In How to Market your Blog. Part 1, we talked about the first steps in marketing – planning, the virtues of blogging, word count, and the use of media and describers.
How does content and consistency help optimize your blog for search engines? How do writers overcome the deadly disease, writer’s block? How do writers keep motivation high during those disturbing times when they feel they cannot write another word?
Here are some answers to those questions.
Despite the setbacks, your audience wants quality content and frequent posts. Your business success depends on your motivation.
The way to get people to read your work is to get ranked on Google. Everyone wants the first place on the first page of the search. This is called search engine optimization (SEO), if you haven’t heard this term yet, you will soon learn how important this is for generating traffic.
THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR SITE FOR SEARCH ENGINES
The best advice is to write for your audience and do not worry about Google. If you write well, do your research, post often and have patience, you will see results in the long run.
Many people give up because their website is not producing traffic or money in the first few months. It takes any business time to get started, and to expect to have customers beating down your door, so to speak, in the first year, is unreasonable.
There are 3.75 billion people in the world with computers. Imagine how much competition there is to get the most money out of those people.
This is why you have to be creative and put out a professional-looking website. You need every boost you can get. Here are important tips for getting there.
- Post often
- Post high-quality content
- POST LIKE A MADMAN
HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED
There are many ups and downs that go with running a business, and internet marketing is no different. One of the biggest struggles I see with new members at Wealthy Affiliate is getting past the low days. Internet marketing is not a business where you can throw open your doors and say “I’m here!”
Brick and mortar stores take months, sometimes years, in planning, so what is to say you can suddenly jump into the cyber pond and immediately have your business take off?
What happens when you get writer’s block, or you become so severely discouraged that you feel like giving up altogether? How does a business person keep going through the rough times? Since this is a writing industry, writer’s block goes with discouragement. If you do not feel like you are making progress, the mind bogs down. If you have trouble coming up with ideas on a good day, you can understand how writer’s block sets in on those not-so-good days.
This bears repeating: “Write like you are insane.” When you do not feel like writing, write.
There are two laws of writing. Write these down and put them next to your desk.
- Rule #1. You must write.
- Rule #2. You must finish what you write.
Writing is a process, a habit, a routine that must be maintained. If you can only write 15 minutes a day to start, then so be it. If you do this every day, soon you will find you are writing more and will feel “insane” because all you want to do is write. When you get to this stage, you know you are infused with passion.
Here are some secrets to help you through those days when you are down in the dumps.
- Set non-results-based goals. Forget the to-do lists. Make a “doing” list instead. Write down the tasks as you do them and the time it takes. This is the same as when you write down every penny you spend when working on a household budget. Keeping track of your work gives you a good look at how you spend your time. Are you wasting time? If you are, you can see where you can put your energies into a more “timely fashion.”
- Focus on what you can do. Gain momentum and energy from doing what you enjoy. Write during your most creative time of day so you do not have to force yourself to write.
- Forget deadlines. Set a short-term goal, say 3-months, and determine what you would like to accomplish in that time. When the 3 months are up, look at your lightly-written goals and see where you are. Don’t panic when you see you haven’t met them all. Be realistic about why you did not, put it behind you, and set another set of goals in another three months.
- Enjoying the ride creates happiness. Stressing about deadlines, and then stressing because you don’t meet them, is not a recipe for happiness. Life is lived between goals. It isn’t the destiny, but the journey that tells the story.
- Focus on actions you can take every day. Let the rest work out on its own.
- Prepare for the slow times. When you feel good about your writing, and you have the time, draft three or four blogs, and make outlines for other ideas. Have you written articles in the past? Do you have a half-written book that ties into your niche? By writing a series of posts at one time, you can use them at a later date when you are feeling overwhelmed and unable to spend time writing.
- Build up your library of material you can use for a blog.
- Go through your notes and write a blog off of them.
- Repurpose articles you have written in the past.
Write every day. It sounds like a broken record, but it helps to have a schedule.
Comedian/writer Jerry Seinfeld puts a big red X on his calendar for the days he writes. He says this makes him write every day because his calendar would look funny if he missed a day.
Here is an easy 4-day writing schedule and tips to make it happen:
- Day #1. Do your research then make an outline.
- Day #2. Write the first draft.
- Day #3. Rewrite.
- Day #4. Polish and publish.
Start with one post at a time. After you get the hang of it, you can keep three or four posts going in various stages.
When you write your first draft, do a brain dump. Write everything down you can think of. Go back the second time and revise. The idea the first time around is just to get your ideas out.
Forget about being perfect. As Kyle at Wealthy Affiliate says, it is better to post 5 good posts than it is to slave over making one post perfect. You can always go back and change and/or add things. This is your blog, you are the owner, the only one in charge is you.
Find a comfortable writing speed. Stick with it, day in and day out, and one day, your website will be full of quality content. You won’t even know how it got there, you were so intent on writing.
So there you have it. Writing a blog that sells takes work, passion, and patience. Consistency of posting your content is as important as writing quality content. Having a scheduled time to write keeps you on track, and allows you to be consistent with posting your blogs. Google likes consistency as much as it likes content. By writing every day, you can beat the drain on your motivation and stay enthusiastic and committed in your task of helping others.
