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Five Tips From Low To Grow

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I recently came off a low point bordering on downright “depression.” Shhh, I don’t like to allow that word into my vocabulary as I hate feeling down in the dumps. Sometimes it’s just plain unavoidable.

When these lows happen, I usually fall pretty hard because I’m a 99 percent up person – always glass half full, seeking a belly laugh, giggling at a stupid tweet, and wanting to find the happy each and every day and ride that wave.

But, when everything, it seems, just collapses onto my shoulders from the uncontrollable Mother Nature escapades on the house and vehicle, the start of school and new accelerated math requirements to client relationships that are trying and doubting and tales of lives lost and hearts broken – ohmygosh. It sometimes becomes too much to bear, and I know I’m not alone with these feelings.

Yet, all I want to do is be alone and muddle through. That is why I took a bit of a hiatus from the blog – no incentive, the words would not flow, the ideas were like molasses pouring from a bottle with a small neck.

As a result of this low point, I took the opportunity to grow – as a person, as a coach, as a practitioner, as a friend, and as a mom.  Because, when I really dissected what was making me feel so dumpy, it had much to do with criticism; which I always take to heart regardless of whether someone is in the right or wrong in saying what they’ve said.  This is part of the challenge of working for yourself – there is no one to balance the thoughts, decisions, actions, or choices.

And, you know? I have NOTHING to complain about; hopefully, this is not coming across as a complaint. It’s all about my own personal strength and spirit as I traverse this blogging and social media journey.

There’s been much lament of late on the blogosphere. Bill Dorman wrote about it this week on his blog – what’s up with everyone “the lights are on, but no one’s home.”  Many wrote in about change – there is job loss, ill family members, waning interest, time pressures, the glories and hazards of a job hunt, and people just wanting a change. I feel it, for sure. I yearn for the glory days of Twitter of yore, and it will never be the same. These feelings add up to a gray-to-black cloud hovering above, don’t they?

For me, it’s always a relief to climb out of the hole; for others doomed to reside in there, I feel compassion as it’s never easy to pick yourself up with a solid exit strategy from bottom to top.

My few suggestions may be silly to others, but they work for me (please add yours?):

1. Hit the trails early morning and when the fawns cross my path I stop and stare at their gorgeous faces in wonder and awe.

2. Focus out on someone else who needs a boost more than me and put their needs in front of mine.

3. Kiss my child and nurture her to grow with strength of spirit and this spreads warmth through my heart so it glows with love to share with everyone.

4. Ask how I can help someone I see having a bad day; that support is so precious, and when it comes to me even in a simple tweet, I’m thankful.

5. Send a greeting card (Cardthartic is my favorite; all about “Honoring Emotions”) to someone unexpectedly. You’ve got mail!  Yeah! When was the last time you sent a card/letter to anyone? It’s part of who I am and I’m raising my child to be the same. It warms you that someone took that precious time to think of you that much.

I know this is a hokey post and off base for me, but you know what? I’m not going to pull the wool over your eyes and make you believe that I’m not human and need a hug sometimes, too.

7 Tips For Better Guest Posts

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Image Credit: Clickfire.com

I was recently interviewed by a legal publication on how to be a good guest author and how to invite guest authors to a blog. Turns out, this topic has a lot of breadth to it, and I used my recent guest posts here, here, and here as fodder for this discussion.

And, it got me thinking — what constitutes a good guest author? There are no rules (really?), so I’ve created my own (really 2?). See if you agree, and then please add yours! I’m not in the “frequent guest poster” category at all, so I honestly would like to hear what you’ve got to add.

1. Topicality. Definitely ask the blog owner what topic they want you to address. When that is not defined, then, the sky is the limit and the delay is longer. Take a look at previous blog topics archived so you can conform to some style similarities. Know if the blog is oriented to public relations, small business, or some other vertical orientation. Never submit a topic that has nothing to do with the blog; in fact, a good rule of thumb is to invite the blog owner to approve the topic.

2. Deadline. Do deliver a post by deadline. When the blog owner says, in a month, then set your deadline for a week out and let him or her know you’ve done that. This way you will get that post off your plate, and on to theirs. Now, if that blogger is so swamped with topics and your post is going to sit awhile, then work out an acceptable date in advance of submitting the piece. I worry about relevancy if a blog sits too long in the hopper.

