Writing Articles

The Most Popular Writing Blog Posts of 2015

12/31/2015

What did you like reading the most this year?

The Writing Blog pretty much focuses on these things:

Writing eBooks;
Publishing eBooks;
Selling eBooks;
Writing Content;
SEO News;
Social Media Ideas.

That’s about the gist of it.

Now, what I do is take screenshots at the end of each month that show my Weebly analytics.

What I did today was go back and look through those, seeing which Writing Blog posts were the most popular for 2015.

Here’s a screenshot of what I’m talking about:

I’m going to go ahead and cut out the evergreen content, things like my Top 10 eBook Cover Designer article and the Police Academy article.

That’s one of the problems I find – a lot of my popular stuff is from 2013 and 2014.

Alright, enough nattering. Here we go…the most popular Writing Blog posts this year.

10 Master Deviant Art Artists for Your eBook Covers (403 views in February)

5 Social Media Marketing Gems from 2014 (986 views in March, 890 views in August)

5 Helpful Content Marketing Posts from 2014 (703 views from March, 476 views in October)

Making More Money from Your Createspace Books (989 views in April)

10 Signs It’s Your First Book (366 views in May)

Free Fiction Friday #71: After 9 Days (685 views in July)

Marketing Experiment with One Facebook Writer’s Group (590 views in July)

Free Fiction Friday #76: The Truth Embargo (695 views in August (post removed))

Analyzing Your Geo Analytics to Boost Traffic and Create Sales (1,070 views in September)

Free Fiction Friday #78: September Surprise (917 views in September (post removed))

Analyzing 18 Different Social Media, SEO, and Content Marketing Sites for Content (1,081 views in October)

5 Tips for Writing Local SEO Content that Converts (651 views in October)

Shopping Cart Abandonment: What We Know, What’s Still a Mystery, and What You Can Do About It (471 views in October)

How to Rank Higher on Amazon’s Historical Fiction Charts (444 views in November)

18 Social Media and Content Marketing Sites: 2-Month Case Study (2,266 views in December)

15 from ’15: The Best Social Media Marketing Posts of This Year (1,301 views in December)

10 Social Media, Content Marketing, and SEO Predictions for 2016 (1,119 views in December)

Top 15 Local SEO Posts from 2015 (1,035 views in December)

Those are my most popular posts.

Thanks for reading!

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Midweek Content Roundup #91

12/30/2015

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This is the ninety-first post in an ongoing series of useful and interesting content that goes up each Wednesday.

Here you can find links to different SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, self-publishing, and other various articles from the past week that I think you might like.

This week there are 7 articles…enjoy!

Post removed 01/06/16

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Like what you're reading?

There are hundreds of pages of tips just like it in this book.

Give it a look on Amazon or iTunes.

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My Best Social Media Posts This Year

12/29/2015

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I do a lot of social media posting.

I stick to Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

I do a little bit with Pinterest and answer some questions on Quora.

I have to say though, I like sharing on Twitter the most.

I really like their analytics feature as well, which I didn’t stumble across until December 27.

On that day they had a sidebar link that I hadn’t seen before. It took me to this:

So that shows I’ve had 107,000 impressions over December.

That means my tweets appeared in the scroll, or someone scrolled past them, 107,000 times.

Is that good?

Probably not.

First, if you were to measure yourself next to the social media experts and influencers, that number’d probably be puny.

Next, impressions don’t really count for much. On Twitter especially, it’s like someone seeing a tree outside their car window at 65 mph.

Finally, what does it matter how many impressions you have if no one is engaging with your tweets, or social media posts in general?

By “engaging” I mean liking, sharing, or commenting.

Thankfully, I have some engagement, as Twitter’s analytics feature shows me:

Alright, alright…a 2.4% engagement rate.

We know that the average Twitter engagement rate for top brands is a terrible .07%, according to this April Dasheroo post.

So I’m doing a little better. We know that the click-through rate on Twitter is 1.64% on average, so I’m beating that.

Actually, with 32 link clicks a day I'm doing pretty well. Still, many of those are to other sites as I like sharing good content...no matter where it comes from.

When you get to numbers as small as 1.6%, however, does it really matter?

Maybe if you’re an influencer or expert with 800,000 followers or something, then yes, 1.6% would be good.

But for someone like me, with 800 followers (many of which don’t give a damn), I’m afraid 1.6% is shit.

Despite this, some of my social posts throughout the year actually do better than 1.6%.

Sometimes they do 25%.

How the hell does that happen?

In this post I’d like to explain that. I’ll explain it by showing some of my popular social posts throughout 2015.

I wish I would have started collecting them sooner, but I didn’t. That’s a good tip for you next year – if a post takes off, screenshot the sucker.

So, here are my screenshots.

My Most Popular Social Posts of 2015

I’m going to show you the post and then give some commentary.

For the Twitter posts, I just do a screenshot of the analytics for that tweet.

Here we go.

This was a tweet I sent out on December 18, one dealing with the Bernie Sanders/Hillary Clinton scuffle about voter databases.

I took this screenshot after 12 hours of the post being up. It has lots of engagements.

If we take 41 total engagements divided by 434 we get 9.4%.

There is no click-through rate on this tweet as it’s nothing more than an infographic-style image.

Lots of retweets, though.

