How often have you said, “I can’t write a blog post today because…” Fill in the blank with any reason you prefer, like “I don’t have enough time,” “I need to work and earn money,” “I am over-committed,” “I have to do X, Y, or Z,” “My___ (mother, father, kids, partner, boss, or friend) won’t like it,” “I’m too tired,” or “I don’t have the energy.” Each time you say something like this, you make yourself a victim of your circumstances. You give away your power to something outside yourself.

And you don’t write or publish a blog post.

Circumstances are external conditions or situations that can influence your life—including your blogging—if you let them. While some circumstances are unavoidable, how you react to them shapes your experience.

React to them as a victim, and you will experience victimhood. Respond to them as a powerful creator, and you will experience your ability to create different circumstances you like more—ones that allow you to blog consistently.

Stop Blaming Circumstances

If you want to write a blog post daily and reach your publishing goals, stop blaming circumstances for why you haven’t done so. It’s not the circumstances’ fault; it’s yours.

Plain and simple, placing blame on your circumstances is an excuse for not standing in your power and creating something different and preferable. It’s a way to remain stuck rather than doing something to change your circumstances.

Are you ready to stop placing fault outside yourself and take responsibility for creating different circumstances that allow you to blog when you want to? If so, it’s time to start dealing with them more productively.

Stop Letting Circumstances Rule Your Blogging Life

Life is unpredictable. Sometimes, you will find yourself at the mercy of external circumstances. Life will “life,” and you will have to deal with that circumstance—like it or not. And that might mean putting off the writing session you planned and which was meant to yield the week’s blog posts.

Notice that I wrote “deal with” instead of “blame it.” When you are faced with job loss, relationship issues, health challenges, car accidents, or death in the family, you have a choice. You can see these unforeseen circumstances as roadblocks or opportunities. You can observe that, for some reason, you created this experience, or you can believe that “bad things” always happen to you. It’s God’s will, bad luck, or the Universe playing a bad joke on you…or giving you a sign that you shouldn’t be blogging at all.

You might feel as if these circumstances are out of your control. But if you surrender to them, you feel helpless. If you blame them, you feel powerless.

Instead, realize you can change your circumstances. It’s always possible, especially if you stand in your power and freely choose to create a situation that supports your blogging goals.

Take responsibility, and admit that if you created “this” circumstance, you can create a different one.

You are a powerful creator. You can decide what circumstance you prefer (and that allows you to write blog posts) and find a way to create that instead.

Create Different Circumstances that Support Blogging

Indeed, you are a creator. It’s who you are at your core.

You create all the time. Often, you create things you do not want, like circumstances that prevent you from blogging. You may do this without awareness or because of habitual subconscious beliefs that influence what you attract.

And sometimes sh*t happens, and these experiences don’t feel like your “creations.” But on some level, you have attracted them into your experience, even if only to learn and grow. (It’s even possible—probable—you created your circumstances so you don’t have to write and publish posts—maybe because you are afraid to publish your words and share them with your audience.)

The first step in your evolution is to realize that, if you attracted a situation into your experience that prevents you from blogging, you can create something different.

Become Aware of Your Self-Talk

Start creating a different circumstance by becoming aware of your self-talk. Reflect on your inner dialogue.

What stories are you telling yourself about your circumstances? Are you saying, “It’s his/her fault that I can’t keep my blog schedule,” “I can’t change this situation, so I might as well just stop publishing blogs and shut down my website,” “This is out of my control,” or “I’m someone who always ends up needing to put my blogging last”? If so, you are perpetuating your circumstances. You are also creating more circumstances you don’t want or like because they seem to stop you from blogging.

Create a different narrative. Change your self-talk.

Remind yourself you are a creator…and a blogger. Then, develop a plan to create something different.

Start by changing your stories about your circumstances. And, if nothing less, take responsibility for your reaction to your circumstances. That alone puts you in the powerful place of being able to choose a response to your situation.

Explore Your Circumstances

List all the circumstances currently in your life that you claim prevent you from blogging consistently or at all. Then, list the negative thoughts you have related to them.

However, don’t just explore the thoughts you have now. Remember your thoughts before the circumstances show up in your life.

For example, if your current circumstance is that you can’t write a post daily because you need to work a “real job” and earn money, consider if you told all your friends that bloggers don’t earn enough to make a living. And recall that you said those words with a lot of negative emotion. If that was the case, you can see how your words, emotions, and focus created your current circumstances.

