Can you stop marketing, take a break, and still come back to success? Yes, you can.

When Friends, Followers and Customer Evangelists: The 2010 Business Owner’s Guide to Social Media (#FFCE) was being prepared, David Hancock (Founder, Morgan James Publishing) asked me to stop marketing. That’s a radical position for a publisher, don’t you think?

In all fairness to David, he was only telling me to wait until after the Author 101 Conference in March 2010. David had no idea I was planning to take a “marketing vacation” until just a few weeks before the official publication date for #FFCE.

The return from my little marketing vacation happened when an ad went live in RTIR (Radio Television Interview Report). That was mid-June – just 6 ½ weeks before the official publication date for #FFCE.

Since then, I’ve been ramping up my marketing activities. As part of that effort, I went to a conference with Armand Morin in Minneapolis. Here’s a side note: When you get a chance to be taught by Armand Morin – take it!

Armand, his team, and several of his AM2 Platinum members spent 3 days showing us what works, what doesn’t, and how to grow our businesses. I’m glad I went with a friend, because it took both of us to get all the notes written down. Those 3 days in Minneapolis clarified my vision, focused my efforts, and started my planning.

I say started because I’ve spent the last two weeks working out the plan that was started in Minneapolis. What I’m doing today is sharing that plan with you. Maybe it will help you to make progress with your online efforts.

The first step is understanding that I have more than one business to run. To make that a little simpler, we’re combining Conrad Hall Copywriting and The Marketing Spotlight. The new URL is TheConradHall.com, and it is for everything related to copywriting, authoring books, tours and speaking engagements.

Then there is a small PR Agency, a marketing service/consulting firm, and a blog talk radio program on Social Media.

Now take a good look at those two paragraphs. Notice that there are 4 businesses, and they’re all very closely related. Other business interests are being put on hold to develop these ones. Those being put on hold are far enough away from these core efforts that they were distractions rather than being helpful. I’ll get back to them later when these 4 are flourishing.

One of the things that took up a lot of my attention is balancing all the effort. You know how it is…you think about setting up a blog for each business, what about social media profiles, and then there’s all the offline advertising – and on and on it goes, right?

So I started thinking:

• What are the topics I cover?
• Can writing about a topic be tied to reading newsletters?
• How do I stay up to date on everything?

Now, let me be real clear on this point: When you’re working on your own, you truly can’t keep up on everything. There’s just too much work to do in a day.

Loral Langemeier has some great advice for this.

1. Hire a housekeeper. When you’re working from home, your house and life eat up a lot of your time. Hire someone to do the cleaning, cooking and groceries so you get that time back to invest in your business.
2. Hire a scheduler. This is a personal assistant who schedules all your appointments. Personally, I find it hugely helpful to have someone who keeps me on track throughout the day.

And yes, I have someone scheduling my time. We haven’t hired a housekeeper because we have 3 kids, and I think they make good cleaners. So we save the payroll cost and the kids learn to be responsible.

So here’s how I’m dividing up my week and day to provide content to you, keep up to date fairly well (i.e. keep learning), grow my businesses and develop new products/services.

Monday – Information Product Creation

The blog post for this day can be text, audio or video. Naturally audio and video are big time savers so I’ll be using them whenever I can.

This is the day when I read the newsletters, post comments, and do research that relates to this element of my work. There are still e-mails to be answered, phone calls to make/receive, and day-to-day chores to be done, but about half of my day goes into working on the topic of Information Product Creation.

So half my day is on a specific topic. Another quarter is given to routine tasks. And the other quarter?

Well, that goes to other topics. There’s almost always something that comes up related to another project. You know how it goes…30 minutes or even an hour disappears while you take care something important that just “cropped up.” Okay. So be sure to plan for that kind of time in your day.

Tuesday – Local Business Marketing

There is an entire army of sites, applications and materials coming into the marketplace to make local business marketing better. Anyone could easily pick just this as their niche and have a wealth of material to work with.

Wednesday – The Small Business America Tour

It was hard to decide on giving this a day in the week. For a while, I thought it could be rolled into a day when I write about social media.