I found the image on Facebook and brought it to Twitter. It was damn effective.

Something else that was effective was this post I put up around September on Google+.

It’s a poll asking writers in a writer group, “where are you on your writing journey?”

It’s a poll and it got 48 votes.

I do a lot of ESL (English as a Second Language) stuff because I used to be an ESL teacher.

On November 20 I put up this worksheet-style image in an ESL teachers group on Facebook.

After just 12 hours or so it got 79 likes and 73 shares. It also got 3 comments.

Wow, those reshares though – shit!

Nearly everyone that liked it shared it. That’s an effective post, especially considering I’d found the image through a simple Google image search.

Brock Lowrance is someone that worked in the George W. Bush White House. He’s also involved in Montana politics.

I sent out the tweet about the post on him once. It got a 20% click-through rate in one day.

That’s effective Twitter marketing. I knew what my target audience wanted and I gave it to ‘em.

One post from November 12 did really well in a Google+ group.

It’s a psychology marketing post from Marketing Land.

I usually share about 4 to 5 “other sites’ posts” each day on Google+. This one took 5 days to get 31 likes and 5 reshares.

Not too shabby.

One of my best posts of the year was a simple poll in a sci-fi group on Google+.

The group has about 120,000 members but you know that a fraction of that are active.

In this case my question was, “what should Ridley Scott direct next: the new Blade Runner or Prometheus 2?”

It got 479 votes in 1 day, as well as 35 comments.

Wow, I could not believe that level of engagement!

Despite those votes, it was a nearly dead-even split on the films. Clearly, I should not have allowed that “other” choice.

One great thing about Year-End Top 10 posts is that they are useful all year.

On September 19 I shared my 2014 Top 10 SEO post, which had originally gone up December 30, 2014.

It got 22 likes and 37 reshares over the course of about 5 days.

I’ll take that any day of the week.

On October 29 I went and saw the Shining at the Roxy Theatre here in Missoula.

That night I put up a post on Facebook talking about the mom smoking at the table with the kid.

It was in a Stephen King group on Facebook and got 49 likes in 11 hours.

Not a whole lot, but since I’m not very active in that group I was rather impressed.

Besides that, it got a lot of fun comments. Comments are often considered the gold standard of social media engagement.

Here’s a post from early-December about UM administrator salaries. It got a 3.4% click-through rate in 5 hours.

Not the most impressive, but it’s effective. Also, it’s twice the average.

One post that got a 10.8% click-through rate was one in early-December (the same day as that UM post, actually) on the Montana Lt. Gov speculation.

I got that level of engagement after 5 hours.

On December 7 I put up another Montana Lt. Gov speculation post.

It got a 15% click-through rate in 12 hours.

What I did here was build on the same topic. My target audience liked that and my social media engagement went up.

Conclusion

Those are my numbers.

Like I said, I wish I would have taken screenshots earlier.

Maybe a quarterly post would be a good idea. Anyways, that’s something you might want to think about as you head into 2016.

I hope my experiences have given you some insight.

Good luck going ahead!

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Time-Tested Marketing Principles that You Might Benefit From

12/28/2015

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There was a damn good post earlier this year.

It was called 4 Bombproof Formulas for Openings That Grab Readers and Don’t Let Go.

Bryan Collins had it on Boost Blog Traffic on February 12.

It’s a long post, but it breaks down ways to write that will get you results.

For instance, here’s the gist of the first set of examples:

Problem – Agitate – Solution

Problem – introduce a problem the reader is experiencing.
Agitate – use emotional language to intensify the problem.
Solution – offer a credible solution to the problem.

Something else that’s pointed out are several formulas for writing content that converters, convinces, or is just plain compelling.

They include:

AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action,

Firstly, you grab the attention of your readers quickly and directly

Then, pique their interest by explaining what you’re going to offer them, addressing needs and wants

Next, create desire by explaining the measurable benefit of your offer.

Finally, prompt the reader to take action.

Bob Stone’s Gem:

Start with your strongest benefit.
Expand on this benefit.
Explain how the reader can experience this benefit.
Back up your statement with support copy.
Tell readers what they’ll lose if they don’t act.
Sum up the most important benefit.
Include a call-to-action.

The Approach Formula:

Arrive
Propose
Persuade
Reassure
Make an offer
Ask for the order

For more tips on using psychology, check out this post from 2012 called Aristotle’s Secret to Great Content.

We’re discussing Ethos, Pathos and Logos.

Mainly, I just wanted to point out these posts that could help you.

Good luck this year!

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Why Did My Comment Bother Social Media Examiner Users So Much?

12/27/2015

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Perhaps you know that I go around to a dozen or more websites each morning.

I do this over breakfast, reading advice, leaving comments on that advice.

Many times this pisses people off.

Monday, December 21, was no different.

The post was called Nominate Your Favorite Social Media Blog: 7th Annual Top 10 Social Media Blog Contest

So it’s a promo post for people to come and talk-up their blog. They can leave a link to their blog and if it’s seconded then that blog might get chosen as one of the best of the year.

Why does that matter?

Because Social Media Examiner will announce the winners on their site and in their newsletter.

That newsletter goes out to 430,000 subscribers.

That’s where things went downhill.

You see, I had the audacity to question that newsletter, and its effectiveness.

Boy, did people jump on me.

