For several years now, you’ve been given advice from probloggers (and not-so-probloggers) that just wasn’t very good advice at all. The advice made sense. The analogies were understandable.

But the theory was wrong.

I know, because I dished out that advice and followed it strictly for years. I was convinced it was good advice and that if I didn’t follow it, all hell would break loose. Lightning would strike me dead. All my loyal readers would string me up, tar and feather me and throw rotten food as I pleaded for mercy.

I was wrong too.

After all, the advice made sense: Have a blogging schedule, and stick to it. Be reliable. Dependable. Write blog posts and publish them according to this rigid schedule and provide readers with a steady stream of constant blog posts.

And if you did, if you busted your ass and posted on the days you promised, no matter how you felt, no matter what you’d written, no matter if your kids were sick… you’d reap the benefits.

But no one thought to really examine those benefits closely. How could we? We were all new to this blogging thing. No one had come before us and proven any best-practices principles. We really had no idea what would work.

We made up the rules as we went along – and then we realized they were pretty stupid rules.

Here’s what the rules told us to do: Blog according to a schedule, and you’d be conveying that your blog was reliable, dependable and consistent… like a grocery store with set business hours you knew by heart. You could go in and get bananas because you knew the store would be open. And you knew when it would be closed, too. (Everyone needs sleep, after all.)

Warm fuzzies for everyone. Let’s give a round of applause, shall we? You’ve stuck to your schedule and your readers nod in approval. What a nice, reliable person you are.

But that’s where the benefits stop. In fact, if you stick to your consistent blogging schedule religiously, come hell or high water, you’ll soon fine the warm fuzzies fading away. You may even damage your readership relations, wreck your ability to collect comments, destroy your open rate on hot new posts and generally make your blog a boring mecca of take-it-for-granted production.

You might even neglect your business and forget that blogging should have an ROI.

I know, because that’s what happened to my blog.

And not just my blog, either. My peers and I have been secretly discussing this problem for some time. And we’ve all come to near-unanimous agreement:

Constant, reliable, regular posting sucks the life force out of your blog.

Think about it: When you first sign up to receive new blog posts, you’re excited. You read each one that reaches your inbox, quickly. It’s awesome!

But after a week or two, maybe three… you’re not reading those new posts every day. They slip into your inbox whether you need them or not. They light up in your RSS feed like clockwork.

And those blog posts start to become clutter.

Because hey, you’re busy. You’ll skip reading today. Besides, you probably already know what the blog post will say. So many of them become redundant advice you’ve heard before. Nothing new. Nothing exciting. Same old, same old…

Then you skip another day. And another. And maybe even a full week goes by before you feel guilty and decide to read some of the posts waiting for your attention. You skim the headlines, you scan a few posts… you have no time to waste – there are a LOT of posts to read!

Ah, to hell with it. You’ve read five. It’s all the same boring stuff. So you hit the delete button and flush the rest.

And then you go back to whatever you were doing before. No worries – there’ll be more blog posts to read. They’ll just keep coming at a nice, steady, reliable, dependable pace.

I get it. I know how it goes. I’ve flushed plenty of great blog posts in my time (and probably without much regret). Inbox zero, right?

But I’m not just a reader – I’m a writer. I know exactly how much thought, time, and effort goes into every post I write. I’ve spent hours writing great material – days. And that’s just for one or two posts! There are over one thousand articles here at Men with Pens.

That, my friend, took me years to create.

And knowing that only a fraction of my readership avidly opens those articles, only a small minority actually reads my hard work – slowly, carefully, with the intention of learning something new… well.

Makes one question what the hell we’re all doing with this blogging thing, right?

Because we all know the truth: Beyond adding to the social proof of your sum total readership, blog readers don’t do much for anyone. They won’t make you rich. They aren’t buyers. They prefer (and sometimes even feel strongly entitled to) free-of-charge articles that took time and effort to create.

Provided with a smile. On a steady, regular basis. And rarely a penny (or even a thanks!) shall change hands.

And the more articles that writers produce (because hey, everyone and their gramma has a blog these days), the less readers care. There’s content everywhere. Everywhere. On any subject in the world written from at least 68 different perspectives. And that’s just in a single day, within a small, specific niche.

With all that content going around, with all those people caring less and less, readers get blasé. They read less. They comment less. They ignore massive amounts of blog posts because there’s just too much of them. It’s a little like eating cheap Chinese buffet every day for a month.

After a while, you’re sick of it. And you just want a really good steak for once, dammit.

So here’s a thought: Let’s forget the cheap Chinese buffet rule of having consistent blogging schedule and ditch it in favour of an occasional steak dinner. The kind you save up for and enjoy. The kind you really savour. The kind you look forward to because it’s rare. And because it’s that good.

I’d much rather sit down and write a great article when a profound idea strikes me or when I’m feeling particularly excited or have something significant to say. If that’s Friday or Tuesday, who cares? If it’s once a week or once a month, who cares?

Wouldn’t you rather get something from me and feel excited? Wouldn’t you prefer that awesome feeling of, “Ooooh, cool, a post from James… I wonder what it’s about this time!”

I would. And so I shall.

It’s time for this blog to become a high-end restaurant. This isn’t a grocery store. It’s not a buffet. It’s a place you come for blog posts you can savour.

So I’m ditching the blogging schedule. And that’s very good for you, my friends, because there’s nothing like reading profound, inspired, motivated posts written because they had something significant to share.

It’s way better than reading posts written out of obligation just to appear reliable, don’t you think?

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Why You Should Ditch Your Blogging Schedule first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Years ago, I started this blog with a pretty big mission in mind: to help you succeed.

I wanted to tell you things you didn’t know. I wanted to point you in better directions. I wanted to share lessons I’d learned the hard way so that you didn’t make the same mistakes.

I wanted to give you shortcuts that helped you succeed faster, easier and with a lot less stress than I had to go through to get where I am today.

Somewhere along the way, I lost sight of that goal. My business got big. My blog became popular. It was explosive growth. I got busy. I had clients and readers who wanted my attention, and I had responsibilities and obligations to both.

(Oh yeah. And then there was that thing.)

Life got a little crazy, and I got caught up in it, stretching myself to make ends meet.

Then things got a little worse.

Worse was that I spent a lot of time writing for my blog, sharing good solutions, smart advice or better methods… but I wasn’t seeing many readers put the advice I shared to good use. They’d whine about this or that, and when they did, I worked harder to bring them even more ideas and advice.