What I discovered is that the tour really fits better with the blog talk radio show, and the success stories I’m gathering from local business owners. So it gets its own day, and it’s an opportunity to put the spotlight onto other people for a while. After all, who wants to listen to me gabble on every day, right?

Thursday – Social Media

As I mentioned earlier, it’s easy to see how all these topics tie together. Social Media is something that helps to tie everything else together, so I think it will work well near the end of the week.

The focus is on new features and sites, and how to tie social media into your current local business marketing. For example, Meetup.com has made a lot of changes to their service. I definitely want to spend time on that because Meetup is far more powerful than Facebook for local business marketing.

Friday – The Glocal Wave

This is a combination of “showing you the future of marketing” and giving you a peek at one of the new titles I’m working on. It definitely ties into the other four days.

Wrap Up

Yes, there is a lot more to the plan than this outline of an editorial calendar. Unfortunately, there just isn’t room to put everything into just one post. (I’m already way over 1,000 words as it is.)

On the bright side, the limited space and attention of a blog post means I stop gabbing before spilling all the beans and giving the farm away. That’s good.

And what’s the grand point of this whole post? Let’s go back to the opening paragraph…

Can you stop marketing, take a break, and still come back to success?

In my case, taking a break is exactly what was needed to sharpen my focus and lay the groundwork for future success. Are you needing the same sort rejuvenation?

Maybe you can do it faster than the 3 months I spent on this. Try just taking a holiday. That might be a radical change for some of us – a few days off. The grand point of this whole post is twofold – One, the time off has been well used, and two, I’m back!

Are you ready to keep up?

Olympians fulfilled their dreams in Vancouver, BC this year. They competed at the peak of their ability, and with the best performers in their sport.

Yep, I’m feeling guilty. Especially since we all know quite well how important consistent communication is in relationship marketing. 

So here are a couple of quick notes, and I’m working diligently at putting time back into my day to write here consistently.

Note 1: We’re planning a 40 city tour this summer in the US.

The tour has me and 8 co-presenters visiting 40 of the Top 100 US markets. We’ve put several partners into place (read non-profits) and are starting to contact sponsors now. Stay tuned for more on this because there’s a lot to share.

Note 2: The local Rotary Club has started putting everything into place for their fall charity event – the Rotary Ball.

They have a Facebook Fan Page, and I’m asking you to help them by becoming a fan. Tell everyone you know about it for one simple reason: half the money they raise is going to We Care – the local food bank.

Okay, that’s the quickie update. There’s more to come – plenty more. Including a 13 part series on the G.L.A.D.™ system for using social media. I think you’ll like it.

1. I don’t have the time
2. I don’t know what to do, and (my favourite)
3. I need help

Welcome to the party, folks. It’s life. We’re all in the same boat, and I happen to think it’s a lot of fun.

1. I don’t have the time
Okay. I get this. We’re all pressed for time.

So let’s start with knowing we aren’t going to get everything done – today – that we want to get done. The really cool part is that we don’t have to get it all done – today.

This is something I struggle with on a regular basis. Just think of the work involved in publishing a book, planning book tours, finding sponsors and developing a membership blogsite. That’s a lot of work, right?

Even though it all needs to be done, it doesn’t have to be done today. In fact, you don’t even need to work on every project, every day. Rich Schefren showed me a good model that relates to this.

He showed me an example of three projects, and each project takes a week to complete. What he and I both tend to do is try working on each project every day. In the end, it takes three weeks to complete all the projects. But Rich has a cure for that tendency.

He makes himself work on just one project at a time.

So project A takes a week. He works on it until it’s finished, and then project A is up and running. See the benefit to that? While he moves on to project B, project A is running and getting results. It’s really cool.

I know what you’re thinking: How does this put any more time into my day?

You’re right, it doesn’t put any more hours into the day. What it does do is show that you can succeed by completing one piece at a time. After all, Rich is just a wee bit successful.

You can get a much more detailed explanation of the process from Jeff Olson’s The Slight Edge. It’s a terrific book. At 163 pages you can read it in a weekend. And then you’ll keep it handy for reference.

The point is to find 20 or 30 minutes. Start with that and build on it. Let me give you an example.

