What do fishing and blogging have in common?

This guest post is by Kevin Cullis of MacStartup.com.

"If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins."-Benjamin Franklin

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime; sell him fish supplies and a fishing guide and you have a company.

Most of us start a blog with not much thought other than just to start writing. But at some point you say: "I'm putting in all this time in my blog, how do I make money from it?"

There are two parts of each company, including blogging: there's the craft of your company (graphic art, doctor, lawyer, blogging), then there is the company of your vessel (making a profit from your craft).

Starting a blog first requires the three main questions:

Why are you writing a blog, what is your purpose for writing?How do you get it done, what specific actions you will get the desired results?What will your expected results of writing your blog?

So what blogging and fisheries have in common? Let's take a quick look at points 1 and 3, and a longer look at 2.

Question anybody if they have fished, and most people will say "Yes." However, when asked, "what are the steps to take to go fishing?" most people are stumped.

Blogging is no different. While you can start a blog and start writing posts, it is similar to casting your fishing line in the nearest Lake, pond or stream with no fishing lure, bait on the hook — or even a hook. You must have a good reason to be there.

If you are fishing for fun or the love of fishing, that's one thing: grab some gear and hang the "gone fishing" sign. If you hungry because you're fishing, this takes on a whole new perspective and you will hopefully put in some serious thought, or search for answers to get food on your kitchen table.

Results is done in two ways:

take action and learn from your mistakes and figure out what the best way to get results, orlearn of others and their errors, thus cutting down the time needed to get the results you want.

Learning means having the right answers, and implementing them in the correct order, to increase your chances of catching the fish (writing your blog). Even then, there are no guarantees. So here are the steps to a more successful blog (and catch fish):

Step 1: who is your ideal customer/blog reader? Describe who your ideal clients and, in some detail. You need to know the "fish" that you are fishing for, or that ideal fish tuna, salmon and rainbow trout. If money is no object, you can use the money to travel to Alaska salmon fishing and start paying. Most of us have not, however, that kind of budget, so we grab a fishing rod and head to the nearest fishing hole ejected to a line. Blogging is no different in that you need to know who your audience is and a small enough niche to the expert that everyone goes to.Step 2: which problem solves your solution/blog? What is your audience looking for? What is their ideal solution? In other words, what are your "fish" hungry for? What a salmon eat depends on age, gender and location, and fishing is about finding the right four or five baits or lures that work to increase your chances of catching salmon. Blogging resources providing answers your audience is looking for. You can write blogs and guest blogs all day long with no focus, but you go business-or results-hungry if you don't look at the results of your blog and make the necessary changes. Sometimes blogging, like fishing, requires trial and error to become successful. I blogged about the initial and initials in iWork pages for my book to make because I worked out the solution, and within weeks it became one of my top viewed posts. If you cast the line not never, you get a "bite". Please test and change to get results you want.Step 3: where are your customers/readers? Where they visit, hang, and connect with other readers of their tribe of offline and/or online connections? You need to know where are the ideal locations or "awesome fishing spots" for your customers/readers. Try salmon fishing in the hinterland of Kentucky and you'll be hungry. Write a guest post about Typepad for a WordPress website and you will be rejected because it does not connect with their readers. So, where are your ideal fish.Step 4: why should your customer choose your product/blog about a similar? What makes your product different, better, or make it stand out? Choose the best "bait" on your local fishing shop or what is in your box to tackle for salmon works. Your blog "ACE" has an ideal message for ideal reader's problem. What are the distinctive advantages of your blog from others? What is your hook?Step 5: how to make your customers buying decisions about your product? What makes them Tick about how they choose your product? You must have the ideal technique to lure your "fish". Plop ping just the hook in the water can not attract a fish. It takes a different technique to "hook" every kind of fish. blogging is no different in that your audience is different from those who read books or magazines. Google Analytics gives you the advantage of content change your overnight to "starve" needs of your audience.Step 6: when is the best time to promote your product to your customer? How many times have you to talk with your customers to consider them and then buy your product? You need to know the ideal time to your line to "hook" your fish "objects". Fish have specific times that they feed, which is no different to marketing during the holidays, anniversaries or special events such as weddings. In this case, as with most an audience or customer, you need to cast your line when they are ready to buy, not when you're ready to sell. The great thing about blogs is the internet guest blog "chum" you can spread over the internet "waters." Then upload a relevant post (casting your line and lure) and watch the "chum" guest post lead traffic to your blog site.

These six W — really five w and H — are the basis for creating a successful blog. While it is easy to "spray and pray" your blog the contents with the hope of its success, it is better to look at the results of your post to see where your "hunger" blog reader take you. If you have a blog comment post bite, "Hook 'em, Dano!"