Here, take a look at the comments:

So you can see my comment, which I went out of my way to preface as my opinion/belief.

I did this because I’ve taken flak on this site for being too direct.

Imagine that – speaking your mind! I know, it’s something we’ve forgotten in this country.

Anyways, Michael Stelzner came and commented on my comment. He owns that site and mentions it gets 1 million visitors a day.

Much like the mailing list, I have no proof of this.

I went ahead and mentioned that Michael should share his email list numbers, specifically how effective that list is.

He said that’s proprietary information.

Now, that’s a standard response and he’s more than allowed to give it.

But we all know he’s hiding.

I’m not hiding – I’m happy for people to know where I’m at. I’m also not scared, embarrassed, or red-in-the-face about my email list.

After all, why would I have left this comment if I was?

So I laid out my numbers, which let’s face it, are not that impressive.

But I’m not afraid to talk about them, unlike Michael.

You’d think people would want to know numbers, both for comparison sake and to see how well they’re doing.

That is not the case.

Because I opened up and gave my numbers, I got browbeat not only by the Social Media Examiner users but by an actual writer of that site.

From Michael I got nothing – he ignored me.

As to those comments, here are some highlights:

I am not sure what your point is, but I gather by your comments that you are clueless about the powerhouse that Mike Stelzner and Social Media Examiner are. Together with his exceptional staff, Mike shares the latest and greatest of apps and different social media platforms.

Greg - are you seriously the expert with 43 subscribers?

That's the thing with this social media circle jerk, people always trying to use numbers as a level of so-called "expertise".

Please don't hijack posts like this one, where we have an opportunity (in my case) to thank people we don't know but who have had a positive impact in our lives. It is very noble of SME to take the time to ask us for our opinions - we're in control and it's great.

I and a lot of people I know personally, thru social sites, blogs, business sites and in person click and read their emails then go to the website! Jealous much Greg! Trying to find a way to free publicity? Or just a sad pathetic human being who is trying to find free info on how you can duplicate their success

As you can see, I really got a some blowback on that.

Peg Fitzpatrick is a writer on the site and she gave the comment about me being an expert with 43 subscribers.

Thankfully, I never claimed to be an expert.

I especially liked the comment talking about using social numbers as expertise.

Isn't that what Social Media Examiner is doing by pointing out their mailing list?

I guess we should just ignore that.

Most of the rest complain how I’m hijacking the post or not appreciating all the site does for us.

Folks, this all came about from a single comment that questioned the effectiveness of Social Media Examiner’s mailing list.

I have to say, after all that blowback, I feel Social Media Examiner’s email list is even less effective than I originally thought.

I think that because of the defensiveness.

Boy, those people got defensive, didn’t they?

The idea that Social Media Examiner might not be as effective as it claims? My God, that fills them with fear and dread!

Because of that they lash out. Some, such as Cynthia, even call me a “pathetic human being.”

When I hear comments like that I know I hit a nerve.

Clearly, something is going on here.

First, I feel that Social Media Examiner is not as effective as it could be, its advice not as good as it should be.

Next, many long-time users know this, are bothered by it, and are afraid. What will happen if my favorite site goes anymore downhill?

Finally, people are not confident. I’m the only one that felt confident enough to share my email numbers, and that includes the site that purports to have a million visitors a day and 430,000 subscribers.

Like I said – there’s no proof of that, absolutely none.

We’re supposed to trust Social Media Examiner.

That’s fine – trust ‘em.

Just don't ask for verification.

I won’t trust 'em. I won’t because I haven’t found their advice that effective, myself. In fact, I find it basic and about the same as the advice everywhere else.

God, it bothers them when I say this. It bothers their users.

Well, I doubt I’m going to stop saying it until we see some improvement on the content they're putting up.

Considering they rely on guest posters all week except Saturday, I doubt we’ll be seeing the changes that are required to get this site back where it ‘needs’ to be.

One post that would sure catapult it back toward the top would be a post explaining their email numbers.

How many opens do you get?
How many click-throughs?

Remember, though – that’s proprietary information.

If Michael was to share that sites like Copyblogger or Content Marketing Institute might get the beat on him.

Can’t have that.

And we certainly can’t have the extra trust, confidence, and appreciation for Social Media Examiner that such a disclosure would bring about.

Remember, they're a big site – they don’t need to show what they got.

Just trust ‘em.

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12 of the Best Content Marketing Posts of 2015

12/27/2015

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I love content marketing.

Of all the big three – SEO, social media marketing, and content marketing – it’s my favorite.

Why is that?

Because it’s all about writing, persuading, and getting people to nod their head to what you’re saying.

When you can do that well enough, you’ll get sales, conversions, or whatever it is your ultimate goal is.

That’s why I like content marketing.

I’m not alone, either. Many people like it, and they write about it a lot.

In this post we’ll take a lot of that writing, or more aptly, the best of it.

Yep, these are what I consider to be the best content marketing articles this year.

Enjoy!

Content Marketing Stages
A fun post that appeared on Content Marketing Institute on April 16 was What’s Next in Your Content Marketing Career Evolution? Written by Jason Miller, this post details the following stages you might find yourself at:

– The Young Gun;
– The Emerging Artist;
– The Collaborator;
– The Crackerjack.