Tim Clay is my accountant, a friend and a client. We met in Delray Beach at an Early to Rise conference. His big goal then was to get better at writing, so you can see why we hit it off.

To get the job done, I made Tim commit to giving me 20 minutes every day during the week – weekends off. That was in November 2008, and Tim gave me those 20 minutes all the way through tax season.

Now tell me, who do you know that’s more stretched for time than an accountant during tax season? But Tim gave me those 20 minutes.

By July 2009 – just 9 months later – Tim didn’t need a personal coach anymore. To this day, I can edit one of Tim’s articles in about 15 minutes. That’s how good he got with just 20 minutes a day.

2. I don’t know what to do
You never have, you aren’t going to, and that’s what makes it fun!

When Bob Bly gave me my first writing assignment – Writing e-Books for Fun and Profit – I didn’t know what to do. It was my first big project, and I was intimidated by the prospect of writing for Bob.

When I started writing friends, followers and Customer Evangelists, I didn’t know how to use social media. That’s why I started writing the book. I figured most people would have the same sort of questions as me.

Now I’m looking for sponsors to do a book tour. I don’t know what I’m doing.

But there are people out there who do. I have a friend in Toronto who runs BizLaunch.ca. His name is Andrew and I’ve asked him for help. Then there’s the internet…You can bet I’ve done a couple of searches for information on writing sponsorship proposals.

Of course, David Hancock and Rick Frishman are helping me along. Since Morgan James Publishing is publishing friends, followers and Customer Evangelists it makes sense for them to help, right?

And what about the sponsors themselves? Since I’m a Rotarian, and the book tours are being arranged using the Rotary Districts as a roadmap, do you think potential sponsors are interested? And especially that they’re interested in reaching that target market of business owners who are active in their communities and live by the credo of Service Above Self?

You betcha!

Here’s the point: No one knows what to do until they take action.

Tim didn’t know how to write a good article. So he took action and asked me to coach him.

He made a small effort every day, and learned a little bit. That little bit, and the small effort, added up over time – just like compounding interest on an investment. Today, Tim writes a better article than most journalists.

3. I need help
These are words that come out of my mouth at least twice every single day.

Yes, I need help. You need help. Every business owner, mother, dad, and student would really like to have some help. Really, really…

The problem is that we’re looking for the wrong kind of help.

I’m forever saying “I wish there was someone to do this,” or “I wish I had an assistant.” Sure, having an assistant would take some of the load from my shoulders, but dreaming about it isn’t helping to get the work done. See what I mean?

As valuable as an assistant will be to me, I need a different kind of help to get through the day today.

Back up a second and look through the first two reasons for quitting again. Do you see how breaking things down into smaller, manageable tasks makes the time issue easier to handle?

It also makes the knowledge barrier smaller by breaking the learning down into easy steps. I didn’t know how to write a book for Bob, but I could handle researching one topic and writing 1,500 words about it. Put enough topics together and you get a book.

Tim didn’t know how to write a good article when we started. He put in the practice time, learned a few tricks, and now he’s a solid writer.

The cool part is that the help you want comes along while you’re making progress.

The trick is getting the help you need to make that progress. The help you need is support and encouragement. That comes from two places.

The first one is what you expect – a friend, family member, somebody you know who encourages you. That’s easy. The second one is something you might not have thought of – your role models.

When I want support, I look to what Jon Hansen is doing. I also look to Michel Fortin, Rich Schefren, Jeff Herring and several others who have “made it” in my industry. Studying their websites, reading their articles, and buying their products is a great source of support. They make the learning a lot easier because they’re good examples to follow.

Are You Ready to Quit?
There you have it. The 3 biggest reasons I’ve heard over the last two years for quitting and giving up. Or worse, not even getting started.

Which one are you using?

There are dozens of posts for Blog Off 2. Some have zero comments while others are well into double digits. Why is that?

Let’s take a look at 6 things the most popular posts are doing so you can put them to use for yourself. Each of these posts has:

1. An Attention Grabbing Headline
2. Emotional Appeal
3. Useful Content
4. A Current Topic
5. Graphics
6. Conversation

How well are you doing at putting these into your blog posts and articles? If you’re interested in improving your social media ROI, do keep reading…

An Attention Grabbing Headline
“5 Steps to Patent Your Invention” Doesn’t that just jump off the page and demand your attention?