I poured my heart and precious time into helping them do better. Years later, many of those same readers were still whining. They were still stuck in the same place they started from. They’ll still be reading blogs full of smart advice five years from now.

I’ve since learned that there’s nothing I can do about that. Some people just don’t want to change. They don’t want a better life. They don’t even want to try. (Sorry, people. I can’t help you if you can’t help yourself.)

But until I learned that life lesson… well, blogging was discouraging.  It was disheartening. It felt useless.

But wait – things got even worse.

Worse is that I started to think I’d said it all. That I had nothing left to say. That I’d run out of new material to cover. After all, this blog has well over 1,000 posts, and I’ve been blogging good, smart advice for years.

There’s only so much you can say before it starts to sound redundant.

Pair that with readers who kept whining about being stuck, and I thought this blog was done for. I’d done what I’d could, I’d tried as hard as I could, I’d given it my all… and the well of smart advice had gone dry.

But I had a problem: I couldn’t abandon my blog. So I started doing what everyone was doing: rehashing the same old, boring topics we’ve all read a million times before.

I hated it.

I stuck with my blog out of a sense of obligation, battling nasty bouts of writer’s block (that were really just my mind’s signal that something was wrong and that I should pay attention). I stared at blank pages. I hired a business shrink. I spent frustrated hours trying to cobble together something “good enough”, something that made me feel awesome again. Like I’d nailed it.

Nuttin’.

I started losing my writing voice. It sounded bland and disinterested. It wasn’t the vivacious, bold, brash tone I used to have. I looked back on older posts and wished I could write like that again – but I couldn’t. The spark was gone.

I felt like was just keeping up appearances.

This wasn’t fun anymore.

This dragged on for well over a year, and I shudder at what could’ve happened had it continued. I nearly abandoned this blog to go run off to play in the sunshine of Damn Fine Words, a project that’s always sparked my motivation like a lit blowtorch.

Until the day I realized this blog was completely, utterly, falling apart in tiny little pieces. It was done. Over. Reached its end.

Finished.

Dead.

I was THRILLED!

This blog was burnt toast, and I was absolutely relieved! Now I could finally – finally! – rebuild it to be whatever I wanted it to be. The potential of Everything I Could Do Now was so exciting I actually laughed out loud.

Ideas hit me so hard and fast that I must’ve sounded crazy as I told my friend, hands waving in the air.

“I can go back to my roots! The reason why I started this damned blog in the first place! I can do exactly what I’ve always wanted to do – write about the lessons I learned the hard way so others don’t make the same mistakes.”

This was risky thinking. Admit I blew it? Admit mistakes? In public on my blog? Me, a successful entrepreneur?!

You bet. It might be refreshing to have someone tell it to you straight and say, “Man, it’s hard being successful, and boy, did I ever screw up along the way. Here’s what NOT to do.”

You might be thinking, “Well, why didn’t you just do that years ago, James? I mean, if that’s how you felt… Just… do whatever you want.”

But it’s not that simple. You can easily get away with admitting mistakes when you’re a small blogger or start-up business, but when you reach a certain level of success, your reputation is everything. People expect you to know it all. And you hide the screw-ups. Very few people at my level will admit them.

Me? I’ve got nothing to lose.

I am who I am, and I’ve done well. I’m going to keep on being successful. Admitting mistakes is part of who I am, and I think you appreciate honesty. I think you want to hear that the big guys screw up too.

And I think you’ll appreciate learning how to avoid the pitfalls I dropped straight into.

Oh, and I think you’ll appreciate the fun. It’s good to get my voice back. It’s good to write again. I’m churning out blog posts like there’s no tomorrow.

Kind of like someone lit a blowtorch for me.

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
What to Do When You Hate Your Blog first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

It’s been done tens of millions of time: a blog post is written. Someone has an idea to share with the world. Someone has a beef and they want to rant. Someone writes an inspiring poem.

Because of the glut of so many posts, blog posts have become boring. When I scroll through my reader, my eyes glaze over. I long for something exciting. Something different. Something that makes me reach to comment, that makes me laugh out loud.

I’m looking for those killer blog posts.

I know they exist.

Start with Better Titles

Only 20% of people ever click on your title, and competition for readers’ eyes is stiff in the blogging world. The old rules of direct advertising remain: headlines make or break your post.

Four-word headlines won’t cut it anymore. You need to expand. Try to up the curiosity factor or fascinate people. Use the ol’ Brian Clark of Copyblogger trick of combining a practical tip with a compelling element, like The Depeche Mode Guide to Gardening. Engage the strange.

Use a Wicked Picture

I have no clue why bloggers generally insist on tiny, bland photos.

With what you can pull off today and with all the endless beauties waiting on the high-end stock photo sites, there’s really no reason to skimp on visual imagery.

I want to see awesome, relevant, cool, sexy pictures popping out when I glance at blog posts. Something that screams, “LOOK AT ME!”

Scare me. Arouse me. Delight me. But please, don’t bore me.

Write Like You Fight

Stop writing like a fearful person scared of stepping up to the plate. Stop rushing through blog posts trying to get them done in 15 minutes.

If you’re churning out half-page junk each week, you’re not giving anyone reason to pay attention.

Write like you care. Write profound things. Write like it was a matter of life or death. Like it was a matter of honor. Of protecting your child. Or a friend.

End with Action

You know this already, but it bears revisiting: Think long and hard about what you want people to do when they stop reading your post.

Should they share it? Bookmark it? Copy it? Leave a comment? Those are all noble action-oriented goals, and I’m sure they’re all good, but how about making them more unique than, “If you like this, share it with a friend or leave a comment.”

Make your calls to action something sexy. Something that isn’t… well, you know. Boring.

How about you? Are you sick and tired of reading wimpy blog posts that do nothing but tell you what you already know? That look like every single other blog post out there? Are you doing anything about it? Let me know.

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Post by Demien Farnsworth

Imagine Jakob Nielson as a feisty, flamboyant copywriter - that's about as close as you'll ever get to Demien Farnsworth. He originally set out with a newly-minted Literature BA with a mind for poetry, his boots crisp and clean and his teeth set against all things business... and has come to his senses at The Copybot. Go check him out now.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
How to Stop Writing Boring Blog Posts first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Simple and easy are often used interchangeably, and in many cases they are. But simple and easy are different words with different meanings.

