Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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What Is Your Title, And Why Do I Care?

Filed Under Successful Blog, Writing | 8 Comments

cooltext455576688_blogging

I have a secret to share with you. After years of studying online writing, I decided to become a “professional blogger.” And you know what? I made that title up.

I was in an interview once, and I was asked what it took to be a professional blogger. I was thinking, I made that title up to tell people who I am without having to explain who I am. Now you want me to explain it?

The writer, the blogger, the candlestick maker

When you introduce yourself to someone, you say, “Hi. My name is (insert name).” The stranger always gets around to asking, “So, what do you do?” That’s your opportunity to give your title. If you’re like my husband, you say that you are a teacher and a professional violinist. If you’re my niece, you say that you are a dental hygienist. But, when you’re a freelancing jack-of-all-trades, what do you call yourself?

You have to give yourself some type of title. Please don’t call yourself a freelancing jack-of-all-trades. I will give you three reasons why you need a definite title:

  1. Your title is part of your brand. It automatically gives people a mental image of what you do. A blogger blogs, and a marketing specialist markets. It is a snapshot of your work.
  2. Your title can open doors. When you tell someone what you do, it can be an opportunity for a super short sales pitch. For instance, my husband and I took a visit to an insurance agent who asked me what I did. When I explained my work, he said that he wished he knew me a few months ago because he was looking for a writer. I am confident that he will remember me if he needs a writer in the future.
  3. Your title makes you feel like you have a real job. When you blog online, some tend to get the idea you are practicing some sort of hobby to pass time. They don’t realize you are building a business and get paid in dollars and cents. Some of my friends still seem to not understand that I actually work from home. I have a job, and here is my title. Even if they never get it, I can feel like I am a member of the workforce. It’s a boost.

Choosing your title

Yes. You get to choose what to be called if you work from home as a freelancer. It is an easy, simple way to build your brand. Pick the right title, the one that tells people exactly what you do.

Be as specific as possible. If you blog about travel, then call yourself a freelance travel blogger. If you write press releases, then you are a press release writer. If you want to blog about and review screenplays, call yourself a screenplay blogger. That’s right. Even if you don’t have all the references, testimonials and samples to prove it, choose the title that will best describe who you want to be.

If you need to make a change in the process, do so. If you see that your type of blogging is evolving and that you are beginning to become someone other than the person that your title embodies, gently transition to your new title.

If you just happen to do more than your title says, don’t stress over it. Yes, I call myself a professional blogger. But I also write for a magazine, edit, build websites and create online content. I still call myself a professional blogger. However, if I find that the scale tips more toward another niche, I’m not afraid to make a change.

In the end, you are who you say you are. By the way, who are you, and why should I care?

—-
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Is Mean Blogging The Writing Style Of The Future?

Filed Under Successful Blog, Writing | 10 Comments

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If you’re on Jon Morrow’s e-mail list, then you probably received his message about getting rid of nice writing. He pointed to Jennifer Greshem’s post Why I Fired My Father (And Maybe You Should Too) and how this woman openly talked about her personal life.

Jon spoke about the blogging world being overrun with nice, helpful information. He said it is boring. And I have to agree with him to an extent. Type in a simple phrase, like how to grow long hair, and you will be inundated with content. Most of it will be junk, some will contain nuggets of truth and a few will be entirely well-written and thoroughly helpful articles.

Is it really mean?

I read Jennifer’s post, and I didn’t think it was mean at all. She professionally explained her story, why she made the decisions she did and how others can learn from her. She was not mean; she was real.

Now, my husband calls me mean. When I told him about this post, he said, “You’re not just mean, Terez. You pride yourself in being mean.” I suppose that’s true. But to correct him, I said that you can call it whatever you want. I prefer to call it real.

In my personal life, I have an I don’t care what people think attitude. I will speak my mind, and if it happens to hurt your feelings, so be it.

I think this was really Jon’s point. There’s no need to hide behind a curtain of niceness if you feel strongly about a subject. Your strong emotions will get traffic and will get people talking. Look at the multitude of comments on Jennifer’s post.

3 ways to be mean the right way

I really examined Jennifer’s so-called mean post. I noticed something particularly interesting, besides her unvarnished honesty. Several times, she referred to expert sources. She wrote a blend of journalism and blogging. I found this intriguing.