3. Content. Spend double the time on drafting the content, and then put it away a day. Come back to the post fresh to slice and dice and improve. I have a future post in the queue for Firepole Marketing, and Danny Inny wanted a draft, which I rarely if ever do. I sent the draft and then announced several days later I had rewritten the entire post and re-submitted as final. As a rule of thumb, I do spend a lot more time (about a smidge over double) on a guest post than for a post on my own blog, and it shows in the long run.

4. Amenities. I always send a jpg of an image with a credit. That way, the blog owner doesn’t have to search. I send links within the body of the post, as well. This is a must and courtesy for the blog owner. Lastly, I send my bio and a photo (just in case), so the blog owner doesn’t have to do that leg work.

5. Marketing. On the day prior to publication, ask the blog owner what time he/she will go live with your post. Everyone is different — in fact, I had to wait until 1:30 p.m. ET for Spin Sucks’ guest post to go live (ahem, because Ms. Dietrich gets top billing, of course). Over at Ken Mueller’s house, he was prompt at 7:30 a.m. which provided me the opportunity to jump in early to add the first comment.

Once you know when you’re going live, tweet the post, title, and invite peeps to come visit. Throughout the day, schedule tweets with the guest post, add it to Facebook and also Google+. It’s very polite to market the heck out of your guest post for someone else’s blog. In fact, that’s a must do for anyone guest posting — always market  your post at least 10 times throughout the day and the next day on the Interwebz. (Hilarious; I NEVER do that for my own posts. What’s wrong with me?)

6. Accessibility. Be very in touch with comments; answer each one, thank commenters, and be professional…unless, of course, there’s a full on blog jack occurring, and then have some fun! Ask me what a blog jack is, and I’ll tell you! That would have originated over at Erica Allison’s house when she was on holiday. I guest posted for her, and boy, did we party like it was 1999!

7. Make a goal for comments (optional). Dog gone, I have to admit, I’ve made a game of this whole commenting thing. If you have Lifefyre in comments, it’s really easy to chalk up the comments. My new goal is 150 comments, and then I’m done. So far, I’ve made it happen, and have even been known to spark some inanity just to tally the numbers! Out of the four guest posts and one podcast interview, all but one tallied higher than 158 comments. I’m lucky if I break 100 comments on my own blog! Yes, call me competitive…

So, here’s my seven! How about you?

 

30 Tips To Blog With Confidence

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Everyone likes a good tips list, and it’s been awhile since I’ve developed one. They can be so annoyingly mundane; however, this topic ought to resonate with many a peer blogger. I’m seeing too many peeps having crises of confidence, and I’m hoping that some of these thoughts will help boost morale, ‘raderie, and support to keep on.

I invite yours; I also invite your selection about which of these you may want to see fleshed out into a more in-depth blog topic. (Heh, then I’ll ask you to write it! Kidding, but I may ask you to join with me on its development.)

Here we go:

1. Give yourself one full year before you cash it in. That means posting a minimum of three times weekly!

2. During that year, expect depression, lack of voice, few comments, fewer RTs, issues about what to write, and general malaise. But, you have to embrace these emotions and push yourself forward.

3. If you struggle with what to write about, then pick a favorite topic and begin writing. Make sure it’s comfy – talk about your grandma’s pie crust; share a story about a book you just read; review a social media book and share why you like it.

4. Focus OUT! If you’re depressed, your writing will be, too. See number three.

5. Select topics that are general, safe, and free of painful emotion. If you’re seeking a support network because of a very personal situation, you may turn away some readers who don’t wish to know that aspect of your life.

6. Try to define who you’re writing for – is it for small businesses like the writing by Ken Mueller, Laura Click or Erica Allison? Is it for sales people like Marcus Sheridan writes at The Sales Lion? When you define your audience, you’ll begin to tailor your writing to them.

7. Do you have a mission? Lisa Gerber at Spin Sucks shared their mission is to change perception about public relations. They develop content with that mission statement squarely in front.

8. How about some goals? Why do you blog? I have peeps who tell me they blog for themselves – just to write; others blog to help inspire and lend support to anyone who’s down and out, and still others blog to earn money.

