I am four cups of coffee into what is going to be a 23 cup day and my fingers are flying across the keyboard. Yes I know this is the sort of headline that makes some people crazy and that is exactly why I used it.
I wanted attention. I wanted your attention. It is why I once wrote a post called I Should Have Slept With Her…. Again and 69 Reasons Why Fathers Make Better Lovers.
It is why I considered headlines such as Don’t Have Sex While Blogging or What Daddy and Mommy Do While You Are Sleeping.
Blame it on my irritation with the blogosphere and the typical social media summer slow down. It happens every year and I can guarantee that by August you will start seeing more posts about how blogging is dead or dying.
It is hogwash and it simply isn’t true. Blogging and our beloved blogosphere is alive and well, thriving in fact.
What About Your Headline?
What about my headline? Do you really want me to come up with a list of things that bloggers say during sex or would it be better to tie it into a post about the boundaries of blogging.
It would be easy to write about the boundaries of blogging. I have written several posts about it and that is a topic that never grows old. There are a million different angles to go with it.
Heck, we could tie it into the post that Shakirah wrote. I am not talking about her piece on Writer’s Block but the guest post she wrote for Ken called Can You Ever Be Big Enough To Blog About Anything You Want?
Actually both pieces are worth reading but we are going to focus on the latter for two reasons:
1) Technically my blog is a personal blog which means the rules are a bit different than they are for a business blog. However it has generated a bunch of freelance work so in a sense it is also a business blog and consequently I sometimes catch myself editing things here in a way I never used to do.
2) It is good conversation and something worth thinking about. Some actors don’t like taking certain roles because they worry about being typecast. I think it is a concern that some writers have too. Maybe it is part of why I like to write anything and everything. I never worry about being stuck in a hole.
I know from conversations and email that many of you have similar goals for your blogging careers to me. We are all working on trying to develop great content that generates tons of comments, pageviews and notoriety that leads to book deals and or writing opportunities that allow us to become full time writers.
The question that we all ask is how do we make this happen and what can we do to speed the process along. Ok, that is actually two questions and not one. You can make the typical joke about this being evidence of poor math skills and a reason why I am a writer.
Does self deprecating humor work? I don’t know. Stop distracting me.
The seven posts below provide a random sample of some of my most popular work. If you review them you will see there are several themes. They are a collection that includes fiction, posts about writing, parenting and social media.
From my perspective the two things that really make them work are the focus on story telling and upon people. That is because we all relate to those things.
- Lessons For Being Human
- Is There A Benefit To Paying for Facebook Fans For Your FB Fan Page?
- Do We Really Need Another Email Newsletter?
- The Silly Versus The Sublime
- 1 Foolproof Way To Become a Better Writer
- He Died A Hero
- Wind and Waves
Building Upon The Foundation
I don’t believe in there only being one way to succeed in social media or to create a popular blog. You will always need great content and consistency. You will always need to sustain your effort, but don’t let people fool you into thinking that you have to do it their way.
Your way is often best because it is easiest to be you.
If you are among the long time readers you have noticed that I like to write these posts so that they resemble a conversation. We are drinking coffee or hanging out at a barbecue.
The goal is to connect and build relationships. I am a daddy blogger. I am an executive. I am a son and a brother. I am a person and so are you.
If I do my job properly you see the human side of me and I see yours. This is how we connect in person and this is how we connect online.
And as a P.S.A. to the men let me suggest that you not try blogging during sex. I am not a woman, but I am guessing that many would be quite unhappy if you chose to spend your tender moment tapping away on the keyboard.
Of course, I could be wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time and it won’t be the last. 😉
Yea right…headlines have to be catchy…why else do u think i landed up here in the first place 🙂
Blog monetization was my initial aim as well…but when I actually realized it isnt as easy as it sounds…i have started to have it my own way. Blogging can be fun when we enjoy writing for our own sake without having to concentrate on how to get more traffic or how to attract advertisers.
When you pull out the pressure to try to do the things that monetization requires it becomes much more enjoyable.
Very interesting headline Jack 🙂
I’m not sure if I believe bloggers are any different than ordinary people, especially not anymore now that close to everybody are social on Facebook. We’re just working harder and we have goals 🙂
 @Jens Yeah, headlines are fun. Got to just enjoy life and do what we can to make our dreams come true. Simple, right. 😉
This post was oddly like being rick rolled. I was waiting for some snarky tongue in cheek line about a long tail… Ahhh well, such is life.
 @richescorner I hadn’t thought about that, but I can see how you might see it that way.
Joe DeGiorgio Jr. No worries my friend. If you can root for the Yankees you can figure it out. 😉
I’m reading. Just need to learn to use Livefyre again haha..
Lori Gosselin Kind of funny to see how many people shy away from it.
Didn’t come through my email today…hmmm. Read it anyways. 🙂
What, you drew me over here from fb and I don’t get ONE measly thing you say during sex about blogging? Â Not even, “Hold on a minute honey, I just got my next headline?” and a reach for the notepad by the side of the bed? Â Yeesh. Â
 @Julie | A Clear Sign Well then!
 @Julie | A Clear SignÂ
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Imagination. It is all about imagination.
When I first started blogging, I did see what others were doing and assumed I would eventually take my blog toward business or monetization. However, I could never buy into that and saw how many people were not having success with that model. Therefore, to keep it sustainable I decided just to do my own thing, what I was comfortable with and let it run its course. Â It might be the road to nowhere, but it’s my road, right? Or is that write?Â
 @bdorman264Â
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Sustainable is key. If you want to keep doing this for the long haul you have to figure out what works best for you and then just do that. It is like sales to me. You can only imitate parts and pieces of a great salesman and after that you have to show yourself or accept failure.
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You are on the write road.
You don’t say! 😮
Hmm…as for amazing headlines, you nailed it.Â
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As for doing blogging the others way, I really wouldn’t. A lot of people tell me that business blogs do better, they have better traffic and they have a comment count that runs into three digit numbers. Well, I ain’t following that, because I don’t know a cent about business and I can never write about it. All I can write about is what I will blog about. My way or the high way… really :)Â
 @Hajra Â
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There are better headlines, but this fit my mood. I don’t know that I would agree about a particular type of blog being better than another. There are a million different factors that play into this and I can show you examples of both.
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The most important thing you can do is blog the way you want. It is authentic, easy and sustainable.