Successful Blog

Why Guest Blogging is Fun and Extends the Value of What You Do

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A Guest Post by Jessica Cortez

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Many articles here on Successful-Blog have addressed the importance of guest blogging. Some have pointed out the advantages of getting your work and your name out there when you’re just starting out. Writing about topics you find interesting is a great writing motivator, too. And the instant feedback a guest blogger receives in comments is central to blogging and general writing improvement. These are all great reasons to go out there and knock on blog doors, asking for a place to stay and sit awhile.

But perhaps we can take a step back and ask ourselves a bigger question — What is the greatest motivator in any of life’s endeavors?

  • Is it the promise of future career success?
  • Praise from others or external assurance that what we are doing is in some way worthwhile?
  • Money?

To be sure, these are all valid sources of inspiration. But what I’ve found is that the most successful people I know are those who are simply enjoying what they’re doing. In short, the greatest human motivator is an intrinsic sense of fun.

The logical next question, then, is how is guest blogging fun?

For one, writing a guest post is an inimitable opportunity to explore the mindset of a particular type of reader. Every blog has a specific audience, and by writing a guest post, you have to do some digging into each blog audience’s psyche. Read through the blog’s previous articles, especially the more popular ones, and imagine what kind of person reads the blog and finds value in it. This process in itself cultivates human empathy, a quality that can be beneficial to anyone’s life overall.

If you’re a blogger, you probably take an interest in the act of writing, too. And good guest bloggers not only take into account people, but they also take into account tone. Just as every audience has a particular mindset, every audience member also has a specific style of writing to which she responds best. Catering to this style enhances your flexibility as a writer.

Employing several different stylistic tones makes you more adept at the use of words. The exploration of writing voices is like a little puzzle in that you have to figure out which grouping of suitable, carefully selected words goes where. And the challenge inherent in solving any puzzle is what makes it fun.

Seen in this light, guest blogging may be more than just a chance to “spread the word,” as it were. It’s a dynamic form of communication that stretches and strengthens your social understanding and technical skill. While developing your personal blog is rewarding on so many of its own levels, guest writing presents unique challenges that even the most accomplished blogger should indulge in on occasion.

How might a go at guest blogging expand and extend the value of what you do?

——–
Jessica knows a think or two about understanding her audience. Why not comment on what she said?

Jessica Cortez writes on the topics of online degree programs. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: cortez dot jessi23 @ gmail.com.

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

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What’s More Important: Intention or Perception?

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A Guest Post by JennyDecki

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First, I’d like to thank Liz for letting me write a guest post. Even though we’ve only talked a few times and met once, if she called me at 3am and needed a ride home after an awesome party I wasn’t even invited to I would jump in my car and drive her home faster than, well, as fast as I could throw on some clothes and get there. So even if we don’t have coffee every other Sunday, I consider her a friend and I’m just happier knowing she’s part of my world. (Cue cheesy Disney music – bonus points for you if you know what Disney movie that is).

What’s More Important: Intention or Perception?

Today’s question is one most people don’t consider. Everyone keeps talking about transparency and authenticity and what you should do and who you should be but then you shouldn’t be this and you shouldn’t be that and only The Bloggess can cuss because she’s really, really funny to a lot of people when she does.

There are so many things that you’re being told you should be when you blog that you may not even be sure what your message is or who you are yet, I mean, I turned 35 last week and I *just* figured out what I want to be when I grow up. (35 is an interesting number. My kids think I’m a dinosaur but my grandmother thinks my life hasn’t begun yet. I’m both too old AND too young depending on the demographic being surveyed.)

Take this video as my exhibit A. I’m entered into a competition. I need to win. I need you (yes you, not some other reader, YOU!) to watch this,

 

NOW go to JennyDecki’s Mamavation Application and vote for @Jennydecki — Just check that box in the sidebar — once every 24 hours from now until 7/12 at 8pm CST. If I had my way you’d set an alarm on your phone to remind you.

It’s really important to me. If you watched the video and you already know why…

Authenticity Can Be Frightening

Now, obviously I’m not making up the fact that I am, in fact, fat. But transparency is making a video showing I’m fat. My message is what’s authentic, because even if I hired a plus-sized model with a less-large but still-overweight body to deliver that message it would still be authentic.

But here’s the kicker. The absolute scariest part of making that video is my fear of what other people would think of it. Because it doesn’t matter if you’re being transparent and it doesn’t matter if your message is authentic. What matters once you hit “Submit” is what other people will think of your video when they see it.