Emerging Artists want to share their passions through content,” Miller writes, while a Crackerjack will “lead the industry rather than just responding to it.” There’s checklists for each and the whole posts has a Jim Morrison/Doors theme. Check it out!

Types of Blogs
I hate posts that don’t have dates, and I usually don’t include them in these weekly roundup posts. I’m making an exception for Will Hoekenga’s post called The 10 Types of Popular Blogs: Which One Is Yours? Why am I doing this? Because this Lead Pages post is great, has lots of wonderful tips, and could really be a small eBook, so long it is.

The post has cool categories like the Rogue site and the Niche site and it tells you benefits and drawbacks of each. A Rogue site will “polarize, which attracts attention,” but will also “attract an above-average amount of haters.” I’m telling you, check it out!

Trends to Watch for in 2016
The Top 7 Online Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2016 was a September 29 Forbes post by Jayson DeMers. Those 7 trends are:

– Video ads will start dominating;
– App indexing will lead to an explosion of apps;
– Mobile will completely dominate desktop;
– Digital assistants will lead to a new kind of optimization;
– Virtual reality will emerge;
– Wearable technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) will pave new ground;
– Advertising will become more expensive.

Alright, where to begin?

– First of all, the Internet of Things refers to how you can use “things” like smart watches and wearable technology to access the internet. Even things that count your steps and upload it could be considered as such.

– Next, I think we can all agree that advertising will be more expensive. I’ll go a bit further and say that paid advertising for individuals and small businesses will decrease in effectiveness as larger businesses gobble up the prime deals.

– Then, I totally agree on video advertisement gaining ground and taking the lead. It’s clear those are making more money for advertisers and those putting them on their site. One thing I hate, however, is how video ads jerk you from your spot in the article to the location of the ad, if it’s not an ad that follows you. Hopefully that dies out.

– Finally, I think DeMers is right on his assumption that mobile will come to dominate. He says that Google is “banking on desktop traffic fading away,” and that’s probably true. I don’t like that as I always use my laptop – I have to as I’m a writer.

All in all, a good post with things that will likely come about. I’m glad I stumbled upon this article – good job!

Marketing Formulas
Bryan Collins had a post up on Boost Blog Traffic on February 12 called 4 Bombproof Formulas for Openings That Grab Readers and Don’t Let Go. Those 4 formulas are:

– Problem-Agitate-Solution;
– AIDA;
– Bob Stone’s “Gem”;
– The Approach Formula.

Perhaps some of those sound funny to you, maybe you don’t know what some are. That’s fine – click over and learn. There are three examples of each approach and I know you’ll want to make a short cheat-sheet to put over your desk. Do so now!

Interesting Marketing Stats
15 Stats Marketers Need to Know to Improve the Customer Journey Today was a September 6 Business 2 Community post by Andrew Sheridan. Some of those stats are pretty interesting, and include:

– 43% of people said they’re more involved in B2B purchasing than last year;

– 66% of smartphone users look up something they saw on TV;

– 72% of potential buyers use Google for research.

There are a lot more numbers here, and they’ll make you think. Check ‘em out!

Content Marketing Tips from Movies
One post I really loved was October 19’s Content Marketing Lessons From Hollywood A-Listers. It appeared on Marketing Land and was written by Quinn Whissen.

The post takes movies like Jerry Maguire, Money Ball, and Finding Nemo and takes their central marketing message, using it to explain the essentials of content marketing to you.

For instance, Jerry Maguire is all about “Help me help you.” For that movie the post talks about useful content, delivering information, and the rewards of it all.

You’ll find a lot to chew on here. Check it out!

The Power of Infographics
10 Reasons Your Brain Loves Infographics was a post by Joe Gullo’s site on May 2. He mentions how there’s been a 9,900% increase in visual content on the internet since 2007, and a lot of that is because of infographics.

Images really get to our sub-cortex, that caveman brain that grew up on visual cave paintings for thousands of years.

This infographic has tons of useful information, and once again shows that small sites with get-up-and-go can beat the Big Boys each and everyday. The Big Boys rely on what they think, you rely on what you feel. Which do you think will appeal to that caveman brain more?

Trigger Words
Dvora Goldstein had a post on Boost Blog Traffic on June 4 called 17 Trigger Words That Work Like Cheat Codes for Getting Your Content Read. Some of those words are:

– You;
– Because;
– Yes;
– New;
– If;
– How.

If you go outside right now and look up you’ll also find that the sky is blue. That’s about the same level of awareness you’ll get from this post, in my humble opinion. I mean…we should use ‘you?’ Wow, do you want me to go back to first grade as well?

Honestly, sometimes the people that ‘know’ what’s going on don’t have a fucking clue. This post is laughable, how elementary it is. Obviously it’s summer, the time of year when we stop trying. Jon Morrow obviously has…but then he doesn’t do much besides bring ringers in anyways, er…guest posters.

I Ain’t Missin’ You at All
Michele Linn had a June 23 post on Content Marketing Institute called The One Content Marketing Question You Need to Ask (That May Scare You). That question is, “would anyone miss your content if you did not publish it?”

Wow, that hits you in the gut, huh? I have to say…probably not. I don’t think anyone would really miss the content on this site. Maybe on Wednesday, but that’d just be like missing coffee or a cigarette for a day. By the next it’d be easier and after a week or two you’ll hardly think on it.