You can blame your partner for insisting you get a job and stop pretending to be a blogger. You can point the finger at yourself and repeat your story that you’ll always be a starving blogger (and never an author), but that won’t help you change your circumstances.

Changing your stories will. Stop telling stories that contain excuses, reasons, and blame. Instead, take responsibility—at least for the fact that you created your circumstances. For instance, admit that you were asking the “Universe” to give you a reason to avoid blogging because you are afraid of failing at this dream.

Then, tell stories about how you turned your circumstances around—or are in the process of doing so. Think back to a time when you blogged consistently and even got paid clients from your posts; affirm that you can create similar opportunities. Tell yourself you are an amazing, well-paid blogger who will soon become a blog-to-book author.

You are Not at the Mercy of Circumstance

Life will always present challenges, but you have the power and freedom to move past them. You can create different circumstances that allow you to write and publish blog posts.

You are not at the mercy of your circumstances—unless you give your power away to them. As soon as you say, “I can’t change this because it has power over me,” you become a victim.

Choose a new, powerful response—rather than an old blaming reaction. Shape your blogging life with your choices and actions, not with your circumstances.

Are you a victim of your circumstances? Do you let them stop you from blogging consistently? Tell me in a comment below. And, please share this post with a blogger who might benefit from reading it.

The post Don’t Let Circumstances Get In the Way of Blogging appeared first on How to Blog a Book.

I have a blogger friend who often says, “I’m giving myself grace.” Typically, this is when she finds herself in circumstances that provide a good reason—excuse—not to write a post, publish or promote a post, or take actions that will help her land a book deal. Each time she lets herself off the hook by giving herself grace, she gives her power to her circumstances and stays stuck. That means she doesn’t gain traffic, improve her site’s SEO, or get a book published.

As you can imagine, giving herself grace doesn’t get her the blogging results she desires. How could she? She is allowing herself to wait until she feels differently to do something to change her circumstances. How could she get different results while waiting for her circumstances to change before she takes action to blog and publish her work?

She allows herself to be a victim of her external and internal circumstances. When those circumstances change, she will write posts or take action toward getting published.

But what if they don’t change? I’m sure you realize what type of results she’ll get.

None.

A Little Grace Goes a Long Way

Sure… Give yourself a little grace to gather your wits about you before you take action. Allow yourself time to feel better, grieve, feel stronger, or figure out your next step as a blogger, writer, and author.

But don’t give yourself too much grace or make it a habit to let yourself off the hook for long. You’ll never blog your book, start your blog, or publish your work if you do. You’ll be too busy coddling yourself and waiting for something to change.

I may sound unfeeling or like I lack compassion. I’m not, and I don’t.

I want you—and other bloggers like you—to move toward your blogging and publishing goals, find ways to change your circumstances, and do your best to realize your potential as a blogger and writer. I want you to stand in your power and be someone who can take action to become an author.

None of that will happen if you continue giving yourself grace every time the sh*t hits the fan and you find yourself faced with difficult circumstances. So remember that a little grace goes a long way.

The Meaning of Giving Yourself Grace

If you don’t understand the phrase “giving yourself grace,” let me explain. According to most definitions, grace means: “disposition to or an act or instance of kindness or courtesy.” So, giving yourself grace is being kind to yourself and courteous of your feelings or needs.

Grace is equated to “clemency,” which is “an act of leniency or disposition to be merciful.” Thus, giving yourself grace means being forgiving, sympathetic, lenient, merciful, and indulgent with yourself.

Additionally, Grace is a “reprieve.” Therefore, giving yourself grace means you decide to cancel or postpone something, like writing, publishing a post, or promoting your site.

Giving yourself grace is a bit like offering yourself “wiggle room.” It’s you finding a reason not to write or publish a post under the guise of “being good to or caring for yourself.”

But here’s the truth. When you give yourself grace, you have interpreted your circumstances as hard or uncomfortable. As a result, you decide you should get or need a break to recoup your strength, courage, positivity, and motivation. Maybe you believe you need self-care, time, or healing before you can feel strong enough to face whatever lies before you and get back to blogging.

Giving yourself grace is all about finding a reason not to take action. But that reason is an excuse. Too often, giving yourself grace is procrastination or resistance—plain and simple. It’s a way to avoid writing and publishing posts or doing blog-related tasks.

Giving Yourself Grace Keeps You Stuck

Sometimes, you need to give yourself a little reprieve—to take a little time to recover from whatever you’ve experienced. But granting yourself a reprieve or clemency can become habitual and stop your forward movement. Continually giving yourself a reprieve or clemency keeps you from realizing your blogging and publishing goals.

