Tag: imagination

How Not to be Boring (as a Blogger)

~ Cristian Mihai ~ 59 Comments

There’s something you need to know, and I’m afraid you’re not going to like it.

Your blog is putting me to sleep.

I gave it about three seconds of my attention…

Nothing grabbed my eye. No headline inspired me to read. No images drew me in.

And here’s the thing: it was easy for me to rid myself of your insipid writing, your bland blog. Closed my Internet Browser and that was it.

It doesn’t have to be that way. A few tweaks here, a little more effort there, and your website will stop me in my tracks.

Here’s four ways not to be boring for you to try out this week. This will not be boring… Continue reading “How Not to be Boring (as a Blogger)” →

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Blogging is NOT Just About Information

~ Cristian Mihai ~ 29 Comments

A lot of folks approach the art of blogging as if it’s just about information. It’s about knowing who your readers are and helping them achieve their goals and dreams. It’s about offering them the information they need to go from point A to point B.

Well… did you ever have a teacher who was just awful? Boring? Made you hate whatever it was he was teaching?

Yup. Being a blogger(a good one at least) is not just about being a teacher…

Your content has to be entertaining.

If you don’t learn to entertain while you inform, your readers will find a blogger who can. Continue reading “Blogging is NOT Just About Information” →

No Readers? Here’s a Simple Way to go from 0 to Hero

~ Cristian Mihai ~ 108 Comments

Be honest. You spend a lot more time on your WordPress Dashboard than you should. And most of that time is spent wondering why those stats are so low, why aren’t readers flocking to your blog, and why aren’t people liking, commenting, and sharing your content.

The truth is that the art of blogging is hard drudgery, but what should you do when your time and energy don’t seem to pay off?

Should you just keep punching those keys and hope for the best?

You need a proper strategy, not wishful thinking.

When your blog isn’t doing as well as you’d like, take a step back and analyze what you’ve done so far.

If you are in need of a plan that will help you win more readers, you first need to understand one reader. Just one.

Let’s start with getting to know this reader. Continue reading “No Readers? Here’s a Simple Way to go from 0 to Hero” →

The Seven Magic Tricks of Blogging

~ Jordan Peters ~ 8 Comments

Magicians are skilled manipulators of perception. They can make people think something is moving when it isn’t or see things that aren’t there. Diverting attention this way and that, they can hide cards and rabbits or make objects appear from thin air.

Blogging is a little bit like that, depending on who writes it. Diverting attention with a little smoke and mirrors often draws readers inwards towards a certain conclusion or believing in what the author wants them to.

Now, don’t get me wrong – blogging isn’t evil. Not at all. But brilliant blogging is a bit like magic. Maybe a bit more than we’d like to admit.

Which means it’s tricky. Here are seven magic tricks of blogging. Continue reading “The Seven Magic Tricks of Blogging” →

Don’t Know What to Blog About? Try These Ideas Out.

~ Cristian Mihai ~ 52 Comments

Let’s be honest, okay? This happens to all of us. We might not call it writer’s block, but the truth is that we all have our off days.

But what if I were to tell you that there are certain strategies that you can use whenever you have no idea what to write about.

Interested?

Read on.

Great artists’ steal…

I’m just going to be extremely honest: the novice wants to be original and brilliant so bad that he often fails to realize that he only got kind of good by imitating others.

Good artists copy, great artists steal.

I am not advising you to plagiarize other bloggers, I am simply telling you to see the information to acquire differently. Like Jordan so nicely put it, everything you read, see, or hear is food for your creativity.

Now, here’s what you can do with someone else’s content:

  1. Curate content. Go to your ten favorite blogs, and then find your favorite post on each of them. Publish a post listing these top ten posts, and explain why you like them. You don’t even have to think about being creative, and everyone you feature there will appreciate it.
  2. Ask friends for ideas. Reach out to your friends, and ask them what they’d like you to write about. Do a bit of brainstorming with online friends as well.
  3. Ask your readers. Yup. When you have no idea what to write about on your blog you can write a “what would you like me to write about” post
  4. Do an interview. It’s a lot easier to write a few interview questions than it is to write an entire post! Plus, it can be a great way to connect with really interesting people.
  5. Ask for a few guest posts. This is a great source of content, and it’s easier than most people think – find a few blogs that are your size or smaller, whose content you really like, and invite them to write a guest post for you. That’s about it.
  6. Write a review. A movie, a book, a TV show, or a product that you’d be happy to endorse. No need to get too creative, just explain what you like about it, and why. And then write what you don’t like about it, and why.
  7. Link to old posts. Write a short list of your old favorite posts that newer readers probably haven’t read. You can even do a quick deconstruction, and explain what you were thinking when you wrote the posts, what worked, and what didn’t, what would you do differently.