Okay, it doesn’t have the glitz and glam – or screaming hype – of “7 Things You Should Never Eat On An Airplane.” What it does do is appeal to the attention of an evergreen audience – inventors – as well as the ambition of every backyard mechanic and handyman in the world.

There’s a simple way to “grade” your headlines. Let’s look at the tool, then grade this headline. The tool is the 4 U’s:

• Unique
• Useful
• Urgent
• Ultra-Specific

Is the headline unique? Yes. It’s talking about inventions, and you know they have to be unique to get a patent. It also promises to get you through a notoriously difficult process in 5 steps.

Is it useful? Almost everybody has an idea for improving something, and lots of people have ideas for brand new products. What inventor wouldn’t want to know how to get through the patent process in 5 steps?

Is it urgent? There isn’t urgency in the headline, exactly. Urgency in the headline would mean including a timeline. For exmaple, it might say “Get Your Product Patented in 30 Days.”

However, just ask anyone who wants to get a patent if they feel urgency about doing it. The urgency for this headline comes from the built-in passion of the audience it appeals to.

Is it ultra-specific? You bet. The target audience is named in the headline – inventors. It’s clear that the article address one issue – how to get patented. And it walks you through the process in 5 steps.

Start grading your headlines today, and you’ll see an increase in reader response. You’ll also see an increase in readers.

Emotional Appeal
It’s one thing for a headline to grab your attention. The next step is for the headline to draw you into reading the blog post.

The popular posts from Blog Off 2 appeal to altruism, happiness, ambition, anger, and frustration. That’s quite an array, and it’s just a list of the surface emotions for the headlines. The blog posts touch more emotions while you’re reading.

Before you start writing, take a minute to think of what emotion you want to be the strongest in your post. Just as your blog post will have a single topic, there should be one emotion that you try to stimulate the most.

For example, what emotion is being stimulated by this post? Hope – to improve yourself? Ambition – to get better and improve your readership? Avarice – to have what the popular posts are getting?

You can see that choosing a single emotion only means that’s the one you are focused on. You have to be aware of other emotions that come into play because of what you’re writing. If I don’t want to stimulate avarice, then it’s up to me to use words and phrases that steer the reader toward other emotions.

Stimulate positive emotions by showing readers how they can do something, and encouraging them to believe in their own ability. Go in the other direction by bragging about something and building up its value.

Useful Content
You would never write a blog post that didn’t have useful content, would you?

Okay. But what about a post that simply discusses a topic. It doesn’t tell readers how to do something, or even point them to resources. It simply discusses a current, popular topic. Is that useful?

Have you ever just wanted to blow off steam?

In the case of two posts about LinkedIn, there’s more to it than that. Remember that this is social media. People are watching…

One of the blog posts discusses things that are wrong, or limited, with LinkedIn. It’s had 19 comments, and some conversations are happening. Do you think LinkedIn is likely to have a Google Alert for keywords related to their site?

Being useful means more than “how-to.” The post about Project Harmony is useful because it inspires readers. Being useful means you are writing with a purpose. Always write with a purpose in mind.

A Current Topic
Yesterday’s news…It makes reporters and writers everywhere cringe to be told they’re writing about “yesterday’s news.”

One of the big reasons newspapers are struggling is their inability to compete with the immediacy of mobile communications and the internet. Why would I wait until tomorrow morning to read about something in the newspaper when I can see it on CNN.com right now?

Human interest stories (Project Harmony) are almost always current. But it won’t stay current. When the post is written, it will draw attention for a few days then fade – most blog posts do that.

The post “6 Things SEO Experts Won’t Tell You” is going to have more enduring popularity. SEO is a big topic for business and, until the knowledge becomes as common as cell phones, people will be looking for “inside information.”

The blog post about getting a patent is going to have enduring popularity. The process is unlikely to change drastically – and if it does, then the author can update the article. It’s an evergreen topic – similar to wedding planning, personal investing, and goal setting.