Linn’s fix is to have your content build anticipation. You want people to be craving what you write, your tone, or whatever it is that’s pulling them in. If you’re not sure what that is, then you might have some problems.

I’m not sure I’m the best to comment on this, as I don’t get much traffic (about 500 to 600 unique hits a day) and hardly any comments. So like I said, people wouldn’t miss me much. How about you?

Dealing with Social Media Attackers
There were some good ideas for dealing with social media attacks on your brand in a November 15 Content Marketing Institute post. It was called When Followers Attack: A Monty Python Guide to Maintaining Social Media Harmon.

Jonathan Crossfield wrote the piece and he discusses the following social media personas:

– Trolls: “A Person who makes a deliberately offensive or provocative online post.”

– Complainers: Someone that has a genuine concern that you’re ignoring or not addressing correctly, causing them anger.

– Fanatics: Someone that “won’t stop protesting or heckling until” you see to their issue, even if the dispute is “unfair, unrealistic, or just plain wrong.”

So those are some interesting types and we often confuse them. The post gives you ideas for dealing with them, and even if you should deal with them in some cases.

I get called a troll about once a week, and on big sites. Content Marketing Institute actually banned me from commenting for a short time – taking away one of the only commenters they have, besides the spam posters.

I encourage you to speak provocatively and directly and not to mince words. You’ll be called names when you do, but by God, when you get companies by the balls like that they will begin to act, they will begin to redress your grievances.

Isn’t that a lot better than sending out an email to Company HQ and hoping for the best?

The Most Shared Content Page-Types
Isabel Wagner had an October 12 Business 2 Community post called Editorial Still Packs a Punch in Content Marketing. What I like about this post is that it tells us the “most-shared page types.” These include:

– Editorial at 27%
– Corporate Social Responsibility at 20%
– Press/News Pages at 17%
– Content Hubs at 14%
– Product Pages at 6%
– Company Information at 3%

Wow, don’t write about your company, huh? And gosh…product pages are that low?

I realized this a long time ago on my Montana blog. People in this state have tons of newspaper, TV and radio options to get their news. They don’t have a lot of analysis of that news, however.

That’s editorial opinion, and the more informed someone is in a niche, the more of that they’ll want.

Give it to ‘em!

60 Content Marketing Experts on Twitter
A very helpful post appeared on Express Writers on October 27. It was called The Top 60 Content Marketers You Should Be Following on Twitter, written by Julia McCoy.

First she mentions that there are 304 million “monthly active users” on Twitter, and that’s the best social network for catching an influencer’s ear.

She starts off with the usual suspects – Rand Fishkin, Brian Clark, Neil Patel – and that’s great. Still, I think their time has come and gone.

That’s why you’ll get some up and comers, the kind that don’t have to rely on others to write their blog content for them, or in the case of Rand, can managed more than one post a week.

You’ll get about a sentence or two on each and a link to their Twitter profile. Check ‘em out and give some a follow. Maybe you’ll be surprised who follows you back.

Conclusion

I hope you get some ideas from these posts.

Maybe they’ll help you get ahead in 2016. Who knows – maybe you’ll even get tons of traffic and make a million dollars.

That’s who I write for on this site – people that are struggling, but still believe they can do it.

Keep working hard – I believe you can make it.

For more tips, check out my book Get Noticed, available on Amazon and iTunes.

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Free Fiction Friday #93: A Fight in the Station

12/25/2015

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Note: This is the ninety-third post in Free Fiction Fridays.

These are short stories put up each Friday that you can read for free. By the next Friday the post will be taken down and a new one will go up.

Post Removed 01/01/16...Thanks!

Get Black Walnut on Amazon for $0.99

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7 Things that Help Me Write 100,000 Words Every Month

12/25/2015

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I write a lot.

You probably saw that number I put up at the beginning of the month, the 166,930 words that I wrote in November.

That was my 10th month of more than 100,000 words this year (I had 85,000 in April).

In 2014 I had 11 months of 100,000+ words (May got me that year) and in 2013 I had 6 months.

So most months I put out a lot.

How do I do that?

I’d like to explain how I do that by outlining my daily routine and work habits. I’ll do that in 7 examples.

Who knows – maybe you’ll get some ideas that bump your word count as well.

#1: Work Early

I get up in the morning everyday, usually around 7:30 or so…maybe a little later on the weekend.

I have a wife and son and they have to get off to the real world to do stuff.

The good news is that I get up. Oftentimes I can get a couple hundred words right there, if I’m working on a novel.

That’s the thing – when I’m writing a book (novels, mostly) I’ll usually have that on the top of my list.

That means first thing upon the computer warming up enough for me to use it, I’ll pull up a section of the book and start writing.

I do this a lot and I’ve done it on many books.

It works.

More than that, however, first thing in the morning you have a lot of words. Good job – now do a word count on your word processor and jot that number down on your notebook.

Oh, you don’t have a notebook?

#2: Have a To-Do List

Sitting beside my computer I have a small $0.99 to $1.99 notebook that’s 4 x 5.5 inches.

I have about 5 more of them in a drawer in the spare room.

Each of them has pages of days that usually have 10 items written up. Below that I have a section where I put my word count.

Folks, you cannot write a lot of words if you’re not counting them!

