Successful Blog

Life Under A Rock Promotes Productivity?

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By Terez Howard

Do you ever find yourself furiously typing at your computer, scripting blog posts, guest blog posts, website pages and the like, and you haven’t been attuned to what’s going on in the world? When I say that, I don’t mean to say that you don’t keep tabs on major current events. Instead, you find yourself so immersed in your work that you haven’t taken the time (or had the time, for that matter) to stay abreast on the trends in your niche.

That’s how I feel right now.

Life under the rock isn’t that bad

That’s what I said. I don’t mind being under a rock. It’s quiet. I get a whole lot accomplished. I don’t have to really deal with anyone because I’m working on my own personal projects. It’s really not that bad.
Here are some of the things I have noticed about life under a rock, engrossed in my work:

  • Increased productivity. I don’t just sit in front of a computer screen and randomly surf the Internet. I have a job to do that is close to my heart, and I’ve shut off nearly everything else to achieve it.
  • Super strong determination. I WILL succeed. I have decided that I am not allowing any outside influences to thwart my goals.
  • Sharpened skills. I have been writing and writing and researching and writing. I feel that my art has improved.

In a way, I prefer life under a rock.

I do enjoy people. I’m no introvert. But there’s something to be said when all you have to contend with is writer’s block, research options and sentence structure. No bad attitudes. No annoying behaviors. Nothing to deal with that I cannot control.

That said, I feel like an outsider to the blogging world.

It’s dark under the rock

Even though life under a rock can be a productive experience, it can leave you missing some things. For instance, I haven’t been able to regularly keep up with any other bloggers. Sure, I catch a post here and there. But I miss reading their regular work. I haven’t even gotten to stay up-to-date with my favorite bloggers, the people whose information I admire and treasure.

Also, and most shocking to me, I have had to turn down work. (This statement is shocking to me because not so long ago, I didn’t imagine I would be one of those freelancers that had a booked schedule).

I only have so many hours that I have allotted to my writing work, and I will not exceed my limit. I Don’t Want to Be Rich. I want to do what I love, but I want to have time for the people I love. I have chosen to trade time with my family for time that I could have used to make money.

Uncovering the rock

I want to reasonably spend most of my work time under my rock with my personal writing projects and at least some time out of the rock, connecting with the bloggers and other professionals I’ve met. I suppose the best solution is a schedule. I’ve used my schedule to plan out my time under the rock. Now, I need to schedule time out of the rock.

It can be an overwhelming task — reading blogs, commenting, tweeting, etc. It all takes time. How do you allot time to stay out of life under a rock?

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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!!

You Want Me To Write About What?!

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 By Jael Strong

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With today’s economy, it isn’t uncommon to hear people say, “I’ll take whatever job I can get!”  Let me say right from the start, that is not my attitude.  But still, the logic is sound.  We need money.  We provide a service.  We don’t have to like it, we just have to write about it.  In the end though, when you will write anything for a buck, it can start to feel a bit like literary prostitution.

There are many reasons why a person might not feel inclined to write about a certain topic.  A certain theme may clash with an individuals world view or moral code.  The topic may completely fall out of a writer’s realm of expertise.  Then there are those subjects that we find plain boring. 

If you are blogging strictly for yourself, even if money is an issue, the solution is simple:  Don’t write about anything that you do not feel inclined to write about.  If you are fairly good with public relations though you might get the drift that your readers want you to address a particular subject.  In that case you have a choice:  Please the readers or please yourself.  In the instance of blogging for an outside entity the choice is very similar, but there are the added strings of increased visibility and possible financial remuneration at stake.

So, how can you make a less than savory writing assignment more palatable?  If you feel less than qualified to write on a certain subject, but you don’t want to pass on a blogging opportunity, do some research.  Of course, most of us are not in the position to spend countless hours researching for a relatively small writing assignment. So, set the timer and do some digging for a set period of time.  In the end, you may discover that you know more than you did on the topic.  You may also discover that with a bit more effort, you could speak with a degree of authority on the topic.

This technique can also help you if you are simply not interested in the topic at issue.  It may be that you know just enough about the subject to hate it.  After a bit of research, you may actually find it intriguing.  

In the end, you may choose to pass on the assignment, but if your aching for visibility or  a little extra cash, don’t casually pass over potential.  If you love writing, you can put your added panache to any subject and make it come alive for yourself and for your readers.  

 
Jael Strong writes for TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written both fiction and non-fiction pieces for print and online publications.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas .

Thanks, Jael

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

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Are You A Cookie Cutter Writer Or Something Else?

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By Terez Howard

I am a writer. If you stood over me while I type at my computer, you would wonder how anything discernible is going to come from what you see. I don’t normally write from sentence to sentence and then follow up by writing one paragraph after another in sequential order. My mind processes information in a somewhat scattered manner.