Kevin Cullis is a former officer of the u.s. air force and considers himself as an entrepreneur, Mac Evangelist, Business Geek, man, published author of a book of Mac company, readaholic, analytical, balding. He is the founder of MacStartup.com.

View the original article here

A Gathering of Old Men

Set on a Louisiana sugarcane plantation in the 1970s, A Gathering of Old Men is a powerful depiction of racial tensions arising over the death of a Cajun farmer at the hands of a black man.

"Poignant, powerful, earthy...a novel of Southern racial confrontation in which a group of elderly black men band together against whites who seek vengeance for the murder of one of their own."--Booklist

"A fine novel...there is a denouement that will shock and move readers as much as it does the characters."--Philadelphia Inquirer

Price: $13.00

Click here to buy from Amazon

Dancing naked in the street

This guest post is by Carol White Llewellyn of family, by choice.

On July 7, hit go Gonzo, or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the Blog, by Enzo f. Cesario, a chord with me.

Copyright Sergey Peterman-Fotolia. comHis message reminded me of a creative writing course I took with the indomitable Dr. Abraham Rothberg, who died earlier this year. Dr. Rothberg was a wise man, who advised, "when you write well, you know it. You'll feel more naked than when you ran nude down Fifth Avenue in New York City. " The Bronx resident went on to claim that few New Yorkers even would notice. I would add that good writing really more like dancing naked in the street. When you do that, people notice.

Cesario speaks about the importance of honest writing … uncensored writing naked. I admit that I have a hard time doing this. It is only in rare and unguarded moments that my writing nude dances. But I always find it when it happens.

Sometimes write naked means criticism. For those of us indoctrinated with the saying "If you don't have anything nice to say, not quite say anything", criticism can never be an integral part of our writing. I think that's okay. I can't help but feel that if a writer did not feel comfortable in critical mode, there is probably all too many who enjoys it.

Sometimes means the sharing of personal information and feelings. Like mine, your family mantra can shout, "it's nobody else's business what happens in our family." To write "the true sense you know," such as Ernest Hemingway have always advised, to overcome this.

It means, often violate your own privacy. I had my online identity stolen from a year ago by hacks trying to scam funds from friends and followers, so I fear myself to open more of the same. Jump the fear.

As for editing, sorry and stuff, I'm not even. Less is more. The polishing the diamond. There was one adoption post on my blog, family, by choice that I rewrote three times before I felt good to share it.

There are some topics, and some posts, that lend themselves more openness. It is the very rare writer whose words an open door for their souls. At best, most good writers to be satisfied with a swinging door.

Be prepared for the devil. You can not dancing naked without running into some hornets. The very first post I wrote on approval was slammed by anti-adoption advocate. They had adopted by an abusive family and she was vehemently opposed to the institution. After I got over the shock, I was happy that they have the time to write. I invited her to view a counter-offer. They're not. In any case, I knew that the post had not been met with apathy.

Everything you can do it, day after day, week after week, put yourself out there, warts and all. And sometimes, when the weather right and there is a song in your esprit is, your words will dance naked in the street. You'll be amazed how many will notice.

Your writing dancing naked in the street?

Carol White Llewellyn writes the blog family, by the choice for which they also a cable and online TV program produces, and the Finger Lakes travel Maven (travelmaven.wordpress.com), which occasionally video and for which it has begun producing cable TV specials.

View the original article here

Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers' Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University

Inspiring stories and practical advice from America?s most respected journalists

The country?s most prominent journalists and nonfiction authors gather each year at Harvard?s Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism. Telling True Stories presents their best advice?covering everything from finding a good topic, to structuring narrative stories, to writing and selling your first book. More than fifty well-known writers offer their most powerful tips, including:
? Tom Wolfe on the emotional core of the story
? Gay Talese on writing about private lives
? Malcolm Gladwell on the limits of profiles
? Nora Ephron on narrative writing and screenwriters
? Alma Guillermoprieto on telling the story and telling the truth
? Dozens of Pulitzer Prize?winning journalists from the Atlantic Monthly, New Yorker, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and more . . .

The essays contain important counsel for new and career journalists, as well as for freelance writers, radio producers, and memoirists. Packed with refreshingly candid and insightful recommendations, Telling True Stories will show anyone fascinated by the art of writing nonfiction how to bring people, scenes, and ideas to life on the page.

Price: $16.00

Click here to buy from Amazon

Cooperation is the key to blogging success?

This guest post is by Onibalusi YoungPrePro.com's.

I was looking to the sky a few days ago and what I saw made me see how organized even animals can be. I saw about 50 birds flying from a tree to another and by the time they returned, each had a stick in her mouth — they worked on building a House.

This taught me a very important lesson about blogging, and made me realize that every thing around us us to be a better blogger can learn.

