Over the next several posts, I’ll transcribe my notes, and my Tweets, from the eight sessions at SOBCon08, Business School for Bloggers. All sessions have notes, but not all were Tweeted. Just fair warning. :)
More Bang for Your Blog
Chris Garrett
Consider promotion as a discrete thing you have to think about.
Get popular for the right reasons.
Learning is a loop — send something out, get answers back. LISTEN to the answers.
– People will give you feedback and you must listen to it.
What do you want your content to make happen?
- People come to your blog for YOUR OPINION Add something, don’t just rehash other people’s ideas.
- Record your ideas. Take time out to generate comment ideas.
- You can revisit topics time and time again. People learn from topics time and time again.
If you freeze up, that comes across. If you flow, that comes across.
Don’t censor yourself by removing yourself.
Not everything has to be book length (example: Seth Godin)
– Do your best.
– Put out real thoughts
– A good question is sometimes better than a good statement
Derive content from what you do as well as how you do what you do.
Mindmapping/word webs –> Editorial Calendar
– Write the best you can do with the most impact you can do. Use analytics
– Plan ahead, post ahead, and draft ahead — posting efficiency
– Source in advance in case your blog breaks. (get help for the things you don’t do well)
You’re only as good as your last post.
The 5-Minute Blog Post (read mine)
- Start with the end.
- Work backwards.
Remember the “so what?” — don’t focus on just the “what”
Punchy, attractive, scannable, pointed
– Imperfect is okay. Incomplete is, too.
– Leave room for comments.
The pinnacle of content is what becomes an ambassador for what you do. (The opposite is filler, and the in-between is community content.)
Feeds: Divide by Crucial, Valuable, Nonessential.
Take the “rubber ducky” approach to writing your blog posts (write like you’re explaing it to a rubber ducky).
– You don’t have to be “a great writer”
Focus your time: do writing and promotion in batches
Resources: Skitch, BlogBridge, Skype
“Simplicity is the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means.”
What did I miss? Leave a comment and let me know.
Contents Copyright © 2008 Kristen King
Tags: freelance writing blog, freelance writing, freelance, writing, communications, chris garrett, chris garret, chrisg, social media, bang for your blog, SOBCon08, business school for bloggers, inkthinker, kristen king
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m new to freelancing and have yet to invoice. So, actually, I’d LOVE invoicing right about now. However, I am not detail oriented, so I think a product like this would help me very much in my quest to be an organized writer.
Marys last blog post..Positive Living
Looks like a great program Kristen – If it’s web-based, it should work with a Mac, right?
Since I’m a good girl and I read instructions, I’ll enter this properly. :-)
Right now, for invoicing, I use….hang on… are you ready for it…. Excel. yeah… excel. How sad is that?
I don’t mind the invoicing part – it’s how I get paid. It’s the COLLECTING part that infuriates me.
Marijke
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Marijkes last blog post..Minorities less likely to seek joint replacements
Good points all around. Truly aprecpitaed.
Just this morning I invoiced a client with…WORD. Actually, technically not even Word, because I have Open Office. It took me a good ten minutes to customize my free invoice template so that it didn’t look wonky. I love invoicing because I like money coming in. I hate it because my invoices aren’t professional-looking enough, and if I want to play with the big girls, I need to fix that.
The thing that I hate about invoices is when clients “misplace” them and I have to hound them via email or phone in order to get paid. I love when all goes smoothly and I get paid even sooner than expected. That is bliss in my book!
Susans last blog post..5 Terms Every Blogger Should Know
Susan, I agree 100%! I also hate when the client loves your work…until it’s time to pay the invoice and then all of a sudden, you are the worst writer ever and everything you wrote is garbage.
Leighs last blog post..10 Commandments of Working with a Freelance Writer
Hi Kristen,
Well, I would like this program because I am just getting started with freelancing and haven’t a clue as to how to invoice unless I do it through paypal. Looks like a great program!
Kim Woodbridges last blog post..Gravatar – How To Have Your Image Appear in Blog Comments
and I will mock you for claiming to be a professional writer but being completely unable to follow simple instructions.
Just one of the reasons I love you. But, brown-nosing aside, we actually have a pretty pathetic invoicing system at the moment that includes me keeping a table of invoice numbers already used (so I don’t duplicate) and filling in a (yes, you guessed it) Word design with the applicable numbers.
lornadoones last blog post..Ooh, Win Free Stuff Here!
I’m new to the full-time freelance business and I’ve been using *cough* Excel/Word for the last several months. Now that I’m working with more than one client and realizing that I’ll actually need to track everything to get paid-I definitely need to look into other options.
Thanks for the opportunity.
So, who won? I’m dying to find out!
Leighs last blog post..My Ex-Boyfriend’s Fake Job: Things Aren’t Always What They Seem
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