Posts Tagged ‘ blog content ’

The “Just Okay” Rule Sucks

Feb 15, 2013 Blog Content

There’s this oft-touted blogging rule that your content doesn’t have to be great. It just has to be okay.

It has to be passable. It has to be good enough to teach the reader something. It has to be clean. But it doesn’t have to be fantastic. Because if you spend your time worrying about perfection and pushing yourself to write incredible content, you’ll waste time. Instead of writing one amazing post, you could write 10, 20, maybe even 50 “just okay” posts.

And that’s what people want: more content. They don’t care about being wowed. They care about walking away with a kernel of a concept or a brief set of directions, and you need to give them this content as often as possible. Plus, if you get hung up on writing the perfect post, you’ll never post anything. Or so proponents of this rule would have you believe.

Well, I think the “just okay” rule sucks.

While it’s true that a post doesn’t need to be absolutely perfect to be worthy of reading, you should be shooting for greatness, not mediocrity.

“The world doesn’t need any more mediocrity or hedged bets.” – Anne Rice

Write a keyword-rich post about Topic X might end up driving a lot of traffic to your website. But if ten other websites have already written about Topic X and you’re basically just regurgitating information in an SEO’d way, rather than adding anything valuable to the conversation, you’re just cluttering the Internet.

Stoppit.

This isn’t just about cluttering the Internet, though. It’s also about pumping out posts that aren’t fully developed. Is the post you’re publishing the best it can absolutely be? If not, why are you hitting that publish button?

Stoppit.

Publish your best content. Some posts are going to be better than others, but you should always strive to push yourself toward greatness. Don’t settle for “just okay,” because you’re setting yourself on a slippery slope. Be awesome in the truest sense of the word. Your readers deserve it.

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Why is it So Hard to Press the Delete Button?

Apr 17, 2012 Blog Content

If you’re anything like me, you probably have quite a few blog post drafts waiting to be finished and published. Some of them might be weeks or months old. Some of them might be over a year old. Having half-finished drafts, just waiting to see the light of day again, can be hard on your blog.

Now don’t get me wrong – I love a good draft. I often outline my thoughts while traveling, waiting at the hair salon, etc. and go back to flesh out the posts later. I even recommend that people who don’t consider themselves good writers start with an outline, and having those outlines waiting for you can increase productivity.

But not all drafts are good. And the bad ones need to go. EXTERMINATE! Sorry, had a random Doctor Who moment…

We’re scared of that delete button though.

  • What if we later realize the post idea was perfect and we want to publish it, only to remember that we’ve deleted the entire thing?
  • What about the time and hard work we’ve already spent on the draft?
  • What if parts of the post could be salvaged to use for another post?

Only, our fears are irrational, as they often are in life. If the post idea really was perfect, we wouldn’t be contemplating deleting it. Yes, we may have put some time into it, but it’s better to cut losses than put even more time into a post that isn’t awesome. Parts of the post might be salvageable, but it would probably be easier just to rewrite those parts in order to make new posts flow and ensure the information is up to date.

In short, there is no go reason to not send that draft to trash right now.

Old posts hold us back. When they just sit around, they clutter our dashboard with thoughts of ideas that aren’t very good. And should they get published (often out of guilt), they often don’t help the reader; they’re just taking up space on your blog.

Stupid posts.

Get rid of those drafts today. Hit the delete button. EXTERMINATE! You’ll feel a weight lifting from your shoulders. Sometimes, you might look back to regret deleting something, but 99% of the time, it will only make your blog better. So don’t be afraid. Delete with gusto!

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When the Goal Ship is Sinking: Five Tips to Help You Get Back On Track

Apr 3, 2012 Blog Content

It’s easy to lose site of your blogging goals. It starts with a small deviation from  your original goal – you want to review a friend’s new iPhone cooking app even though your blog is about fashion or announce that you’re going to a cool auto show even though your blog is about books. Then you start listening to reader requests – which can be great but are often a bit off point. Then you hear some great blogging advice and you decide to take it even though it doesn’t mesh well with your blog.

