Welcome back from the weekend!
BUY THIS! IT’S GREAT! WE’RE GREAT! YOU NEED IT! BUY IT!
Isn’t that just an atrocious way to be assaulted on a Monday morning? Apologies, but it just goes to prove the point people over at For Bloggers, By Bloggers are making about why certain blogs aren’t pulling in any cash. Some points are reasonable enough for any blogger—reminding people to engage the community and stay current on your statistics—but some are probably just telling you that you’re super obnoxious. And nobody likes that.
Having a successful blog isn’t as easy as the Huffington Post and Tucker Max would make you believe. Even our dearest mothers, who we could obviously listen to all day, can’t seem to catch a break. But Mom can revive her blog, ProBlogger says, with just three dedicated hours a week. Maybe it is that easy, but it might not be sexy. Which is confusing, since For Bloggers, By Bloggers is telling us to blog like pole dancers.
I might not be a pole dancer, and my singing voice isn’t even tolerated by my grandmother (seriously, she once told me to “please stop” during my turn in a road-trip Name that Tune game) but these may be the exact reasons I can succeed as a blogger; I turned in my guitar and mic and realized I wasn’t going to be the next Courtney Love rock idol a long time ago. Seems I’m ripe for the blog scene.
But just because I’m not a rock star, doesn’t mean I can’t write personally and engagingly. One time I wrote a piece for a magazine and a friend said, “Cait, reading that, I could practically hear your voice yapping away in my ear.” It was pretty much the best comment on my writing I had ever received. It shouldn’t be rocket science that you will engage more people in a personal blog by writing to them as you would speak to them. Let your audience get you. And when you need a kick start, CopyBlogger will tell you to cut the crap. No more “nice,” “great,” or “bad” things; make your words count. Or as Dr. Seuss once said, “So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.”
ProBlogger takes a step away from quality content for a minute to talk about strategic home page design. It’s not enough to get a reader to click on your site, you have to keep them going deeper. And if you don’t want to continue reading on The Onion, well, you just have no funny bone.
Being the Writer Community Manager, I know we have some rock-solid female financial writers in our WriterAccess neighborhood. And yet, most financial marketing in the past has been directed toward and written by men. Currently, ThinkTank is asking financial marketers to access their feminine sides. Findings show that “women are susceptible to this information, they’re just not getting it.” So maybe you or your company can light the path.
Finally, on a personal note, I love reading writers’ work that gets me excited and makes me feel giddy. And this is why I love Dr. Seuss. (See, he wasn’t introduced completely at random earlier in this Round-up!) He’s fun, he’s tongue-tangley, and he has wonderful, not knock-you-over-the-head stuff to say. Random House will soon publish a book of “lost” Seuss stories. And don’t tell me you’re not also excited about reading the story about fantastic creatures following a boy home for a steak dinner. My heart will grow three sizes that day.
What about everyone else? If you come across some interesting links, share them in the comment section and maybe I’ll feature them in next week’s Round-up!