You can jump on a bandwagon for a particular topic. Just make sure the band is playing and wagon is rolling. When the party is winding down, look for a new angle or a new topic.

Graphics
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” We all know it, and we are all drawn to look at a photo.

Think of the last time somebody at work brought some pictures in. Do you remember how everyone gathered around to look at them? It works the same way for your articles.

Why did I pick the caricature of a teacher for this post? Because there’s something in all of us that resists learning something new – it seems like such work. But the funny photo suggests that you’re going to have a little fun while you’re reading. (At least, I’m hoping it suggested that!)

Aside from making sure your graphic is relevant to the topic, be sure to keep the graphic simple. The cleaner a graphic is, the easier it is for a reader to see it. Easy to see equals getting attention.

Graphics with faces work better than any other for getting attention. Even a cartoon face is better that a chart, graph, or other graphic.

Remember that video counts as a graphic, too. The only catch to using a video is to keep it short, short, short. Try to stay under 2 minutes, and 30 seconds is plenty to support an article. Think of the video as animated bullet points.

Conversation
This is really the whole point of social media, isn’t it? You want to have a conversation with your audience.

What sense is there in making information available to your audience if you aren’t going to talk to them about it? That would be silly.

Should you always agree with your audience? Absolutely not! Always be polite, but you don’t have to agree all the time. After all, you’re the one leading the way and showing readers what they want. When someone writes a comment and is wrong, go ahead and let them know.

But what if you’re wrong? It happens. When someone points out a mistake, be sure to thank them – even if they’re rude about it. They have given their time and energy to bring you a benefit – they’re helping you be better – so say thank you. And good manners can do a lot to diffuse an angry temper.

You don’t have to reply to every comment, but you should let your reader’s see them. (Except for spam comments, of course.) The conversations between your readers are just as important as any conversation you engage in. As long as you don’t allow personal attacks, having readers engage in debates, arguments and conversations is a good thing.

Your Next Step
Let me give you the links to the popular blog posts again:

• Project Harmony
• 5 Steps to Patent
• The SEO Lie
• Loving LinkedIn
• Are You a LION?

Now print a copy of each post plus a copy of this one. Then go through each one to find how it uses the six keys to being successful:

1. An Attention Grabbing Headline
2. Emotional Appeal
3. Useful Content
4. A Current Topic
5. Graphics
6. Conversation

Yep, I know…that seems like so much work. Only it isn’t – it takes just 20 minutes.

That’s right. Spend 20 minutes each day reading and studying successful blog posts. Make notes about what is working and how you can apply it to your own writing. I guarantee you will see significant results by January 1, 2010 – in just 23 days – by doing this exercise.

For everyone wanting more help, my coaching service is re-opening is February 2010. Get in touch with me by e-mail to show your interest, and I’ll follow-up in January.

Thanks for reading. Please do leave a comment to let me know if you found this useful, and to ask questions. I like questions – they’re fun to answer and make me feel, well…useful. 

These videos, plus a free electronic download of the book, are part of what I’ve planned as supports for when “friends, followers and Customer Evangelists” is released. After all, there are so many hyperlinks in the book it just makes sense to get the electronic copy when you buy the print copy.

Then everything will be added to the membership site we’re developing. Plus there will be monthly updates to the book posted on the membership site, of course.

Can I ask you to help me out? The target audience is local, small business owners who want to use social media well – people just like you and me. Would you mind telling me what will make the membership site useful for you?

Thanks. I appreciate it. All the support, input and feedback everyone is giving makes this project consistently better. Thank you.

Please feel welcome to share this video with everyone you think will benefit. There is no sign-up or registration – just click and watch.

Happy New Year! And thank you for watching. Go ahead and leave a comment to let me know what you think of the video.

The videos cover each of the Golden Trio sites – LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. This one goes into the most detail, and is the longest at 29:41. I’m wondering if I’ve tried to put too much information in here.

Please do let me know what you think.

You’ve probably seen an e-mail circulating that says she is 90. Well, she’s actually 50 and has a book coming out next year (2010) based on these life lessons. They aren’t earth shattering – or even anything you haven’t heard before. They’re good advice.

