Carol Stephen, Author at

Why Join the Navy When You Can Be a Pirate?

February 14, 2019 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Why Join the Navy When You Can Be a Pirate?

You could interpret Steve Job’s words in several different ways. In the context of the time he said it, he might have meant that he didn’t have to join Microsoft and buy into Microsoft’s ideas. He also might have meant why be a corporate drone when you can have unlimited self-expression? That’s the meaning I choose to believe he was referring to. And in case you missed last week’s post, here it is: Time Management for the Tired and Frazzled.

The Beauty of Self-Expression

No matter how creative you are, if you work for a corporation, your ideas will likely be drowned out by the incessant hum of that corporation’s ideas. Having worked for several large corporations (no names, please!), I can attest to this idea. People generally like to do things the way they’ve always done them, not change course even if a better, newer idea comes along. By the way, if you’ve been lacking creativity lately, Psychology Today has some ideas for you: Creativity.

There’s Piracy and Then There’s Piracy

Nobody is saying to make other people walk the plank. But also, if you’re a corporate drone, you may be “borrowing” other people’s ideas a lot, and then editing them for consistency. Again, there’s very little room for your own creativity. Those with creative ideas may be segregated in one particular area of the company, and not allowed to play with others.

Photo by daniel.baker

Seek out Your Own Inner Pirate

I’m not saying to wear a bracelet that says “What would Blackbeard do?” But exploring your creativity can give you the newest and best ideas. If you’re in a corporate setting, others may take credit for your ideas. This has happened to many people. People may even steal your words wholesale, without a credit. It happens to the best of us. Now that’s piracy!

Ships Passing in the Night

Occasionally downing a big flask of ale with a passing pirate could be a good idea. Or staying up past your bedtime to finish a creative endeavor. Or staying up all night to watch the sunrise at a usually-crowded location. On your way there, you may meet other pirates out finding their own favorite locations.

Avoid Facebook Quizzes That Ask How Much of a Pirate You Are

Do you think real pirates are answering quizzes? Of course not! They’re the ones making the quizzes! So if you’re answering those quizzes, get in touch with your own inner pirate and start making your own quizzes! But please don’t sell the results. If you’re wondering whatever happened to privacy, you might want to read this: What Happened to Privacy? Can it Exist in the Digital Age?

Photo by smkybear

Talk Like a Pirate Day

On the other hand, Talk Like a Pirate Day may give you just enough of a laugh that you can go on without answering a Facebook quiz for another day. In case you’re wondering how this day came about, here’s How It All Started–International Talk Like a Pirate Day. A fun read.

You’ve Wasted Ten Minutes of Your Life

Do you enjoy self-deprecating humor as much as I do? If so, please leave me a comment!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Facebook Quizzes, navy versus pirate, self-expression, Talk Like a Pirate Day

Time Management for the Tired and Frazzled

February 7, 2019 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Time Management for the Tired and Frazzled

In David Allen’s excellent book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, he outlines five stages to mastering your workflow. These stages include:

collecting the things that command our intention,
processing what they mean and what to do about them,
organizing the results,
reviewing the options, and,
doing!

He also mentions that one’s process is only as good as the weakest link. However, what if you are the weakest link?

You Might Be the Weakest Link

In my years as a professional organizer, the one thing that really caused the most disorganization in people’s lives was the inability to make a decision. People would routinely have piles all over their homes and offices, and not have the slightest clue what to do or where to start. I’d like to call this “decision fatigue.” And it’s what leads to clutter. If you need to work on making faster decisions, here’s a helpful article from Success Magazine: 9 Tips to Make Smarter Decisions Faster. I like the idea of using a timer, so decisions don’t linger forever.

Be Ruthless

Now in organizing physical stuff as well as the chores you need to do for your business, you need to be absolutely ruthless. If there’s something that isn’t going to help your business, you need to take out your biggest rubbish bin and throw that thing away (and by the way, having a BIG rubbish bin really helps–trust me on this). Putting off decisions will lead to clutter on your desktop, on your desk, and nothing will get done. Or things will get done very slowly, and painfully. This also goes for people who aren’t sympathetic to your work life. You don’t have to cut them out of your life forever but pivot away from those things that bring down your energy level. See How Pivoting Away from Drama Will Make You Less Stressed.