You must take action to change, deal, or cope with your circumstances. Otherwise, things remain the same. You stay the same. And your book or blog remains unwritten.

Sometimes, small steps are enough; other times, a significant jump forward is needed. But nothing changes unless something changes. And something will only change if you take action.

Giving yourself grace ensures you remain in your current circumstances even though you don’t like them and you believe they prevent you from blogging. In fact, it lets you wallow in them and prolongs that experience for one simple reason: you aren’t doing something to change the circumstances.

A Little Tough Love Goes a Long Way

Just as a bit of grace goes a long way, the same is true of tough love. After a brief period of grace, push yourself to get moving and make changes. Love yourself enough to not give yourself grace and blog instead.

Create a challenge for yourself. For example, you could challenge yourself to write a book in four weeks. Commit to taking that challenge. Stick with your writing and posting schedule and deadline, and don’t allow yourself to deviate…no matter what.

Or pursue a goal despite whatever is going on in your life. If you want to blog a book, write a tiny bit of a blog post related to your book for five minutes daily in the morning—even when you feel depressed, sick, or discouraged. No leniency!

Take a baby step that moves you in the direction of new circumstances. Or leap in the direction of your blogging and publishing goal.

Decide to be someone different. Change your identity. If you take that one decisive action, your habits and mindsets will align with who you are being. And as you change on the inside, your outer world will change, too.

And don’t let yourself off the hook. That’s the tough-love part. Be self-integral. Keep your promises to yourself…no matter what.

No reason not to write and publish a blog post. No excuses for taking a day off. No giving yourself grace.

To stop giving yourself grace, you must:

• Decide to be someone who takes action no matter what life throws their way.
• Be firm with yourself.
• Be self-integral.
• Put boundaries around your grace periods.
• Stop making excuses.
• Top finding reasons why you need to give yourself grace.

An Excuse to Not Do the Hard Stuff

More often than not, grace is an excuse not to do the hard or scary stuff. You want that reprieve. You desire clemency.

That response to challenging circumstances originates in your brain. The reptilian part of your brain is tasked with keeping you safe. It does not want you to do anything or find yourself in situations that might endanger you. However, it sees anything new, hard, or uncomfortable as scary even though you aren’t in any danger.

As a result, this part of your brain encourages you to give yourself grace. After all, if you let yourself off the hook you won’t do anything that makes the reptilian brain feel the need to protect you.

When you realize that your brain is working on overdrive, you can tell it to settle down and allow you to take actions that lead to desired blogging results. Or you can dismiss your thoughts about giving yourself grace.

Confidently assure yourself that you don’t need a reprieve. Instead, affirm that picking yourself up and moving forward in new and different ways will get you the desired results.

Then, sit down and write and publish a post!

Blog with Grace

Grace is also “ease and suppleness of movement or bearing.” Rather than giving yourself a reprieve or being lenient with yourself, decide to move forward easily and gracefully. Blog with ease and grace. Allow yourself to flow toward the writing, blogging, and publishing results you want.

Do you give yourself grace too often? Tell me in a comment below. And, please share this post with a blogger who might benefit from reading it.

Photo courtesy of choochart

The post Get Powerful Blogging Results by Not Giving Yourself Grace appeared first on How to Blog a Book.

Procrastination. If you are a procrastinator, you might delay blog-related tasks, postpone taking action on writing goals, avoid marketing blog posts, or put off learning new technology. No matter when or why you procrastinate, the impact is always the same—your productivity plummets, and your self-esteem, self-trust, and self-confidence decline. But throw a little necessity into the mix, and you’ll break the cycle of procrastination quickly and begin churning out blog posts and doing everything necessary to succeed as a blogger.

Necessity is “the state or fact of being required or indispensable.” You feel necessity when you must or need to do something. Necessity provides a sense of urgency, pushing you to act quickly—even if you don’t want to.

Sometimes, necessity causes you to act without pause. You simply know you have to do something. A perfect example might be a parent who discovers a child trapped under the wheel of a car and lifts the car off the child without a thought as to whether or not that is even possible. That’s acting out of necessity.

Or consider deadlines. You might procrastinate for days as your blog post publication deadline approaches. However, when you barely have time to do the work, you buckle down and do “what is necessary.” You start and complete the post—and do it with focus, effectiveness, and flow.