Before you know it, things are a mess and you’re so lost that you have no idea how to get back on track. So you take some time off to think about it…but you never truly get organized again. Maybe you even give up completely.

Today, I have five tips that will hopefully get you back on track. These are tips I’ve personally used when I’ve felt that one of my blogs was going to the dogs:

1. Install a great editorial calendar plugin. I can’t tell you how much this has helped me. You can visually lay out your content so you see what is being posted on what day and where your weaknesses are. It helps you get an overall sense of the total product you’re putting out. I like this  editorial calendar plugin, but there are several options out there.

2. Read some blogs in your niche. When’s the last time you took a day off from doing any work and just read? And not books – other blogs in your niche. It’s important to understand what others are doing – both good and bad. Take some time to find out what others are doing, and dig deep. Don’t just read the major blogs in your niche; find brand new blogs in your niche as well and see what they’re doing.

3. Write down a mission statement. What is the overall goal of your blog? Stop thinking about how you feel the content is a mess right now. Take a deep breath, clear your mind, and think about the blog you set out to create. It’s okay if your goals are different from day one, but stop thinking about what you blog is or what you blog is becoming and start thinking about what you want it to be.

4. Reorganize your content. Take a hard look at your categories. Are they working for you? Are they contributing to the goal of your blog or are they confusing the message? Reorganize! Yes, it sometimes has negative repercussions to redo your categories, but sometimes that’s a band aid you need to rip off.

5. Brainstorm some new idea. Write your mission in the middle of a blank piece of paper. Then, start to mind map. The point is to brainstorm here without censoring yourself. New ideas are great for breathing new life into your blog (and can help you tighten your mission statement).

And don’t be afraid to give up. That sounds bad, and I don’t condone quitting when things get hard…but at the same time you don’t want to be miserable. Make those hard decisions when they need to be made rather than wallowing in limbo, running a half-assed blog. If you’re heart’s not in it anymore, no amount of reorganizing will help. Move onto things that make your soul sing!

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The Lemon Cookie Blogging Problem

Mar 12, 2012 Blog Content

If you’re a long-time fan of Girl Scout cookies, like I am, you’ll know that they used to sell these lemon sandwich cookies. Used to. They were my sister’s favorite. The Girl Scouts still sell lemon cookies, but they’re now called Savannah Smiles – and they aren’t sandwich-y anymore. They’re crisp-ish dough balls covered with lemon-flavored powdered sugar.

It’s a problem.

I mean, a bad cookie is still a cookie, but they aren’t nearly as good as the previous sandwich offerings. And what’s worst is that these cookies taste nothing like you expect. They look like they’d be soft of even creme filled, but they’re crunchy and they’re definitely a lack of creme. So not only are they not as good as the prior option available from the Girl Scouts, but there’s a disconnect between what you expect and what you actually taste.

I find some bloggers’ content is like that as well.

Sometimes, it makes sense to move in a new direction. If what you’re doing isn’t working or doesn’t make you happy, you should be open to change rather than beating a dead horse with contest choices that make no sense. But if you’re going to change the content to produce something different, keep two things in mind:

  • You’re going to have some long-time readers who liked the old content, even if most people didn’t. So make sure your offerings are not just different, but also better. You don’t want to lose the people who liked the old lemon cookies.
  • Surprising people with your content is okay…but if there’s a complete disconnect, you’re probably going to turn people off. If you promise creme-filled content, give them creme-filled content!

In general, this boils down to one thing: blogging is not all about you. Yes, you should do what makes you happy, but when you’re blogging (as a business or to make money, not just for personal satisfaction), you need to think about what makes sense for your readers. Make sure changes you make to your content will both keep your current readers interested and entice new readers to become subscribers.

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How to Work with a Blog Zombie

Feb 27, 2012 General Blogging

It’s unavoidable; sometimes, you have to work with blog zombies (uninspired, unoriginal bloggers without passion).

Whether you’re blogging together for a client, you’re working on a project together, or some other circumstance has brought you together, it’s a frustrating situation. And if you aren’t careful, they’ll bring you down too. When you surround yourself with mediocrity, it’s hard to rise above and be excellent.

