Entries Tagged 'Blogs and Blogging' ↓

Today’s post was inspired by a piece from Jonathan Morrow, associate editor at Copyblogger. The piece, entitled how 2 blog if u suk at writin, is a motivational, feel-good article aimed at bloggers who are less than confident in their writing ability. While I encourage you to go read the entire article, I’ll sum up Morrow’s main thesis here:

If you’re a poor writer, don’t worry. Not everyone is born with the gift of writing. You can still be a successful blogger. You just need to work hard to keep things interesting and unique. Play to your other talents, and the writing won’t matter.

Now, it’s been just a year and 12 days since I took Skellie to task for suggesting that great writing doesn’t matter online. Nothing has changed since then. I’m a firm believer that content is king, and that good writing is the premier form of content online, and in blogs specifically.

Look. Confessions of a Pioneer Woman didn’t win Blog of the Year by having mediocre writing. Yes, Pioneer Woman’s pictures are great. But she’s a good writer, too. She keeps readers coming back, in part, because of her ability to turn a phrase.

The same is true for Darren at Problogger, Dooce and Morrow’s own Copyblogger. Even Cake Wrecks wouldn’t be as hilariously funny if Jen were a sucky writer. It also holds true for Hugh MacLeod at Gaping Void, the only solid example Morrow uses of a highly successful blogger whose main attraction isn’t his writing.

Good writing hooks the reader and keeps them coming back for more. Conversely, poor writing detracts from the blogger’s own message.

I like the spirit of what Morrow is trying to do here, I really do. He wants to encourage bloggers who may not be the best writers, or who may not have confidence in their writing ability. In some ways, that’s exactly what I try to do here with every post. I want to help other Internet writers improve their craft (and their business).

But Morrow and I disagree about how best to serve other Internet writers and bloggers. Rather than encourage them to hone their craft, Morrow seems to be suggesting they develop a catchy gimmick. This is somewhat surprising, given that Morrow himself says that, rather than being born with a pen in hand, he devoted years to honing his craft. So, why wouldn’t he encourage other writers to do the same?

My message, instead, is this:

If you’re a poor writer, don’t worry. You can still be a successful blogger. You’ll need to work hard to hone your craft so that your writing accents and supports, rather than detracts from, your blog. The good news is that just about anyone can become a good writer with a little bit of hard work.

So, what do you think? Is good writing really necessary to have a good blog?

When I started The Writing Journey just over a year ago, this blog was something of an experiment. I’d run several blogs before, with relatively little success in terms of garnering subscribers. Some were personal blogs, devoted to a particular hobby. Others were attempts to blog in a certain niche area, in hopes of generating revenue via advertising or affiliate income.

The Writing Journey was different. Sure, I ran Adsense in the early days. And yes, I’ve found a handful of affiliate programs that I can really believe in to promote over time. But this blog was more about giving back: sharing my experiences as a professional writer, and helping other Internet writers achieve their dreams.

Through this blog, I’ve met many other Internet writers. I’ve formed business alliances, landed writing gigs, had the privilege of mentoring several writers, and just had an overall good time.

Unfortunately, late last year I let the passion slip a bit. Writing my regular blog post became something of a chore. I found myself struggling to find something more interesting, more useful, more inspiring than what I’d posted before.

A day or two without a post turned into a week, a week turned into a month, and a month turned into three. I broke the number one rule of blogging.

And what is the number one rule of blogging?

To blog successfully, you have to post consistently.

Now, I don’t feel too terribly bad about all of this; after all, this blog has primarily been a labor of love. Not blogging hasn’t horribly impacted my bottom line. Still, I’ve missed it. And, I’ve missed you, my readers.

I’ve also realized something: not every post has to be profound. Well-written, yes. Useful in one way or another, of course. But some of the most important lessons about being a professional writer are the simplest. It’s not nearly as important that I be clever in a post as it is that I post to begin with.