Use two unrelated dots and force yourself to connect them

Okay, so maybe you do want to come up with a great original idea to write about, but it just isn’t happening.

In that case, try to take two unrelated things and force them together into a really interesting post.

Connect dots that are far apart from each other. Yes, one of them has to be about something your readers would like to read about, and the other one can be something unrelated, but still familiar to your audience.

What you end up with are posts that kind of go like this:

Are you starting to see the pattern?

Sometimes inspiration does not have to find your working

Stop trying to work. Just stop. Don’t force your brain to come up with words and ideas. Do the following instead:

  • Go for a walk. Or a run. Getting your heart rate up is a great way to grow your brain. And meditate. And, yeah, exercise actually does make your brain bigger.
  • Take a shower. Relax your body, and your mind will follow. Cliche? Perhaps. But if it works, who cares?
  • Watch a movie/read a book/listen to music. Just going to say it again: feed your brain. I use the three mediums daily (read information, listen to it, and watch it) in order to stay inspired and come up with ideas to blog on.

When you do have ideas… write like crazy

When you feel inspired, write as much as you can. Write blog posts and save them as drafts to be used specifically when you have no idea what to blog about.

Which of these methods have you tried? Which one would you try?

Let me know in the comments section below.

Check Yourself for These 7 Symptoms of the Blogger’s Curse

~ Cristian Mihai ~ 14 Comments

Are you burdened by the blogger’s curse?

Many a blogger is hindered with a trait that damages productivity and constrains their ultimate potential.

See if you recognize any of these seven symptoms in yourself:

  1. You start writing, stop half way and hit delete
  2. You often feel like you are your own worst critic
  3. You never feel like you’ve done the best you could
  4. You second-guess your ideas, even when you know better
  5. Other bloggers make you feel inadequate
  6. There’s always something more to learn
  7. Writing would be so much more enjoyable if you could just relax

Thankfully, if you do recognize any of the above symptoms, you are definitely not alone. In fact, I would say each and every blogger I’ve met has felt the same at least once (and likely more often then they’d like to admit).

So relax, this curse doesn’t have to be permanent and is simple to treat. It even has a name.

[CLICK HERE TO UNLOCK POST]

Blog Like an Artist

~ Cristian Mihai ~ 25 Comments

“When Van Gogh was a young man in his early twenties, he was in London studying to be a clergyman. He had no thought of being an artist at all. He sat in his cheap little room writing a letter to his younger brother in Holland, whom he loved very much. He looked out his window at a watery twilight, a thin lamppost, a star, and he said in his letter something like this: “It is so beautiful I must show you how it looks.” And then on his cheap ruled note paper, he made the most beautiful, tender, little drawing of it.

When I read this letter of Van Gogh’s it comforted me very much and seemed to throw a clear light on the whole road of Art. Before, I thought that to produce a work of painting or literature, you scowled and thought long and ponderously and weighed everything solemnly and learned everything that all artists had ever done aforetime, and what their influences and schools were, and you were extremely careful about *design* and *balance* and getting *interesting planes* into your painting, and avoided, with the most astringent severity, showing the faintest *academical* tendency, and were strictly modern. And so on and so on.

But the moment I read Van Gogh’s letter I knew what art was, and the creative impulse. It is a feeling of love and enthusiasm for something, and in a direct, simple, passionate and true way, you try to show this beauty in things to others, by drawing it.

And Van Gogh’s little drawing on the cheap note paper was a work of art because he loved the sky and the frail lamppost against it so seriously that he made the drawing with the most exquisite conscientiousness and care. ”― Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit

What if the next blog post you write is your last? What if, for whatever reason, you never get a chance to punch those damn keys, to share your thoughts and ideas with the world?

What would you choose to write about? Continue reading “Blog Like an Artist” →

10 Rules to Help You Punch Those Damn Keys

~ Cristian Mihai ~ 31 Comments

The blank page tends to scare people into a state of inactivity. The possibilities are endless, the desire to create perfection so intense that it is easier to do anything else.

Perfectionism and procrastination have an awful lot in common, and the truth is that most bloggers waste an insane amount of time thinking about writing. Weeks go by like this, and then they start wishing they have written when they had the chance, but now… they’ll just write a short post apologizing to their readers for not posting anything.

And then the cycle resumes.

The essential part of writing is to punch those damn keys. Don’t think, just write. You’ll be able to rewrite, one, twice, as many times as it’s necessary.

Today you focus on writing like a lunatic.

Today, you’re going to punch those damn keys…

And the best way to do that is to follow a few simple rules. Ten, in fact … Continue reading “10 Rules to Help You Punch Those Damn Keys” →