PureBlogging

Photography: purple passion FSOD by PinkMoose…

I opened my feed reader the other day and was greeted by yet another article on choosing a topic for your blog. Choosing an appropriate topic is crucial if you want to be successful but my complaint is about the advice that I see given in almost everyone of these articles.

Passion is almost always trumpeted as being the most important factor in choosing a topic. I disagree with this assumption. I don’t know about you, but I can be passionate about something one week and be burned out before you know it.

Don’t get me wrong, it is important but in order to succeed as a blogger you must have a better than average knowledge of your chosen topic.

What Do You Know?

With that in mind, don’t choose a topic that you know very little about. First of all, learning about your topic as you go will only alienate your potential readers. Second, if you don’t know anything about your topic now chances are your current enthusiasm will diminish, and you’ll be left with another blog that’s a chore to update. I’ve been there and I bet you have too.

If you are not already an expert in any particular field, choose an area you believe you may like and buy some books, subscribe to the leading blogs, and visit the established forums for that topic. After you have immersed yourself in your topic of choice for a few weeks you’ll have a good idea whether you have found a winner. If nothing else, you will be more well read and have a better grasp of your topic than most of your competition.

Check Out the Competition

You also need to get a lay of the land before jumping into a new topic. Spend some time studying the competition… Observe their writing styles, make notes of their strengths and weaknesses, see how they interact with their readers. Learn from their mistakes and try to develop a new approach or try to cover the topic in a new and entertaining way.

Even if the topic is crowded, a creative approach could allow you to create sufficient traffic and build a strong base of readers. On the other hand, if after studying the competition you feel there is nothing new or innovative you can contribute, your time would probably be better spent elsewhere.

Take a Look Ahead

Before you decide to tackle a particular topic, stop to realize that whatever topic you choose will become a focal point of your every day. Your interest in and knowledge of the topic will need to be strong enough to get you through times when you aren’t sure you can bring yourself to read or write another word on the subject.

Consider this fact carefully because you don’t want to be stuck with a topic you can’t stand and blog you hate. That would be too much like a job, and I bet you don’t want another one of those.

I’m going to show you how you can write with authority and inspire trust by providing you with information and techniques you can apply to your writing. People want reliable information they can trust. A trusting readership is a platform from which you may launch anything you like, including ethical monetization efforts which will succeed.

In the recent past, I helped a friend of mine change direction for his blog as he shifted from one type of work to another, related field. His problem was that his announcement was very meek-sounding and wishy-washy. It had no boldness to it, nor did it speak with authority. Because of this, my friend’s decision appeared arbitrary and he made himself seem as though he lacked the skill to excel in his new field. Nothing could have been more untrue, but he hurt himself with his writing.

All it took for him to really improve his game was for me to tell him what I’m telling you in this article. Now his writing is much more mature, solid, and bold. He speaks with authority, which inspires trust in his skills. You can do this, too. I’m going to tell you some of what I told him and more (more because this is general and the context is different). Here we go:

Know what you’re talking about in the first place

Does this really need to be said? Considering all the blogs out there about how to make money online by people who aren’t earning a dime online, I’d say yes. You must know what you’re talking about, or game over. Are you an expert in your subject?

Prove you have experience

Prove you have experience in your field by relating it to your audience. I just did that in this article’s second paragraph when I told you the story of my friend. I do it on my own blog in order to sell blog consulting services when I relate the successes of my clients. This technique cannot be applied to every post you write or your writing will be formulaic and repetitious. How are you proving to your audience that you have trustworthy experience?

Begin with a strong lead

Go back to the beginning of this article and read the first sentence again.

It is matter-of-fact and it tells you what you’re going to get from this article. It is a statement without flourish or slight-of-hand with the wording. In journalism, this is known as a strong lead. When you write sentences before your main point in order to set up your main point, in nearly all cases you are weakening your writing, which weakens your authority. Telling readers exactly what they’re going to get from reading an article isn’t the only way to do this, as Brian Clark shows us here, but it is a simple and effective method anyone can use. Are you beginning your articles with strong leads?

Remove qualifiers from your language

Would you feel that I carried authority and was trustworthy if my first paragraph read like the one below?

I would like to show you how you too might be able to write with authority and inspire trust by providing you with information and techniques you can hopefully apply to your writing. I believe that people often want reliable information they feel they can trust. In my opinion, a mostly trusting readership can be a platform from which you may launch anything you like, including ethical monetization efforts which have a good chance to succeed.