At any rate, without making any grand pronouncements of broad commitments, I do want to let you know I’m back. It’s been a long, cold winter, but I’ve missed you all. I hope to get back into the habit of consistently writing here, of interacting with you and helping you achieve your dreams, even as I’m living mine.

(I’ll be continuing with my series on how to start your freelance writing business on Monday, but I wanted to hold it off just through the weekend. I received an email yesterday from Yaro Starak regarding his Blog Mastermind program, and thought my readers might find this information valuable. Enjoy this message on behalf of Yaro.

DISCLAIMER: the links below are affiliate links. I do earn some money if you enroll in Blog Mastermind by clicking on them. However, I encourage you to enroll whether or not you do it via my links, as I think Yaro’s advice will prove extremely valuable if you have any interest whatsoever in making money from your blog.)

Unless you are an Australian you probably don’t know this.

The Australian dollar has dropped dramatically, from 95 cents US a few months ago, to about 68 cents US as I type this.

Why this matters to you is that Yaro Starak’s blog coaching program, Blog Mastermind, charges admission in Australian dollars.

I’ve already raved about this program before and if you don’t believe me, just do a search on Google for “Blog Mastermind Reviews” to see what other people are saying.

It’s the only program of it’s kind that teaches you how to make a full time living from blogging only part time, and is led by one of the best blog teachers I know of.

Already over a 1,000 people have taken part in the program, with many satisfied graduates earning good money from their blogs.

YOU CAN SAVE IF YOU ACT BEFORE MONDAY

If you paid for entry into the program right now with a credit card that is in US dollars, you would save roughly 32% off the entry fee, because the course fees are in Australian dollars.

If you ordered the $97 month for six months plan, your credit card statement would show about $66 as
long as the Aussie dollar remained where it is now.

For the $497 AUD prepaid package, where you get the entire program up front, the cost on your US card would show roughly $338.

Note of course these prices are subject to change based on the current exchange rates, but it doesn’t look like the Australian dollar will climb back up any time soon (but who knows!).

It really doesn’t matter though, because Yaro is changing his pricing from Monday and will be charging in American dollars then. So you only have until Monday to save.

You can join here.

When you go to the payment page you will see prices of $97 or $497 depending on what you choose.

Those prices are in Australian dollars, so the discount will show up if you pay with a US dollar credit card, assuming the Aussie dollar was still weaker when you ordered.

THE $97 MONTH PAYMENT PLAN IS GOING TOO

On Monday Yaro is also eliminating the $97 a month pricing plan. He said he does have plans to bring it back, but because of his bank and online shopping cart system, he can’t charge in USD for recurring subscriptions.

Until he changes his system or they upgrade the features, there won’t be a $97 a month option, only a $497 prepaid course option.

To put it in simple terms – If you want to join Blog Mastermind, the cheaper price deadline is Monday, so you better decide soon.

Here’s the order page.

Good luck with your blog and make sure you tell me what you think of Yaro’s course if you join.

(The following is a guest post from Philippe-Antoine Menard, the Chatty DM. Phil is a good friend who I had the pleasure of meeting in person at Gen Con this year. Like many of my other readers, Phil aspires to make his living writing. He’s got some great ideas about his niche, roleplaying games, as well as writing in general. Enjoy! – Bob)

I’m a Writer, because I blog or write Standard Operating Procedures for a Living.

I’m a Writer, because I’m a Dungeon Master and write adventures for my friends.

Late last summer, at the Gen Con gaming convention (One of the biggest in North America), I’ve met many awesome people from the Role Playing Game (RPG) industry (and others like myself, sitting at the edge of
it) and many of them are Writers.

I don’t know why they are Writers, but I’m a Writer because, given the opportunity to write about the things I love, I would do it 12 hours a day. Hell, I’d rather write than sleep!

Along with spending time with my family and gaming with my friends, writing makes me satisfied and happy. It brings me in the Flow: Time just stops existing while I spew stuff my mind makes up on the spot, my fingers flying on the keyboard at a speed that nearly matches my excited geek diatribes.