What is simple is not always easy.

This is an important distinction, because we often look for so-called ‘secrets’ the probloggers guard only to find that what they do is fairly simple stuff. And almost straight away, we discredit or downplay those ‘secrets’ because we don’t believe it can be that simple.

What we fail to take into account is that just because it is simple in theory does not mean it will be easy in practice.

To illustrate my point, consider the issue of weight loss.

The Thing About Weight Loss and Blogging Success Is…

Losing weight is simple in theory. You just have to create a negative calorie balance, meaning you have to spend more energy than you ingest. You either eat less food or exercise more, or do both. And you lose weight.

It really is that simple. All the issues around carbs, fats, and the best types of exercise are just details.

Yes getting the details right will allow you to lose weight quicker and more effectively. But at the end of the day, if you exercise 4-5 times a week and eat less food, you become a weight-loss success.

Despite the simplicity, losing weight is one of the hardest things to do. Every day, thousands of people go on a diet… only to be off it in a couple of weeks.

Why? Because the mind is a feeble thing. One minute it’s excited and pumped, the next it’s indifferent and exhausted.

Willpower is temporary. It comes and goes, and with it your ability to do even simple tasks consistently.

Why Succeeding As a Blogger Is Simple but Hard

Becoming a successful blogger is a lot like becoming a successful weight-loss story. They both involve doing things that are simple in theory but hard in practice.

Successful blogging involves writing quality posts on a regular basis and promoting them through methods like guest posting, commenting, social media etc.

It really is that simple.

Yet most bloggers fail because (like dieters) they can’t stick to their resolutions. They can’t stick out the tough times when no one reads their blog and no one accepts their guest posts.

Eventually willpower starts to give way to old habits. Other activities look more attractive. It seems too hard to succeed and too easy to walk away.

What does that mean for those who want to succeed as bloggers?

The lesson is that you should not confuse simple with easy. What is simple is not always easy.

And consequently, most bloggers won’t succeed because they’re unable to do simple things over extended periods of time. Maybe years.

If you just stick it out long enough, you beat most bloggers. Simple – and easy.

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Post by Aman Basanti

Aman Basanti is a consumer psychology writer who has worked in sales for years and is currently completing a psychology degree. He's also making the rounds at A-list blogs like ProBlogger, BusinessInsider and MarketingProfs - and now he's here. Check out his website at Age of Marketing now!

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
The Difference between Simple and Easy – And Why It Matters to Bloggers first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

I know, you guys. I know. I know there are a thousand posts out there with this kind of title. I’ve made fun of them. I have begged whatever internet gods may be to stop people posting topics like this (also, topics like “The X Guide to Such-and-Such” and damned if I didn’t write one of those too.)

The reason people write them, I’ve discovered, is that it’s very easy to get caught up in the online world. To think that everything in the world is contained somewhere between Google and your RSS feed. And when you do reconnect to the real world in a visceral, tangible, thoughtful way, it feels pretty profound.

You start to learn things. You start to apply what you’re learning to what you do the most: blogging.

This is more or less what happened with me and the mushroom hunting.

How’d You Wind Up Mushroom Hunting, Of All Things?

Well, I have a friend. This friend frequently makes me dinner. And those dinners frequently contain the kind of mushrooms that cost upward of $50/pound, so I started to wonder how he was bankrolling these dinners of ours, and if I might happen to owe him, say, a Porsche.

Turns out I don’t owe him a Porsche. I do, however, owe him several tanks of gas. Because what he does is drive three hours up the mountain, to where the elevation is just right for mushrooms to grow. He wanders around the woods for a couple hours at a stretch looking for the edible ones.

My asking him where the mushrooms came from must have been some kind of secret code, because I was immediately invited on an excursion. Which is how I spent about three hours in the woods in utter silence, looking for mushrooms with a distinctive pattern on their tops and discovering some things about blogging.

1. Silence is Good

I have never thought about how much silence I get in the world. It is fairly infrequent and often kind of painful (the silence of the line in the post office is a good example). When I walk, I walk with headphones. If I’m being social, I’m being talkatively social. I’m watching a movie. I’m chatting on the phone. I’m listening to music as I ride in the car. When I work, I’m listening to music, getting distracted by my next-door office neighbor’s voice through the wall, or watching a video trying to distract myself from the work I’m about to do.

It is very, very rare that I am completely quiet.

People. Quiet is amazing for thinking.

Thinking is essential for blogging. It is not essential for work. When you work, you have a task at hand: a sales page to write, a product to create, a phone call to make. You can pretty much hold off thinking until you begin the task.

With blogging, you not only have to do the task: write the post. You have to decide what the task is: the topic of the post.

Almost every blogger I know tries to dive headlong into the post without thinking about it. They think of it like a job whose parameters are already determined. A blog post is almost pure thought. It has to be considered first. You have to find, and reject, a hundred possibilities before settling on a scant few you actually want to talk about.

Being alone in the woods for three hours gives you plenty of time to do that. By the time I got out of there, I had a basket full of edible mushrooms and about a dozen new things I wanted to write about. And a blister, which I believe could have been avoided if I’d just sat in my chair for three hours thinking of new topics instead of trying to shlep up a mountain.

2. Some of Those Things Are Poisonous

Actually, lots of those things are poisonous. Official warning: should you ever get it into your head to go mushroom-hunting, take someone along who knows which ones are edible, because you would not believe how many of the incredibly tasty-looking ones will kill you.

That’s mushrooms, though. Surely blog posts aren’t poisonous.

Well, yeah. A lot of them are.

There are blog posts that involve link-baiting your favorite famous bloggers. There are blog posts that will get you a lot of traffic, but all of it angry, controversial traffic, not good, loyal-fan traffic. There are blog posts that will absolutely alienate your entire audience, even if you really want to jump in on the latest controversy surrounding a politician. There are blog posts that will make you seem boring, inarticulate, misguided, ill-informed.

There are a lot of poisonous blog posts out there. And if you’re in a hurry, you’re far more likely to accidentally wind up choosing one of them instead of a post that will sustain you and enrich your readers.

Know what you’re looking for. Know what kinds of posts your readers enjoy and which ones are going to truly help them. Know which posts are nourishing your blog and helping it thrive.

And keep an eye out for those poisonous ones. Some of them look remarkably like the good ones.