It’s Counterintuitive

Making decisions will give you more energy, although you might not think so. You might think that putting off that decision will help you avoid your negative thoughts about it. Not so. It will still weigh on your mind like the proverbial albatross. And unless you really love having giant ocean-going birds hanging around, you’re probably better off without them. So if you’re feeling really tired and frazzled? Make a few decisions and see whether your energy levels improve. Want to get some other ideas? Here’s How Tired Business Owners Save Time: 10 Terrific Ways.

The Metaphor is Yours and Yours Alone

Whatever metaphor you use, making decisions about the tasks at hand is up to you. Some people say you need to eat the frog first thing in the morning. In other words, do your most unpleasant task first. Personally, I’m a tactile learner, so my metaphors are usually about physical action. I like to hit things out of the ballpark, for instance. And I like to start with small wins. So, keeping with the baseball metaphor, maybe I’d bunt the ball and get to first base to create some momentum, rather than eating a frog. I like Brian Tracy’s story about eating the frog.

Outsourcing

If your funds allow, outsourcing some or part of your work could be very helpful. See my post from last week about outsourcing your blogging. You can outsource practically anything. Have someone help with sales calls, picking up the phone for you, or what have you. You can even hire a CEO if you need to! Here’s a list of some things you might consider:

Making appointments
Graphic design
Shopping
Research

In fact, you may want to outsource everything about your business and then take a vacation. After all, you deserve one, right? Or only do the parts of your business that you really enjoy doing!

Take Enough Time to Sharpen the Axe

In organizing for your business day, just like in organizing your home, you need to spend a little time and figure out what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it. That means planning. Without some kind of a roadmap, who knows what you’ll end up doing all day or how long it’ll take. There will always be unplanned events and emergencies, but if you already have a plan, they’re less likely to sidetrack you. I like to spend at least 5-6 minutes (preferably 15!) writing down a to-do list for the day. And it’s best to write your list the night before, to get all those nagging things off your mind so you can sleep! The next morning, you’ll probably come up with a few more items to add to your list, too.

Are You Getting Enough Sleep?

If you’re really tired and frazzled, sleep might be part of the problem. A lot of us really do not get enough sleep. Here are my Ten Reasons to Get More Sleep So You Can Conquer the World. Sorry–you can’t outsource sleep, although it’s possible to get a sleep coach if you really get stuck. But if you’re running a small company or startup, you need all your brain power to solve problems. Getting enough shuteye really helps. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, it’s very common for people to say things like “I can sleep when I’m dead,” as though sleep were something merely optional. It’s not.

Collaborations Give You Energy

Sometimes the best ideas come from people who do the same thing you do. Do you have a group of people who support you, help mentor you, and that you help in return? Your peer support group can save you tons of time and energy. There are many support groups online. For instance, Facebook groups are a good place to look. And if you like an in-person group, Meetups are a great place to discover like-minded people.

The Doing

Arguably, the most important part of time management is the doing. That is, if you’ve actually gone through and collected your items, processed your list, organized, and reviewed everything appropriately. After all, you don’t really want to be one of those “do something–even if it’s wrong” people, do you? Probably not.

Are You Tired and Frazzled?

What has helped you move from being tired and frazzled to alert and excited about work?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: decision-making, metaphors, outsourcing, sharpen the axe, sleep, Startups, time management

Outsourcing Your Blogging Might Be the Best Thing You Do

January 31, 2019 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

Outsourcing Your Blogging Might Be the Best Thing You Do

You’ve heard it over and over: having a blog and blogging regularly helps your site on Google. There are many benefits to blogging on your website, as outlined by this Forbes article: The Top 10 Benefits of Blogging On Your Website.

What Counts as Blogging?

Have you done anything about blogging? No. Well, unless you count thinking about it right before falling asleep. Or scribbling it in the steam on the bathroom wall while you take a shower. Do those count as blogging, though? Probably not. Unless someone’s figured out a way to make steam-writing into a blog post, that is. Here are a few reasons you might want to outsource your blogging.