If those birds could just work in groups to build their home, then what about our bloggers? Why can't we effectively use the power of collaboration to build of our blogs?

The truth is that the number of new bloggers are trying to build a successful blog single-handedly nowadays is breathtaking. We know that there are more than 152 million blogs in the blogosphere, but we just can't figure out how many successes — as far as we are concerned, the majority of online blogs are failures.

How we then stand out as bloggers? What can we do to encourage our blogs success rates, and our blogs to distinguish it from the 152 million other blogs in the blogosphere? The truth is that we are the answer to this puzzle that a gazillion times have heard, but we've really never considered it as that important.

The key is cooperation.

You've probably heard that you should work together to build a successful blog at least once, but why on earth would you even try? After all, you can praise for building a great blog only claim!

That power could be speed, power, or anything that involved. If you have a look at the case of the 50 birds that I talked about, you'll notice how easy these birds can build what House they want to build in a much shorter timeframe than if the work was done by one of them alone.

It would be difficult for you to kick start your blog, but the strength, cooperation and wisdom of 50 extra bloggers can not be compared. I know that it is almost impossible to get that many bloggers to you, to support, especially if you are very new. But the truth is that you don't need 50 bloggers to support you to build a successful blog — three bloggers work with you to the success of your blog will be a whole lot of difference.

A lot of people will have told you, it takes a lifetime to build a reputation, but do you know that you can build a great reputation in a matter of years with the right tactics?

By linking to the appropriate groups bloggers at the right time, you can easily build a successful blog without moving an inch. Sometimes all you need just the adoption of a successful blogger in your niche. Even if you're not the approval of an A-list blogger, get the approval of two or three bloggers on the same level if you have a whole lot of difference it will make.

The funny thing about getting people to support you is that you don't need a hundred people to support you before you succeed. You only need one or two targeted people.

We human beings are created in such a way that we can easily be influenced by things and people around us, and this to your advantage can use. If you can get the support and approval of two to three other bloggers in your niche, you can easily use that if social proof to get more bloggers to support you, and that approval of these two bloggers can mean the difference between readers think you're cool, or that you don't know what you're talking

When people hear about collaborating with other bloggers in their niche, is the first thing that they try to send an e-mail to a few bloggers asking them as friends or ask the blogger to establish a regular link exchange campaign with them. If that is what you are about to do, then you might as well forget it. Below are a few ways that you with other bloggers in your niche can work together.

We bloggers are one of the smartest people (okay, I'm a blogger and I'm baised — but my point is that we also have common sense), so we take note, when people do something for us.

If you send me a link to tell you today, and you tell me to tweet your post tomorrow, and you tell me to review your product next week, but I have not seen that you share my messages or do me a favor in the past two months, do you think I will do that for you? The next thing I will tell you is, "no, thanks, that is a great offer but I don't think it will work with my audience" — even if it will. But when you are "always" spreading the word about me and to tell people how great I am, even if I have a million followers and you only have one, I will like to spread the word to my followers about you.

When was the last time you sent an email to a blogger to thank them for their blog post? Just try to do it once or twice, and you'll notice that you will be able to request the assistance of that favorite blogger of yours.

We bloggers like it when people say good things about us. We like to be appreciated, and some of us even like to be flattered. Give us what we want will only bring you on our radars.

I'm not trying to say that you must email a blogger and tell him or her that they start your god — that will only increase of an additional flag and put you on the "Beware of list" for that blogger. The best thing to do is a simple and polite email, maybe Mark interesting points in one of their articles to Show the blogger that you really read their messages to send.

Although there are media such as Twitter and Facebook, I still think the best medium to use for this kind of contact is email. I know that Twitter might be the easiest way to get in touch with your favorite blogger, but that is also its weakness. A lot of people, but very few people use email thank you to send messages to bloggers (or at least little in comparison with Twitter). The end result is that sometimes before the blogger can take to your e-mail address, but because you don't really need a response, it's okay. And it's enough to make the blogger to notice you.

Which birds were helping each other.

We must do the same as a blogger.

You won't go far by trying to exploit your fellow bloggers for attention, or links, or anything else, so don't even try to go that route. It might work in the beginning, but it will end up biting you.

The best way to succeed in your efforts as a blogger does everything that you really do. When you make your efforts not only to contribute value to your readers, but also to your fellow bloggers focus, you will eventually get great results for it.

Onibalusi Bamidele is the founder of YoungPrePro.com, a blog where he teaches people How to write for traffic and money. Get his free eCourse 7 series on how to write a successful Online company to build

View the original article here

"They Say / I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing with Readings

"They Say / I Say" shows that writing well means mastering some key rhetorical moves, the most important of which involves summarizing what others have said ("they say") to set up one???s own argument ("I say").