Putting out a video that says, “I’m fat, I want to lose weight, I want to win this contest to have intimate relations over the phone with a nutritionist.” is frightening.

There’s the fear that some jerk is going to send the video to all his friends, then they’ll all come calling with horrific comments, calling me names I haven’t heard since Jr. High and laughing at me.

… and Tests Your Beliefs

Even better, I’m at the edges of a few fat acceptance communities and some people believe that attempting to lose weight for the sake of losing weight is wrong. I know some of those people and they’re really great people.

… and I believe in size acceptance too, because – skinny or fat – people deserve dignity and the right to be judged on what happens when they open their mouth and talk to you, not when they open their mouth and put food into it.

The Moral of the Story: Be as sure as you can be about what you believe before you share it with the world. Once you share it you can’t take it back.You just have to know your message is yours and you are allowed to have opinions, make decisions, and share those with others. Even if you disagree with your neighbor, or Liz, or me, or the guy who runs the local Chamber of Commerce.

So help me out. Because if I don’t win — yeah I tried and that’s great — but I’m really more of a “winning” kind of person.

How to Help

I was told before I was chosen as a finalist, “You’ll have to do something amazing to win. Your social media contacts won’t be enough.” Please, even if you don’t support me…even if you don’t support weight loss…even if you don’t give care at all. Help me prove that social media is enough – because social media IS amazing.

Step 1: Go vote for me (@jennydecki) at http://bit.ly/teamjen

Step 2: Post on Facebook and Tweet for me: Watch the video and vote @jennydecki every 24 hours from now ’till 7/12 at 8pmCST http://bit.ly/teamjen PLZ RT!

Step 3: Send an email, write a blog post, or use the social media or traditional media avenue of your choice and link to this post so they can help me, too.

Step 4: Have we met? No? Feel free to follow me on Twitter @jennydecki and I’ll follow you back. I’m sure it will be a pleasure to meet you.

Is Intention More Important than Perception?

Of course intention is most important because it’s the only one you have ANY control over. Perception? You have to let the chips fall where they may. If you write things with the intention of trying to create a particular perception and you fail, you can’t really stand up and say, “Oh, I want a do-over because that wasn’t really me.” Nope.

Better to be stuck with people knowing you for who you are than people not even knowing you and still thinking you’re a jackass. The best part is when you are yourself and you stand up for something you find support in the oddest places. Like here. Or here.

And when a fat woman figures out her passion is health and there’s a runner trapped under all that excess weight, what the hell other option does she have?

Need permission? You have mine. I give you permission to stand up for something. To stand in between a rock and a hard place and just stand there. Own it.

Thank you for your time, I appreciate it more than you know. Thanks again, Liz. Don’t lose my number, you may need it after a party someday!

——
If you don’t know JennyDecki, you should. Besides being a brilliant marketer, Jenny also blogs.

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

You Don’t Have To Raise Your Hand To Make A Comment

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By Terez Howard
As a blogger, you recognize the importance of following your favorite bloggers. You know that they can offer you the insight and direction you need, not only to become a better writer, but also a better business person.
If you’re like me, you’ve probably read through a host of different blogs from how to write effective copy to useful ways to promote your blog to marketing tactics for your products or services. I’ve been interested in online work for about two years now, and to this day, I’m still amazed at the influx of free information.

As long as I’m willing to do a little searching, I find that I can get reliable answers to all of my business questions. I have yet to ask a question that hasn’t been responded to on someone’s blog.

That’s what we bloggers are here for, right? To provide quality content. But when we read other people’s helpful information at no cost to us, what do we do to add to the discussion?

Questions, comments, concerns

I feel like I’m back in my school days here. Think about this. When the teacher delves into geophysics and you hear Charlie Brown lingo, you should ask for clarification. So, when you read a blog that doesn’t explain a topic clearly, don’t be embarrassed to ask the blogger for additional insight.

Did you ever have the teacher that had each student go around the room and name their favorite something? I think I was in elementary school when we named our favorite animals in front of the class. (At the time, my answer was cats). I remember thinking this exercise was stupid and a waste of time. Yes, I thought this as a 7-year-old.

I didn’t know it all, either. My teacher was preparing us to do at least one thing: socialize. Blogs are a key component of social media. Commenting about our favorite something from a post or sharing some other personal knowledge generates discussion. It makes this social media social.

Teachers make mistakes. When I saw a teacher’s math problem didn’t add up – literally – I let her know quietly and tactfully. I was not about to risk my parents making a visit to the school to hear about their mouthy daughter.

