Written by Patti Stafford from Patti Stafford

Do you have Writer’s Funk? I’m not talking about writer’s block—if you have that you can read Write About Writer’s Block to Get Over Writer’s Block. What I’m talking about is getting in a funk. You have plenty to say, plenty of idea’s mulling around in your head, plenty of material to work from—you just don’t have the desire to write. You say, “But I’m a writer, I’m supposed to write.” Well, that’s true, but a writer’s funk does happen to everyone. It happened to Stephen King after his brush with death. I’m sure it’s happened to more well-known, published authors than we could shake a stick at.

So, what causes it? Well, there’s no definitive answer for that. I can only guess why it happens to other writers, and I can only summarize why it happens to me. It’s akin to burn-out I guess. I will share a few of my thoughts on the matter. If you have any you’d like to share, please feel free to comment. Writer’s should never feel guilty about writer’s block or writer’s funk, so let’s all share our experiences in case a fellow writer is going through the misery of feeling like a failure because he/she just doesn’t want to write.

Possible Causes:

*Writing non-fiction to make money while letting your fiction wither.

~Fiction writer’s often get caught-up in writing non-fiction until their fiction writing starts paying off. The problem stems from losing your creative juices. You don’t have anything left for fiction.

*Giving too much of yourself to other writers.

~You want to help other writers with their dreams, goals and passions, but you spend too much time doing this—either through blogging or message boards—and there’s no (self) nurturing left for you as a writer.

*The need to be reclusive.

~Writers are notorious for being a reclusive group—well they were at one time. That was part of the appeal of being a writer and it was great for people who wanted to be private but still earn a good living. These days, writers aren’t as reclusive as they once were. Maybe you’ve tried to be one of those “out in front” or “out in the mainstream,” type writers, but now you feel the need to pull back some. This is normal, and it’s still part of the appeal of being a writer.

*You just need a break.

~Everyone else gets a vacation and a break from work—it’s no different for a writer. We need to take time away from our work too.

Possible Solutions:

*Cut back on your writing load (if possible). You may just need to lighten your load.

*Walk away for awhile. Everyone in every profession needs a break—even one they are passionate about.

*Try some fun writing or personal journaling. Write down what’s bothering you or write until you discover why you have the funk.

Do you have any other solutions?

---

Copyright © 2009 Blogging Tips. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us so we can take legal action immediately.

The Writer’s Funk


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

Written by Patti Stafford from

Written by Larry Brooks from Story Fix

This is going to be a little different.  My posts usually are, frankly, but this one is personal. 

I’d like to share the story of the last 24 hours of my life.  Which, for me at least, represents a discovery of the inherent potential of online marketing and the importance of listening to the wisdom of our blogging elders.

Which ain’t me, by the way.  Even though I’m here every week, waxing oh-so-confidently knowledgeable.  Fact is, I’ve only been blogging for a little over four months.  I still have to call a friend to explain how to change a widget in Wordpress. 

I’m here Because I’m a Writer

One who blogs.  Not a blogger who writes.  Sometimes that’s a big difference. 

This makes me a bit of a neophyte on one the hand, and it gives me a leg up on the other.  If nothing else than from the fact that I can do for myself that which other bloggers often have to pay for – I can generate killer content.

I’m here at Kevin’s behest to talk about writing.  To tell you that using words such as “ain’t” is perfectly okay.  At least in the proper context. 

Writing isn’t about what your grammar teacher once said or even what she might  think if she read your stuff now, it’s about what the reader gets.  And if my use of the word ain’t rubbed you the wrong way, hey, I’m cool with that.  You can’t hip a square, anyhow.

But I digress.  Here’s the backstory behind these past 24 hours.

The Little Site That Could

My blog is for fiction writers.  In four months I’ve gathered about 900 subscribers – I have no idea if this is good or just okay… I’m pretty sure it’s not bad – and have a few hundred other discreet visitors each day.

Brian Clark isn’t losing any sleep about me breathing down his neck.

