Thursday, February 8, 2018

What's up?






Do you sometimes wonder what the hell you are doing?

Do you read all sorts of How-to’s, on getting traffic, information on copywriting, How to set up a website?

Get a terrific domain name, they say. You do it.  You shop for website templates—each with portions you like—like coding which you may not know, but they do.

But there are templates that can drive you crazy—like yesterday I tried to increase my font size and the website published it in all caps. Like I was yelling—which I wasn’t.

Generate a list, get a tribe, get traffic.

Doesn’t it sometimes become overwhelming?

But, hey, you are serious about this mystique of blogging, aren’t you?

Yes, I know I have been negligent in supporting this blog The Best Damn Writers Blog on the Block, while concentrating my effort on www.wishonwhitehorses.com, but I want to be here for you.

I want to hear your concerns, and perhaps together we can make a splash in the noisy lake of the media world.

Let me hear from you.

Are you a writer of books?

“Are you a blogger?

Have you mastered the art, or are you struggling?

Okay, you might be an author, but you are probably a blogger too?
So, how’s it going?

I’ll admit to being all over the place, while I know I need to be clear about what I am doing here. Perhaps by the end of this post I will find out.

I named my first blog, Wish on White Horses, because like wishing on birthday candles, and the first star of the evening. It’s fun and anything that brings up awareness is a plus. My friend told me about the phenomenon of wishing on white horses, and once that suggestion was in my head, I had to do it. I love to drive down a country road, and spot a white horse. They are rare like shooting stars.

Wishing, dreaming, focusing on an idea—that is the first step in obtaining your goal. As the Disney Imagineers say “Dream, Believe, Dare Do”

I’m here to encourage you to do that.

Wayne Gretzky (Of Hockey hall of fame) said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

And if you start wishing on white horses you will become aware of white horses, and perhaps little miracles, like the horses that pop up, will pop up too.

I had a little miracle last night that carried over to today. l am staying at a hotel, and last night as I did a keystone cops routine of getting my suitcase, computer bag and a couple cloth bags, out of the pickup, with Sweetpea (my dog) jumping around, pulling on the leash, frightened by the noise of a steel bridge close by where trucks clanked over a metal plate regularily every second.

It was driving her nuts. My result was that the room key, (a plastic card), I thought I had it in my hand was gone.

I looked under the seat, doesn’t everything dropped go down the crack between the seats? I didn’t find the key, but I found a small day-book that I had ransacked the house looking for and finally after a couple of months, gave up. I believed I had lost it forever.

 Nope, there it was under the pickup truck’s seat.

This morning my husband called to ask for our home Wifi code as my eldest daughter was babysitting for me, so I could have this Writer’s Birthday holiday.

I instantly whipped out my little newly found book and read the code listed on the first page.

 Ta da.

Sometimes the angels just smile.

(And the smiling man at the front desk gave me another key.)

As though Wishing On white Horses wasn’t enough, I began experimenting with other blogs—the experts say to concentrate on one, but oh well, who listens to the experts? 

Make up your own mind! If you don’t, others will make it up for you.

The more I thought about blogging, the more I was drawn to travel blogs. What a dream, to travel and write about it. I salivate when I read those blogs.  I love the Ytravel blog.com with Caz and Craig Makepeace who travel with their two little girls. And I found that many people choose traveling as a way of life—even with children.

I don’t travel as much as I once did. I’m not a full-time traveler. Almost every time I say I don’t travel I go someplace—like here. I did drive up I-5 from Junction City to Portland, Oregon, a Birthday gift to myself, a Vision Quest of sorts. Three days alone with my dog with no pressures of home and hearth. Time to write until I’m rummy.

Back to blogging: (Angels smile on me.) I’ve been using blogger.com and decided to join Wordpress because the big guys said it is the best. Yes, I do listen once in awhile. I joined Wordpress through SiteGround, again on advice, but I had a devil of a time navigating it, and felt like the stupidest techno-person on the planet.

Last night when I tried to increase the size of my fonts, upon publishing the site the damn thing printed in all with capital letters. As though I was shouting at people. That was embarrassing.

When I first posted on that the site, I got a few terrific comments; then some smart-ass porn people spammed me, then traffic screeched to a crawl.