When we see a problem with a blogger’s data, we should let the writer know and do so quietly and tactfully. Even if it isn’t a technical error, we should air our concerns because once again, we get to engage in a social conversation.

What’s the point?

Questions, comments and concerns help us to learn more. That’s why our teachers throughout our years and years of school encouraged them so much. We remember what we talk about. We make connections. We build on this foundation.

Not to mention, the teacher feels his job has been worthwhile when he sees his students responding to his direction. Bloggers, too, feel that sense of worth when people respond to their posts.

Of course, these responses must only contribute to a meaningful discussion. None of that “Nice post” or “Good job” stuff. Sure, it’s nice to be complimented, but a few dozen of those a day can amount to nothing more than spam. I cannot tell you how many spammy comments I don’t approve per day and from the exact same website!

Since I don’t like words full of nothing, why would I give them to someone else? We bloggers have to stick together and truly talk to one another. We can learn so much from one another, but only if we open our mouths, or rather move our fingers, and converse.

How do you engage your readers in conversation?

 

—
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. 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!!

Collaboration: How to Bring Back that Brand New Blog Feeling Again

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A Guest Post by Alexis Bonari

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If a blog is suffering from low readership, repetitive posts, or a general lack of innovation, chances are that it also lacks collaborative strategies. Some bloggers may be hesitant to even explore the idea of collaboration, foreseeing a loss of readership if they point out a better blog. However, experience shows the opposite: readers enjoy being introduced to new bloggers, so they’ll keep coming back for more.

Collaboration in Action

As an example of collaboration in action, take a look at remarkablogger and problogger as resources on blogger collaboration.

Setting Collaborative Readership Goals

From a remarkablogger post comes the idea of setting specific goals among bloggers for increasing their readership. A group of personal finance bloggers, inspired by a single challenge posted on Financial Samurai, agreed to increase their Alexa readership ratings within six months. Some aimed to join the ranks of the top 200,000; others challenged themselves to reach the top 50,000. But all 49 personal finance bloggers who answered the challenge observed significant increases in readership due to the collaborative nature of the goals they had set for themselves. One blog even managed to increase its rating from #1,432,262 to #215,606.

How did they manage this?

  1. They started right away without procrastinating. They didn’t make excuses about needing to think it over or question the feasibility of the task. They just joined up.
  2. They tracked something tangible. Whether it’s page rankings, readership, number of Tweets, or any other popularity indicator, this is an important factor in goal-oriented blogger collaboration.
  3. A concrete and desirable goal was set. Without focus, collaboration loses some of its efficacy.
  4. Keeping it casual enabled these bloggers to just “let the magic happen” as members of the challenge group created blog badges and set up tracking pages for collaborative commentary.
  5. They promoted each other. Small increases in readership added up for everyone and created a more synergistic partnership among bloggers.

Fresh Ideas for Effective Blogging Collaboration

A refreshing perspective characterizes problogger’s post the subject of collaborative blogging as a way to combat writer’s block. Recommendations include

  • guest blogging,
  • blog swaps,
  • joint posts,
  • interviews,
  • joint blogs,
  • joining a blog network,
  • chatting on IM or e-mail,
  • and participating in discussion forums.

    • Trying a blog swap (switching blogs for a day with another blogger) or joining up with another blogger to write interview posts about each other can liven up a boring blog. There’s no way to lose with these helpful strategies, so win-win collaboration makes immediate improvements for the savvy blogger.

    plentyoffish_stat

    What collaboration ideas have you helped you get back that brand blog feeling and reach for newer higher goals?

    ———-

    — Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at onlinedegrees.org, researching areas of online universities . In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

    Thanks, Alexis! You’ve cited two of the best blogging collaborators I know!

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

    It’s the people and the great information inside that make me a proud affiliate of …

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Subtract The $5 From Brobdingnagian — Say What Now?

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By Terez Howard

This blog is brobdingnagian.

Are you scratching your head, wondering why I would talk like this? I don’t talk like this.

Have you already headed over to a dictionary website to see what brobdingnagian means? That’s where I found its meaning. My Microsoft Word Processor doesn’t even recognize it as a word.

Have you made it this far in my post without pulling out your hair? Congratulations!

Deduct $5 now

If you strip this 14-letter word of its pomp and circumstance, you get this: big. Brobdingnagian is one of those $5 words that do not belong in a blog post and can be substituted for a word worth a dime.

Why should $5 words be avoided?