A while ago I wrote and released a little ebook on writing tips, and it went over pretty well.  Generated about two grand in revenue over three months.  About what Brian Clark spends on lattes. 

But I kept posting, and I kept hearing from readers that I was delivering something that they couldn’t find elsewhere.  That my posts were making a difference.  Pingbacks started showing up, and gradually my brand began to emerge.

My readers learned that they could trust what I said.  And that’s the key to everything that follows.

Learning As You Go

Meanwhile I was a student of Blogging 101 (I dunno, is there a site by that name?  I have no idea…), and while posting on Bloggingtips.com, I also devoured everything else it offers.  Gradually I became more comfortable here, and thus more confident in putting myself out there on my own site, delivering value without asking for anything in return.

Because that’s what the conventional wisdom says works.

Late yesterday I released my second ebook, which was a compilation of a series of blogs I’d done on story structure, with significant enhancement that includes new material.  It’s called Story Structure – Demystified, aiming at what has turned out to be my niche is this fairly crowded little corner of the internet.

Yeah, I’m the structure guy.  I get hate mail from pantsers, those who write by the seat of their pants with little regard to structure or dramatic principles or what I call story planning.  But that’s fine, as they often make my point for me when they brag about writing a dozen or so drafts of their stories before they feel close to getting it right.  As if that’s a good thing.

Here’s What Happened

The new ebook is virtually (and I mean that literally) flying out the door.  It’s a pre-release, typos and all, not even available yet on Clickbank.  I’ve offered a discount to my subscribers and visitors, who have surprised me with the enthusiasm of their response.

I’ve sold well over 100 copies already.  I’ve already made well over half of the entire revenue generated from the first ebook, and a full day hasn’t gone by.

It’s the math that’s amazing here.  With about 125 sales so far on 900 subscribers, or about 1200 folks counting other visitors today, that’s a conversion ratio of about 10 percent. I dunno, folks, is a 10 percent conversion pretty good?  I’m thinking it is.

 Gets me to thinking about how and why this happened.  Not to mention what might happen going forward as my site grows.

And the Keyword is…

And that can be described in one word: value.  Deliver it, and they will come.  Keep delivering it, and they will stay.  Make your blog about them, not you (like I’m doing here), and they will tell others about it. 

We read this sage advice all the time, here and elsewhere, but I thought it was valuable to put a stamp of validity on it. 

Maybe I’m in the right game after all.  And maybe, with the teacher remaining the student as I go along, my waning career as a professional fiction writer will be resurrected in the process.  I have a new novel coming out in February, and with somewhere around 1500 subscribers to my site by then, that’s a pretty good head start, sales-wise.

I know my creative and entrepreneurial spirit has already been resurrected, and I have my blog to thank for it.  Because I can’t wait to get up tomorrow and see how many new orders are waiting for me. 

Prior to my blog, I just didn’t want to get up at all.

Larry’s new ebook, ‘Story Structure – Demystified,’ is available on his site, Storyfix.com, for a few more days, at a pre-launch discount price of only ten bucks.  You can read a review of it here.

---

Copyright © 2009 Blogging Tips. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us so we can take legal action immediately.

Newsflash: This Stuff Really Works!


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

Written by Larry Brooks from

Written by Sharon Hurley Hall from Get Paid To Write Online

Last weekend I nearly lost my entire blog and it was my own fault. I’ve been in a decluttering phase, so I went to my Bluehost account and decided to delete an old WordPress test install that I wasn’t using anymore. I didn’t think it would be a problem. I’d deleted WordPress installations in the past and the process had always left the database intact. This time it was different and I didn’t realise that till it was too late. When I deleted the test install, it took the database that my blog was currently using with it. Lesson learned: I will NEVER do that again!

Restoring The Blog With An Export File

My next problem was how to restore the blog. Luckily – or so I thought – I had exported all the posts and comments into a WordPress export file (go to Tools, Export in the WP dashboard). The first thing I tried was to create a new WordPress install in the root domain and import that file. For most people that is a good option and your blog should be back in no time. But it only works if the import file is less than 2MB – mine wasn’t, so the import failed.