Since this is the time of year when we think about family and friends, and when we look at making a new start in the New Year, it makes sense to have a little bit of help like this. So read on and see what life has taught Regina.

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.

It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here’s an update:

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.

8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.

16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.

18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

35. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

36. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

41. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

42. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

45. The best is yet to come.

46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

48. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

49. Yield.

50. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

To reach this Plain Dealer columnist:

rbrett@plaind.com, 216-999-6328

There are dozens of posts for Blog Off 2. Some have zero comments while others are well into double digits. Why is that?

Let’s take a look at 6 things the most popular posts are doing so you can put them to use for yourself. Each of these posts has:

1. An Attention Grabbing Headline
2. Emotional Appeal
3. Useful Content
4. A Current Topic
5. Graphics
6. Conversation

How well are you doing at putting these into your blog posts and articles? If you’re interested in improving your social media ROI, do keep reading…

An Attention Grabbing Headline
“5 Steps to Patent Your Invention” Doesn’t that just jump off the page and demand your attention?

Okay, it doesn’t have the glitz and glam – or screaming hype – of “7 Things You Should Never Eat On An Airplane.” What it does do is appeal to the attention of an evergreen audience – inventors – as well as the ambition of every backyard mechanic and handyman in the world.

There’s a simple way to “grade” your headlines. Let’s look at the tool, then grade this headline. The tool is the 4 U’s:

• Unique
• Useful
• Urgent
• Ultra-Specific

Is the headline unique? Yes. It’s talking about inventions, and you know they have to be unique to get a patent. It also promises to get you through a notoriously difficult process in 5 steps.

Is it useful? Almost everybody has an idea for improving something, and lots of people have ideas for brand new products. What inventor wouldn’t want to know how to get through the patent process in 5 steps?

Is it urgent? There isn’t urgency in the headline, exactly. Urgency in the headline would mean including a timeline. For exmaple, it might say “Get Your Product Patented in 30 Days.”

However, just ask anyone who wants to get a patent if they feel urgency about doing it. The urgency for this headline comes from the built-in passion of the audience it appeals to.

Is it ultra-specific? You bet. The target audience is named in the headline – inventors. It’s clear that the article address one issue – how to get patented. And it walks you through the process in 5 steps.

Start grading your headlines today, and you’ll see an increase in reader response. You’ll also see an increase in readers.

Emotional Appeal
It’s one thing for a headline to grab your attention. The next step is for the headline to draw you into reading the blog post.

The popular posts from Blog Off 2 appeal to altruism, happiness, ambition, anger, and frustration. That’s quite an array, and it’s just a list of the surface emotions for the headlines. The blog posts touch more emotions while you’re reading.

Before you start writing, take a minute to think of what emotion you want to be the strongest in your post. Just as your blog post will have a single topic, there should be one emotion that you try to stimulate the most.

For example, what emotion is being stimulated by this post? Hope – to improve yourself? Ambition – to get better and improve your readership? Avarice – to have what the popular posts are getting?

You can see that choosing a single emotion only means that’s the one you are focused on. You have to be aware of other emotions that come into play because of what you’re writing. If I don’t want to stimulate avarice, then it’s up to me to use words and phrases that steer the reader toward other emotions.

Stimulate positive emotions by showing readers how they can do something, and encouraging them to believe in their own ability. Go in the other direction by bragging about something and building up its value.

Useful Content
You would never write a blog post that didn’t have useful content, would you?

Okay. But what about a post that simply discusses a topic. It doesn’t tell readers how to do something, or even point them to resources. It simply discusses a current, popular topic. Is that useful?

Have you ever just wanted to blow off steam?

In the case of two posts about LinkedIn, there’s more to it than that. Remember that this is social media. People are watching…

One of the blog posts discusses things that are wrong, or limited, with LinkedIn. It’s had 19 comments, and some conversations are happening. Do you think LinkedIn is likely to have a Google Alert for keywords related to their site?

Being useful means more than “how-to.” The post about Project Harmony is useful because it inspires readers. Being useful means you are writing with a purpose. Always write with a purpose in mind.