Play to Your Strengths

Unless one of your strengths is writing, why not have someone else do it for you? Maybe your strength is sales, and you love making sales calls. Why not do that? Or maybe you’re an inventor. Or maybe you run a start-up with 20 people to manage. Even if you do enjoy writing, blogging might never make it to the top of your to-do list.

Do You Know All the Nuances?

Blogging isn’t rocket science, but there are a few things to know before you get started. For instance, do you have the patience to create 25 headlines before choosing one? If not, you might want to read What Happens When You Write 25 Headlines Before Choosing One?

Photo by MattHurst

Your Sanity is Worth Something

If you’re simply fretting, and no blogging is actually getting done, why not consider outsourcing it? That way, at the end of the day, you’ll rest easier. If you want to worry about something, you can worry about something else. Not about whether the blogging is being done. Let someone else do that regularly.

Focus on Your Business

You’re probably already focused on your business. But to outsource your blogging means you won’t have the idea of blogging hanging over your head. You know those few minutes right before you fall asleep? You can think about something productive, or something relaxing instead. Maybe relaxing isn’t something you do regularly when you’re running a company, but it could be.

Save Your Time

Unless your business is so complex that absolutely no one can understand it and therefore write about it, using a professional blogger can save you time. This is related to “Focus on Your Business.”

How About Doing a Combination?

By that I mean have someone start the blog for you and then you insert your own personality and edit a bit at the end? That works for some people. If you’re looking to create a relationship with your readers, this might be the best way to go. By the way, if you still insist on blogging for yourself, you might like this article: Blogging Beginner? How to Get Ahead of the Game.

Hire a Professional

Why not hire someone with experience? I’m not talking about me, necessarily. Well, ok, I actually am. Why not consider hiring me? Please and thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: blogging, outsourcing blogging, why outsource blogging

Blogging Beginner? How to Get Ahead of the Game

January 24, 2019 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Blogging Beginner? How to Get Ahead of the Game

You’ve been hearing for years–make that a decade–that you need to start blogging. But how do you even begin? There’s so much information out there, and so much of it is technical. This assumes you already have a website set up, by the way. If you don’t, I can offer you a referral to someone who can help. This blog post is for those just beginning bloggers. If you’d like something more in-depth, you might want to check out Bob Dunn’s blog posts for tons more ideas (highly recommended!).

Who’s Your Audience?

The first thing is to figure out who you’re talking to. If you don’t have an audience yet, think about who you’d like your audience to be. Who would be your ideal customer? What do they look like? Sound like? What are their interests and pain points? Here’s an article that might help you get started: Who Are You Writing For? Target Audience and Social Media.

What’s Their Language?

I don’t mean English versus French. I mean style. Are they casual? Will everything you write need to be backed up by hours of research? Would they have a more formal style? Mirroring their language will help you engage with them. Some people find that creating the perfect audience member can help them when writing.

Write an Intro Paragraph

I was taught a “keyhole structure” for writing. So you go from the large and abstract idea to the more particular. Your thesis is at the end of the first paragraph. But you don’t need to be that formal. The important thing is to introduce the subject matter to your audience.

Write Three or Four Headers

Keep in mind that you can always change your headers later. What will each paragraph be about? If what you write changes, tweak your header to match. But it’s important not to mislead your readers. If you’re promising an exciting article about the benefits of, say, video games for teens, make sure your headers reflect the overall scheme.

Photo by Internet Archive Book Images

Write a Sentence Under Each Header, and Then Another

Say something out loud and then write it down, if that helps. Whatever your paragraph will be about, write something. Then write a little more. Don’t edit or add links at this point. Just keep writing. As someone once said (Abraham Lincoln? Mark Twain?) before you can edit, you need to write.

Put in a Call to Action (CTA)

What do you want your reader to do once they’re done reading? Fill out a form? Read something else you’ve written? Leave a comment? Say that!

Edit

Go back and look at your writing. I find it helps to read it out loud at this point. Correct any mistakes. Does it flow well? If you’re not good at editing, you can have someone edit for you.