Of course I exaggerated for effect–but not by much! Wishy-washy language communicates to others that you are unsure of yourself. This creates an unpleasant dissonance in the mind of your reader, who wants to see you an expert, but you undermine this with your language. Your writing must sound confident and sure of itself in order to be authoritative and inspire trust.

Ignore feelings of inadequacy that spring up inside you as you edit your writing! I know this is common, and I used to experience it myself, but I do not any longer. That is your inner saboteur whispering to you. Tell it to shut up and take a hike. Show a little courage. Remember that readers want to see you as an expert. You need to meet them halfway and sound like one.

Command your reader

Yes, that’s right, I said command. When I told you to go back and reread the first paragraph above, did you do it? Have you noticed that the headline to this article and each sub-head is a command? I’m not being a bombastic blowhard. But I am telling you what to do, and that is exactly what you want. After all, what did you read this article for? To learn how to write with authority in a way that inspires trust. How are you going to do that if I don’t tell you? How could you trust me if this article isn’t a good example of its own precepts?

Never deceive, always keep your word

Trust is something that builds up in the minds of your readers over time, and it can be shattered with a single deception or broken promise. The perception of your authority is transformed into an ugly sense of betrayal in the minds of your readers. One of the great things about blogs is that they are like one giant sales brochure in the form of posts and comments. Over time, if you can prove that your word is good and that you can follow through, your readers will trust you. If your blog is for business marketing purposes, this is a most precious achievement. Are you doing anything on your blog that if your readers found out they would lose trust in you?

Authority challenge

Writing with authority is a conscious decision. So decide. You can begin to apply these techniques to that blog post you have in draft right now. If part of your problem is that you need more knowledge or skill, get it as fast as you can, because everything you write between now and then will be a waste of time.

Tell me about a post you wrote where you applied these techniques in the comments below. Let’s work together to provide more examples for everyone. I will freely make recommendations and point out good examples so that the whole group benefits.

Any blogger that is looking to gain exposure and build an audience has to consider how to go about reaching new readers. Some bloggers who view their work as a business are willing to pay for some exposure through banner ads, paid reviews, pay-per-click ads, etc. Those who are willing to invest some money into building their blog are obviously going to have some more opportunities to get in front of new readers, but in my opinion there is a method of advertising or self promotion that is more effective than any of these methods, and it’s free! Despite the combination of effectiveness and no cost, there are still plenty of opportunities for just about any blogger to use this method.

What is this “magical” form of promotion?

While it technically isn’t a form of advertising, writing guest posts for other blogs can be far more effective than traditional forms of advertising. Part of the problem with banner ads and sponsored reviews is that readers know that they are the subject of your advertisement. So in many cases, advertising is more effective when it’s really promotion and exposure rather than traditional advertising.

Why Guest Posting Works

Guest posting on other blogs in your niche is effective because it allows you to sell yourself by presenting your knowledge and putting it on display for readers. A banner ad cannot prove your worth to readers, but a guest post can.

How Guest Posting Differs from Traditional Advertising

Promoting yourself through guest posts is more subtle and less intrusive to readers than banner ads or sponsored reviews. Most readers are not interested in advertisements and they tune them out. But when they ignore advertisements, what are they directing their attention towards? The content of the blog. And when your guest post is the content that they are paying attention to, you have their focus and attention.

An advertisement projects your message directly to readers. There’s very little interpretation on their part. You’re trying to convince them of something or grab their attention to draw a click. With a guest post you don’t have to grab their attention in the same way. You have an entire post to make your point, and if you do it well there is a small, subtle link to your own blog in the bio at the beginning or the end of the post. A guest post gives the reader freedom to choose to pursue your “advertisement” by clicking on the link in the bio.

I think many times one of the problems with banner ads is that readers are hesitant to click even if it’s something that might interest them. First, there might be some doubt as to where the link will take them or a lack of trust for an advertiser. This is rarely an issue with guest posts because you’ve had a better chance to earn their trust throughout the post, and you have a chance to clearly tell them where they’ll go when they click on your link. Second, I think some readers want to ignore banners because they think the ads will increase or become more intrusive if they actually click on them. There can be a resistance to paid ads because they may feel like as a reader they’re being sold.

With a paid advertisement or a sponsored review readers are told something about you or why they should click-through to your blog. With a guest post you’re just writing a useful, interesting post and if they want to find out more about you they can click-through. Rather than telling them why they should visit your blog, you’re proving that they should visit by demonstrating your knowledge of the subject at hand.