With my journalism background (I worked and interned at a newspaper for seven years), I saw this to be an integral part of real, not mean, blogging. If you have an opinion that goes against the norm, back it up with expert sources. It makes your case more believable, more acceptable.

Secondly, Jennifer also wasn’t general. She called people by their names, and she told brief but poignant stories. She did not rant or expel suppressed emotions. She gave solid reasons for the choices made.

So, when you’re keepin it real, you cannot just settle to write in circles. It’s like taking a controversial topic, like the food industry’s general lack of telling us where the things we eat come from. (Can you tell I’m still hyped up about Food Inc.?) You could say it’s wrong. It’s bad. It causes diseases. But if you don’t go beyond the surface, like Robert Kenner did, nobody is going to believe you.

Lastly, like Jennifer, you help people. Yes, Jon said that helpful writing is boring. But that’s what Jennifer did. In the end, she was helping people. That means that your posts have to have some kind of purpose, a call to action that motivates them to do something.

Can you handle being real?

Jon said that Jennifer did get some hate e-mails and some people who disagreed with her. That goes with the territory. You have to expect that people might not like when you write even nice things. One anonymous commenter criticized an analogy I made about being creative, like a child. I didn’t expect anyone to hate on that topic, but that’s what happened.

When you put yourself out there, especially when you take up something big, something real, people will exercise their free right to talk back. You have to be able to stand the heat. You also have to be like Jennifer and stand nearly 200 comments, loads of traffic, countless e-mails and a single blog post going viral. I could stand that.

How do you make your blogging real, or mean, whatever you call it?

—-
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Do You Blog Just Enough To Hate It?

Filed Under Successful Blog, Writing | 3 Comments

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Someone once said, “Do you do it just enough to hate it?”

I recently thought about that question in reference to cooking. I try to cook healthy meals for my family. But if I cook too often or cook too many courses that take too much time, I don’t want to cook at all. I hate it. If I never cook (like when my kitchen was remodeled for a month), then I get used to not cooking and hate the idea of restarting.

Then there’s blogging. Do you blog just enough to hate it? Are you writing so much, so frequently that you dread the next time you have to concoct some witty, informative post? Or, do you write so rarely that you cannot produce anything worth reading?

Strike a balance

When you blog, you first have to have a clear objective in mind. What is your purpose?

Reasons for blogging include:

Next, you have to take an honest look at your schedule. How much time per day or per week can you realistically devote to blogging?

You can devote:

Third, figure out how long it takes for you to create a high quality blog post. Some can whip up a post in a half hour, while it takes others a few hours to do the research, make links and write well.

Don’t forget about promotion

Too often, bloggers hear the saying, “Content is king.” And while beneficial content is a key ingredient to a great blog, promotion should be queen. It takes time to promote your blog.

Ways to promote your blog include:

All of this promotion takes time. So, you have to decide what you’re going to do and how long this is going to take you.

Planning makes perfect

If you plan what you’re going to do, how much time you will take and follow your plan, you will see results. It might take longer for some that do not have much time to devote than others. But it WILL pay off. You can blog just enough to love it.

How do blog just enough to love it?

—-
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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What inspires you?

Filed Under Basics, Blog Review, Bloggy Questions, Community, Connecting Dots, Guest Writer, Inside-Out Thinking, Links, Motivation/Inspiration, Strategy, Successful Blog, Writing | 5 Comments

One of the best features of twitter is the opportunity to connect with other people around a specific topic each week or month via online chats using a hashtag (#) to “sort” the conversation stream apart from the rest of the flow of general tweets. These twitter chats expand my horizons, introduce me to other minds and concepts and also gives me an opportunity to refine my thoughts about any given topic.

If you are interested in knowing more about the online conversation about any number of industries or ideas, here is the link for an evolving twitter chat directory.
This past week, I had a chance to participate in a chat for the #SOBCon community. Having attended last year’s conference, it’s a great chance for me to not only re-connect with some of the the folks I met there, but I’m also able to chime in/learn from new folks. This week’s topic was about blogging; specifically, what inspires us to write.

There are as many ways to be inspired as there are ways to write. Some write each day, training The Muse to show up whether She wants to or not (ie. The Artist’s Way). Some feel as though they can’t write unless they have anything of interest to say and are moved to commit bytes to the ether.

To answer the question as it relates to me? I draw inspiration from other bloggers, quotes, songs, my children, interactions with people in my daily life and seemingly random coincidence.  But that’s not really what this week’s blogpost is about, actually.