And, let’s say you’ve known for several years you need to change your eating habits. Then, you have a health crisis. The doctor tells you that your lifespan will be severely shortened if you don’t begin eating a healthy diet. In fact, you might die in the next five years if nothing changes. So, you go straight to the grocery store, purchase the required foods, and begin your new diet that same day.

Necessity overlies every part of the Certified High Performance Coaching curriculum. Research has shown that raising necessity drives action and results, and the most successful people in the world intentionally raise their necessity levels for this reason.

As a blogger, you can do the same.

Necessity is a Motivator

The power of necessity is that it requires action now…not later. Therefore, necessity provides a powerful motivator.

You stop procrastinating when tasks become essential for your success, well-being, or happiness. Instead, you act, focus, and move toward your goals.

Traditionally, “to procrastinate” means to delay or postpone action or put off doing something. “Procrastination” is defined as putting off intentionally or habitually doing something that should be done.

In fact, procrastination could be called a lack of motivation. All sorts of things can reduce your motivation level. For instance, fear can cause you to procrastinate. So can feeling uncomfortable doing a task or believing that taking action won’t produce the desired outcome. Lack of motivation also occurs when you think your actions or results will be criticized or judged. Of course, sometimes procrastination simply shows up when you feel lazy, but laziness is a lack of motivation.

As soon as you increase your necessity level, your motivation returns. Necessity causes you to act despite fears or beliefs.

Fear of Negative Consequences Provides Necessity

Necessity increases when you fear the consequences of procrastination. You might avoid such consequences, but eventually, they will motivate you to take action.

When you get clarity on the negative impact of not completing tasks on time, you may want to avoid them. Thus, you might jump into action.

For example, college students are more likely to submit assignments or prepare for exams when they know their academic achievements—and future career prospects—depend on timely submission or preparation. Also, business professionals meet project deadlines more regularly when they understand that failing to do so could compromise their job security. Bloggers might write and publish posts more consistently when they realize publishing inconsistently lowers their traffic and decreases their chances of getting book deals based on their blogs.

Understanding the potential negative consequences of procrastination creates a sense of urgency. This encourages you to overcome avoidance and accelerate your efforts to complete tasks.

Benefits Provide Motivation

On the other hand, focusing on benefits helps increase necessity and reduce procrastination. This is the common result of positive reinforcement. You become more motivated, right?

For instance, if you know that taking fast action on a task will result in a promotion or bonus at work, you will likely act promptly rather than procrastinate. Also, students might finish their academic workload quickly to relax and enjoy an approaching school break. Or bloggers might dive into work on a blogged book or booked blog, knowing they increase their chances of completing a manuscript and landing a literary agent or publisher for that project.

You can look at your own life and blogging business for proof that attractive outcomes provide motivation that overrides procrastination.

Identity Keeps Procrastination at Bay

Your identity plays a role in whether or not you feel a high degree of necessity and, therefore, don’t procrastinate. Do you say, “I am someone who procrastinates,” or “I am someone who feels it’s necessary to take quick action toward mu blogging goals”? These I AM statements are ways of being or identity.

So, if you are committed, you do what you say you will do. And if you are someone who has integrity, you keep your promises and complete tasks or deliver work on time.

Your values flow out of your identity. A procrastinator doesn’t value promptness, planning, or sticking to a schedule. A procrastinator does not value doing work ahead of a deadline. Instead, a procrastinator values being stressed, waiting until the last minute, and rushing to meet a deadline.

A disciplined person likely values punctuality and commitment. Such an individual feels the need—necessity—to be on time and keep commitments. Therefore, this person controls any tendencies toward procrastination by focusing on the need to be punctual and keep promises.

Obviously, you could choose to be someone who is not a procrastinator. Choose an identity that helps you value the need to take prompt action, specifically on your blog.

Your procrastination habit will disappear as soon as your level of necessity is high enough to propel you to action. Urgent need helps you focus on the importance of doing a blogging task now…not later. It also keeps you focused on the potential repercussions of leaving something undone until the last minute or the benefits of getting it done in a timely manner.

Ultimately, the way to overcome procrastination is to form positive habits. Increasing necessity can help you change your behavior and become someone who takes prompt action.

Do you procrastinate on blogging activities? Tell me in a comment below. And, please share this post with a blogger who might benefit from reading it.

Photo courtesy of choochart

The post How to Write More Blog Posts by Overcoming Procrastination appeared first on How to Blog a Book.

We live in a fast-paced world where quickly achieving goals is perceived as a virtue. We are taught to strive with unwavering determination and consistency to reach our goals. Slowing down is considered unacceptable or a weakness, yet it provides a better goal-achievement strategy for everyone…including bloggers.