Add Images

There are a number of sites for free images, or you can buy images, too. Which do you prefer? You can also **gasp** take your own photos and use those!

Publish or Schedule

If you’d like to publish at a later date, go ahead and do that. Or publish it the moment you finish writing.

You’re Done

Was that easy enough? If you have any questions, leave me a comment!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: beginning blogging, blogging for beginners, how to blog, how to write

How to Magnetize Your Blog Post Titles Quickly and Easily

January 17, 2019 By Carol Stephen Leave a Comment

How to Magnetize Your Blog Post Titles Quickly and Easily

Everyone wants more people to read their articles. Or at least they want the right people to read their articles. But how do you get people to click? It seems silly that that’s what we content marketers focus on, but that’s what it comes down to. Here are a few ideas to help you with your blog post titles. And in case you missed it, here’s my post from last week: For Better Social Media Results, Focus on Engagement.

Think about What Makes You Click on an Article

Seems really simple, doesn’t it? It doesn’t have to be difficult! If you’re a content marketer, what makes you want to know more about an article? Can you create a blog post title that’s similar to one you saw that made you want to click? The bottom line of this study from Marketing Land, What Makes You Click On A Headline? says that headlines that end in questions are the most popular. What do you think?

Your Readers Are a Lot Like You

To expand upon what you like, your readers are probably a lot like you. They may be more busy, less busy, or they may spend time in different places than you. But they’re not all that different, really. And when you post your article online, you never know who’s going to read it. There’s someone out there reading one of your articles as you read this, probably.

Use Headlines That Start a Story

For instance, when you use a headline that starts out “this is what happens when you…”, then your readers may want to feel compelled to understand the story. We all love stories! However, try to avoid click bait. Try to deliver what you promise in your headline.

Photo by marcoverch

Use Headlines of the Right Length

My not-so-secret weapon on CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer. There are others around, but this one is the simplest and easiest to use. Plug in your headline, then keep playing with it until you get it right. Watch as your score goes up as you fuss around with the words. CoSchedule seems to like headlines with about 55 characters.

Stack the Important Keywords Towards the Front

If your keyword is Pinterest tricks, put that near the front of the headline. So say Pinterest Tricks You Need to Know, for example. Not You Need to Know These Pinterest Tricks. By the way, have you read this article about creating 25 headlines before choosing one?

Was That Quick and Easy Enough?

I hope so! What else would you like to know? Leave me a comment! And thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: article titles, blog post titles, content marketing, content writing, how to

For Better Social Media Results, Focus on Engagement

January 10, 2019 By Carol Stephen Leave a Comment

For Better Social Media Results, Focus on Engagement

If there’s one thing that most social media managers agree upon, it’s that engagement should be a very high priority for all your social media. People focus on follower count, which for many people is an almost useless metric. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t have some followers, because without any followers you’re pretty much just singing to yourself in the shower. By the way, did you know that I wrote a book with Eric Lofholm on Social Media Engagement that you can find on Amazon?

What Is Engagement?

Everyone says you should have more engagement, but what is engagement on social media exactly? Engagement is the fine art of online conversation. Talking to others. If you’re just yourself on social media, then you’re talking as yourself. If you’re posting on behalf of a brand, then engagement means talking in your brand’s voice. SproutSocial has a fine article on why you should care about social media engagement. Look carefully at their pie chart, which shows that customers now want to use social media to connect with brands.

What Does Engagement Look Like?

Engagement looks like a conversation. So if you’re posting on Facebook, it should look like people are commenting on your posts, and then you’re commenting back. You’re listening and then answering. Back and forth, back and forth. Like that. At first, engagement may feel a little awkward if you’re not used to it. But after a while, you may notice that conversations follow a certain pattern. There’s the greeting, then maybe a question or two or thirty, and then another greeting. It will get easier, I promise.

How to Get Past the Awkward Stage?

Just like any other new skill, getting past the awkward stage can happen pretty quickly if you just keep at it. I’ve found that “Hello” works pretty well, though. Also: “Hi!” Or if you’re a cat, “Hai!” And here’s where the art of small talk kicks in. If you’ve ever been to a cocktail party and had to talk to someone, it’s the same thing. You’re going to feel awkward. The good news is, most everyone feels awkward. If, after these excellent suggestions, you still don’t feel up to a conversation, you might want to read How to Deal with Awkward Online Conversations.