  1. It takes unnecessary time for a reader to look them up. Most people have limited time and want to read through a blog without spending undue time with a dictionary in hand or in another tab.
  2. Brobdingnagian words are likely to send readers searching for more reader-friendly blogs. Who wants to read a blog that needs an interpreter? Not me.
  3. If you’re making a call to action in your blog, how can your readers act on something they do not understand?

I’m not saying that you have to dumb your writing down. There is no hard and fast rule that says you have to stick to words no longer than seven letters. People do have to understand what you’re trying to say. If they don’t, they are not going to stick around on your blog.

When I wrote for the newspaper, my boss told us that our readers’ level was that of fifth graders. He told us they would not continue to buy papers if we wrote at a higher level. I always remembered that because I used to write poetry, and I liked to pepper my poems with $5 words. That was fine for something personal, but for the public, it was unacceptable.

Explanations for technical terminology

Most of us writers don’t have a problem getting rid of complicated, unheard of words. However, we might be involved in a field that uses several acronyms and abbreviations. I didn’t know that a-s stood for all-sung.

There also might be words that are common in a certain field, like quadrille. But to laymen, that means absolutely nothing.

If your audience knows the acronyms and technical terms you use, you don’t necessarily have to explain them every time. But if you think you just might get a newbie or novice, I suggest you provide an explanation the first time you introduce the word in a post. After that, you don’t have to mention it again.

If you don’t want to do that, be sure to provide the resources for newcomers to your blog, so they can easily locate the meanings of words like concerto grosso and obbligato. The easiest way to do this is to add a glossary.

Add high quality

After you subtract all the $5 words, what are you left with? If it’s not much, you’re doing something wrong. Blogs should serve their readers as a well of resourceful and/or entertaining information. They should quench their readers’ thirst for knowledge.

When you provide your audience with a usable message, they won’t want a refund on your 10-cent words. They’ll take it to the bank.

What do you do to make sure people understand what you’re writing?

—
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. 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!!

Is Your Blog An Interior Designer’s Dream?

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By Terez Howard

When someone visits your home, what do they notice?

Will a visitor see clean hardwood floors, cozy seating decorated with fashionable pillows, artwork that matches your theme and room uncluttered by knickknacks and accessories? On the other hand, will a person see a sticky mess on the walls, a carpet that obviously hasn’t been vacuumed in ages, a couch buried by papers and no visible pathway through the room?

These are two extremes. But which spectrum would you want to lean toward? Obviously, the neater one. Sure, no home that’s lived in can look like it belongs in an Ethan Allen catalog. I’m satisfied with a neat, clean, presentable home.

Now type in your blog’s url.

What is will visitors see?

Is it overrun with affiliate links, disorganized archives, poor picture placement, harsh backgrounds and tiny fonts? Or is it simply pleasing to the eyes, a place where visitors can find everything they want?

How can you make sure your blog looks home sweet home?

The same way you make a house a home. You clean it, and you organize its contents. With your blog, you should choose a clean-looking theme, or have a professional designer make one for you. That doesn’t mean it has to just be a cold, solid color background with nothing else. It does mean that your readers will not instantly want to click away from your blog without reading your content.

Here’s how you can get a clean, organized blog:

  • Think about your audience.  Who will be frequenting your blog? Business owners, mothers, gamers, writers? What kind of graphics would your audience like to see? What type of format would they favor?
  • Are your posts and archives easily accessible? Readers come to your blog to read. They shouldn’t have to sort through junk to get to your content.
  • Categorize your information.  Arrange each of your posts according to specific categories. Then, visitors can check out all that resourceful information found conveniently in the categories they want to see.
  • Auxiliary links should be seen but not blinding. Links to your business website, friends’ blogs and other extra links should be easily available to your readers, but they should not overpower your blog. Be discreet.
  • Don’t forget that subscribe button.  Every blog should be equipped with a subscribe button, so your faithful followers can easily follow you.

Give yourself a blog makeover

Niecy Nash isn’t going to pop in and clean up your blog. But there are plenty of graphic designers that will offer their services.

If you’re more of a do-it-yourselfer, like myself, do it yourself. Check out blogs that have designs you favor. See how you can incorporate such elements in your blog. Ask your friends, graphic designers or not, for their opinions. Then get working.

When visitors pop in, you won’t be trying to kick old newspapers under the couch. You won’t be embarrassed. You won’t feel impelled to say that you’re under construction, even if you’re not.

What makes a blog an interior designer’s dream?Â

 

—
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. 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!!