The mess going on in mind has to be sorted, processed and regurgitated in an intelligible way. That means, I think of a thought and type it. That sentence, paragraph or even single word might get moved all around my blog post before it finds a home.

I start a sentence, and sometimes I finish it. (This sentence happened to be the second sentence of this post, and I think it’s going to stay here now). I like to attribute this writing style to my journalism background. When you write for the newspaper on deadline and you’re sorting through notes and remembering key ideas in all sorts of orders, you realize that you better get what you know on paper fast. Organize later.

I’ve maintained that style when I blog.

Writing with a template

This was new to me. I recently purchased an e-book that actually was about building AdSense websites, and the author spoke about using a template to write articles. I appreciated these simple template ideas, like Q&As, Myths vs. Facts and 10 (or whatever number) Reasons For Something. I said to myself, I’m going to do this. It will make writing much easier.

About two or three articles into it, I totally forgot about the templates and went back to my old ways. I’m not cut out for templates. (Ha, pun).

For people who aren’t much for writing or who have a difficult time coming up with ideas, I find templates to be a fabulous spring board. You fill in the blanks and voila. You have a well-thought-out, organized, helpful blog post.

Some possible template ideas that I’ve noticed on other blogs using, besides the ones I listed above, are:

  • Tutorial. A step-by-step guide of what to do.
  • The interview. You ask questions, and someone important answers.
  • Pros and cons. You say what is good and what is bad about a certain issue. You take a side, or you don’t.
  • Review.You review a product, service or other website in your niche.You review your own blog.
  • A blend. Blend some of the template ideas I listed here. For instance, write a review based on a pros and cons list.

Still not for me

Writing against a template is not for me.I feel like my freedom of expression is inhibited in a cookie cutter post.I can definitely see how a template would be beneficial to people who do not like to write or struggle with what to write about.But for those of us that just want to get our thoughts on the page, we don’t do it.

I guess it’s more of a matter of order. I put writing first and organization second. A template writer puts organization first and writing second.

One is not better than the other. Templates are for some, and free writing is for others. Which do you prefer?

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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!!

Are You Ready to Claim the Right Things You’ve Done?

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We’re Awfully Good at Debriefing Failures and Just Toasting Our Success

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It takes a team to achieve a major business initiative. The research, the trials, the final product, the sampling effort, the trade shows, the tests and metrics, the PR, marketing, and social media effort designed amplify the buzz all took people, time, money, resources invested where it counts.

And when that sort of investments fails, we’re all over it to figure out where it went wrong. We hold meetings to debrief our choices, our missteps, and errors like so many grains of broken glass ground down to sand. In the name of learning from our mistakes we own our loses like so many merit badges. Sometimes we beat the losing horse until it’s long past dead with a mantra never to forget or to repeat the mistakes we made again.

But when we win, we toast to our success and move ahead.
What if we put the same rigor to debriefing our success?

How to Claim the Right Things You’ve Done

We’re great about learning from our losses. We’re not so great a learning from our success. A quick look at Bloom’s taxonomy will show that what we often do when we debrief a losing situation is we work all of the way up from knowledge through evaluation of what didn’t work.

blooms_taxonomy

Suppose we followed that toast to our success with an equally granular discussion of what worked with our success? It might look like this.

  • Knowledge – What it is we accomplished? What were the key parts that led to the success?
  • Comprehension – What do we know now about the project, the team, the customers that we didn’t know before?
  • Application – How can we use what we’ve learned from this success to build the next initiative like this one?
  • Analysis – How is this project similar and different from other projects we undertake?
  • Synthesis – What overall learnings can take forward from this success?
  • Evaluation – How as this win change what we understand about what we do as a business?

Raise that toast to your success. Then ask the six simple questions to claim what you’ve won.
The moments of reflection that bring you to the answers are the time you need to incorporate, internalize, and own what you’ve done — to move the “winning behavior” from a possibility into a natural response.

The evaluation of the win is the way to claim your rewards, to own them, and to leverage that learning from then on.
When you own your success, it shows every time you walk into a room. That’s how claiming rewards from success leverages itself into more success.

The good news is we can all go back — alone or with our teams — and claim our rewards for every success we’ve ever won.

Not everything we learn has to come from what we do wrong. Are you ready to learn from every right thing you’ve done?

Be irresistible.

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

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You Don’t Have To Be The Stereotypical Blogger

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By Terez Howard

When I visited dictionary.com to see what it had to say about a stereotype, I read, “The cowboy and Indian are American stereotypes.” They are “a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group.”

In classic Western shows, cowboys are white men. But cowboys were also of African American, Mexican and Native American decent. And we all know that the Indians that go with cowboys are not from India.

Why the stereotypes?

I don’t really know. I believe that someone or group of people somewhere decide that this is going to be the norm. Cowboys will be white, and Indians will be Native Americans. They will never get along, and it will be a fun game for kids to play. Then, that norm transforms into a stereotype. Before long, the actual truth of a matter is lost. A stereotype becomes truth.