Slowing the pace at which you pursue your blogging dreams can mean the difference between achieving them and giving up on them. Moving too quickly for too long may lead to using a stop-start strategy or stopping and never starting again, which is not a great way to reach your goals.

Coming to a standstill, rather than simply slowing down, can have far-reaching effects. Of course, quitting prevents you from achieving your goal, but stopping and starting slows your progress more than you might realize. Ultimately, both impact how you feel about yourself and your life and how others feel about you.

Slowing down your efforts to achieve your blogging goals prevents you from quitting the race or stopping to catch your breath. Going slowly is still a forward movement, eventually allowing you to realize your dream. Think of the tortoise and hare story; the tortoise was slow but steady—and won the race.

5 Ramifications of Stopping Movement Toward a Blogging Dream

When you try to achieve a blogging or blogged book goal too quickly or push yourself too hard, you will likely feel overwhelmed, frustrated, or burned out. When you experience those emotional states, the chances that you will quit or stop forward progress for some time increase. You may plan to start moving toward your blogging dream again, but stopping often leads to quitting, even if that is not your intention.

Also, when you stop your forward movement, you open yourself up to experiencing a host of negative ramifications. Here are five of the most common ones:

1. Loss of momentum.

Each time you choose to stop moving toward your blogging goal, it becomes harder to get going again. Many writers never find the motivation to restart and fail to realize their blogging and publishing dreams.

The powerful force of momentum keeps you motivated and drives you toward success. When you stop moving forward, you lose the inertia that propels you toward your goals. You also risk becoming complacent.

However, if you keep moving forward at a slower pace, you are still moving toward your blogging dream. It’s easier to pick up the pace if you are still in motion.

2. Abandonment of your vision and dreams.

If you stop taking action to realize your blogging goal for any length of time—or quit on your writing and publishing goal—you will likely regret this decision later. Sometimes, abandoning your vision and dreams changes the entire course of your writing or blogging career…or life. As a result, you might feel unhappy, unfulfilled, or frustrated a lot of the time.

If your values and vision change and you choose new aligned blogging goals, you may abandon the old ones. If your values and vision remain the same, you’d be better off slowing your progress toward your goals than stopping or quitting. You are much more likely to achieve your goal and feel fulfilled and satisfied with your accomplishments.

3. Losing sight of our purpose and direction.

You abandon your vision and dreams when you stop moving toward your blogging goals. This can lead to the risk of losing your purpose and direction, which can lead to feeling aimless, uncertain, unfulfilled, and dissatisfied with your life.

By contrast, slowing down allows you to reassess your blogging goals, make necessary adjustments, and continue on a path aligned with what’s important to you. You still have your “true north” to guide you.

4. Detrimental effects on your personal development and growth.

Stopping your forward movement toward any type of goal inevitably leads to feelings of frustration and disappointment in yourself. In fact, your self-esteem and self-confidence plummet.

Quitting can cause you to believe you are a failure, which makes it difficult to get moving again or start over. You may develop the belief that you are incapable of finishing what you start—like a blogged book manuscript or a consistent blog, which then impacts your ability to achieve future writing, blogging, and publishing goals.

Also, while halting your progress denies you the opportunity to learn, grow, and evolve, slowing down allows you to reflect on your experiences, acknowledge your achievements, and cultivate resilience. It will enable you to build trust in your ability to see your dream through to fruition. That helps you achieve your future blogging goals.

5. Negative impact on relationships and professional endeavors.

When you don’t follow through on your commitments, such as to achieve a goal, you lose trust in yourself. However, other people also trust you less. Stopping or quitting can also lower your credibility and harm your reputation with others.

As a result, you may find your relationships damaged. When others don’t see you as trustworthy and credible, they might not want to collaborate with you.

On the other hand, if you slow down, you may not meet different people’s timelines but will accomplish your goal. Plus, you’ll learn and find new ways to succeed as a blogger, writer, and author. Others will appreciate your consistent action and integrity.

5 Benefits of Slowing Down the Pursuit of Your Blogging Goals

A growing body of research and personal anecdotes suggest slowing down is beneficial to achieving goals in the long run. Choosing a slower pace, rather than coming to a complete stop when obstacles arise, actually propels you forward to achieve your goal.

Here are five key benefits to slowing down as you strive to achieve your goals.