Human nature (especially in today’s commercial society) is to resist being sold on something. The guest post takes a more laid back approach that can be less off-putting to readers.

Guest Posting Isn’t Really Advertising

Despite the title of this post, I do realize that guest posting is not really advertising. However, it allows you to accomplish many of the same objectives that an advertisement would, and in most cases it’s even more effective.

Although your purpose in writing a guest post is to get something back, you shouldn’t directly sell yourself. Don’t abuse the platform that you’re being given to tell people about yourself and your blog. Instead, write the best post that you’re capable of, and use a brief two or three sentence bio that includes a link to your blog to tell readers more about you.

My Experience with Guest Posting

When I started my blog last summer, guest posting was one of the primary methods I used to promote myself and draw traffic back to my blog. Over a span of two or three months I had about 20 posts published on a number of different blogs. While none of these guest posts drew a huge response individually, the collective effort was one the biggest keys to getting my blog off the ground and building a solid base of subscribers.

Writing guest posts for other blogs gave me an excellent opportunity to network with other bloggers, many of whom I am still in contact with. It also led to paid writing positions on three different blogs, including PureBlogging.

A few months ago I launched a second blog of my own, and while I’ve had little time to this point to do much promotion for the blog, I have had very good success with a few guest posts, particularly two that I’ve written for ProBlogger.

How to Get Started

If you’re interested in taking some action and making the most of the guest posting opportunities that exist, here are some steps that you can take to get started.

1 - Find some blogs in your niche that accept guest posts

Not all bloggers are interested in publishing the work of others, but you may be surprised that most are more than willing. Take a look at some of the blogs that you read on a regular basis and pay attention to which ones publish posts from other writers. You’ll probably see a few right away that you know will be open to the idea of publishing your post. However, there are many others that would be willing to publish a guest post, but others simply don’t offer to write for them. Find some other blogs in your niche that you think target an audience that is very similar to yours. Don’t necessarily go for the largest blogs right away. I started by writing for many blogs with anywhere from 100 - 1,000 subscribers and this is enough to get some results. Once I felt more comfortable and more confident, I began to approach larger blogs.

2 - Approach the blog owner with a simple introduction and an offer to guest post

Once you’ve identified a few possibilities, take a few moments to write a personal message. It it’s not someone that already knows you, provide a brief introduction and simply ask if they are interested in receiving guest posts for their blog.

3 - Don’t hold back. Offer your best work

After you’ve had some positive responses about a willingness to publish your guest posts, make sure that you provide them with the best work that you are capable of. The common feeling from most bloggers is to hold their best work for their own blogs, and as a result the guest posts are of lower quality. If you want to get the most out of your guest posting opportunities, do the absolute best job that you can do. You’ll get more clicks from readers and more subscribers.

4 - Get involved in the comments

Once your post has been published, be sure to go back and participate in the comments with readers. This gives you another opportunity to interact and draw more visitors to your blog, plus it is essentially your responsibility as the writer to answer questions and respond to feedback.

5 - Promote your article with social media

It’s in your best interest to get as much exposure to your guest post as possible. In theory, the more people that see your post, the more people will click-through to your blog. One of the best, and easiest, things you can do is to promote the post with social media. Give it a thumbs up with StumbleUpon or submit it to other social media sites. You may want to share it with some of your friends to request a vote

What’s Your Experience?

Have you written guest posts for other blogs? How has it helped you to build your name recognition and gain subscribers?

Welcome to this week’s edition of Weekend Links! Every Friday, I reward the active members of this community by featuring an interesting post from the top commentators.

If you would like to see your post featured here, just join the conversation by commenting regularly and next week you just may make the list.

• Steven Snell lists 45 photo editing tutorials for Photoshop.
• Sharon Hurley Hall reminds us that it’s never good to count your chickens before they hatch.
• Michael Martine has posted some photos and videos from SOBCon 08.
• David at DavidNordmark.com decides to change the direction and focus of his blog.
• David at FullTiltBlogging does a little bragging. Keep up the great work David!
• Eric Brantner has a few tips on selecting a domain name.

Let’s also take a look at few of my favorites posts from the old feed reader this week.