So how do you work with a blog zombie?

1. Limit how you’re tied to the person.

It might not be in your best interest to quit whatever you’re doing that requires you to work with the blog zombie, but you don’t have to tie yourself to that person forever. It’s actually not a good idea to tie yourself to anyone super closely. You never know what the future holds, and they may go on to do things you don’t like or even be involved in a scandal. So, work together but keep your distance and be your own person. A good example of this is Chris Garrett and Darren Rowse (not that either of them are blog zombies). They wrote the Problogger book together, but they each have their own individual identity online.

2. Make suggestions.

It’s not up to you to cure someone who is a blog zombie, but that doesn’t mean you can’t push a teammate to be better. Make suggestions (tactfully) on how their content could be improved. And always be open to learning. A blogger might be acting like a zombie, but that doesn’t mean they’re complete void of good ideas and smart blogging practices. You can modify their techniques to work for you in many cases.
Don’t be so arrogant that you think you have nothing to learn from another person. That is one of the signs that you’re becoming a blog zombie yourself, after all.

3. Stay challenged by other bloggers.

Again, when you’re surrounded by mediocrity, it’s pretty damn easy to get complacent. I’m lucky to be surrounded by some amazing bloggers through my work with BlogWorld, but that hasn’t always been the case. If you’re working with people who remind you of the undead, stay motivated by finding bloggers who do challenge you. In fact, go out and find the best blogger in your niche, the blogger you think does the very best job…and challenge yourself to be better. Read the blogs of others and use their knowledge and creativity to inspire you. Just because you aren’t directly working together doesn’t mean you can’t surround yourself with bloggers who make you better.

Have you ever found yourself working with blog zombies? What are your best tips for staying motivated?

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Repeating Yourself, Repeating Yourself, and Repeating Yourself

Jan 8, 2012 Blog Content

When I was a kid, I was often accused of having selective hearing. The worst was in the mornings, when my bright and chirpy morning-person mother would burst into my room nearly barfing rainbows at me. I’m not a morning person, and that might be the understatement of the century. She’d tell me to do this and that when I got home from school, and I’d promptly forget and fall back asleep.

My mother got used to repeating herself, and it wasn’t long before we settled on a system of notes so I wouldn’t forget whatever she said in my half-comatose state. Repeating yourself is sometimes necessary. I doubt I was the only teenager out who needed reminders occasionally all the time.

On your blog (and on social media), repeating yourself is similarly necessary. Sometimes people don’t hear your message the first time around. It’s selective hearing, especially when your message involves doing more work! Other times, you need to repeat yourself because the message was missed the first time around. You might have new fans who haven’t read your older posts and your might have readers who were on vacation or too busy to read the first time you said something.

But I think we need to draw the line at some point. We need to draw the line at some point, and we even need to draw the line at some point. There just comes a point where we need to draw the line. It’s important to draw the line. At some point.

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We All Get a Touch of the Zombie Flu Sometimes (or, Cleaning Up Your Blog)

Oct 25, 2011 Blog Content

I’d be lying if I said that I was super proud of every post I’ve ever written.

Everyone has bad days, and bad days in the blogging world translate to bad posts. A post could be “bad” for multiple reasons. Maybe you skimped on the research and got some facts wrong. Maybe you didn’t think out your argument so your post lacks logic. Maybe you just felt pressured to get something published so you just wrote a “filler” post (ewwww). The point is, we all get a touch of the zombie flu from time to time, even if we’re not blog zombies. It doesn’t have to define you.

But what I highly recommend is going back and deleting those old posts that are crap.

There are many people who will tell you not to do this. Their reasons are compelling:

  • It could hurt your SEO.
  • It could lead to dead links on your blog and on other blogs
  • It’s too much work.

All of these things are totally true. This isn’t a happy moment for you as a blogger. But in my opinion, it needs to be done for one main reason: Your “bad day” crappy post could be the first things someone sees on your blog.

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