How Do I Get More Engagement?

At first, you may need to make a lot of comments on other people’s posts. Keep track of who writes back or shares your posts, too! Some people will never comment back or share your posts, however. That might be ok if what you’re posting of theirs adds value to your audience. And some huge accounts may never reply to you. Just keep at it. And notice those accounts with lots of engagement already–you may learn some tips and tricks simply from watching what other people do!

My Secret: a 3 x 5 Card

One thing that helps me is a simple 3″ x 5″ card. At the beginning of each month, whatever I can fit on this card becomes my little cheat sheet. Remember in High School Chemistry, when you were allowed to have anything you could fit onto a 3″ x 5″ card as a cheat sheet for tests? No? Well, that’s what got me through organic chemistry. And, it turns out to be very helpful for social media management, too!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Engagement, how to engage on social media, Social Media, social media results, social media results with engagement

This is What Happens When You Use Murmuration to Affect Your Social Media

January 3, 2019 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

This is What Happens When You Use Murmuration to Affect Your Social Media

I’ve been thinking a lot about murmurations lately. Sort of obsessing over murmurations, actually. Partly because of global warming, to be honest. Where I live there have been terrible fires that have wiped entire towns off the map. There doesn’t seem to be any safe place anymore. And I got to thinking what if we all changed direction by taking a cue from nature? And what if we used social media to make that change? By the way, here’s my previous post about using social media for positive change, in case you missed it.

Birds Do it

You can see the kind of rabbit hole this sort of thinking might lead to. But seriously, starlings change direction like one intelligent entity. And they change direction for the good of the entire school or herd or whatever you call a bunch of the animals. If you’ve never seen a murmuration, go to this website and watch the video there, because it’s a beautiful thing. Why couldn’t people do it, too?

Safety in Numbers

“There is safety in numbers, so the individual starlings do not scatter but rather are able to move as an intelligent cloud, feinting away from a diving raptor, thousands of birds changing direction almost simultaneously.” writes Jami Heimbuch in the article above on murmuration. But one bird only affects its seven closest neighbors. That sounds like what we often do in our individual families and friends: take care of those closest to us.

Photo by Phil Manker

Fish Do it

When small fish, such as sardines or anchovies, swim in a way to avoid predators, it’s called a “bait ball.” They do it to protect the school. They have other defensive measures as well, such as reflective surfaces which make it difficult for predators to single out individual fish. Bait balls look a lot like a murmuration, except under water.

Photo by Hope4asu

Why Not People, Too?

In a way, people need protective measures, too. We largely need to protect ourselves from our own stupidity. The way we use up our natural resources, the way we’re driving climate change through dumb political decisions, all these things and many others require a different way of thinking. We need a murmuration, driven by social media, so that we can change direction in a positive way. We may be able to pivot away from drama, but can we make larger changes?

What Do You Think?

Over the course of the last year, I’ve been hearing lots of people making changes. I hope that the changes are happening quickly enough. Can we change direction and avoid some of what is happening? Can it happen quickly enough?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: fish and bait balls, murmuration, Social Media, starlings and murmurations

How-to Secrets to Blogging for Your Success

December 27, 2018 By Carol Stephen 8 Comments

You might think there are some secrets that you have never heard about when blogging for your business. To be frank, it’s a lot like staying healthy. The things you need to do are simple, but not easy. Here’s a short refresher.

Be Consistent

I’ll cut right to the chase here and tell you the #1 secret to your blogging success: consistency. That means blogging when you don’t really feel like it. Sometimes you’ll really want to write something. Other times, not so much. I publish every Thursday morning at 6 a.m. Lots of times I don’t feel like writing. Not at all. By the way, if you missed last Thursday’s post, here it is: How Pivoting Away from Drama Will Make You Less Stressed.

