Welcome to day two of our week’s theme of Screw-Ups. I am so excited to share with others how I screw up all the time, then learn from it and make a success story out of it. Today I will share some of my secrets on how I screwed up this blog and still made it into the success I wanted it to be.
So last week I was discussing blogs and posts with my good friend, Lori Ruff, from Integrated Alliances. You may know her as the LinkedIn Diva. We talked about some mutual acquaintances who are looking for blog ideas right now. She told me a secret of how to use what you are doing on social media to find out what those who follow you want to hear.
So yesterday I put up maybe ten posts online to see what responses I got to them. In two different posts on my Facebook page, I received over 25 comments and 50 or so likes. This is the kind of feedback that shows you the interaction you want to have with your audience.
A few months ago I was writing a theme and was stuck for a post idea. I asked those who are part of my Facebook fan page for ideas. I usually get responses to those requests and then write a post about it. It’s tough to do that — write the post that night, and have it ready to release by 4 am the next morning. But that was the timeframe I had once I decided to go to my readers for an idea.
As most of you know, in the beginning many of my online writings were full of misspellings and bad grammar. I had to just get them out. One of my RockStar rules is to just get started, then self-correct as you go along. The idea is that in the beginning, when you’re just starting, not that many people are reading or following you anyway so it’s more important to just get posts out there, no matter how messy they might be. Those who love your content will stick around to see you improve.
If you really want to see how bad my screw ups were before I hired an editor, see if you can find the unedited versions on MySpace. My advice is, if you want to grow your audience of regular readers, then you take the money from your first earnings to hire someone to edit (I know a good one if you’re interested, but she is not cheap).
I write all my own blogs; very few are written by others and they are always listed as guest blogs and their writers are credited. I have offered many people the opportunity to write guest post and they are initially excited but not many of them can actually get the writing part done.
If you have a hard time searching for writing information, start with a list of topics. Look for things in the news and daily media to give you ideas and write when you have time. The most important thing I would suggest is to set a time each day to write; start by typing or writing whatever is on your mind. Once when I was stumped, I turned the TV on and the first words I heard became the topic. I found a way to relate it to my audience.
You will never be perfect at it, thus the theme this week, “Screw Up On Your Way to Success.” I love this concept; I’m a master at it. I’m sure that some school will ask me someday to speak on the idea that you must get started with a screw up to get started with anything you have to do in life.
To drop the fear out of what you want talk about, it’s as simple as “just do it” for me. I had a window to get this to my editor today and less than 30 minutes to write it. So, I just did it. If you want to learn more about how you can build a blog from nothing to a success like this, check out my friend Corbett Barr and his course about writing a blog that matters. See you tomorrow.
I’m Tim Gillette, the Rocker Life Coach. It’s time to live your dream to love what you do and those you share life with. Build a blog that matters to be a RockStar in your world.