3. You Only Have Today

When we’d picked a giant basket heaping full of mushrooms, I’d thought we were done. I was excited about all my succulent finds and ready to go get a burger and celebrate. But the picking was good that day. There were mushrooms everywhere and they were easy to hand. We put our basket in the back of the truck and went back out for more.

This was unusual, he told me. It’s not often you get a day like this. You don’t want to waste it. They won’t be here tomorrow. They won’t be here, definitely, the week after that. You only have today.

For bloggers, sometimes you’ll write a post that truly inspires you. Your mind will be on fire with ideas. You’ll be humming, practically vibrating with that urge to create. You’ll write out a full post and you’ll know you have so much more, that you could write a whole book, you could write a whole shelf of books.

But you’ll stop. You’ll stop because you did what you needed to do that day. You wrote one post.

You’ll stop thinking you pick it up again tomorrow.

You can’t. You only have today.

When you have a good day, a truly magical day, you have to ride it out. Write down everything you can. Write all night long if you have to. Write until your fingers hurt. Write and write and write and write and when you honestly can’t do anymore, then you can stop.

Those days are rare and far between. You don’t have to post everything you create in that time. But you have to pick while the pickin’s good. There’s time to enjoy what you’ve harvested later. Right now, there’s today. Get everything you can out of it.

4. There Are Bad Days

There’s a corollary to the above, and it’s this: Sometimes today is not your day.

The weekend I went up with my friend happened to be a good weekend. There were good mushrooms everywhere. We got two huge heaping baskets-ful. But the eight weekends before that, he hadn’t had such a good time. It was a strange year weather-wise and the factors that make for thriving mushroom colonies weren’t there. This was the first weekend that had been good.

In that situation, it’s okay to pack it in because it’s not a good weekend. But here’s the trick: you still have to show up.

Every weekend. You can’t skip one because the last one wasn’t good. You have to show up every single time hoping for one of the magic times, one of the ones where everything goes your way.

If he’d given up six weekends before, we never would have had those two baskets of mushrooms to tide us over all the weekends to come with none.

Same for you and your blogging. You show up every time. You show up every day. And you try like hell to reap enough good work to tide you over when it’s a lousy day, when you have no ideas, when there’s absolutely nothing left.

If you don’t show up for the bad days, you will miss the good days entirely. You’ll never know they could have happened. Because you weren’t there.

So yes. There are bad days. Not every day is a magic day. But it’s by showing up for the bad days that you get to those glorious days.

What I Learned

There’s a reason for all the many posts about what non-blogging activities have taught us about blogging. It’s because it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. It’s hard to get new insight into blogging simply by blogging more.

Sometimes you have to get offline. Sometimes you have to get out in the woods. Sometimes you have to try something new to get better at this thing you enjoy doing, this thing that sustains your business and your life.

Mushrooms aren’t any good by themselves. Mushrooms are amazing in butter, with herbs, as part of a larger dish. A plain, raw mushroom is no fun to eat.

Blogging is the same. Blogging by itself doesn’t sustain you. You have to mix it up with other things. You have to learn what it works with. You have to experiment. You have to find new ways to add to the base.

Try it. Try something new, and see if you can glean anything that helps you become a better blogger.

Then take half an hour to think. Choose a post that’s right for you. And have one of the good days.

Leave a Comment!

Post by Taylor Lindstrom

Taylor is a freelancer working out of Boulder, CO, and she blogs for people who are too good to fail over at... well, Too Good to Fail. Go check out her beautiful stories and words of encouragement - and remember that while you may not be good enough right now, being great is definitely part of your potential.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
What Mushroom Hunting Taught Me About Blogging first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

“You’re nobody ‘til somebody loves you,” sings sexy crooner Michael Bublé. He ain’t wrong. You’re nobody in the blogosphere until you’ve been shown a little love by the influential sites that serious bloggers read, Tweet and flock to.

You know the ones – they boast six-digit subscribers, have a cult following on Twitter, and bring celebrity and name recognition by association.

Don’t get me wrong; you can have a totally groovy experience at lesser-known sites and accomplish many valuable blogging goals through those avenues.

But think of it this way: If you had the chance to stay as a guest at a three-star hotel or a five-star hotel, which would you choose?

It‘s a no-brainer. You’d choose the 5-star option. It has better amenities, a reputation for excellence, and a more attentive and highly trained staff to see that you have everything your heart desires during your stay.

Given the choice between blogging for the big dogs and blogging for the little dogs, the benefits of going for the higher-ranking option are obvious. Take my own case in point: When I recently had a guest post published at Problogger, I got:

• Nearly 400 Tweets (more than I’ve gotten collectively in the last two years of blogging)
• A slew of comments and Facebook mentions
• Several new commentators and visitors to my own blog
• A request for a guest post at a popular business blog

You can do it too. Here are six compelling reasons why you should blog at top sites – and six ways to make the most of the opportunity when you land a guest post.

1. It saves you time. If your objective is to market your blog successfully and make the most of your efforts, one guest post at a top site could yield more exposure and potential connections than publication on a dozen sites with smaller followings. View it as a way of working smarter, not harder.

Advance your blogging swagger: Check to see if the site you are targeting has an editorial calendar. Why? Often these calendars provide valuable clues to future themes and designated deadlines – which gives you a better chance of getting the right article in front of the blog owner at the right time.

2. It puts you in a different league. Think of it as success by association. Just about everybody blogs, but not everybody blogs well enough to appear at top blogs. It shows that the big dogs who run those blogs value what you say – and if they value it, their readers understand they should value it, too.

Advance your blogging swagger: Make sure to cite your former “top-dog” guest posts in your bio and pitches when approaching editors with your request. Those credentials help you stand out in a sea of other would-be guest posters, since your blogging chops have already been established by one of the big dog’s peers.

3. It looks good on a writer’s/blogger’s resume. With the fierce competition out there, anything that gives you a competitive edge is worth pursuing. Even though it’s not a paid publishing credit, getting an article on one of the top blogs is still impressive and can give you a leg up when trying to land a new client.

Advance your blogging swagger: Use your writing experience of guest posting at top sites to negotiate a higher blogging rate when applying for paid work.

4. More than your “15 minutes of fame”. I kid you not. Some time ago, when I posted at Daily Blog Tips, I was still receiving and responding to comments to my post four months later. Trust me here: The top sites’ archives are accessed at a rate that your personal site typically will never be.