I’m a Writer, and I post my stuff on the Internet because I chose to ignore my doubts and stopped listening to my Inner Demons. I knew I had talent and I’ve managed to get a lot better  since I started blogging 1 year ago.

I would like to become a published author of RPG material. I’d love to write the sequel to Robin Laws’
Rules of Game Mastering. I’d go absolutely geek-crazy to see my name on a Dungeon/Dragon/Kobolds Quarterly (RPG magazines) article.

If there was a way to make a decent living out of it, I’d quit my job in 5 minutes and never look back.

Thing is, in the RPG industry, gamers won’t pay 400$ for a printed game system. While some would spend it for getting a graphics cards just to play this One computer Game, you won’t see this happening in the
RPG industry.

Writers are paid like crap and amateur writer/fans often give out their work for free.

That’s not freaking fair but that’s life. I understand why it’s like that and thank god that the people in the industry are so nice. Quite often, just having a quick chat (or better yet a game) with a designer you admire makes up for all the work you poured into that adventure you wrote to run for their company at a game convention.

I don’t have the courage to leave my current job and jeopardize my family’s security to pursue that dream. I do it in my free time and I make plans, dark, sinister plans.

You Writers deserve better.

That’s why I bought a new copy of Mutants and Masterminds, that’s why I bought a Harley Stroh (a young rising Adventure Writer) D&D adventure at Gen Con . That’s why I gave Wolfgang Baur money to write a D&D adventure and why I bought his Kobold Guide to Game Design.

Guys, you may be paid peanuts, but you deserve all the support you can get.

Same thing goes for the talented, gutsy bloggers out there. You deserve more recognition for the awesome RPG stuff you’ve been writing these last few years.

My latest crazy idea is be to find a way for RPG bloggers to get access to better ad revenues and explore ways to be paid for the good material they put out. So far, things are promising.

Guys, look at what Joss Whedon (Creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Wolfgang Baur are doing and find something to break the current system.

Therein lies the solution, or so I would like to believe.

Toying with perceptions, making truth out of lies and unmaking the impossible, isn’t what being a Writer is all about?

Good morning, everyone! It’s a bit early here in mid-Michigan, and it seems to be a perfect morning for just a little bit of navel gazing.

I’ve spent some time thinking, ever since the Pen Men took their little blogging vacation during the summer, about how this blog has evolved. When I started The Writing Journey, I wanted to offer Internet writers advice about writing online, finding gigs, using article directories and the overall writing process.

Everything was humming along just fine until a wrote a post called Bang Your Gong: A Call For Action From The Internet Writing Community. For me, that post started a process where I really had to think long and hard about how I was going to help Internet writers achieve their dreams; getting my vision, discovering my voice, establishing my brand.

Since then, I’ve even started coaching a handful of writing clients. This program is a stopgap measure, designed to allow me to help other writers while I’m in the process of developing my membership-based writers training program.

Because my freelance business has grown by leaps and bounds, I find myself constantly juggling tasks, and putting one against another. When that happens, as anyone else in the freelance business can tell you, some aspects of the business model are bound to suffer.

For me, the part that’s suffered has been my blog. My posting frequence has been rather sporatic over the summer, becuase of all these growing pains.

I’m not apologizing or complaining, mind you; I’m not Darren Rowse, and I don’t intend to be. My business model doesn’t rely on my blog for success, and daily posting has never been a hard and fast rule for me.

However, in order to help other writers achieve their dreams, I feel like a more consistent posting schedule would be in order at The Writing Journey.

All that being said, I’ve decided to follow the lead of the Men with Pens and take a bit of a break.  I’m not going away forever, not by any means. I am, however, going to take the next 11 days off.

In that time, I’ll be working up some new content for the blog, as well as spending some extra time on my membership-based writer’s training program. When I return on September 15, 2008, I’ll have a more regular posting schedule for you, with posts three times a week.

Now, I know I’ll be missed while I’m gone. Try not to take it too hard Enjoy yourselves, out there elsewhere in the ether, but be sure to come back on the 15th and we’ll all get reacquainted.