Entries Tagged 'Blogging' ↓

Curb Your Enthusiasm is the funniest show currently on television. There–I said it. And you don’t have to agree with me. But quite frankly, you’re wrong if you don’t. Whatever show out there you think is funnier…it isn’t. Not unlike Seinfeld, the show is just plain smart. Which only serves to prove that Larry David is the brains behind all of it.

Now being a freelance writer, I have this really annoying habit of trying to compare everything in the world to my writing career. And I also have this annoying habit of comparing every life situation to something that happened on Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm. Having said that, I’ve been thinking, why not take a look at both? Sort of meld them together?

So with that in mind, I’ve come up with a few simple truths about our business that we can learn from watching Larry. Here goes…

Don’t be afraid to piss people off

Here’s a secret: pretty much every episode of Curb has the same formula. And it begins with a good intentioned Larry pissing someone off. And while he doesn’t mean to, at the same time he isn’t afraid to. Why? Because he stands up for what he believes in–his principles–no matter how ridiculous they may be. And he doesn’t apologize either.

Now when it comes to blogging, you’ve got to take chances. Meaning, you need to put your real views out there, no matter how silly or unpopular they may sound. The fact is–when a post is created with passion, readers can tell. They can also tell when you’re just throwing out some empty drivel to fulfill the need for “another post.”

And sometimes these controversial posts are better for business anyway. For example, my last post about Google killing Facebook–let’s just say there are quite a few people who don’t agree with me. In fact, I was at a writer’s meeting for a magazine the other day and a web guy basically laughed at me when I started talking about my post. But hey, guess what? I think it will happen. And I’m going to laugh my butt off and be overly obnoxious about it when it comes to pass. And if it doesn’t? Oh well. I’ll deal with it somehow then. maybe deny ever saying it? Hmmm.. wonder how Larry would handle it?

Now at the same time, be careful not to write stuff that screams “hey look at my crazy off-the-wall opinion!” because your readers will see right through what you’re doing. Obviously, you’re just begging for attention. And who likes that?

Know when to let things go

While Larry is great about speaking his mind and not stepping down, he’s also not very good about knowing when to walk away, which makes up another piece of the show’s formula. He will keep something going, an argument for example, way longer than necessary. To the point where it’s extremely uncomfortable and you have your hands over your face, shaking your head in disbelief. And laughing too, of course.

Case in point, episode one of the new season. ***SPOILER ALERT*** If you haven’t seen it yet. Stop reading now! Otherwise…continue.

So Larry’s working on getting back with his ex-wife and it looks like everything is going great. They’re starting to make out and just when you think it’s on, so to speak, he has a realization: his ex-wife was the one who made a water stain on a wooden table at a friend’s party. And he was blamed for it. A seemingly unimportant event of the past, right? Well not to a man of principle like Larry.

As a result, he proceeds to tell her she needs to call his friend and explain that she made the water stain. Obviously his ex wanted nothing to do with it. Yet Larry persisted. And persisted. And persisted. Until eventually she got up and left.

And divorced him.

Now, as a blogger, there are going to be times when we get into it with people. Perhaps commenters. Perhaps clients. Whatever the case, you need to know when to stop. Whether it’s arguing back and forth in the replies or it’s bickering via email…at some point you have to know when to close your mouth and walk away. Otherwise you;re going to pull a Larry and start losing readers and/or clients.

Be spontaneous

Did you know that each episode of Curb has a very loose script that acts more like an outline than anything else? So Larry and his fellow actors basically make everything up as they go along. The benefits here are obvious:

• It feels more real to the cast.
• It feels more real to the audience.
• Natural humor comes forth because nothing is forced.

That said, I have a confession to make. I’m making this all up as I go along. I didn’t even type a draft into Microsoft Word or anything. I decided before starting that I was going to open up WordPress and fire away. And whatever came out, that’s what I’m going to post. Hell, I’m not even going to edit this. As soon as I’m done I’m hitting “Publish.”