Add An Image or Two

You don’t need a lot of images, but you should have one or two images. According to most content marketing experts, visual content performs better. “32% of marketers say visual images are the most important form of content for their business, with blogging in second (27%).” This is according to Hubspot’s 45 Visual Content Marketing Statistics You Should Know in 2018. So if you combine good writing with good images, you’ll have knock-it-out-of-the-ballpark great content.

Include a Few Tags

After a while, you can choose from your most-used tags. WordPress automagically adds an archive of the tags you’ve used in the past. When you add your tags, you WordPress can help by giving you clues about which other posts you might link to, as explained in Yoast’s post: Tagging posts properly for users and SEO. As you might expect, my tags are generally about Facebook, Instagram, social media, startups, Twitter, etc. Yours might be very different. What is your audience interested in hearing about? Write about that.

Use a Couple of Links

I like to add a couple of outgoing links to good sources, and then a couple of links to my older blog posts. Do you have a formula for what you do when you write? If you missed my post about writing habits, here it is. Content Creation: What Are the Best Habits for Writing?

These Secrets Aren’t Really So Secret, Are They?

Leave you best-kept secrets in the comments! Hahaha! Just kidding. But if you do want to comment, I’d appreciate it.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: blogging, blogging consistency, blogging success, importance of images in blogging, writing formula

How Pivoting Away from Drama Will Make You Less Stressed

December 20, 2018 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

How Pivoting Away from Drama Will Make You Less Stressed

Every holiday season, there is so much drama. Some of it is positive, and some of it is decidedly negative. On social media, people tend to hide behind their screens and say things they’d never say to someone’s face. Lately, I’ve heard people hide behind the phrase “constructive criticism” to level very hurtful messages. What if every time there was a choice, we simply chose to move away from the drama?

Excitement Makes the Day Go By Faster

Now I’ll admit this isn’t easy. There’s no boredom when there’s drama, and we all seem to want a certain amount of excitement in our lives. It’s almost like we’re addicted to that non-stop drama (and I count myself among the addicts, by the way). We’re just so used to it, even if we do end up with stomachaches and headaches, it’s what we’re familiar with, so we tend to put up with it. Here’s an article from the archives: Four Ways to Identify Spammers on Twitter that will help you avoid some of that drama.

Photo by Gruenewiese86

How Can We Be Productive with So Much Drama?

Drama takes us away from the important work we need to do. For instance, writing, strategizing and coming up with processes. Or planning next year’s social media blog posts. Whatever we need to be doing, instead we’re sucked in by drama. By the way, if you need a refresher on time management, you might like to read about Valuable Time-Saving Tools for Your Social Media.

Why Give Negative People All the Power?

As Amy Morin says in 5 Ways to Stop Giving Negative People Too Much Power in Your Life, “Don’t allow negative people to steal your time and energy. Rather than complain about people you don’t enjoy, choose to strike up conversations about pleasurable topics.” This may seem like turning your back on negativity because that’s exactly what it is! The trick may be to tiptoe away before that Negative Nancy even realizes you’re gone. This can most certainly happen at home, but sometimes at work it’s even more difficult to escape. After all, that negative person may be your boss!

Pivoting Away from the Drama

Energy vampires will be around no matter what, and especially during the holidays. It’s a cliche, but we really can control how we react to them. Back away and do something else. Don’t give them any more of your time than they’ve already stolen. As Sophie Henshaw explains in her article How to Avoid Being Drained by Energy Vampires, “Energy vampires are emotionally immature individuals who have the sense that the whole world revolves around them.” So if there’s someone who makes you feel bad, and you can’t exactly pinpoint why chances are you’ve got an energy vampire in your midst.

Photo by Hikaru Kazushime

Do You Have a Danny Downer in Your Life?

If you have a “Danny Downer” in your life, what have you done to get away from all the negativity? Or maybe you haven’t made your escape yet. What are you planning to do? Leave me a comment. And thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: drama, energy vampires, negativity

This is How You Make Your Blog Posts Really Shine

December 13, 2018 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

This is How You Make Your Blog Posts Really Shine

I’ve been blogging regularly for a while now. And by “a while,” I mean going on seven years. So I’ve learned a couple of things that might interest you. Some things have changed a little, while other things have remained the same.