After talking about it with others during our chat, I started to become more aware of being inspired and looking for inspiration in everything. This twist on the concept of “breaking the fourth wall” and being a dispassionate observer of my life helped me to learn more about how I interact with others.

Which leads me to the overarching concept of this blog and Independent Ideas. In order to be independent, one must be apart from the pack, so to speak. Having an awareness of one’s actions, how those interactions affect others and being mindful of our choices leads to a different way of Being by default. One cannot be aware and remain unaffected by the consequences of one’s actions. It’s impossible.

Writer/poet Paulo Coelho’s blog about the archer and the Zen Master underscored this concept for me when I read:

“You may have great skill with the instrument you choose for your livelihood, but it is useless, if you cannot command the mind which uses that instrument.”

It really is mind over matter. Thinking makes it so. We each have the capacity of conquering our own minds. We decide what is important to us. We decide what inspires us and we decide what drives us. Our choices are how those decisions are made manifest.

One of my best friends was an 80-something jazz pianist, now deceased. About 14 years ago, over coffee, Bob shared with me a nugget of wisdom he had collected over his decades of living. “Molly,” he told me, “everything is cumulative.”

Our independence is built moment by moment, day by day, choice by choice. What inspires you? What is your vision? What are you willing to decide in order to make it happen? It is ultimately up to you.

——-
Molly Cantrell-Kraig is a woman with drive. Possessing an innate sense of purpose and a pragmatic, solution-based approach to empowering people, she fused these two traits in order to establish Women With Drive Foundation. Based upon its founder’s personal history, Women With Drive Foundation is a means through which Cantrell-Kraig may effect change on both a micro and macro level. By providing women with something as essential as personal transportation in order to transition them from poverty to prosperity, she, through Women With Drive Foundation, seeks to empower women to help them help themselves. Through this action, the individual applicant benefits, as does society as a whole. Follow Molly on twitter as @mckra1g or @WWDr1ve (Women With Drive Foundation)

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Blogging By Using The Power Of The Eyes

Filed Under Successful Blog, Writing | 4 Comments

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A month or so ago, I got a Victoria’s Secret catalogue and decided I would get a pair or two of flannel pajamas. I didn’t really care if I purchased them after winter ended because I figured they would be cheaper by that time. But now, I cannot stop thinking of those warm-looking pj’s.

Shortly after I received the catalogue, I noticed how uncomfortable I felt in my pj’s when I was in bed. My pant legs always ended up twisted like pretzels around my legs and rode up as if they were short shorts. I got to the point where I couldn’t stand if my pants only started to ride up to my knees.

Then I remembered those flannel pajamas, the ones that had pants like leggings, nice and tight ones that would not ride up or twist. I needed them yesterday!

What those pajamas have to do with blogging

But this post isn’t going to be about my pajamas, even though I could probably fill up a post just talking about them. It’s about our eyes. Victoria’s Secret does something very interesting that I never noticed before.

That company provides pajamas for everyone. Skimpy lingerie to shorts and tees to lovely nightshirts to those flannel pj’s that I like, Vickie’s really has every woman’s tastes covered.

That got me thinking about blogging. What am I giving to my audience? Are they getting a need satisfied? Are they getting the information they want? Are they at least being entertained to some degree?

We bloggers cannot write to appeal to every Internet surfer. But we can appear attractive to the members of our audience.

Utilizing the power of the eyes

They draw people in. They entice them. They make people go, “Hmmm…” Pictures are the start of a reason to read your post.

Tap that “Add an image” button in WordPress and upload a shot to your blog post. Since I’m a freelance writing mama, I am certain my audience would be interested in children. That’s why you will see family-friendly photos on my blog.

If you can’t take a few original pictures (which are best, in my opinion), there are plenty of royalty-free stock photo websites. Expect to pay a fee to free your mind of worrying about infringing on copyright laws. My favorite is iStockphoto.

The first words people read are headlines, telling people whether or not they want to read a post or not. Show people how they will benefit by reading your entire post in your headline. Give them a tantalizing reason to read what you have to say.

I personally look at headlines very simply. There are basically two types of good headlines: the ones that tell you exactly what to expect and the ones that make you wonder what to expect. Experimenting with those two will get readers hooked on the rest of your words.

What do you see?

What you see directly affects your actions. The same goes for your readers.

How do you utilize the power of the eyes in your blog posts?

—-
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

I’m a proud affiliate of

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