Advance your blogging swagger: Make sure to reserve quality time to respond to comments from readers and to answer related questions for as long as people choose to comment (it’ll likely go beyond that first day). Taking the time to comment shows courtesy and respect for the readers. It also increases the likelihood that you’ll be well received by the blog owner for future considerations.

5. It breeds confidence. A guest post at a prominent site does more for your ego than positive affirmations or compliments. The better you feel about your own abilities and desirability as a guest blogger, the easier it is to approach other blog owners or aim for more ambitious blogging goals.

Advance your blogging swagger: Once you’ve established yourself and gotten some experience under your belt, consider targeting sites that pay for your guest posts. The Work From Home Blog offers a list.

6. It puts your work before readers that are outside your niche, exposing you to a much larger audience. Numbers aside, blogging giants like Problogger, Copyblogger, Men with Pens, and Daily Blog Tips have readers that span multiple niches, demographics, industries, and even geographic regions. You’d be wise to tap into that power.

Advance your blogging swagger: Enhance your visibility even further by posting your guest posts to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Stumbleupon. This can potentially lead to new networking opportunities and broadened horizons.

Now that you know the “whys”, here are a few tips on the “hows”.

1. Speak you-nique: Say something different or put a new spin on an old topic. Infuse your own personality and style of expression in your work. In today’s competitive environment, both online and off, it’s important to stand out, stay relevant and be memorable. Learn to identify and capitalize on your individual strengths and gifts. Naomi Dunford at Ittybiz.com is a great example.
2. Consult the archives: Check the list, and check it twice. No matter how well you write, if what you’ve created has recently been covered at the targeted host’s site, chances are your efforts will be in vain, and you’ll have wasted everyone‘s time.
3. Be strategic in your efforts: There are literally thousands of blogs out in the blogosphere. Of those, probably hundreds accept guest posts. As a good rule of thumb, you should target those that have a good following, a PR ranking of 6 or above, and excellent content. As they say, you’re judged by the company you keep.
4. Remember that you never get a second chance to make a first impression: This is more than a cliché; consider it a cardinal rule for success. Watch for typos, grammar and spelling errors. Have a second set of eyes go over your post before submission as well.

On a final note, make sure that you leave your readers with great take-away value. This ensures that your blog owner host is happy to have you come around and guest blog again.

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Post by Jennifer Brown Banks

Jennifer Brown Banks is a veteran freelance writer, pro blogger and creative consultant. Her work has appeared at award-winning sites such as: ProBlogger, Daily Blog Tips, Technorati, and Search Engine Journal. She was recently chosen as one of the “60 Best Minds in the Blogosphere.”

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
6 Reasons Every Serious Blogger Should Blog for the Big Dogs first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

I had a crush on the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Looking back, the obsession may be attributed to attending Blue Angels air shows as a child. Or, perhaps a more practical reason was the cause – the jet looked really, really fast.

And like any obsessed seven-year-old boy, F-16 posters hung above my bed and I’d mastered the sound of the afterburner at full blast.

It wasn’t enough.

After mowing enough lawns and walking enough dogs, I finally saved enough cash to walk into the hobby shop and buy my own F-16 model plane kit. And back home with the model box cover propped upright, glue tubes ready for use, and a host of paint brushes and colors nearby, I was eager to transform the boring plastic pieces into the beautiful airplane seen on the box.

I learned many lessons while building that F-16, and they served me well when I began writing online. Building a blog is very much like building a model plane – and here are the top 5 lessons I’d like to share with you.

1. Use the kit made for you

In the hobby shop, I walked up and down the aisles searching for my precious F-16 Fighting Falcon. I quickly browsed each kit box for the name of the model, its scale, and the skill level required for assembly.

• Skill Level 1 was the easiest — no painting or glue necessary; just pieces engineered to snap together.
• At Skill Level 2, paint and glue were introduced — as were smaller parts, greater detail and waterslide-type decals.
• Skill Level 3 kits were the most advanced — they were complex, there were extra parts, and each required elaborate assembly.

At the uber-confident age of seven, it was ridiculous to consider buying a Skill Level 3 kit. But Skill Level 2? Now that’s a reasonable challenge.

When you set up your blog, you’ll face a similar array of options for various skill levels. You’ll want to challenge yourself beyond the easiest one.

But be honest with yourself and don’t exceed your actual skills. Do you really know HTML or just enough to insert a line break? Are you better off customizing a generic, free design, or is it wise to consider a premium theme? Is it a better investment to outsource your blog design and SEO so you can use your free time to focus on your core aptitudes?

By going beyond your comfort zone without asking so much of yourself that you’ll get frustrated and angry when tasks turn out difficult, you’ll get a great blog set up that you can be proud of.

And the next time you want to redesign your blog, it’ll be an opportunity to challenge your skills just a little bit more.

2. The structure’s there for a reason

In any kit, hidden behind the glossy painted exterior, there’s an interior structure that you can’t see. And yet, it’s perhaps the most important part of the model.

The structure supports the model. It compensates for the weight of airplane wings or the curved tension in a car’s windshield.

It’s easy to get tempted into skipping the boring supports and move on to the sexier kit pieces (see Step #3), but that’s the quickest path to destruction.

Without structure, the sexy stuff collapses.

And the same goes for your blog.

The SEO, the keywords, the tags, the post categories, the descriptive headlines and subheads, the reliable hosting, the clean code — that’s the structure of your glossy blog.

Without a strong structure supporting your site, all the lens flares, dancing lights and link bait in the world won’t do a thing.

3. Don’t skip steps

In my seven-year-old mind, the quickest way to go from pile-of-random-plastic-pieces to inspirational model airplane meant skipping the boring stuff.

I didn’t care about the jet’s wheel supports, I wanted to put the decals on the wings. Screw the cockpit flight control panel – I was more interested in attaching the bombs.

And over two decades later, I still have that same problem every time the wife brings home an Ikea box. Surely I don’t need to follow all 47 steps to put the bookcase together. I’ll wing it after the first three and go from there.

I need a conscious reminder to go back to basics – to remove myself from the “I know everything” mentality, put on the virgin contact lenses, and start anew.

Because those boring steps exist for a reason. They’re building blocks for future success and sustainability.