It’s like catching a fish this big and bragging about it at the bar – without proof, no one cares.

Daily to-do lists make it easier to get things done

So that’s my page for the day I started this post.

Things like that keep you on track. It always surprises me how much I get done when I say, ‘oh…alright – I’ll do one damn thing on that list, but just a little bit!’

A lot gets done that way.

#3 Breakfast Routine

How do you eat breakfast?

Do you do it at the table, reading the newspaper?

Is it in the car, driving through traffic?

How about in the office, when you’re supposed to be working?

Maybe it’s not at all, because you just don’t think that meal is important?

I’ll tell you how I eat breakfast. It’s at my computer while I’m looking at my 18 morning content sites (a lot fewer now that I’ve put up my 2-month follow up case study post).

What I do is eat a bit of my extra-dry oatmeal, chewing on it while reading and writing on those sites.

Oh, yeah…did I forget to mention it? I write comments.

Yep, I write comments and I cut and paste those comments into a document. At the end of the day I do a word count on that.

Sometimes it’s 200 words for the day. Sometimes it’s 2,000.

Now, some will say those words shouldn’t count. I’m not one of them.

#4: Multitask and Transition Well

Alright, when I’m at those sites in the morning something else I’m doing is organizing and analyzing that content via my browser’s tabs.

When I find a good post, or maybe when I’m all done reading through all the sites, I’ll write up the best posts.

I do that to make my Midweek Content Roundup post each week.

Those typically stretch into the 2,000-range so we’re only talking about 8,000 to 10,000 words a month right there.

What I also do, however, is add a bit more on Google+ when I share 3 to 4 of those articles.

Again, this is cut and put into the comment section, or sometimes rewritten for the roundup post.

It’s just another way to get extra words. More, it’s a way to transition from similar tasks in a way that keeps your productivity going.

That’s how large word counts can come about.

#5: I Know How to Type

This one seems pretty easy, but a lot of people don’t know how to type, or if they do, it’s too slow.

I’m not sure what my words per minute is, but it’s surely more than 100 and probably approaching 200.

I can write like it’s a stream of consciousness because I so often tap into the subconscious while doing it.

You do this a lot too, like when you’re driving or washing the dishes. You can just see things in your head and if you can translate that into your fingers moving across the keys, you get a lot done.

I had a hard time learning how to type. It was in 1996 or so at Helena High and I was in Mr. Wood’s keyboarding class.

The fact that it was just before lunch and I was usually hungry then didn’t help. There was a hot girl sitting next to me too, and that didn’t help.

Mainly, though, I was worried about mistakes. I was really slow because of that until one day I said ‘to hell with it’ and went for speed over accuracy.

After awhile the accuracy came back, this time fueled with speed.

So…learn how to type.

#6 Clear Delineation of Tasks

I feel that one of the reasons so many people have a hard time writing anything of quantity is because they get off-task.

It’s hard staying on top of things.

Even my simple little list is hard to follow on some days. Still, it’s there. Also, you have to stay active.

One way I do this is by segmenting the day further. Here’s a look at after breakfast/lunch:

Content Work: I have paid work and I have work that I do for myself. So far we’ve talked about the work I do for myself. When I get done with that I do any content writing jobs I have for others. Typically these are blog posts about an industry or niche or content/services pages for some type of business. This gives me a few hundred to a few thousand words most days.

Blog Posts: I work on two main blogs each day – my writing blog and my Montana blog. Oftentimes I’ll get a spark of creativity from something I read online, see on Twitter, or hear on the radio news. That fuels my Montana blog, which is geared toward current events. For writing, I often get ideas after my morning content roundup routine. If I choose to write those down in a blog post I’ll get a few hundred to a couple thousand words. That’s a draft and over a day or two I’ll refine that and tally the words.

Project Work: What I do for these couple of hours after breakfast is skip around between my work and the work of others. I also skip around on my various projects. I’m always working on a novel or nonfiction book, so I can work on that. Often there are other books in progress, however, so something always gets done. That’s the thing – variety spurs you to do more when you might not otherwise want to.

Alright, let’s get to lunch.

I eat a small meal, watch a bit of news, and then when I’m still sitting at the table there, my dirty plate or bowl still sitting there, I often start writing a few hundred words.

Sometimes this stretches into a thousand. Oftentimes it’s something that I felt motivated to write after watching the news.

Really, you see something and get passionate to write. That really gets the fingers moving and that pushes the word count up quickly.

#7 Repeat All Day

After that you’ve done a lot for the day. A lot of it comes down to repeating it, working a bit more on what you did in the morning.

Do that again after dinner. I do that. I don’t watch TV and since I don’t do much with other people I have even more time.

Most evenings I take a hot bath. Afterward I feel refreshed and can write more.

Find little things like that that can help you break up the day, stay motivated, energized.

That’s what I do. That’s how I get more than 100,000 words a month.

Maybe you don’t want to do that. That’s perfectly fine. There are also tons of ways to get more words through other methods.

For me, it just comes down to doing the work.

Being passionate and caring about your subjects helps. Being motivated by money to work for others also helps.

Remember, I don’t have a day job so I have to write content, I have to write everyday.

So those are my tips. I hope they help you or give you some ideas.

Anyone can write. It just comes down to doing it.