Using An SQL Backup

Next, I trawled my email for that day’s backup file. I use WordPress Database Backup to email myself daily backups of the blog – and I had one that was only a few hours old. However, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. That’s when I remembered that I had had database issues when moving my blog to the current host and they had provided some instructions that just might help me get my blog back. Here’s what I did. If you need to do the same you will need to login to your domain hosting control panel. These steps also work if you set up a test blog and want to change it to your main blog.

Restoring Your Blog – Four Steps

Step 1 is to create a new WordPress installation, which automatically creates a new database. I’d already done that.

Step 2 is to import your backup SQL file into that database. I went into PHPMyAdmin, located the new database, clicked on ‘import’ in the navigation menu at the top, selected the file, hit ‘go’ and prayed. Luckily it worked.

Step 3 is to login to your site via FTP, remove your original WordPress files from your public_html folder and move everything from the test install directory into public_html. Before you do this, it’s worth moving your current theme and plugin files and any other customizations into the test install directory first. I took the chance to remove unused themes and plugins while I was doing this.

Step 4 (according to Bluehost) is to go back to your database and edit lines 1 and 39 of wp_options to point to your domain. I didn’t need to do this, since I had already installed the domain in the root folder.

The Blog Is Back!

If this has worked, you should then be able to login to your admin dashboard using your original credentials and check that everything is OK. It’s also worth taking a quick look at the site to make sure all the images are there. When I did that, I found some missing ones. Luckily, I was able to use an offline backup I’d made to restore the images.

Lessons Learned

What have I learned? That when you do a one click install with SimpleScripts, uninstalling will reverse the process completely, database and all. That it pays to backup by email. That it pays to backup offline. That you can restore your blog, even in those circumstances. Has this ever happened to you? What did you do?

---

Copyright © 2009 Blogging Tips. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us so we can take legal action immediately.

The Case Of The Disappearing Blog


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

Written by Sharon Hurley Hall from

Written by Kevin Muldoon from Blog Themes Club

BloggingTips has been online for more than 2 and a half years now. Running a community like this has put me in a unique position to see how many bloggers have developed since starting their first blog.

I’m happy to say that many are now running successful blogs which bring them in a nice profit every month. However, too many have struggled to make their blog a success and even more have just stopped blogging altogether.

I think that there is a common misconception that blogging is easy and that it requires very little work to make money from it. I do believe that some people will find blogging easier than others but natrual talent only gets you so far. Therefore, the people who succeed are the ones who have drive, the ones who make an effort to learn the skills they don’t have.

Too many bloggers are looking for an easy route to success when in truth, there isn’t one. Sure, some people have got lucky and have stumbled into a profitable niche but 99% of successful entrepreneurs got where they are by pure hard work and determination.

I can usually tell if a blogger is going to be successful just by their online habits i.e. how they manage their time online.

Spending too much time reading blogs, commentating and participating in forums

When you first start learning the basic skills of being a blogger it is important to soak up as much information as possible. However, I see many bloggers get into a bad habit of socialising on other blogs and forums without actually working on their own site.

I frequently come across people who actively comment on several high profile blogs every week yet their blog is only updated every other week. For me, they are completely wasting their time and fooling themselves that they are developing their blog. It’s easier and much more fun to just read your favourite blogs and comment on them than sitting down at the pc for 3 hours writing a good original post. Though this is what you need to do to become successful. Put simply, you need to stop skiving and do some real work.

Successful bloggers manage their time effectively. I do participate in forums and comment on other blogs though I am aware that spending too much time doing so is detrimental to my online success. If you want to put a figure on it, I would say that you need to spend at least 60-75% of your time online working on your blog (perhaps more). That is – writing content, changing your blog design etc.

The willingness to learn

Too many bloggers don’t make the effort to solve problems themselves. The web is full of information yet many bloggers seem to be reluctant to search for information which will help them with their blog.