How does this relate to your blog? Here are three examples:

• Own your brand: There are a lot of free blog tools and publishing platforms — Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, Posterous, TypePad… the list goes on and on. But there are a few potential problems with these tools. What’s easier to remember — http://mynewblog.wordpress.com or www.mynewblog.com? Don’t you think it’s worth $10 to purchase a formal domain? It’s easy to remember and show your prospects that you’re serious, you mean business, and you don’t need a free publishing platform to get by. If you truly believe in your brand, invest in it. This isn’t a hobby anymore.
• Edit: Doesn’t matter how urgent you think your post is, you must go through the editing process, preferably with somebody other than yourself. Edits aren’t criticisms, they’re clarifications and enhancements. I’m embarrassed — sometimes shocked — to sleep on a blog post only to read it the next morning and think “Sweet baby Jesus, to think I was actually going to publish with these mistakes.” Nothing erodes authority faster than spelling and grammatical errors. Take time to fix those. Oh, and while you’re at it, edit yourself, because if you’re like me, you’re a wordy writer.
• Spend time on your headline: Two years ago, I wrote the headline “Valvoline, Yaz and Captain Crunch Walk Into a Bar” for a blog post on the value of targeted marketing. Horrible headline. It makes you cock your head and wonder, “Whaaa?”. It’s not promising, it’s not enticing, and it doesn’t allude to anything in the article. The only reason you’d click to read is because you’re curious about what kind of mess that headline would offer. If you’re rushing to create a headline so you can press “publish” on your post, step back, breathe, and come back to it when you’re ready to give it the attention it deserves.

4. Be patient

My impatience is my legacy. Unfortunate, but true.

Sitting at my parent’s kitchen table — a paint-stained, floral tablecloth upon it — I looked back and forth between the inspirational photo on the box and the dull grey plastic pieces in front of me.

Before the glue dried, I was already painting. Before the paint dried, I’d already picked up the model and was flying the jet around the living room.

Instead of a solid, crisp-looking model, I had a sloppy, flimsy hunk of plastic with smudged paint.

I had rushed the process. And wound up with a lot of remorse.

Have you ever had that feeling with your blog?

Launching your blog, a new promotion, or a new product is exciting event, but resist the urge to rush through it. You have a great idea — a new idea. Give it the attention it deserves.

I’ve rushed into a randomly-inspired, voluntary blog redesign at 4:00 p.m. only to see midnight roll around with a half-assed theme published, blog posts mislabeled, comment forms not functioning, and general anxiety in full force.

A simple calendar plan with day-by-day objectives for a blog redesign could have prevented all that strife. And that same type of patience and proactive planning is warranted for your blog launch too.

5. Show it off

As a kid, there was no greater joy than showing off my bedroom. It featured all my models hung with my mother’s sewing thread from the ceiling at a diving, banking, or climbing angle.

But after a week, the thread unraveled and the pins loosened. The child in me had opted for a quick method of showing off rather than going to the store for secure fishing line and ceiling hooks.

It’s easy to set up a link between your RSS feed and your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

But the easy way isn’t the best way of showing off.

Your blog shouldn’t be blindly blasted to your fans and followers. If you take the time and effort to give your blog more powerful, lasting ways of showing off, you’ll be more likely to earn new readers’ admiration.

A product, a business, a blog — they’re not overnight projects. They take a lot of time, dedication, and patience; they deserve a lot of time, dedication and patience.

What do you think? Did I miss any steps that have proved valuable to you? Take a minute to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Leave a Comment!

Post by Ryan Barton

Ryan Barton is the author of "Smart Marketing" and he writes at The Smart Marketing Blog for Small Business Success; you can follow him on Twitter, where he shares entirely too much information. He wrote "Smart Marketing" to give small businesses insightful information and tangible marketing strategies to compete competitively with industry giants.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
5 Blog-Building Lessons from Model Planes first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

You don’t get to be on big-name sites like Men with Pens, Copyblogger, Problogger and Daily Writing Tips by fluffing deadlines like some flaky moonlighter. And Ali Luke (yes, she’s back!) knows that very well.

Unfortunately, meeting deadlines is still a huge issue. Writers aren’t known for their planning and scheduling skills, after all – but nail deadlines, and you’ve turned yourself away from flaky and straight onto fantastically competent. (Keep reading to learn how.)

By the way, if you’ve become one of those deadline vigilantes who always gets work in on time, come share a secret or two in the comment section – or tell the story of the Deadline from Hell that made you swear never again.

Nasty creatures, deadlines. They creep up on you slowly but inexorably, a bit like zombies on the march.

And then they loom, larger and larger, until they’re blotting out all the light in your world.

By the time you realise that you have a monster in your world, it often seems like it’s too late to hit that deadline. You’re a writer, not a warrior! You just want to curl up under the duvet and pretend that deadline doesn’t exist at all.

Hey. Take heart. You can fight that deadline – and win.

Step 1: Spot Your Monster Early

Deadlines move at a constant rate. You can see them coming closer… and closer…. and closer. So when you realise that your deadline’s becoming a monster, do something.

Don’t turn your back. Don’t cross your fingers and hope for a last-minute miracle. Acknowledge that deadline. (Give it a little wave, if you like.) Let it know that you are in control.

How can you spot a monster deadline creeping up on you?

• You thought the first draft would take ten hours. It’s taken twenty already – and you’re still not finished.
• You wake up with a sinking feeling in your stomach when you think about how much work you still need to get done.
• You find yourself procrastinating – chatting on Twitter, watching re-runs of The Simpsons, playing Flash games…
• “Write mega-huge client project” keeps slipping down your to-do list.
• You don’t have any slack in your schedule. And you know you need to write every single day to hit this deadline.

You’re looking that deadline square in the eyes. And you can feel the panic bubbling up…

Step 2: Win the Psychological War

It’s easy to lose perspective when you’re facing a nasty deadline – and especially when you panic. It’s almost impossible to write.

Take a deep breath.

Remind yourself that no deadline, however monstrous it may be, can kill your career. You’re a good writer. You’ve turned in great work before, and you can do it again.

To quell that sense of panic:

• Ditch everything on your to-do list which isn’t urgent and essential. Your email inbox won’t implode, don’t worry. Just focus on the project at hand.
• Write a quick outline if you don’t already have one. When you can see where you’re going, it’s easy to keep writing.
• Tackle the easiest sections first – the ones where you’ve already done the research, where you have a good idea of what you’ll write.