• Men with Pens wants you to discover your MonkeyBoy. One of the best posts I’ve read in a while.
• Blogtrepreneur has a resource you want to check out if your looking to add a job board to your blog.
• CommunitySpark wants you to decide who you are before you start blogging.
• MsDanielle turned 31 this week. Happy birthday!
• eXtra For Every Publisher wonders if Google is getting soft.

Have a great weekend!

A quick post for a busy week:

Right outside my apartment building, just around the corner on Hollywood Boulevard, is a huge advertisement for Grand Theft Auto IV. Not being a video game guy, I had no idea this game was coming out, so the billboard was my first exposure to it.

“Oh for the love of god,” I thought. “Here we go again.”

Every time one of these games comes out, there’s a bevy of opinions flying about: Concerned parents ask if someone won’t please Think Of The Children; feminists complain that the games are insensitive to women; gamers complain about everything, claiming that it’s Just A Game and we should all Get Over It. I’m not a gamer myself, and for the most part couldn’t care a whole lot less about the matter, but I know I’m going to see posts about it for at least the next week or so.

Well, I shouldn’t be so morose. It’s a pain, but it’s also a blessing.

The great thing about popular topics is that they’re popular. It’s potentially a direct line to a popular post; if you’ve already managed to garner a decent audience, your readers are naturally going to be interested in what you’ve got to say about the Next Big Thing. It doesn’t have to be as big as a video game that gets its own billboards on one of the most traveled surface roads on the West Coast; it could be some new app that’s popular in your niche, or a development that’s set to change the way people do business in your field.

Here are a few approaches you may want to take when there’s something everyone is talking about:

Resist the urge. If you run a political blog or a gaming blog, it might make sense to talk about GTA. But if you don’t, it doesn’t — it’s that simple. Offering your opinion on every possible issue doesn’t make you a pundit, it makes you a loudmouth.

Make the complexity work for you. Too often, we boil the issue of the day into something binary: Either video games are too violent and misogynistic, or they’re not. And even though just about everything is more complex than that, we still tend to reserve our creative thinking for the rationale we use as to why we picked the side we did. But if we just spent a few more minutes brainstorming (instead of rushing to get a post up), chances are, we’d find a unique take on the situaiton.

Use it as a segue into something more relevant to your niche. See what I did there? I wasn’t about to write a post about what I think of Grand Theft Auto — it doesn’t matter to this blog’s readers, and as I said, I don’t really care about the whole issue anyway. But it did give me a great lead-in to this week’s post. Which, you’ll notice, is about a wholly unrelated topic.

It’s like your mom used to say: If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump off too? Okay, actually I don’t think anyone’s mom says this anymore. Mine never did. But it’s true. And what would you rather do: Jump off the bridge, or try to figure out why everyone else is jumping off, and give a wry and humorously incisive analysis of it?

Looks like another month has come and gone. As we move into May, I thought I would give you a list of the most popular posts from April 2008 just in case you missed anything.

• The Simple Trick to Ultimate Creativity on Your Blog - Michael continues his crusade against mediocrity and gives you a tip that will help you be more creative.
• Five Lessons From The Blog Black Hole - Sharon recently got caught up in a bad situation and the outcome wasn’t pretty. She decided to share her experience so you can avoid ending up in her shoes.
• Are You Truly Engaging Your Audience? - Kevin explores an important aspect of blogging… connecting with your readers.
• My Blog Needs a New Theme - What Option Should I Choose? - Steven explores the good, the bad, and the ugly of choosing a new theme.
• Five Things MetaFilter Does Right - Kevin takes a look at the good points of MetaFilter.
• Blogging is Changing - Are You Ready? - Michael takes a look at the future of blogging.
• Kill Your Blog Now! - Michael is on a Holy crusade… a crusade to rid the web of boring, cookie cutter blogs. ‘Tis a courageous and noble quest indeed.
• Five Creative Thinking Methods That’ll Send Writer’s Block Packing - Kevin shares his strategies for beating the dreaded writer’s block.
• 12 Ways to Increase Your Freelance Blogging Workload - Are you a freelance blogger? Steven shows you how to find more work.
• Extending Your Reach in the Blogosphere - Steven discusses extending your blog’s reach and provides a list of ways to impact your target market.
• Become A Blogger To Look Up To - Kathryn shares a list of ways in which you can be an inspiration to others as a blogger.
• Five Reasons To Keep On Blogging - Sharon provides a few reasons why you might want to keep plugging away on that blog of yours.

Thanks for another great month! We really appreciate you taking the time to stop by and read what we have to say.