If my blog has a technical problem I search the web for a solution. I check for articles and tutorials which break down the exact problem I have. If I still haven’t resolved the issue I then go to a support forum or a friend and explain my situation and detail the steps I have taken so far.

The problem is, many bloggers don’t do this. The second they encounter any problem they leave a comment on a blog or forum asking for help as they don’t know what to do. This is a terrible mindset to have. If you are always asking others for help, the journey to become a competent blogger is going to be extremely long.

You can learn any programming language or skill on the web for free. Alternatively, purchase some books and teach yourself the basics. I myself have books on CSS, HTML, Java, Javascript, Database Management, PHP, Writing, Marketing, Email Marketing and Blogging.

In the long run, teaching yourself ‘how to learn’ will save you a lot of time and energy. You will need to spend less time asking for help and more time making your blog a success.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Overview

Success is rarely achieved overnight. It’s a long hard journey but the end goal is worth it. Blogging is not for everyone though, it can be boring sitting at your pc for long hours and it can be very frustrating not to see returns right away.

Though if you do enjoy blogging and want to be successful at it, you need to knuckle down, get a plan of action and start heading towards your goal. You will be surprised at how different you work online once you have some drive.

I will leave you with a fantastic post from Paul Piotrowski entitled ‘The Importance of Desire‘. In the article he talks about how visualization and emotion can play a huge part in your success. Enjoy

---

Copyright © 2009 Blogging Tips. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us so we can take legal action immediately.

Grab the Bull by the Horns


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

Written by Kevin Muldoon from

Without goals, none of us would get very far. We’d pretty much be stuck, going in circles.

We set goals if we want to lose weight, make a major purchase, go to a concert, take a trip—and we work towards the goal. Do you set goals for your writing? These don’t have to be major goals in the beginning, but you need to set some goals so you can stay on target with where you want to take your writing.

There are many types of writers who visit Blogging Tips each week. This article will try to address goals for three different groups of writers: Freelance, Bloggers, and Novelists.

You will need to set short term and long term goals. You can also set mid term goals if that suits your needs. Short term goals would include things you want to accomplish in 1 to 3 months, mid-term would include 3 to 6 months and long term would include 6 to 12 months. That doesn’t mean you can’t set extended goals either—those from 1 to 5 years.

Remember, your goals may change over time so your list will need to be updated on a regular basis. Also, as you accomplish each goal you will want to set a new one to work towards.

FREELANCE GOALS:

Short Term:

• Brainstorm three ideas.
• Research and Interviews.
• Prepare query letters for 5 markets.
• Brainstorm new ideas.
• Send out X-amount of queries.
• Get three to five rejections.
• Acquire paying assignment.

Long Term:

• Get published in major magazine.*
• Break into market I’m passionate about.
• Obtain regular position as a columnist. **

*This can be more specific; women’s, men’s, health, fitness, technology, etc.
**This can be a monthly magazine or a newspaper or other publication, even an online publication.

BLOGGER GOALS:

Short Term:

• Write daily post for blog.
• Get indexed in search engines.
• Increase value.
• Increase traffic.
• Leave real comments on blogs you read. *

*Simply stating this is a good post is not a real comment. Tell the writer what you think about it in specific terms—not just a general, “I enjoyed this post,” to get a link to your site. You should also acknowledge the writer by name.

Long term:

• Acquire guest bloggers on regular basis.
• Write guest posts for other blogs.
• Double traffic.
• Weekly or monthly newsletter.
• Attract advertisers.
• Develop relationships with other bloggers. *

*This goes back to writing real comments and possibly even personal emails regarding work and business. You can’t develop a relationship with comments like, “This is good material.” Go the extra mile and tell the writer WHY it’s good material.

NOVELISTS GOALS:

Short Term:

• Brainstorm story idea.
• Research idea.
• Outline story.
• Write story.
• Send out queries.
• Get X-number of rejections.

Long Term:

• Edit, rewrite, polish novel.
• Send out X-number of queries.
• Get published.
• Start new novel.
• Get more rejections.

