Are You Boring Your Readers to Tears?

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Samar Owais — 9 Comments ↓

[note]This is the first post in a series of 5 posts on how to be interesting so your audience will stick around. We’ll be featuring three very interesting people in one question interviews.[/note]

you're boring “You’re boring.” declared Seth Godin.

I could swear he was pointing at me.

“The only path left is to lean out of the edge and become interesting, noteworthy and yes, remarkable.”

‘But how do I become interesting?’ I wondered. Before I could voice that question, he’d gone off to his next post. I wanted to scream after him to come back and tell me how to be interesting. I didn’t want to go through his archives. I wanted my answer right now!

Knowing I’d fallen for Seth’s trap didn’t stop me from grumbling. He’d forced me to think and wonder about how to be interesting. I don’t know about you, but there was no way I was going to fumble around in the dark making a fool of myself in an effort to be interesting.

Of course, one could argue, that making a fool out of myself would be extremely interesting for a number of people.

I figured if Seth wouldn’t tell me (not that I asked him), I’d ask other people through a one question interview. Three stellar and totally awesome people replied to my one question interview.

I asked them:

What is the one thing we should change about our approach to become more interesting?

Yes, I realize. That’s got to be the world’s vaguest question. I was going to chicken out of sending the email to them if I hadn’t sent it when I did.

What I really wanted to ask was: “How the hell do I become interesting so that people like you will visit and read my blog? How do I catch and hold your interest? Tell me for God’s sake!!!”

The nice, professional blogger that I am, I couldn’t possible ask in exactly those words now could I?

So I sent the first question that popped in my head without stopping to frame it properly. And I got replies! Imagine my shock when the first email popped in within 24 hours! It didn’t even ridicule me or tell me to go get my act together.

Starting tomorrow, The Base will be featuring one interview per day for three days. Learn how to be interesting from three of the most interesting people online who know what it takes to keep their readers riveted.

Tomorrow, Michael Martine of Remarkablogger fame will be sharing his view on how to be an interesting blogger.

Tune in tomorrow to find how we can become interesting bloggers, the Remarkablogger way.

P.S: The Base will be updated every day this week and the review of Unit III of the Staff Blogging Course will return next Tuesday.

Image credit: Scragz

— 9 Comments ↓

Review: Staff Blogging Course by Ali Hale [Unit II]

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Samar Owais — No Comments ↓

[note]This is a review of Unit II in Ali Hale’s Staff Blogging Course. To find out what the course is about, read the review of Unit I.[/note]

staff blogging tips If you’re still running around like a headless chicken wondering why your blog isn’t making you money, let me clue you in: It’s because you’re going about it the wrong way!

Not your fault really, seeing how you’re headless

As a former headless chicken, I would advise you to sit in one place and read this review to find out how you can change your luck and go from earning zero to paying your bills in less than a year. (Not my story. Ali’s. Mine will come after I’ve completed the course.)

Unit II of the staff blogging course deals with finding your first staff blogging job.

In this unit, Ali explains:

Different methods of finding staff blogging jobs,
Tips on increasing your chances of landing the jobs and
Lists job boards where you can search for blogging jobs.

Exercises

As with the previous unit, there are exercises included that guarantee success if done properly. What stood out for me was that there is a very realistic time frame included for each exercise.

You can of course, take longer but the time limit provided in the exercises is more than enough if you’re focusing on the course alone.

Handouts

Not only does the “Finding your first staff blogging job” come with a separate handout listing the reputable job boards with well paying staff blogging jobs, but it also has another hand out in which Ali has included emails as samples that she sent to blog editors herself when applying for a job.

Each email is explained, with every important aspect of it highlighted so that the reader understands why something was written in a certain way and what effect it would have on your application.

Included in the handout are a few more personal messages that give you a clear idea of how to approach a blog a job. It’s not all about success in the handout though. Ali also list things that did not work for her.

My view and experience

I’ve started checking the listed job boards daily and applying to jobs that I feel I’m a fit for. I used Ali’s sample email to modify my own application email before applying. While my first few applications were rejection, there are a couple worth mentioning.

My very first application for a travelling blog was rejected because my geographical location was not what they were looking for. Since they had not specified a location in the job ad, they apologized, and mentioned that they were impressed by my samples and would keep me in mind if something came up. Much better than a ‘Thanks but no thanks.’ don’t you think?

Another application replied with a ‘We’d love to have you blog for us. Please tell us your rates.” I sent them my rates and never heard back from them. Keeping an eye on their blog revealed that they had hired someone else. Before you ask? No, my rates were not high.

A follow up email elicited no response.

Success!

All right, so not in getting a staff blogging job – though I’m hopeful that might change soon – but in getting work offer through one of the methods Ali suggests and explains in the unit. Keep your mind open for not just staff blogging jobs, you can apply for other jobs with the help of the things you learn.

The fact that following Ali’s advice is eliciting response is success in itself. With every application, I’m getting more confident and realizing that I have more experience that I give myself credit for. All those years of blogging have given me mad skills!

You already know what I’ll say, but I’ll say it anyway. Do yourselves a favour and buy the staff blogging course. You’ll be making money from blogging within three months. If you don’t (provided you’ve done every exercise in the course) there’s a 90 day money back guarantee.

What are you waiting for? It’s $19! Or less if you have a discount code.

Image credit: Andyp UK

— No Comments ↓

Blogging Peeve: Smarter S-P-A-M

Posted on June 13, 2009 by Samar Owais — 11 Comments ↓

Spam Alert If you’ve ever posted any content online, you know spam.

