are better than statistics or quotes. Yes, stories are what readers remember and repeat. Yes, stories are what audiences connect with most. Yes, stories are the best way to communicate a message. But you can’t just tell the story. You’ve got to stick the landing. So, when your story is over, don’t just move on to the next story. Figure out the fifteen lessons, the Universal Human Emotion/Experience and the Take Home Value. Otherwise it’s just a story. Here’s a perfect example.
71. You have two kinds of expertise. First, there’s your Content Expertise: It’s topical. It’s a field of study. It comes from your head. It comes from what you KNOW. And, you deepen your Content Expertise through learning, reading, writing and teaching. Second, there’s your Core Expertise: It’s a practice. It’s a way of being. It comes from your heart and soul. It comes from who you ARE. And, you deepen your Core Expertise through being, living and practicing. So, I share that duality with you because your blog needs to write from BOTH categories. Content AND Core. For example, my Content Expertise is ‘Approachability,’ whereas my Core Expertise is ‘Stick Yourself Out There.’ Got it?
72. Your posts are too long. Make it a series, chunk it down or find some other way to deliver it. Nobody has time to read more than about 1000 words. If that.