Get this book and get 600 more pages of ideas

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12 Awesome Psychology Posts that Get to the Heart of Content Marketing

12/24/2015

1 Comment

I love seeing psychology posts.

For the past two years now I’ve put a section on psychology in my annual guidebook’s content marketing section.

The reason for this is that psychology sells.

It’s a way for you to tap into inner desires, lizard brains, and the true wants of your user.

When you can do that you can better sell them your products or services, get them to sign-up for your email list, or follow you on social media.

It’s all about the goals of your content, and what you want that user to do after reading it.

By using simple psychological principles you can better get your user to do what you want.

Here are 12 posts from 2015 that really got to the heart of that.

Using Psychology in Marketing
One post that you should check out was written by Pratik Dholakiya on Search Engine Journal on January 20. It’s called How to Use Psychology to Build Social Media Campaigns That Resonate, and has the following tips:

– Put a Human Touch on Brand Interactions;
– Use Compelling Narrative to Inspire Followers to Take Action;
– Make it Fun and Encourage Participation;
– Leverage Nostalgia to Trigger Warm Fuzzies;
– Shift Your Mindset From “Selling” to “Sharing.”

If you’re into social media strategy, this is a post to look at. I had a whole section on using psychology to get traffic in my last SEO book, Stand Out, and I really think you need to start thinking about this in your daily online affairs.

Keeping Readers
7 Psychological Ways to Keep Readers Attracted to Your Blog was a post on March 23 by Hassaan Khan on Blogging Cage. Some of those tips are:

– Make Posting Schedules and follow them;
– Give Alerts and Notifications about Posts;
– Create Shareable Images;
– Add People’s Examples in your Blog Posts.

Those are all good tips for getting ahead, and you’ll find more details by visiting this post.

Trigger Words
Dvora Goldstein had a post on Boost Blog Traffic on June 4 called 17 Trigger Words That Work Like Cheat Codes for Getting Your Content Read. Some of those words are:

– You;
– Because;
– Yes;
– New;
– If;
– How.

If you go outside right now and look up you’ll also find that the sky is blue. That’s about the same level of awareness you’ll get from this post, in my humble opinion. I mean…we should use ‘you?’ Wow, do you want me to go back to first grade as well?

Honestly, sometimes the people that ‘know’ what’s going on don’t have a fucking clue. This post is laughable, how elementary it is. Obviously it’s summer, the time of year when we stop trying. Jon Morrow obviously has…but then he doesn’t do much besides bring ringers in anyways, er…guest posters.

I Ain’t Missin’ You at All
Michele Linn had a June 23 post on Content Marketing Institute called The One Content Marketing Question You Need to Ask (That May Scare You). That question is, “would anyone miss your content if you did not publish it?”

Wow, that hits you in the gut, huh? I have to say…probably not. I don’t think anyone would really miss the content on this site. Maybe on Wednesday, but that’d just be like missing coffee or a cigarette for a day. By the next it’d be easier and after a week or two you’ll hardly think on it.

Linn’s fix is to have your content build anticipation. You want people to be craving what you write, your tone, or whatever it is that’s pulling them in. If you’re not sure what that is, then you might have some problems.

I’m not sure I’m the best to comment on this, as I don’t get much traffic (about 500 to 600 unique hits a day) and hardly any comments. So like I said, people wouldn’t miss me much. How about you?

3 Important Blogging Qualities
Why Your Blogging Community Wants More Than Just Quality Content was a September 14 Shade of Info post by Andrew M. Warner.

The post delves into what quality content is and why your audience wants it. It also mentions that quality content alone just isn’t enough.

Three ideas are presented to get over that hurdle, and they include:

– Trust;
– Giving Credit;
– Personality.

Warner has much longer sub-headings than those, and you’ll get quite a bit of analysis for each.

This is a good post to check out, and I honestly think there might be more words in the commenting section. See for yourself!

Giving Social Posts a Psych Boost
5 Psychology Tips to Improve Your Social Media Posts was an October 7 Social Media Examiner post by Wade Harman. Those 5 tips are:

– Images Speak to Viewers;
– Color Communicates;
– Words Trigger Action;
– Emotion Connects;
– Conversation Engages.

If you can target that lizard brain that we all have, people will turn their heads and notice. Bells and whistles, fancy colors and flashing lights all do that. Figure out how you can get that stuff into your Facebook, Twitter, or other social network posts.

Boosting Social Engagement with Psychology
3 Psychology Principles That Boost Social Media Engagement was a November 3 Social Media Examiner post by Wade Harman. Those 3 principles are:

– Focus on a Desire;
– Appeal to Knowledge Seekers;
– Tap Into the Fear of Missing Out.

What I think you need to do is tap into the lizard brain of your potential buyer or site visitor. I do like the idea of missing out and it goes well with the earlier post we saw on scarcity. That ties right into supply and demand and if you have something people want, need, and is in short supply, you’ll always do well.

So how do you get that? Well…you already have it. I don’t care if it’s the newest damn can-opener or dad’s beat-up old Buick – sell that shit.

You need to sell the hell out of that and it comes down to convincing your potential buyer that you are the best and no one else is worth their time. Tap into that lizard brain and woo the hell out of ‘em. Get more ideas in this post.

Does Content Trump a Relationship?
One post that got me thinking was Sarah Snow’s November 6 Social Media Today post called What If Content Is Not King? She makes a good argument that branding is more important than content and that you need to establish relationships.