You will notice that getting rejections is included in these goals. They are inevitable so you may as well go ahead and expect them. Each rejection is one step closer to publication. The more rejections you get—the more you’re submitting and getting your name out there.

After you’ve sat down and outlined your goals, you need to post them where you’ll see them everyday. Your goals are no good if you don’t see them and work at them.

---

Copyright © 2009 Blogging Tips. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us so we can take legal action immediately.

Setting Goals for Your Writing Career


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

Twitter lists have introduced the promise of a new option for promoting your blog on Twitter. But what about Facebook lists? Facebook and Twitter have been the two major contenders for promoting one’s brand across the social web, so how do the two stack up against each other when it comes to the promotion of your blog?

Ease of Use

One consideration towards choosing which social media outlet is best for you is how easily you can use each application. For blog promotion, Facebook offers a more tight-knit network for sharing your blog updates and related content.

It’s easy enough to share content through your personal network on Facebook, whether you post a link or piece of media directly on your wall or use Facebook’s bookmarking tool. With the use of apps and third party services, you can also automate some Facebook sharing, driven primarily through Facebook Connect.

The benefit here is that those on Facebook may be more inclined to read updates shared through Facebook, and subsequently share it with others in their own respective networks.

Twitter on the other hand gives you access to a potentially larger network, which could get more immediate returns to your site for increased traffic. When it comes to ease of use, Twitter has more automated options for pushing content. However, this comes as a result of third party applications, just as with Facebook.

You’ll likely find that it’s easier to share content on Twitter, as its short-form format and public accessibility lends itself to a wider pool of potential viewers. However, the more effective feedback is more likely to come from Facebook, as it’s a more personal networking approach.

Shareability

The shareability of your content seemingly goes hand in hand with the ease of use pertaining to each network. Shareability, however, refers primarly to how easily your network can share your content throughout their own networks.

While today’s comparison studies Twitter and Facebook, recognize that there are other sites used as social media outlets. Encouraging friends and followers to share your content on these networks as well means that additional shareability options will need to be present in some form or fashion.

This too relies heavily on third party applications for both Twitter and Facebook, and direct sharing capabilities are limited still. It may be best to consider the benefits of how viewers can share your content within these respective networks, for the purposes of this Twitter/Facebook comparison.

Twitter has a few options for sharing its own content within its own site walls. Retweeting, for instance, is the direct quote of another user’s tweet, now shared with your followers. Easily offered on mobile and web apps alike, sharing mechanisms on Twitter have become a standard form of recognition, subverting the need for ongoing dialogue.

Facebook, on the other hand, has contact-specific methods of sharing content. Choose between your wall or an individual. Add a comment or simply express how much you like a shared item. No matter what action you take, another user is alerted to this action. Determining which users see which actions is a controlled way of sharing content across Facebook, making it more effort-driven for viewers.

For blog promotion purposes, Twitter may be your best bet as far as shareability goes. While Facebook may offer more purpose-driven sharing options, the purpose behind it may limit the number of people willing to take the extra step to share. Twitter is more immediate in its sharing options, extending the reach of your initial tweet about your blog.

Reach

Speaking of reach, this measures the result of shareability and ease of use regarding Facebook and Twitter. When it comes to promoting your blog, the work you put into Facebook and Twitter as social media outlets can largely affect your blog’s reach.

While I could argue that reach on Twitter is further because of its potential to be accessed by more people, I could also argue that Facebook’s more controlled reach may have a better longstanding affect.

I point this out to say that the effectiveness of Facebook versus Twitter for your blog promotion depends on your ultimate social media marketing goals. Both Facebook and Twitter serve their own purposes, so I would recommend utilizing both for blog promotion. However, the ability to remain dedicated to both campaigns is really what will bring about the largest benefit on either Facebook or Twitter.

image credit: amecoli

---

Copyright © 2009 Blogging Tips. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us so we can take legal action immediately.

Blog Promotion: Twitter vs. Facebook


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/