1. The ability to reassess and reevaluate your blogging goals and strategies.

When constantly in motion and feeling pressured to move forward fast, you may overlook important details or fail to see the bigger picture. When you slow your pace, you can reflect on your progress and better understand what is working and what isn’t. This self-reflection allows you to make necessary adjustments and pivot strategically. Such reevaluation and recalibration increase your chances of success.

2. Maintain a sense of balance and well-being.

Constantly pushing yourself to the limit can lead to burnout, fatigue, and decreased motivation. By taking breaks and slowing your pace, you allow yourself to recharge physically and mentally.

There’s more to success than rushing headlong toward a writing or publishing goal. You also need to care for your body and have time to rejuvenate your mind and soul. And blogging is not the only important aspect of life; it’s essential to maintain your relationships with friends and family as well as yourself.

When you can do the things as you move consistently toward your blogging dreams, you experience true life balance and well-being.

3. Improved focus, creativity, and overall performance.

As mentioned, rushing to achieve your goals can lead to missed opportunities and mistakes. The pressure to reach your destination faster can also cause you to feel overwhelmed and stressed. These states of mind do not help you focus, devise creative solutions, or do your best work.

Slowing down enables you to tackle challenges with renewed energy and enthusiasm. And the more manageable pace allows you to focus better, be more creative, and improve your productivity.

4. Deeper connections and relationships.

When you constantly push yourself to realize your blogging dream, you may neglect important personal relationships and professional connections. When you finally reach your goal or choose to slow down, the damage may be irreparable.

By taking the time to slow down to pursue your dream and engage with others meaningfully, you build stronger bonds with people. You also cultivate a support system to help you navigate obstacles and setbacks as you progress toward your blogging goals.

5. The ability to savor the journey and appreciate the writing process.

Your rush to reach the finish line can cause you to overlook the fantastic journey to your blogging dream and the growth you experience along the way. If you never acknowledge your progress and achievements, you’ll become frustrated and discouraged.

Slowing down allows you to be more present in the moment, celebrate your small wins, and learn from your mistakes and successes. Doing so enhances your overall experience and instills a sense of gratitude and resilience. You realize that you can get through the inevitable challenges and are making progress.

How to Pace Yourself on the Path to Your Blogging Goal

Most of us are not taught to slow down. So, how do you pace yourself as you move toward realizing your writing, blogging, and publishing dreams and goals?

First, reconnect with yourself. Determine how you feel about your progress and the experience of going for your dream. Then, you can make adjustments as needed and appreciate your small victories. This will help you stay motivated in the long run and enjoy the process.

Second, pay attention to your physical body. It will let you know if you need to slow down and recharge, but you must take the time to notice. Engage in self-care, like sleeping more, meditating, going for a massage, and exercising. Give yourself time to eat a healthy diet. Ignoring your body’s signals can lead to burnout, decreased productivity, and bad health, which may cause you to quit your writing dream.

Third, set realistic and achievable writing, blogging, and publishing goals. Doing so allows you the time to succeed. Break your goals into smaller tasks and allow ample time to complete them. This reduces the pressure and allows you to adopt a sustainable pace.

Fourth, embrace the process. Achieving goals is not always a linear journey. There are ups and downs, detours, potholes, and missed turns along the way. When you acknowledge this, you stay more motivated and resilient—and don’t become discouraged by setbacks. You are also more likely to celebrate your progress, learn from your mistakes, and trust that every step, no matter how small, brings you closer to your dream.

Finally, move forward no matter what. Sometimes, life gets in the way of achieving your writing, blogging, and publishing dreams and goals At those times, don’t stop. Just take smaller steps forward rather than no steps at all. Do whatever you can consistently, even if that means composing a blog post for 10 minutes daily instead of an hour or more as you’d planned.

Adopt a pace you can maintain, and, like the turtle, you’ll achieve your blogging goals.

Have you quit on a blogging goal or publishing dream because you tried to move forward too quickly? Tell me in a comment below. And, please share this post with a blogger who might benefit from reading it.

Photo courtesy of choochart

The post Why Slowing Down Offers Bloggers an Effective Goal-Achievement Strategy appeared first on How to Blog a Book.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is here to stay, which many writers and bloggers find upsetting. After all, you are a writer. You want to write your posts—not have AI technology write them for you.

Publishing AI-generated posts feels like cheating, doesn’t it?

It does…unless you approach AI technology as a tool to help you write your posts. Don’t use it to write posts for you, which you then publish verbatim or even with a bit of editing. Instead, use it to help you blog better and faster.