This is why when most people speak of a stereotype, it engenders thoughts of something bad.

What is the stereotypical blogger?

I have been thinking about this for a while.I suppose the stereotypical blogger knows everything there is to know in her niche, at least everything thinks she does. She posts frequently, well, regularly.She is witty, conversational and informative, all wrapped up in a delicious but very real blog.Readers hang on her every word. She posts pictures and video, too, because she wants her blog to have it all.She knows everyone, and everyone knows her.

The stereotypical blogger doesn’t sound bad at all. In fact, it sounds like the type of person that every serious blogger wants to become. But, why? Because those characteristics equate success? Is it because that is what all of the top, authority bloggers are doing? Just because they’re doing it, you have to do it too. They’re successful, and there’s no other way for you to be a successful blogger. Is that so?

I’m not that kind of blogger

Yep. I’m not that kind of blogger. I’m not saying that I don’t want to be. I wish that I could post every single day and that I understood the ins and outs of html. I don’t, and I can’t. I am not ashamed.

I have made another observation about the stereotypical blogger. She has very limited time for the rest of her life. She’s always answering e-mails. She’s constantly tweeting her stuff and everyone else’s. She always seems to be on every blog related to her niche, commenting and guest blogging. She is everywhere, and everyone loves it.

If you’re not going to be the stereotypical blogger, then you know by now that you are letting some things go. Your blog might not have everything, every tool and form of media, right away. I believe that if you want to have a life outside of your blog and you’re patient, you can eventually have everything on your blog.

Also, your name will not get to be all over the Internet immediately when you aren’t the stereotypical blogger. You will not have the time. Slowly, you can make connections that will boost your image. You may never be No. 1 in your niche. Is that OK?

It’s OK with me. No. 1 has too much responsibility. I’m content doing what I can do, having fun writing, collecting my money and then having a life.

I’m not ashamed to say that I don’t have the time to be the stereotypical blogger. I will never be that girl. I do what I do. I enjoy what I do. And blogging is only a small part of “what I do.”

What do you think? Are you or do you want to be the stereotypical blogger?

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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!!

Green Blogging…Is It Possible?

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By Jael Strong

It’s hip! It’s socially responsible! It’s green! Everybody, every company, seems to be going green, making choices and taking stands so as to limit their negative impact on the environment. I heard a piece on National Public Radio about businesses becoming more environmentally aware and I started to think: Is it possible for bloggers to go green?

I immediately felt silly for asking the question. After all, it seems to me that blogging by nature is a green activity. So many bloggers write from home. We can’t really cut back on our commute. We do our work on the computer, so paper waste isn’t an issue. Aside from the choices that all of us can make, choosing locally grown foods, avoiding gas guzzlers, recycling, we don’t seem to be left with environmental options specific to blogging.

For those who really want to decrease their environmental impact, that answer might not be sufficient. Isn’t there something that bloggers can do to go green? I did actually come up with three ways: decrease paper use, blog at night and promote environmentally friendly activities on their blog.

We already established that bloggers don’t use a ton of paper, especially in comparison with other fields, but there are places that could take a cut back. For example, if you are a note taker, which I am, you could choose an alternative to the old pen and paper. A voice recorder may be a way to keep track of burgeoning ideas or a PDA might be a good fit. Those tiny notebooks and sticky notes could add up over time if that is your currently preferred avenue for note taking.

Another way to cut back on paper use is to not insist on printing a hard copy of all of your writing. Now, I know that most of you do not print hard copies every time you post, but I also know for a fact that someone used to be very attached to having a paper version for all of her writing (me, of course). This was a bad idea, especially as my writing became more prolific. I also know that some are very paranoid that they will need hard copies of everything when all of the computers in the world decide to crash. I think if that day ever comes, our writing might not be foremost in our minds. So, cut back on hard copies equals less harm to the environment.

Now on to blogging at night. Well, we put less strain on the energy supply if we use electricity at night, so I thought we could start doing our writing at night. Besides, running electricity during non-peak hours is often better for our budgets. Okay, I know this is a stretch, but I was brainstorming! Plenty of us already do our writing at night anyhow, but it’s a thought.

And finally, can more writers promote going green on their blogs? If everybody did this all of the time, every blog would become a platform for ecological change. That sounds like a bad idea to me, but if the opportunity presents itself I suppose there is nothing wrong with plugging good citizenship.

It all feels like a stretch to me. The piece that I heard on the radio was inspiring; I really wanted to employ some great green practices, but the more I think about, it just doesn’t seem like there’s much a blogger can do. Do you have any thoughts on how a blogger can lessen their environmental impact?

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Jael Strong writes for TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written both fiction and non-fiction pieces for print and online publications.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas .

Thanks, Jael

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

I’m a proud affiliate of

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