Content Creation Secrets

So you have been blogging for quite a while – making regular posts and receiving the odd comment?

If so, you’re on the right track. All you have to do is just carry on with it and you’ll be fine.

Not happy with this advice? I’m not surprised if you are. Many who are doing quite well with their blogs are not sure whether they should be satisfied with what they’re doing.

Of course occasionally they get the `high’ feeling that they are doing right but then most of the time they feel they could do with a little endorsement – a third party to say they are doing it right.

Endorsement usually comes in the form of comments. As bloggers, we can never get enough of them. Even a one-liner `a great post’ comment cheers us up for the rest of the day, until we write the next post and don’t receive a single comment for it.

I’ve touched on the matter of comments in an earlier post – if you don’t receive comments, it doesn’t mean your blog isn’t good enough.

It’s just that most people are too lazy to comment or are in great hurry to hop to another web page that they can’t spare a few seconds to post a few words.

The great majority would like to comment but simply can’t express their thoughts in writing. So they just read and move on.

Just ask yourself how many times you have read a great post and weren’t moved to comment. Why, yesterday I read a couple of great posts. I was moved to even print out one of them for future reference, but was not moved to comment.

You have just got to believe that you’re winning silent approval every time you publish a post. But then most of us will still not be satisfied until the approval comes expressly.

We have to be told loudly in our ears we are doing a fantastic job. That’s the tonic for us to continue blogging.

Let me tell you that this is a dangerous wish. If external approval is your only tonic to continue blogging, then you’ll be disappointed most of the time. You simply can’t have approval on demand.

To be on the safe side, don’t expect approval from anybody, except the inner voice that tells you that you’re doing fine and you’ll get better if you keep on with it.

It’s this inner voice that Mozart relied on to become what he was.

A group of music students went to see him to ask for advice on how to become a great music composer. Mozart told them they should start small with jingles, lullabies and so on.

One student, dissatisfied with the advice, said, “But you were composing symphonies when you were only twelve years old.”

Mozart replied, “That’s because I didn’t ask anybody for advice.”

Mozart’s message is clear. You don’t need peer review, media coverage or even comments to keep your blog going.

Strangers, for me, are always a source of ideas and inspiration for writing.

A guy knocked on my apartment door and said he was taking a survey. Usually, I don’t entertain such cold calls but something about him made me listen. He asked about the electrical appliances I’m using. Half-way through, he asked me what I did for a living. When I told him I’m a freelance writer, he immediately lost interest in the survey and start telling me how I can make money as a writer on the Internet. He even wrote down all the important areas I should explore - Adsense, Aweber, Blogs…etc.

He admitted that he very much wanted to make money over the Internet but did not have the writing skills to blog, write ebooks or run a website. So, he’s passing me the nuggets of information he had painstakingly learnt from the ebooks he had invested in. Then he admitted that he’s planning to run Internet marketing seminars and is using me to test his presentation skills. He wanted me to get started immediately.

I didn’t mind. Frankly speaking, I didn’t know money-making opportunities existed for writers. I was busy with my freelance assignments for the print media.

The guy managed to whet my appetite and I went on a two-year learning streak. I taught myself web design, set up my own website, unsuccessfully experimented with Adsense and just last month started making money from my online writing.

The stranger taught me to value whatever writing skills I have. He taught me not underestimate my ability or be contemptuous of it. Whenever I feel discouraged or uninspired, I think of the stranger who knocked on my door and the many out there who would give anything to be able to write even a few sentences.

Immediately I feel grateful for what I have and get back to writing at once.

Some years back, I met a retired foreign service officer at a film festival. When he heard I live by my pen, he started talking about writing.

His knowledge of the writer’s craft was impressive. He talked about award-winning writers and how they went about getting ideas and turning them into great works.

Obviously, he had picked up these details from reading writer interviews.

He had some advice for me.

He said, “Keep on writing. One day a great idea may just fly in through the window and you’ll strike it rich.”

I asked him, “Are you a writer yourself?”

He said, “No, I’m not.”

I wanted to know why he was not writing when he knew so much about the craft.

He said, “Well, my English is not good enough.”

I told him his English was good enough for writing, He didn’t need anything better.

He shook his head and said, “No, you need good English to write.”

I gave up. Speaking English all his life and being a voracious reader did not yet qualify him to write.

I wanted to tell him, “You can write like you speak.”

I knew it was no use. This man was not going to take any advice because he had made up his mind not to write.

Now as I pen these words, I wonder, “Has he started writing or is he still complaining about his `bad’ English?”

I’m sure he has no idea when his English will get better but he will be safe in his my-English-is-not-good-enough excuse. This excuse will certainly shield him from the hazards of writing.

Even if a great idea flies in through his window, he’ll say, “Thanks for the idea, but I can’t write a word yet because my English is not good enough.”

So, what will he do while waiting for his English to be good enough? You guessed it right. He will continue speaking good English and most importantly, he will advise writers to keep pushing on because a million-dollar idea may just fly in through the window.”

Know anyone who gives this `perfect’ excuse?

Or do you yourself give it?