Bloggers Can Enhance Their Writing Process with AI Technology

To help your blog succeed over time, you must improve your content and reach a wider audience. You must also streamline your writing and publishing process, enhance your creativity, and optimize your content for better engagement. All of these represent needle-moving goals. However, it can feel challenging to achieve them when you are the only one tackling each task.

That’s where AI comes in. You can take advantage of this technology and still write every word of your blog posts.

You Already Use AI Technology

If you are a one-person blogging show, you don’t have an editor on staff to check each post before you publish it. Instead, you probably use an editing service like Grammarly.

If so, you already use AI technology. It serves as your “in-house editor.”

AI-powered writing assistance tools can prove extremely helpful for writers. These programs improve your writing by offering suggestions for sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and style. They also provide feedback on readability, tone, and overall content cohesiveness.

So, first, let’s agree that AI technology is not all bad…and admit we use it.

AI-Powered Content Generators Don’t Have to Write Post

AI-powered content generators are another valuable tool for bloggers who want to boost productivity. However, you don’t have to use this technology to write your posts.

Instead, use tools like QuickWrite.ai, an AI tool for writers and bloggers, to generate topic ideas, create titles, develop Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keyword ideas, or outline a post. Of course, such technology can draft entire posts for you.

AI technology also helps you save time on research, which means you have more time to write. Rather than gathering a bunch of links from the Internet that you must review, it consolidates all that information into one “article.” You can then pick and choose the research that works for your next blog post and insert it yourself.

Use AI Tech For SEO Optimization

AI technology can optimize blog posts for search engines, improving their visibility and accessibility. AI-powered SEO tools can analyze keywords, suggest relevant terms, provide SEO blog post titles and subtitles, and offer insights on improving the post’s search engine ranking. These tasks are time-consuming for bloggers and make the writing process take longer than necessary.

By incorporating AI-driven SEO techniques into your writing process, you can attract more organic traffic, increase your reach, and have more time to write blog posts. This becomes possible because you use AI-driven SEO suggestions as you write.

Create Content Targeted to Your Audience

AI algorithms can analyze reader behavior and preferences. Therefore, AI tech can offer content recommendations with a high possibility of attracting your ideal readers.

These AI tools can suggest posts and spin-off topics that enhance your site with content highly relevant to your audience. This improves the overall user experience and drives repeat traffic to your blog.

Additionally, AI technology can help you gather valuable insights into your audience, content performance, and engagement metrics. AI analytics tools give bloggers a way to track key performance indicators, such as page views, bounce rates, and click-through rates. You can use this data to optimize your content strategy, tailor posts to meet your audience’s preferences, and identify trends that might inform future blog post topics.

AI Technology Supports Blog Post Writing

Of course, you can have AI technology write posts for you. If you go this route to speed up your blogging process, edit each post.

Revise your AI-generated content on more than a surface level. Make it read like your writing or a post you wrote from scratch.

Search engines can pinpoint AI-generated blog posts and penalize sites for such content. This can result in a drop in your Google ranking.

AI technology continues to evolve, and bloggers have many options for using it. Whatever method you choose, know that incorporating AI-powered writing assistance into your blogging strategy can elevate your writing, speed up your blogging process, and engage your audience more effectively.

It’s time to embrace AI technology, is it not?

By doing so, you become more productive. You more quickly and effectively create compelling, high-quality content that resonates with readers. In an increasingly competitive digital landscape, you need to blog consistently, and AI technology can help you do so.

How do you use AI technology in your blogging process? Tell me in a comment below. And, please share this post with a blogger who might benefit from reading it.

Photo courtesy of choochart

The post How To Use AI Even If You Want To Write Your Own Blog Posts appeared first on How to Blog a Book.

Most aspiring authors, including bloggers who want to blog books, inevitably experience disappointment. You probably agree that most writers experience disappointment at some point—especially if they take risky steps to realize their publishing dreams. But you don’t have to allow disappointment to stop you from continuing to move boldly toward your goals of blogging a book and publishing successfully.

I know this well. As a writer, blogger, and author. For instance, I boldly publish posts each week never knowing what type of comments or how many views I’ll get. In both cases, I could feel disappointed. For example, someone might tell me they don’t like my post or I could have less views than usual.

I often send query letters to agents and publishers concerning my book projects. When I get rejection letters in return, I feel disappointed. As I read their emails, my dream of having my words make a positive and meaningful difference in readers’ lives seems dashed.

It would be easy to allow disappointment to stop me from taking new action or expecting a different result if I dared to try again. But that would mean giving up on my writing, blogging, and publishing dreams…and myself.