Once you feel calmer, figure out how much time you have left. Deadlines creep closer every minute, so you need to keep up your momentum.

Step 3: Set a (Sane) Schedule

It’s Monday. You have five days to finish an ebook of 20,000 words. You have an outline, you’ve done all the research, but you’ve only written a paltry 500 words (and you’re pretty sure you’re going to scrap those).

Five days. 20,000 words. That’s an average of 4,000 words per day.

To create a sane schedule, do this:

• Allow for some slack at the end. Aim to write 5,000 words every day so that you have Friday to catch up if necessary.
• Write at your best time. For me, that’s in the morning. It could be afternoon or evening for you. Refuse to allow other commitments to sneak into your best writing time.
• Work in short bursts – maybe 45-60 minutes – with breaks in between. Don’t plan to write for hours in a marathon.
• Make sure you get some down time. Give yourself something to look forwards to mid-week – perhaps a movie or a meal out. You can afford to take a proper break, because if you don’t, you’re probably going to end up making silly mistakes that cost you more time.

If all that isn’t enough – if you can see there’s no way to beat that deadline – then move the goalposts.

Step 4: Get an Extension

Deadlines are rarely set in stone, and most clients or editors can be flexible if necessary.

However, this is a last resort. Flaking out on deadlines gives you a bad name, and while your clients may be accommodating the first time it happens, they’re not going to put up with a flaky writer for long.

To stay on the client’s good side:

• Contact them promptly. Don’t leave it until the day of the deadline and then email to say you need more time.
• Be polite. Don’t imply that it’s their fault the deadline was too ambitious. (Maybe it was, but as the contracted writer, you should have let them know that up front.)
• Offer part of the work. Tell them what you can do, not what you can’t. For example, say you can have 15,000 words of the ebook completed by Friday.
• Suggest a new and more realistic deadline that you’re confident you can meet. Give yourself a day or two more than you think you’ll need – you can always turn the work in early.

Deadline nightmares don’t need to keep you awake at night. You just need to deal with the situation now and make sure you stay well away from more monsters in future.

Step 5: Avoid Monster Deadlines – Forever

It’s not much fun wrestling a huge deadline – though it can be exhilarating when you win. Still, you want to make sure that monster never comes back, ever again.

When negotiating deadlines:

• Allow more time than you think you’ll need. Life gets crazy sometimes – especially when you least expect it or during weeks when you need every minute of your writing time.
• Plan to turn in work early. Set yourself a personal deadline that’s a few days ahead of the real one. That way, you’ll feel calm and in control, and you can cope with last-minute problems.
• Set milestones and agree on deliverables. That way, you’ll get started early (rather than leaving the whole project till the last minute), and if the client wants a slight change in direction, they’ll let you know sooner rather than later.

So – over to you. I’m sure you have plenty of thoughts on deadlines – and some horror stories to share. Comment away!

Ali Luke is the go-to gal for all things blogging. Check out her newest ebook, The Blogger’s Guide to Freelancing. It’ll teach you everything you need to know to be an awesome on-time, on-demand blogger they’ll love.

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Post by Ali Hale

Ali Hale is the go-to gal for all things blogging. Check out her newest ebook, The Blogger's Guide to Freelancing. It'll teach you everything you need to know to be an awesome on-time, on-demand blogger they'll love.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
How to Wrestle Deadlines and Win (Even When You Think You Can’t) first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

“YOU write it,” I told Adam, nearly shoving the awkward task of writing an unveiling announcement for the Men with Pens/SXSW Meetup Event into his lap over Twitter DMs. “I can’t. I just can’t. And you know me well enough as a person. YOU do it.”

So Adam never got to write the Meetup announcement, but he did land his first unintentional guest post here at Men with Pens. Please welcome him, and enjoy.

There’s a small phenomenon happening on the web lately. It’s not something new, but the idea has a unique spin:

Create an entirely self-sufficient digital persona.

Like I said, it’s not a new concept. It’s been happening since the first author in history decided to use a pen name. And the internet’s social landscape makes it infinitely easier to bring this digital self to life, even almost overnight.

But what is new is the approach.

An author can develop a pseudo-self through a series of books published over many years. Think about it: Do you really know Stephen King? Of course not. And yet… if he’s a favorite author of yours, you do have a sense of knowing him, even just a little.

You, as a freelancer, don’t have to wait to publish a series before people come to know you. You can leverage space like Twitter and use instant, real-time interaction to build an alter ego. And thanks to the bite-sized information revolution, people have developed the ability to judge a lot from a book’s cover (pun intended).

In other words, you can turn your social media bios into solid reinforcement of your chosen digital self.

Creating a persona can be a serious advantage to your developing business. You could be a 5-foot-nothing mid-20s grad student and serve a client base that prefers the aggression and power of someone who stands 6-foot-7 and who can bench-press the neighbor’s full-size 4×4.

Your digital persona could help you deliver the writing style that keeps a steady flow of work coming in.

But there’s a danger in creating digital personas, and most people overlook it. As liberating as it seems to reinvent yourself online, it can lead to a gigantic supernova unless you keep in mind who’s at the other end of the interaction – human beings.

Without recognizing the core of your humanity as you build a digital persona, you risk being banished into the abyss of irrelevance. Or worse.

So how do you achieve success with this augmented digital reality?

Get into their heads.

No this isn’t voodoo or a Vulcan mind meld. I’m talking about really understanding who your people are. If you’re creating a digital persona that serves an audience, then you need to do some serious recon.

What are your people’s needs and problems? What are their online and offline habits? Who are they spending most of their time talking to, and why? It’s imperative to learn about your people, inside and out, so you can actively interact as one of them.

It’s not enough to simply know who your people are. You need to experience life from their perspective and approach everything from their point of view. Even walk 10,000 miles in their moccasins…if that’s what they’re into.

Get into their spaces.

Where do your people hang out online? Are you and your digital persona there too? Why not? You should be.

If you’re going to earn the trust of people you want to serve, then you need to earn your stripes. Being active in your people’s circles goes a long way in the social proof department.

You probably think you know all this already, but it’s amazing how many still flat-out ignore this advice, simply because they don’t feel like taking the time to learn more about their tribe, where those people hang out and why they spend their time there.

Get your virtual butt off the couch. Get out of your current social circles and go mingle.