9. Answer the question “why is blogging important?” Are you just blogging because everyone else is? Do you thrive on pushing the envelope and jumping into the limelight? Are you trying to overcome being an introvert and blogging is the way to do it?

10. Get someone to help you with the design of your “house.” When you write and post in a house that looks nice, clean, and sophisticated, then your content gets a boost, too.  There’s a sense of pride that you’ve just built a new home, and you want people to comment positively about that new look and feel.

11. Spend some time on others’ blogs and comment there. See how the comments come alive, and participate actively.  Try not to sow your oats in a community forum; it’s best to stay positive and contribute professionally without too much negative energy. You can become uplifted when others are passionate about what they’re saying.

12. Cautiously share your material. You’ll know when you love something you’ve written. That’s when you can distribute it from the roof tops and use ALL the channels available to you – including Triberr, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. You’re aware of the various ways these channels bring new readers over to your blog, right?

13. Do a round-up of your favorite bloggers for a #FollowFriday post. Bookmark your faves, and repeat them as a weekly feature, but be sure to share why you’re calling people out. Has a post hit home with you? Did you notice a ton of cool comments and were impressed by that? Others who follow you will be impressed with your generosity (that of sharing and recognizing peers, mentors, and others you appreciate). You know who always does this is @nittygriddyblog. She’s amazing.

14. You can do the same with a theme – select a topic you like; it could be stamp collecting or parenting or dachshunds.  Find all the bloggers you can on each of these topics and share them; or, begin writing your own “how-to” series on a topic and link back to others as resources.

15. Interview someone and write a story.

16. Launch a weekly Q&A – you ask the questions and ask your favorite peeps to answer.

17. You might think this list is about how to write good content for a blog; however, when you become comfortable about your content, then you also become inspired and excited about blogging.

18. I cannot stress how important it is to be inspired and excited when you blog. People want to feel your passion about a topic; when you’re earnest about something, then others want a piece of that, too. And, they want to share their own experiences, or join your community and participate.

19. Energy; POSITIVE energy. I just commented on Alaska Chick’s blog for the first time, and this woman is a newbie blogger, yet she’s crushing it with her positive energy.  She’s Amber-Lee Dibble, and you may see her commenting on blogs; she’s everywhere.

20. Brand yourself appropriately – Amber-Lee, may I pick on you here? You tweet @GirlyGrizzly; you sign your name Amber-Lee, and your blog is Alaska Chick, yet your company is something else entirely — something like Pioneer XX. Regardless, I’m confused what you’re branding, and with that confusion lack of confidence may follow.

21. Ask questions and no question is stupid; it’s the only way to learn. Here’s a funny story about my foray into blogging – I had no idea I had to upload WordPress.org as the foundation for my self-hosted blogging platform.  I tried to upload Headway Themes first and of course failed miserably. When I kept asking questions of the Headway developers, I became persona non grata – they didn’t have time for a dumb broad’s questions, yet I was their audience!  I was a wet-behind-the-ears blogger who knew nothing about the tech back end of a blog!

22. Admit your weaknesses, ask for help and add someone to your team who knows what you don’t. I use the word “team” loosely. My weakness is the tech back end; see #21, but I’ll struggle to DIY and fail! Only then I’ll ask for help. I’ve since added a great tech expert, @CarbonSpace. He’s Dwight Maskew, and he was recommended to me from a Twitter pal. (I recommend him; run, but I have first dibs.)

23. If you’re having a tough time blogging every day, keep that to yourself. Try not to air your laundry to the entire sphere; work around your roadblocks by taking a day off from the whole thing. Put it aside until you’re interested in seeking inspiration again.

24. Don’t be afraid to overhaul your blog’s look and feel. You’ll never stop doing this, but your house needs to be in order because it’s the first impression that’s the strongest.

25. Gingerly approach and master voice. Early on in this list I provided many ways to develop content; this was intentional. When I started I had no voice; I wasn’t confident about what the heck I was saying, and the writing was poor, forced, and uninteresting. Because I read everything, I take inspiration from articles in Ad Age, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, Inc., and other publications. (I still do.) When I saw an article that prompted a serious reaction, I sat down and wrote about it. And, I wrote with conviction that a company was wrong, right, or had erred in judgment. Conviction begets passion, and people appreciate a good opinion. What are you passionate about?