In addition to explaining the basic moves, this book provides writing templates that show students explicitly how to make these moves in their own writing. Now available in two versions, with and without an anthology of 32 readings.

Price:

Click here to buy from Amazon

You should write about making money blogging on Make Money blogging [misconceptions new Bloggers have # 3]

This post is the third in a series of studies of misconceptions and myths about blogging, that many new (and some experienced) bloggers about blogging.

We have already discussed the misconceptions that blogging superhuman effort takes (or is simple!) and that you daily on your blog should books.

Contemporary misconception is all about money. It is one that I hear every day when I observe what people are saying about making money from blogging.

Only people who sell make money blogging resources, make money blogging.The most profitable topics to blog about his blogging tips of making money blogging.It is impossible to make money blogging on "normal" everyday topics.

The reality is that most people who talk about making money blogging those trying to create a name for himself in that very niche. I think part of the creation of authority and credibility is to show what you are doing, so that bloggers in this niche are often not Wars of their revenue share.

On the other hand, many bloggers who are making a living from blogging in other niches don't have an avenue through which to talk about it, or don't want to (for privacy reasons or because they don't want to warn the competition to their success).

As a result, is the impression that new bloggers often get that nobody is making money blogging with the exception of a letter about writing.

Let's see some of the realities of working in this niche.

You good money blogging about blogging. It is true — there is money to be made in this space. Teaching others blog and that a life of it can be profitable. I make enough to live (and some) from ProBlogger every month, and know of at least five or six other bloggers in your niche that on a comparable level would be. As with any subject that has nothing to do with money, this can be a lucrative niche.It's been a busy niche when it comes to finding readers. As a result of the success of a number of (and the public service broadcaster of results), many others joined the hunt for market share in this space. I have not seen figures on it, but I suspect that the result is that it is one of the more crowded niches. As a result, can break into the niche and making a name for yourself can be tough.It's been a busy niche when it comes to products. If you want to make money in the niche Make Money blogging by releasing a product, there are not only a lot of other blogs, but a lot of products that you will have to compete with. Not a day goes by when I'm not approached by another blogger like me to their e-book, course or tool ... Again, it is difficult to distinguish, and I suspect that many bloggers already have bought just enough products, and are not so interested in buying more.There's a lot of suspicion about the topic. Thanks to the nature of the subject has a lot of suspicion about it. Unfortunately, over the years, this niche has attracted its fair share of dubious characters and those less-than-ethical and transparent tactics have used to make a name for itself. This has a lot of suspicion among the public about the niche. I'm kind of glad about this suspicion, I like a lot of people who've seen scammed, but it makes this a tricky area to work in. My recent ban on (and then reinstatement) of YouTube seems to have occurred because many in the niche were tarred with the same brush (most of the accounts had made an end of videos including the words "make money online").Bloggers are perhaps more reluctant to spend money than other target groups. Let us be clear: I'm not calling you cheap! But one of the factors to consider in this area is that the barriers to entry for the blogosphere (unlike other hobby) are very low. You can setup a blog for free, there are thousands of blogging themes, tools, and how-to instructions there for free, and there is plenty of free help within the niche. As a result, many bloggers don't come to their blogs with the expectation of having to spend a lot of money. This can affect the bottom line for those who try to operate in this niche (I will touch on this more below).

I'm not going to pretend that all other lucrative niches. I know a lot of bloggers with decent readerships that are struggling to make money, because their subjects do not lend themselves for monetization. However, my experience teaches me that there is definitely a lot of opportunities in other niches, and that in many ways they can make it easier to make money than the niche blogging tips.

Personally, I have found it a lot easier to build significantly larger audience and higher profits in other niches. My photography blog has about five to six times the readership of ProBlogger, and is more than five to six times as profitable.

The niche photography is very competitive, but there are some other so quickly including:

The market is larger: There are a lot more people around who own cameras than blogs.The audience is more of a public expenditure: I mentioned above that since blogging has low barriers to entry, bloggers are often less likely to spend money. Photography is a little different. People increasingly spend thousands of dollars on cameras, they buy photography magazines and books, they enroll in courses ... There is just more of a willingness to bring in that niche.The audience is not as suspicious: While people still a healthy suspicion of online marketers in this space, there are fewer barriers on this front.

This assessment is not only relevant to the photography space — plenty of other niches are also bigger and his audience that more be used for expenditure.

This is probably not the place for a full exploration of how a niche for your blog (I will also be some links below for more information about that). My general opinion is, however, to choose a topic on which there is a healthy demand for content (it's hard to have a successful blog about a topic that nobody but you bought) and that you know something about (and preferably have a passion or interest).

My co-author on the ProBlogger book, Chris Garrett, last year on the day of the training ProBlogger presented in Melbourne, and used a slide which I think is a great Visual at this point:

View the original article here