Blog as I say, not as I blog
Since Sunday is #blogchat night in Twitter world, my Sunday posts are going to be geared towards blogging. A pretty big topic, but there are plenty of ways to break it into nice bite-size pieces.
The theme for this Sunday is borrowed from a fantastic post that Stan Smith (@pushingsocial) wrote called How to Spring to your Blog’s Tipping Point. Stan’s point is that instead of just assuming that blog leaders are in a stratosphere that we just can never reach, maybe we should study how they do what they do and try to emulate them. I thought that was a very common-sense position to take.
I’m taking Stan at his word and I’m going to work on the assumption that looking at how other people approach blogging really can help you. So here are some words of wisdom I have found helpful. I hope you do too.
Suzanne Vara writes about 3 blogging basics, especially for small businesses.
In the end, as Dawn Westerberg points out in her post Back to the Basics, blogging is writing, and writing needs to be compelling. Good advice here!
I found this post by Mack Collier back in mid-July, a little after I really started dedicating myself full-time to the blogging and Twitter thing. Mack’s advice would be enough on its own, but in this post, called This is why you don’t bury your blog’s gold, Mack even uses charts to back up his opinion. A simple way to keep traffic to your blog on the up and up!
At SterlingHope, writers are encouraged to blog because it helps them write better. A blog as a tool that extends beyond marketing – now that’s an example worth looking into, wouldn’t you say?
This post by Sean Platt, published at CopyBlogger, was one of the most amazing posts I’ve read all year, and it happens to offer great advice at the same time, so I have to include it here. Please check out The Eminem Guide to Becoming a Writing and Marketing Machine.
Who did I miss? Add your Blog leader advice right here!
Image by Gareth Weeks. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/garwee
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M.
I’m really digging your new direction. Keep pushing it 🙂
By the way, Sean Platt’s post is hugely responsible for shaping my own style. It’s awesome that others appreciated it as much as I did.
Thanks, sir! I think it’s fun, so that works out well 🙂
Margie,
I am honored! Thank you! Also, I hadn’t read Sean’s post – very good.
Dawn
Not a problem at all! You are a blog leader, after all 🙂
And yes, that post was something, wasn’t it??
Thanx for this friendly, down to earth advice.
One point not to forget however: a lot of blogs from as you call it ‘blog leaders’ are sponsored & pushed by the industry. Small businesses never will have that amount of money backing their blog up, so their blogs will never get close to such amounts of page-clicks. Our advice for small businesses and starters: don’t go for the big amount of clicks but concentrate on the content – what do you want new customers to know about you. And: don’t spend too much time on it – analog contacts and analog network-building still is essential.
Excellent points and advice to add to the conversation. Thank you!
Thanks for the mention Margie…it is helpful to hear how others are breaking things down as well!