Besides, your new digital self needs to stretch its legs. This is where you can really take your persona for a test drive. Do you have what it takes to keep up with your gang? Go find out.

Get in their faces.

No. Not like that. Turn your hat back around. I mean go out and actually meet people face to face.

Remember, there are human beings behind the avatars, so why not meet them? I’ve spent the last part of 2010 doing this and will be doing much more of it in 2011. Getting out there to actually experience what it’s like to be with your audience in person can quickly make them your biggest fans.

Here’s the most common fear about meeting people face to face – maybe it’s yours:

“But… But what if they turn on me? What if they don’t like the real me? What if I don’t come off the same face-to-face as I do online? What if they drag me across the bar and toss me out the window, western saloon style?”

Well, if that happens, call me. Breaking up saloon fights is on my bucket list.

But okay, let’s look at your questions – what if? What if the person you are isn’t to people’s liking? What if their expectations are dashed at first sight? Those are genuine concerns, but they’re only warranted if the digital persona you’ve presented is a complete and total fallacy when compared to who you really are at the core of yourself.

Ahhhh… Now there’s the key.

Your core values helped you bring your tribe together. They allow you to genuinely connect with readers, clients, prospects and people in a personal way. They also help you serve them in superior fashion.

You just might discover that your digital persona’s raving fans are actually fans of YOU. The value system you have at your core is what helps bring that digital self to life, and it’s what keeps people hanging with you.

In other words… Be the real you. You’ll be just fine.

For the ultimate digital persona working from the very core of her humanity, look no further than the head arc welder of words at Men With Pens. For years, James Chartrand has operated through a well-constructed digital self that built a six-figure copy writing business with a worldwide stellar reputation.

It’s a once in a lifetime event, and it’s happening March 11 in Austin. RSVP today.

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Post by Adam King

Adam King is a man of many personas, from the fat shy kid in school to the starving homeless 20-something artist to the current leading game changer in several fields. His latest persona is all about helping you build success through the human side of your digital self.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Why Your Digital Persona Begins with Humanity first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Which is exactly how Marcus Sheridan caught mine.

He caught it twice when he sent me this guest post. At first, I was too busy for the video… but then I watched. Then I read the post. And now I’m sharing it with you.

Although there are certainly many metaphors that could describe the life of a blogger, I personally would relate it to the most famous test of human endurance and achievement in the world:

The Ironman Triathlon.

Before we go further, please take three minutes of your day and watch the following video. Yes, I know you’re likely in a hurry and quickly skimming this article for helpful nuggets of information, but this will be one of the most memorable 3-minute videos you’ll ever watch online.

And maybe no other relates more to your determination in life.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTn1v5TGK_w

Ironman Crawl

Now for the lessons learned:

1. The Human Body and Mind Is Capable of Incredible Things

2.4 miles swimming in a frigid, rough ocean….112 miles of strenuous biking….26.2 miles of running—all in one day. Such staggering numbers are inconceivable to most people.

Until they decide it’s actually possible and then make it happen.

The same is absolutely true with blogging as well. It’s easy for the ‘little guys’ out there (like me) to look at a Seth Godin or copyblogger or Men with Pens and think, “That’s just impossible. I’ll never get where they are.”

The truth is that we all start at ground zero. We all had to get our first subscriber.

And with enough hard work, diligence, and effort we can certainly achieve monumental goals we never thought possible.

2. Setting the Proper Pace

Just like every successful triathlon racer, every blogger must learn to set the right pace.

This is especially true for newer bloggers. Come out the gates too fast and you’ll be dead half-way through the race. Start off too slow and your blog may never get any traction.

Although pace (determined by post frequency, post length average, comments on other blogs, and more) may be a tough idea to grasp for bloggers, at least it creates certain goals that can be very beneficial and motivating.

3. Competitors Make Us Better

For the most part, triathletes in the Ironman appreciate other participants. These people could be viewed as competitors, but most racers realize that other particiipants bring the best out of their performance.

This is one thing I love about the blogosphere. In almost every corner, bloggers do want their peers to succeed, even though they may be involved in the same niche. For example, instead of trying to ‘outdo’ their competition, Men With Pens and Copyblogger work hand-in-hand in a synergistic effort to create better content for their readers.

This is what the blogging community is all about. And the more we all have an abundance mentality in terms of helping others, the more we’ll be blessed and benefit as well.

4. Just Finish the Race….No Matter How or What It Takes

When it comes to the Ironman, it’s not about what place you earned when you finish the race – it’s that you cross the finish-line. Period.

Watching the two incredible women in the video cross that Ironman finish line is a powerful reminder of that we should always finish our tasks.

As we get ideas and inspiration to write certain posts or initiate certain projects, we need to do what it takes to ‘cross the finish line’ no matter what comes our way. We mustn’t allow the distractions of everyday life to deter us from the goals we’ve set. We know achieving them will lead to joy and satisfaction.

So the next time you’re down and out with your blog, or if you’re stumped as to how to finish an article, just keep with it. Do what it takes. Keep moving forward to the finish line.

5. It Isn’t About Being in 1^st Place

Okay, so be honest: How many of you thought that these two women were fighting for first place? I certainly thought so the first time I watched the video. They were actually trying to be fourth, not first.

And think about it for a second – does anyone know who actually won the women’s Ironman that year (without Googling it)? Very few people do, simply because Sian Welch and Wendy Ingraham captured hearts around the world as they battled. Literally, these two women could not have given an ounce more strength and energy, and this is why over 1,000,000 people have watched this video in complete and total awe.

I think too often bloggers get caught up in the numbers of more established and ‘successful’ blogging icons and become dejected about their own position.

To me, blogging isn’t about first place. It’s about everything Welch and Ingraham exemplify: effort, determination, and undaunted faith. By sharing these characteristics, we’ll win the hearts of readers… just as Welch and Ingraham won the hearts of the world,.

About the author: Liked this post? Then subscribe to Marcus Sheridan’s blog, The Sales Lion, where he’s been known to write some pretty sweet stuff on sales, marketing, and How to be Freaking Awesome.

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Post by Marcus Sheridan

About the author: Liked this post? Then subscribe to Marcus Sheridan's blog, The Sales Lion, where he's been known to write some pretty sweet stuff on sales, marketing, and How to be Freaking Awesome.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
What the Ironman Triathlon Can Teach You About Blogging first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.