Don’t Stress over Your Writing

I know that’s easier said than done, but really–don’t stress over it. Overthinking can cause a great deal of panic, and make you stop dead in your tracks. You can go deeper with your topic by doing some research, but don’t let lack of time for research stop you from writing. You do want to know who your audience is before you get started, though.

Keep it Simple

Writing, like walking, is simply taking it one step at a time. Write one sentence. Then write another one. Pretty soon you have a paragraph, then a blog post, then you can compile those into a small book. Then maybe a series. Who knows?

Come up with a Good Topic

It’s easiest to batch your topic creation. For instance, create a bunch of headlines all at once–I created 52 all at once at the beginning of the year. That way, you’ll always have something to write about. And sometimes the very act of writing shakes loose something in your brain that you didn’t know was there. Did you miss my post from last week, about Content Creation: What Are the Best Habits for Writing?

Photo by jmettraux

It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect!

Done is better than perfect, hands down. According to some people, perfectionism is growing and becoming a dangerous epidemic, with more and more college students becoming perfectionists. In fact, in this BBC article about the dangerous downsides of perfectionism, author Amanda Ruggeri states that “Perfectionistic tendencies have been linked to a laundry list of clinical issues: depression and anxiety (even in children), self-harm, social anxiety disorder and agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, binge eating, anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, insomnia, hoarding, dyspepsia, chronic headaches, and most damning of all, even early mortality and suicide.”

Add Great Images

If the writing isn’t perfect, images can really help the subject along. You can use free sites for images, such as Pixabay or Canva. Or create your own images with PhotoShop. Or even use your own photos. There really is truth to that old saw about an image and a thousand words.

Hire Someone

If you really, really need someone to blog for you, then hire someone! You don’t have to do everything yourself!

What Stops You?

Is there something that holds you back from blogging? Let me know in the comments! And thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: blogging, blogging tips, content creation, writing

The Beauty of Self-Expression

There’s Piracy and Then There’s Piracy

Seek out Your Own Inner Pirate

Ships Passing in the Night

Avoid Facebook Quizzes That Ask How Much of a Pirate You Are

Talk Like a Pirate Day

You’ve Wasted Ten Minutes of Your Life

You Might Be the Weakest Link

Be Ruthless

It’s Counterintuitive

The Metaphor is Yours and Yours Alone

Outsourcing

Take Enough Time to Sharpen the Axe

Are You Getting Enough Sleep?

Collaborations Give You Energy

The Doing

Are You Tired and Frazzled?

What Counts as Blogging?

Play to Your Strengths

Do You Know All the Nuances?

Your Sanity is Worth Something

Focus on Your Business

Save Your Time

How About Doing a Combination?

Hire a Professional

Who’s Your Audience?

What’s Their Language?

Write an Intro Paragraph

Write Three or Four Headers

Write a Sentence Under Each Header, and Then Another

Put in a Call to Action (CTA)

Edit

Add Images

Publish or Schedule

You’re Done

Think about What Makes You Click on an Article

Your Readers Are a Lot Like You

Use Headlines That Start a Story

Use Headlines of the Right Length

Stack the Important Keywords Towards the Front

Was That Quick and Easy Enough?

For Better Social Media Results, Focus on Engagement

What Is Engagement?

What Does Engagement Look Like?

How to Get Past the Awkward Stage?

How Do I Get More Engagement?

My Secret: a 3 x 5 Card

This is What Happens When You Use Murmuration to Affect Your Social Media

Birds Do it

Safety in Numbers

Fish Do it

Why Not People, Too?

What Do You Think?

Be Consistent

Add An Image or Two

Include a Few Tags

Use a Couple of Links

These Secrets Aren’t Really So Secret, Are They?

Excitement Makes the Day Go By Faster

How Can We Be Productive with So Much Drama?

Why Give Negative People All the Power?

Pivoting Away from the Drama

Do You Have a Danny Downer in Your Life?

This is How You Make Your Blog Posts Really Shine

Don’t Stress over Your Writing

Keep it Simple

Come up with a Good Topic

It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect!

Add Great Images

Hire Someone

What Stops You?

Follow Carol!

Subscribe by Email!