A Current Topic
Yesterday’s news…It makes reporters and writers everywhere cringe to be told they’re writing about “yesterday’s news.”

One of the big reasons newspapers are struggling is their inability to compete with the immediacy of mobile communications and the internet. Why would I wait until tomorrow morning to read about something in the newspaper when I can see it on CNN.com right now?

Human interest stories (Project Harmony) are almost always current. But it won’t stay current. When the post is written, it will draw attention for a few days then fade – most blog posts do that.

The post “6 Things SEO Experts Won’t Tell You” is going to have more enduring popularity. SEO is a big topic for business and, until the knowledge becomes as common as cell phones, people will be looking for “inside information.”

The blog post about getting a patent is going to have enduring popularity. The process is unlikely to change drastically – and if it does, then the author can update the article. It’s an evergreen topic – similar to wedding planning, personal investing, and goal setting.

You can jump on a bandwagon for a particular topic. Just make sure the band is playing and wagon is rolling. When the party is winding down, look for a new angle or a new topic.

Graphics
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” We all know it, and we are all drawn to look at a photo.

Think of the last time somebody at work brought some pictures in. Do you remember how everyone gathered around to look at them? It works the same way for your articles.

Why did I pick the caricature of a teacher for this post? Because there’s something in all of us that resists learning something new – it seems like such work. But the funny photo suggests that you’re going to have a little fun while you’re reading. (At least, I’m hoping it suggested that!)

Aside from making sure your graphic is relevant to the topic, be sure to keep the graphic simple. The cleaner a graphic is, the easier it is for a reader to see it. Easy to see equals getting attention.

Graphics with faces work better than any other for getting attention. Even a cartoon face is better that a chart, graph, or other graphic.

Remember that video counts as a graphic, too. The only catch to using a video is to keep it short, short, short. Try to stay under 2 minutes, and 30 seconds is plenty to support an article. Think of the video as animated bullet points.

Conversation
This is really the whole point of social media, isn’t it? You want to have a conversation with your audience.

What sense is there in making information available to your audience if you aren’t going to talk to them about it? That would be silly.

Should you always agree with your audience? Absolutely not! Always be polite, but you don’t have to agree all the time. After all, you’re the one leading the way and showing readers what they want. When someone writes a comment and is wrong, go ahead and let them know.

But what if you’re wrong? It happens. When someone points out a mistake, be sure to thank them – even if they’re rude about it. They have given their time and energy to bring you a benefit – they’re helping you be better – so say thank you. And good manners can do a lot to diffuse an angry temper.

You don’t have to reply to every comment, but you should let your reader’s see them. (Except for spam comments, of course.) The conversations between your readers are just as important as any conversation you engage in. As long as you don’t allow personal attacks, having readers engage in debates, arguments and conversations is a good thing.

Your Next Step
Let me give you the links to the popular blog posts again:

• Project Harmony
• 5 Steps to Patent
• The SEO Lie
• Loving LinkedIn
• Are You a LION?

Now print a copy of each post plus a copy of this one. Then go through each one to find how it uses the six keys to being successful:

1. An Attention Grabbing Headline
2. Emotional Appeal
3. Useful Content
4. A Current Topic
5. Graphics
6. Conversation

Yep, I know…that seems like so much work. Only it isn’t – it takes just 20 minutes.

That’s right. Spend 20 minutes each day reading and studying successful blog posts. Make notes about what is working and how you can apply it to your own writing. I guarantee you will see significant results by January 1, 2010 – in just 23 days – by doing this exercise.

For everyone wanting more help, my coaching service is re-opening is February 2010. Get in touch with me by e-mail to show your interest, and I’ll follow-up in January.

Thanks for reading. Please do leave a comment to let me know if you found this useful, and to ask questions. I like questions – they’re fun to answer and make me feel, well…useful. 

About the Author

Conrad Hall is the author of Friends, Followers & Customer Evangelism – The 2010 Business Owners Guide to Social Media. He writes for Technorati and Blog Critics and maintains his own blog at The Marketing Spotlight.

He is a passionate writer and coach who helps clients create outstanding information products and promote them using traditional and online media. You can contact Conrad through Conrad Hall Copywriting.