So I’m putting this point to the test. And you can let me know if you think the whole idea of “flying by the seat of your pants” really works. This can be sort of a case study, right? Please feel free to dissect this idea in the comments.

Please cue the Curb theme music in your head. No wrap up. No conclusion. Doo-do-doo-doooooooo-do-do….

Okay, I have a confession to make. My blog sucks. I don’t think this was always the case, but the truth in the here-and-now is that it’s pretty crappy. But luckily, I think there are some things we can all learn from my crappy blog. Let’s take a closer look.

What’s the Problem?

As with all business ventures, it’s crucial to take a step back every now and then and evaluate what’s going on. I recently did this with my copywriting agency, HELP! Copy & Design, and now I’ve decided to do it here with the Part Time Writer. Except, I’m making this revaluation public. Care to listen in?

1. I didn’t do enough research in the beginning. I’ve been copywriting for a few years now. That includes writing actual web and print copy, as well as article writing and blogging. However, this blog is my first real attempt at running my own blog. Well, besides and education-based blog that I did for a bit. Which incidentally had one post that went MASSIVE. But the rest…eh. Anyway, the fact is, I didn’t know much about running my own blog. Sure I knew how to pick good topics and how to write engaging posts (see Sending Your Blog to Hell for what I consider to be a pretty good example of just that), but as far as building and growing a healthy blog–well, I just sort of jumped right in. What I should have done was do my homework, formulated a growth plan, and stuck with it. Which leads me to my next screw up.
2. I didn’t stick with it. At first I was all about posting to the Part Time Writer. After all, it seemed like a great idea. the perfect niche. Guys like myself breaking into the freelancing world on a part time basis…trying to figure out how to make this their career. However, somewhere along the way, I became disenchanted. Posting every day moved to every week. Every week moved to every month. And so on. But why did I become disenchanted? Do I just have a short attention span or what?
3. I didn’t make any money. Let’s face it, that’s what this all boils down too. See, when I’m writing copy for people, I’m making money. GOOD money. But when I’m writing these blogs, I’m not seeing  a single penny. There’s no short term gain.  Which means that…
4. My whole reason for starting this blog is all wrong. I wanted  a way to generate cash. I planned on doing so by selling ad space and eventually selling some ebooks I was working on. But I planned on making the cash quick. And when I didn’t see it happen, I got annoyed and bored. So then I decided, why not repurpose the blog?
5. I was writing posts for links. It’s not uncommon for people to have offsite blogs to generate links back to their primary site. But let’s face it–usually those blogs suck. but what did I do? I turned this blog into a place to post thrown-together, half-assed posts in order to insert links back to my copywriting site. For what? A little extra Google juice? Let’s face it, these posts probably did little to help my site’s ranking. But they did serve to scare off any readers looking for good, outside-the-box content.
6. My WordPress theme is lame. If  you think you’ve seen it before, you have. It’s copyblogger. You know, one of the most famous copywriting blogs in the world. Yeah. I wish their blog was mine, right? Imitation… the sincerest form of flattery? Gag me. I know I need a new theme. It would make this whole site look and feel more legit.
7. I never spent the time and energy I should have to properly promote it. Sure a few posts made it on SERPD. And sure I tweeted some links. But have I ever really done anything to give this blog the push it needed? Negative.

Now What?

So where do I go from here? The way I look at it,  have three options:

1. I can shut this POS down now and erase it from the face of the Earth.
2. I can crap out 300 word posts that take me 10 minutes to “create” and get a link back to my business site in hopes that it’ll help my rankings a bit.
3. I can use my self reevaluation to make some changes, formulate a new plan, and relaunch the blog.

Which will I choose? To be honest, I’m not quite sure. My copywriting business is booming, making me real money as we speak. Do I have time to invest in a blog that won’t pay off for quite some time… if ever? I just don’t know if I can commit to it.

