“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 [...]

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 [...]

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 – [...]

“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.” “ME?!” Adam was stunned. “But I… wha-… I… ME?!” [...]

You gotta love Aslan. I mean, come on – there’s nothing more impressive than the kingly Narnian to capture attention. 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 [...]

There are days when you don’t have a post ready. When you suddenly realize that you’ve blown your own regular posting schedule and that no new post is going to go live. Your stomach clenches. You panic momentarily. You kick yourself. No post. How could you have forgotten? What will you do?! Oh god. That’s [...]

I write long. It’s a bit of a fault of mine, actually. I feel that long posts are just … better, somehow. Fuller. Richer. More valuable. I feel that long posts give you all the goods, everything you need, all in one place. Long posts are hard work, though. Delivering that much value and information [...]

A few days ago, Glenn Murray wrote a post for ProBlogger called Bloggers Versus Copywriters: 8 Reasons Why Bloggers Do It Better. Sly fox that he is, Glenn warned me the post was controversial, knowing full well I’d rise to the challenge of debate. He was chuckling over my impending comments, and I hadn’t even [...]

When you blog for some time, you eventually reach a point when you begin to wonder whether blogging is actually getting you anywhere. Is it bringing you results? Have all the posts you’ve written been worth it? Is the strategy working out as expected? Are you getting anything back from your investment? Those are good [...]

It’s easy to look at someone else’s success and feel envious about it – especially when the person seemingly shot to celebrity status nearly overnight. It’s not so easy to remember that everyone started from nothing – and that there’s a history you can look back on to find the steps you need to reach [...]