26. When you get a commenter to visit, embrace them. Do not treat people like persona non grata if they only pop in once every two weeks or less. People are very busy, and your blog is out of sight and out of mind. When you do #13, you nearly guarantee people are popping in to pay you homage for the link love. If they like what they see, they will come back again, and it’s OK to nudge the people you most want back! (I love an invitation and reminder. There are so many places and people to see; it becomes challenging to visit everyone’s house.) Shakirah Dawud just wrote about this at Deliberate Ink!

27. Before you ask for help about your blog; know whether you’re prepared for brutal honesty. In my first year, someone asked me “Why are you blogging again? You’ve had a rough go of it the last five weeks.” I nearly threw in the towel; honestly!  I was discouraged, depressed, and knew this was not for me. And then I got all mad and said, “Who the flip does he think he is? I’ll show him!”

28. If you’re really down and out about blogging, look introspectively for a moment. Are the kids driving you insane? Are you and the partner having issues? Are you struggling to find a paying gig? Did you recently lose your job? Is it summer and are you just too crazed to be inspirational? Did you recently lose a family member or friend and you’re mourning? It’s life people! Life rocks our world, and that’s expected to influence blogging, too. Take a breather…it’s OK to go on hiatus until you get your mojo back.

29. Rather than hang out at the power bloggers’ houses, select a mid-tier group of bloggers (who also are experts in their own right) and hang out there. It’s less chaotic, the pace is less frenetic, the comments are not fast and furious, and you’ll earn respect and support in ways you’ll never expect. (Not that you don’t over at Gini’s, Danny’s, or Mark’s…)

30. KEEP ON! Do not stop; do not lose your moxie or mojo. If you do make that decision; however, know that you can always turn the switch back to “on.” And, when you do, that journey may take you on an entirely different pathway where new peeps you’ve never met become your best supporters.

What might you add? Which tip might you  like to see as a deeper exploration?

Run to Google+ to Engage!

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I would be remiss if I did not share my thoughts about Google+ after a weekend of playing. Here’s the upshot…RUN to Google+ and reserve your profile and nickname before others, especially if your name is common or there are duplicate names to yours.

The site is intuitive, addictive, fast, and organized. My network is not just being built from Twitter and Facebook, thank goodness, it’s coming alive with people I don’t even know.

* And, that’s what’s cool. Google+ is organized in circles. You can put peeps into a circle of friends, social media types, PR, family, following, or any other category you create and name. I found that I have pretty much three circles only; not sure I need to skew them deeper than that. If I did, it would be a simple click with a really cool interface to make it happen.

*As for content, I’m a bit unsure about posts up there. The weekend was full of banter; ahem, Ms. Dietrich was scamming the poor system in search of “free beer.”  I think she found it.

*What people are saying, and I fully agree, is they don’t want to see content being cross-posted from Twitter and Facebook. Because so many of us are connected on all channels right now, the cross pollination of content and repetitiveness would become  unruly. This remains to be seen…how folks will elect to share.

* The jury is still out how to best use this channel. What I’m hoping for is a more professional channel of business folks that would create a hotbed of learning, testing, and challenging/useful content. Again, if you follow those types of peeps and organize others into circles, that is highly likely to happen.

* Here’s one critical tip — secure your nickname. Here’s the link and it appears like this when you’re done In box one, type in the name you’d like to use to identify yourself. In box two, copy and paste just the numbers from your current Google+ account (found in the url in your browser). Click “add” and voila. You can use this to identify yourself rather than a cumbersome set of numbers and unwieldy url.

* When people  you don’t know add you to their circles, add them, too. In this beta phase, all peeps should be safe (not spammers yet unless her name is cough, Gini, cough).

* Re analytics, there’s a lot of banter about whether this channel will help drive blog traffic. Why wouldn’t it? I already had an alert for my profile here; I know that Google, being the search engine it is, is going to be monitoring traffic inside and pushing attention to the outside.

* One thing that is slightly disturbing to me, though, is the amount of data being transmitted via Gmail, to Crackberry and to iPad2, plus other mobile devices. Think about it…how will we keep data plan charges down when the mobile providers are all going to fee for usage plans? Anyone else have a thought on this? I got the idea after seeing the huge spike in Gmail traffic to my iPad and Blackbery; that’s a bit worrisome.

What’s your first impression, folks?