What You Can Learn from All of This

Before you launch a blog, create a plan and stick with it. And like investing, be in it for the long term. Short term investors end up losing money and interest. And finally, you have to work your butt off, day in and day out to build your readership. This isn’t a get rich quick kind of deal. I’m living proof of that.

Apparently ours is. We’ve posted like once in the last two weeks. I’m not going to make excuses. We’re just really busy with the hustle and bustle the season has to offer. That said, there’s gotta be a way to keep it going through these busy, stressful times. Here’s what I’m going to do next year to make sure we keep getting freelance writing tips out to you guys on a timely manner during the holidays.

• Have a blogging contest–I’ve been tossing this one around for awhile. There’s definitely going to be a contest here at Part Time Writer in the future. I think it might be the next step to boosting traffic here. However, I want to make sure we have some product offering up and running first. I’ve already written an eBook giving pointers on how to get your freelane writing career up and running. We’re going to give it away for free in exchange for you signing up for our mailing list. However, it’s still in the editing phase. We’re also going to have some products for sale as well. I think it’s feasible to say we’ll have all of that together and out there within the year. So expect a blogging contest here next holiday season!
• Guest blogging–I keep saying I’m going to push to get people to guest blog on here. I even posted about it once over at www.myblogguest.com but I haven’t really worked to find people. Got a few responses but most were, meh. Anyway, if you’re reading this and would like to do a guest post, hit me up. I’m always open and it would certainly help us out of the holiday slump. And of course, it’s good for your link building as well.
• Plan ahead–I tend to do everything last minute. Which is okay usually. I thrive under pressure. It worked through high school, through college, throughout my teaching career. But honestly, it’s been catching up with me as of late. Now that my recurring jobs are stacking up, I’m finding myself stressing hugely. So next season, I’m going to do my best to plan ahead. Outline some PTW posts early one so I can have the skeletons ready to flesh out close to Christmas.

Someone help me out here. What measures do you take to keep your blog from stagnating during the holiday season?

Let me start by saying, I think it’s okay to publish blog posts on the weekend. Now let me follow that by saying, most people probably just shook their head and called me an idiot or something worse. And I get it. There are plenty of reasons not to post to your blog on the weekend. Namely that statistics show that weekday posts get more hits. Which seems to be true. So what argument could I possibly make in favor of posting on the weekend? Well, here goes…

Weekend Posts Get Shared More on Facebook

When doing a little research on the statistics, I fell across a pretty in-depth post on Problogger that did a great job at using graphs and what not to break it down for us. And among the findings, the author asserts that weekend posts, namely Saturday posts, tend to get shared more on Facebook. He even includes a handy graph for you visual learners. The reasoning? Well most companies block Facebook. So it only stands to reason that people will catch up on their “Facebooking” over the weekend. So if you post something particularly interesting on the weekend, you open yourself up to an audience you wouldn’t otherwise reach during the week.

It’s not as hard to get seen on social news sharing sites

It stands to reason, since most people post to their blogs during the week, that it’s easier to get to the front page on sites like Digg and Reddit on the weekends. There’s less competition. During the week you’re a small fish in a gigantic ocean. On the weekend, you’re still a small fish, but the ocean’s a bit smaller.

Is it really about timing?

Maybe the question isn’t so much about when you should time your posts. Maybe it should be more about how often you post. If you’re goal is to get more eyes glued to your blog, your best bet is to quit worrying so much about when to post and instead just start churning them out. While it doesn’t follow a solid equation, it’s hard to argue with the fact that posting multiple times a day brings in more readers. Whether you’re posting on Monday, Wednesday, or Saturday, the idea is to put out quality content as often as possible.

My personal opinion

I don’t know about you, but I get bored on the weekend. Especially in the mornings. So I want something good to read. And I don’t subscribe to a newspaper anymore, so that means I’m looking online. Give me good content on a weekend morning and you’re going to get my undivided attention. It’s kind of like weekend television. Most of it sucks. So if there are one or two good shows on, I’ll make sure to watch them. It’s that simple.

So what do you think? Post on the weekend? Or not?