It’s like the neighbour who wouldn’t stop coming over to ‘borrow’ something or the other. You politely tried to dissuade her, gently but firmly told her no, talked to her about how annoying it is when people ask for things continuously and never return them or the favour back but nothing worked. So you trained your kids to always be on the lookout for Mrs Can-I-borrow-it-forever from next door.

You even tried to hide in your own home and pretend you weren’t there.

The neighbour still comes over and you still get spam.

Until one day it all mysteriously stopped. The neighbour stopped coming and you could opened the kitchen window and allowed your kids to play in the garden.

A few weeks ago, spam stopped coming in completely. I went from receiving over 200 spam comments a day to zilch. Zero. Nada.

Then I got one spam comment. I pounced on my spam folder sure that it was genuine comment caught up by mistake. At first look it did seem like it. The comment said: [note]Hi, good post. I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting. I’ll definitely be coming back to your site.[/note]

I was ready to pump my fist in the air for catching an authentic comment in my spam folder when I noticed which post they’d left the comment in. That can’t be right. The person in question had been wondering about the issue of keeping my zen seat warm.

I checked the email and the domain looked fishy. So I let it remain in the folder to see if it was genuine or more of the same would follow.

A few days later, another comment got caught by Akismet. This one seemingly innocent with a request to copy the post to his website. It had google.com as its website and the post it question?

Yeah, you guessed it. Why spammers are so interested in my seat of zen is beyond me. It’s in my loo for heaven’s sake you dumb bots! I would flush each one of you down given half the chance.

Finally I got another comment caught in spam. [note]Nice Theme buddy! Can you tell me the download link for email.[/note]

Thanks, I love my theme too. I would also tell you where I downloaded it from if your website and email address didn’t promise the enlargement of a part of human anatomy that I don’t even have.

So got any smart s-p-a-m lately or am I the sole recipient of their newfound intelligence?

Photo credit: cursedthing

— 11 Comments ↓

Review: Staff Blogging Course by Ali Hale [Unit I]

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Samar Owais — No Comments ↓

Earning money through blogging is every blogger’s dream. Too bad you can’t make money from your own blog – unless you’re Darren Rowse aka blogger extraordinaire.

Now that I’ve depressed you, I’ll tell you about an alternate way where you can make money… just not from your own blog. I’m talking about Ali Hale’s Staff Blogging Course.

I bought Ali’s Staff Blogging Course last month when I read her interview at Daily Blog Tips for three reasons.

Her story is mine – and very possibly yours. [*cough* blog failure *cough*]
Ali’s way of earning money from blogging is believable, doable and involves no shortcuts.
The price of the course. $19!

So I bought the course, poured through it, learned countless things and started implementing it.

As I go through the course and do the tasks, I’ll be reviewing it at The Base unit by unit.

Unit One:

The Staff Blogging Course is divided into five units. In the first unit, ‘The Basics of Blogging’, Ali tells us about her own blogging failure and answers the following questions related to staff blogging.

What exactly is staff blogging?
How much can I expect to earn?
Do I need to have my own blog?
Do I have to be a good writer?
How do I know if staff blogging is for me?

Question two was the one I was most interested in, but Ali had excellent information and advice in all of the answers which I couldn’t skip or ignore.

Resources, Handout and Exercises

Not only does Ali explains everything, she lists examples and resources. She also provides handouts and exercises to carry out.

The Goals Sheet in Unit One was an eye opener. She tells you exactly what to do with the handout and urges the reader to ‘be brutally honest’ with the answers. Remember, no one else is going to see them so you might as well do as she’s saying. After all, Ali knows her stuff.

My view of Unit One

Filling out that goals sheet suddenly made my blogging goals tangible. Achievable.

It gave me a clear sense of direction and I now know where to go and what to do to reach my goals.

I printed out the resources Ali linked to and pined up my goals sheet. It reminds me of what I have to work towards as I sit down to work on my desk every day.

The act of filling out the sheet gives a clear sense of direction and accomplishment. I got the tough work done, now I just need to connect the dots as I proceed with the course. Remeber, the Staff Blogging Course offers no short cuts. Instead it shows you a way that is guaranteed to work if you put the required effort into it.

Stay tuned for my review of Unit II of the Staff Blogging Course next week!

Already convinced? Buy the Staff Blogging Course today. Share your view if you’ve already bought the course.

Disclosure: The staff blogging course hyperlinks are all affiliate links.

— No Comments ↓

Get Paid, Inspired and Informed

Posted on June 7, 2009 by Samar Owais — 3 Comments ↓

I haven’t spread link love in a few weeks. The following links were my food for thought this week when I finally managed to catch up (somewhat) with my RSS feeder.

The Renegade Writer has two posts that had me going ‘hmmm’ for a couple of reasons.

The freelancer’s guide to getting paid reminded me of my unpaid invoice.

5 Tips for creating an inspiring workspace got me thinking of ways I can set up my own corner. Right now, there’s a stack of books, papers, a phone and a lamp. I’ll post a pic up soon, and you’ll see that decorating skills are absent in me

Over at Freelance Folder, Laura Spencer shed light on the uncomfortable facts about plagiarism. Thankfully, I’m nowhere near being a popular enough blogger to be plagiarized. I agree that blogging success has nothing to do with plagiarism but I do believe that it reduces the chances of having your writing stolen.

Sean has the second place in my list of bloggers who I read religiously. As in every post and every word written by them that I come across. And my list is only 4 people long. His post, An exclamation point is like a promise made me stop and think about my own use of the exclamation mark. Do you use it too often?

If you’re struggling with blogging (and the best of us do) head over to Confident Writing where Joanna tells us about 10 Things to do when you lose your blogging voice.

What have you been reading online lately?

— 3 Comments ↓