You know sometimes having a small amount of traffic helps you hone your skills. With a small readership only a few people notice that you are making a fool of yourself. 
Have you mastered this art of blogging, or are you struggling?

Either way YOU ROCK!


You’re still at it.

You have the dogged will to keep at it, in spite of slings and arrows.

Now, let’s look at what sort of blogger we are.

Jeff Goins has five types.

A World view/The Journalist/The Prophet/The Artist/The Star 
For a description visit Jeff Goins, https://goinswriter.com/blog/
I don’t want to copy his work.

Larry Alton has four.
1.Nitch—target audience
2.Rogue—opinion, raw and real. This is contrary to biased, sensational marketing. People love or hate these blogs.
3. Crash Test Dummy --takes on new challenges and writes about his experiences.
4.Hobby—farming, raising chickens, reading, those sorts.

Adam Ruhland has ten.
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1.      The Rogue—Rogues, quite simply, attract attention — both good and bad. They’re cool like Indiana Jones.

2. The Guest Host
The benefits of guest posting have been touted ad nauseam. But the benefits of hosting guest content have been written about much less.
That’s what the Guest Host is all about — regularly hosting top-notch guest content.
Did you know that Neil Patel grew the KISSmetrics blog to over 400,000 visitors a month publishing posts that mainly came from guest authors? He also grew the Crazy Egg blog to over 100,000 visitors a month using the same strategy.
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3. The Crash-Test DummyPat Flynn of SmartPassiveIncome.com. (www.smartpassiveincome.com/category/podcast/coined the phrase Crash Test Dummy in blogging.  In this type of blog, writers test strategies, techniques and tools, sharing what works and what doesn't.  

 4. The Niche—Rather than focusing on broad topics like leadership, marketing, or sales, niche blogs get hyper-specific.

How specific?

You can narrow your focus to an ultra-specific topic. Ex Food Blog

5. The Giver—The Giver gives away incredible free bonus content with every post.

 “Content upgrades” — an additional piece of content created for a specific blog post and given away in exchange for an email address.
This establishes deeply personal connections with your readers. As well as one’s own personal growth through writing.
6. Guide—help with personal lives.

7. The Tell-AllHave you learned a lot of valuable information?

8. The Homer—bloggers who write posts of epic proportions — posts that take readers on a 2,500+ word journey every time.

According to BuzzSumo’s analysis of over 100 million articles, long content gets shared more than short content.

Greater word count gives you a better shot at attracting organic search traffic.

The moral of the story? Shoot for 2,000-3,000 words, as the share payoff begins to diminish after that threshold.

Long posts are a mystery to me. Maybe I have a short attention span, or impatience, for I am often yelling, “Just tell me!” “Stop establishing your credibility, telling me a sob story, and trying to encourage me to have an open mind. My mind is open. That the reason I began reading your post. Get with it!”

Most importantly, remember to have something worth writing that many words about. Like Boost Blog Traffic says in their guest posting length guidelines (they require 2,000-3,000 words), “Don’t think of a 1,500-word post padded out. Think of a 5,000-word post trimmed down to its essence.”

9. The Personal Brand--Are you the brand you’re trying to build?
Is your name in the URL? Is your face all over the home page? Do you want to be known as you, or as the person who writes Blog XYZ?

MarieForleo.com.(I love her.) has one of the strongest personal brands at the intersection of personal and professional development. Her’s is a Video blog called marieforleotv.com.

This sort of blog allows visitors to see more of you. And it forces you to become better at speaking and communicating in front of an audience.
Whether you plan on utilizing video or not, Marie’s site offers a great template for Personal Brand blog builders:

High-Value Content + Unique Viewpoint Backed by Experience + Personal Brand-Heavy Packaging = An Ideal Personal Brand Blog

10. The Enterprise—The Enterprise is a blog built for a company, not an individual. It’s the type of blog companies like Buffer, HubSpot, and Coca-Cola feature on their websites.

I found me!  I’m a Crash Test Dummy Blogger. However I look at it this way: I am all over the place, flopping, and banged up.

To see the Power of Words check out this short Youtube: It’s incredible.