An Article a Day: A Dirty Job, But Someone Has To Do It
Yesterday I was about to not write any article due to the fact that I was dead tired to think and it was already quite late, however I am committed to writing at least one article a day on my blog.
This commitment of one article a day made me write something short, little thought and relaxed ... THAT WAS VERY SUCCESSFUL!
It is not always necessary that we write very complex articles or that "illuminate" the reader, consistency and commitment are much more important, that does not mean that we should always write nonsense, it means that we have to know how to dose our articles.
The only way to find your own rhythm is with constant practice and demanding that item a day from yourself.
The best marketing advice I read is: "Show your butt to your audience and keep it there ... a lot of people pull up their pants and run away", if we hope to have the best idea in the world to write, it is very difficult for us to do it regularly.
A blog without regularity does not work, we must not be forgotten by our audience or be classified as: «That blog that is updated every so often».
It is difficult to comply with this and for different reasons we can stop writing for one or several days, but the attitude must prevail over conformism ... only stop writing if you have a good reason, otherwise hands on the keyboard.
What to write when we are tired to develop a deep topic or think a lot?
1) Humor: Personally, I always try to find a funny side to the things I do, the attitudes of certain clients, relate acronyms to other meanings, etc.
Humor articles are easy to write and tend to be very successful, after all, the only thing that people agree on is that we all like to laugh ... much better if we add a message or teaching regarding our subject in between.
2) Personal opinion on news: Going through news sites can give us ideas about what to write about, but more importantly… when we read a news item we always form our own opinion in our head.
If this news is related to what we write we already have where to start.
3) Short tips: An article is not better for being longer, many times a small nugget of gold is more than enough (hence part of the success of Seth Godin's blog).
Did something interesting happen to you at work? Did you have any original idea even though it is still not well formed? Do you see that many people are making the same mistake?
The answer to any of those questions can be a good article.
4) Interact with Twitter / Facebook contacts: Approach them and ask them what are their topics of interest, where they have doubts, how you can help them.
If you offer help, no one is going to refuse to tell you what they need and the conversation can turn into good material for an article without you noticing.
Once we write regularly each day it becomes easier, it is like exercising, it is hateful until you make it part of your daily routine or learn to enjoy it.
