| by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Blogs have swept the Internet. EVERY smart person either has one or is working hard to create one asap. This means you!
I'm here to deliver the blog content you must have and are (right now) clueless about creating. Let's dig in and solve that problem right now.
A blog is not a soliloquy, a tirade, or a soap box.
A blog is a conversation started by you. And like all conversations it takes two to tango.
Sadly, most people are lousy conversationalists. They do not converse, back and forth. Rather, they talk at people, mistaking the fact that they are pumping out words to beat the band for a keenly felt desire to hear what the other person has to say. These are selfish communicators... and they can never produce the results you must have to make your blog worthwhile.
Blogs work because they are interactive... and this means creating content that gets results while always urging your readers to respond.
But let's be honest with each other. You're not at all sure how to write blog content that'll do what every blog must do: generate leads and make money. Isn't that about the size of it?
For make no mistake, there is ABSOLUTELY NO point in creating and publishing a blog that doesn't generate good leads and make you money, every single day.
To achieve this objective RSVP must become the 4 most important letters in your profit alphabet.
Repondez s'il vous plait.
1) Always talk to your readers in the second person; always speak to them directly with an implicit or explicit "you". Your reader must know you are talking to her, personally, directly.
2) Make it clear you want to hear from your readers. Readers of your blog need to be told, often and clearly, that you WANT to hear from them; that you are standing by to hear from them... and that hearing from them, now, is the one essential you must have to make your day.
3) Make it easy to respond to you. Include your land line phone number, cell, skype, email, etc. If you want responses, make it supremely easy to respond to you.
4) Keep the tone of your blog intimate, as if you were having a private conversation with your best friend. People always want to know secrets and revealing information, especially about you. Oblige them.
5) Publish reader comments in your blog. What's one tried and true feature that's sure to rivet the full and immediate attention of your readers? Put their name in your blog; their name and any interesting and constructive comments they have made.
Hint: if a blog reader criticizes you, print the criticism... and your (always) cool, calm and collected response. People love reading such exchanges... and your stature is sure to grow by showing your readers how well you handle them. Ole!
"Content is king," saith Bill Gates... and he surely knows.
Billionaire Bill said, many years ago, that online "content is king." Truer words have ne'er been spoke. The key is knowing how to get it.
Start with a pair of scissors.
Each day I sit down with the publications I receive, including the Boston Globe, New England's paper of record. Over my Cheerios I proceed to read... not just for immediate information but for topics of interest about which I can write blog content.
Such topics are easy to find, ranging as they to from current Congressional high jinx to the faux pas of kings and presidents; from economic prognostications to items of human interest and insight.
If you want to run an effective, useful blog, keep such publications -- and scissors -- near at hand.
The wire services are key.
All day, every day the essential, usually unsung heroes of international incident and instant communications -- the wire services of the Associated Press, Reuters, etc -- pump out the factual information every single commentator on earth relies on and must be grateful for. In short, they do the grunt work that enables you to appear at all times knowledgeable, intelligent, omniscient. Without them such poses would be fatuous, ridiculous., unsustainable.
Similarly, check places inhabited by news junkies like me; you know, the major search engines and, always, CNN, Fox News, etc. Remember, a blog is a place of commentary... and commentators (with you now amongst them) must ALWAYS have something on which to comment.
Another hint: you need to open an "idea" folder, into which you can file, on a regular, daily basis, all the good subjects (funny, tragic, infamous, informative) that come your way. Never rely upon memory. Remember your scissors (and for online information your printer.) Gather this information and put it away. For this is the pure gold of the commenting business, and of your so well informed blog.
Timely blog posts; timeless blog posts. You need both
All blog content falls into two main categories: timely and timeless.
Timely means things of the moment; actions, events that are breaking news. You must be on top of these stories with valuable content and timely comment. Your aim must always be to be in advance of the developing story... at the very least on top of the current news cycle. This can easily be done on the 'net... if you stay abreast of story developments, as reported in the spots inhabited by news junkies and blogsters like you.
But all your posts need not be timely; much invaluable content can and should be timeless -- meaning it can be used and reused... again and again -- either as is, or updated. Such "evergreen" content has always been the friend of folks like us with a deadline... and the need for immediate content... but not an idea to be had. We rely on such worthy content, as on a good friend. (By the way, this article goes firmly into that category... for it has legs and can be read -- and published -- with profit for years to come.)
Your blog is your future
Right now, yet again, the Internet is being reshuffled. Those with blogs of consequence are emerging as the very sovereigns of cyberspace. Believe me, you wish to be amongst them... for to them will fall all the loaves and fishes.
These remarks will help. Print them, save them, savour them, for they come from an old hand at this fast-moving business.
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