“Remember when all people cared about was page views?” Snow writes. “And so the best minds of a generation were wasted on figuring out how to make people click?”

The problem with that approach is that that click-bait content might have gotten us to a site, but it didn’t keep us there, didn’t get us to come back the next day, and the next.

You need to “offer real value, and offer it consistently,” she tells us. I hope you give this article a read – it has lots to think on.

Why Visitors Hate Your Site
Marketing Land had a fun post from Surgo Land on November 10 called 6 Reasons Visitors Hate Your Website. Those reasons are:

– Mobile Design (causes high bounce rate);
– Click-bait Articles (causes low social shares, high bounce rate);
– Pop-ups (causes a low returning customers rate);
– Confusing Content (causes misleading time-on-site figures);
– Slow Speed (causes low conversion rates);
– Low Quality Images (causes low referral traffic).

Wow, you get quite a lot in this post and just in the headings. I’d give it a look – maybe you’re doing some of these things and it’s time to stop.

Some Psychological Processes of Decision Making
12 Psychological Methods People Use When Making Decisions was a November 12 Marketing Land post by Jordan Kasteler. Some of the methods are:

– Anchoring;
– Information;
– Decoy;
– Recency;
– Selective Perception;
– Ostrich Effect;
– The Social Effect;
– Bandwagon Effect.

Some of the methods that stood out to me were anchoring, which is “not being able to ignore the first piece of information you heard” and recency, which is tapping “into a person’s short-term memory.”

You’ll get a lot more in the post, and I bet some of the ideas will make you think and nod and perhaps change your approach on some things. Give it a look.

Dealing with Social Media Attackers
There were some good ideas for dealing with social media attacks on your brand in a November 15 Content Marketing Institute post. It was called When Followers Attack: A Monty Python Guide to Maintaining Social Media Harmon.

Jonathan Crossfield wrote the piece and he discusses the following social media personas:

– Trolls: “A Person who makes a deliberately offensive or provocative online post.”

– Complainers: Someone that has a genuine concern that you’re ignoring or not addressing correctly, causing them anger.

– Fanatics: Someone that “won’t stop protesting or heckling until” you see to their issue, even if the dispute is “unfair, unrealistic, or just plain wrong.”

So those are some interesting types and we often confuse them. The post gives you ideas for dealing with them, and even if you should deal with them in some cases.

I get called a troll about once a week, and on big sites. Content Marketing Institute actually banned me from commenting for a short time – taking away one of the only commenters they have, besides the spam posters.

I encourage you to speak provocatively and directly and not to mince words. You’ll be called names when you do, but by God, when you get companies by the balls like that they will begin to act, they will begin to redress your grievances.

Isn’t that a lot better than sending out an email to Company HQ and hoping for the best?

How Psychology Creates Long-Term Fans
7 Psychological Tricks for Turning Fleeting Visitors into Loyal Fans was a November 19 Boost Blog Traffic post by Katharine Di Cerbo. Those tricks are:

– Tell Stories from Your Reader’s Perspective;
– Sprinkle Your Writing with Success Stories;
– Show Your Readers How You’re Just Like Them;
– Credit Your Influencers;
– Display a Strategic and Prominent Personal Photo;
– Use Comment Replies to Show Empathy and Consistency;
– Let Your Readers’ Motivational Style Drive Your Headlines.

Wow, lots of stuff! You also get a bunch of stuff on loyalty triggers in this post. There are tons of examples to back up these points and I think it’s in your best interest to read this post.

Need More Ideas?

Get a lot more tips on what works in my new guidebook.

It's available on Amazon and iTunes and you can get a print version as well.

Make 2016 your year.

1 Comment

Midweek Content Roundup #90

12/23/2015

0 Comments

This is the ninetieth post in an ongoing series of useful and interesting content that goes up each Wednesday.

Here you can find links to different SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, self-publishing, and other various articles from the past week that I think you might like.

This week there are 13 articles…enjoy!

Post removed 01/01/16

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Get a lot more tips on what works (and even what doesn't) in my new guidebook. It's available on Amazon and iTunes and you can get a print version as well.

Shouldn't 2016 be your year to get ahead?

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The Most Popular Writing Blog Posts of 2015

Midweek Content Roundup #91

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My Best Social Media Posts This Year

My Most Popular Social Posts of 2015

Conclusion

Time-Tested Marketing Principles that You Might Benefit From

Why Did My Comment Bother Social Media Examiner Users So Much?

12 of the Best Content Marketing Posts of 2015

Conclusion

Free Fiction Friday #93: A Fight in the Station

7 Things that Help Me Write 100,000 Words Every Month

12 Awesome Psychology Posts that Get to the Heart of Content Marketing

Need More Ideas?

Midweek Content Roundup #90

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Writing Blog
by Greg Strandberg

Top Ten

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​My Most Popular Social Posts of 2015

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Conclusion

Need More Ideas?

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Writing Blogby Greg Strandberg

Top Ten

Categories

My Books(By Publication Date, New to Old)

Archives

Post removed 01/06/16

My Most Popular Social Posts of 2015

Conclusion

Post removed 01/01/16

Writing Blog
by Greg Strandberg

My Books
(By Publication Date, New to Old)