Avoid Disappointment by Not Having Expectations

Someone once told me he would never expect desired results again; he’d been disappointed too often. And so, he decided he would simply expect disappointment.

But that’s a broken strategy that only yields more disappointment. After all, your thoughts are creative. If you think you will experience disappointment, you will. And if you expect to be disappointed, you will be.

It’s better to develop an “overcome-disappointment” strategy that works.

10 Strategies that Motivate New Blogging Action

So, what can you do when you experience disappointment, like a a blog post that tanks or a rejection from a literary agent or magazine editor? Try these 10 strategies to help you continue moving toward your writing, blogging, and publishing dreams.

1. Acknowledge your disappointment.

It’s never good to ignore emotions. Instead, acknowledge how you feel—disappointed. Then, allow yourself to feel the disappointment and any accompanying emotions, like frustration, anger, sadness, or despair.

However, create a boundary around how long you let yourself wallow in your emotions. Give yourself an hour or a day to really feel them. Then, it’s time to wipe away the tears, raise your energy, and get moving. Write a new blog post and publish it or send out another query letter.

2. Pat yourself on the back for trying.

Celebrate that you put yourself out there and tried to create your dream or achieve your goal. Lots of people wouldn’t even try, but you did! That’s worth a pat or two on the back.

Do something nice for yourself. Go out to dinner, buy a new book you’ve wanted to read, or soak in the tub. Celebrate that you took action—even if the result wasn’t what you desired.

3. Determine what you can do next.

You took a step (that didn’t work out as expected). What’s your next step toward becoming a writer or an author? How will you continue blogging your book and creating a successful blog?

Maybe the next step requires repeating the same one you took previously, or maybe you need a new approach. If so, discern what step aligns with that plan.

4. Do the next thing.

Now…take that step. Don’t wait. Do it fast! Move!

Write and publish the blog post. Compose the essay and send it to a magazine editor. Send out another query letter to an agent.

The longer you wait, the harder it will become to get moving.

Take some action! Put your intention into the world courageously and with positive energy.

5. Affirm that your results can and will be different.

It’s essential to affirm that you can and will get different results when you take repeated or new actions. Otherwise, you can get stuck in negative thoughts and beliefs.

Or you might repeat what happened in your mind…like an audiobook on automatic replay. Doing so can lead to a powerful negative story about who you are, what you deserve or are worthy of creating, and the outcomes you will get in the future.

Choose the story you tell yourself. Craft one about how you are a tenacious, courageous, and successful writer, blogger, and author.

6. Know everything is happening for you—not to you.

No matter your results, if you know everything is happening for you, not to you, you can rise up from disappointment.

In fact, a belief that everything is happening for your highest good eliminates feeling disappointed. After all, if this is true, then something better is coming your way. Thus, there is no reason to feel disappointed.

7. Course correct as necessary.

Disappointment provides an opportunity to consider how you need to alter your plan to achieve your dreams or goals. It’s a chance to course correct, if your current course is not getting you where you want to go.

Trim tab. Choose a new path. Tweak.

Then, move forward.

8. Learn from your experience.

You can learn a lesson from any experience you have. In fact, you are here in this lifetime to learn, grow, and evolve.

When you experience disappointment, ask what you need to learn from the experience or your results. Search for lessons in your outcomes.

Learn from it all; then, apply what you learn. Try again from your new place of understanding.

9. Ask for advice or help.

When things don’t go as you’d like, it can be difficult to discern your part in the outcome. That’s when asking for advice or help comes in handy.

A good friend, coach, blogger, or mentor can help you see into your blind spots. Outside observers can offer insights on how to try again. They can point out what is working and what isn’t, helping you gain more perspective. They might even provide new strategies you can try.

These people can also help you acknowledge your success. You are likely only seeing the failure, which keeps you from taking more action. Their observance of what worked or got you closer to publishing success provides the impetus to help you confidently move forward.

10. Don’t give up.

Whatever you do, don’t let disappointment cause you to give up on your blogging goal or publishing dream. Be tenacious. Be determined. Be resilient.

You are a powerful creator. Put all your energy and focus into achieving your goal or realizing your dream, and you will achieve the result you desire.

Also, when you refuse to give up, you tell the Universe or Source you are serious about creating your desire. That’s when all the forces conspire on your behalf to make your writing, blogging, and publishing dreams a reality.

Also, you rewire your brain every time you recommit and take action. You create neural pathways for determination, tenacity, positivity, commitment, and your desired result.

Take Massive Action

I recently started pitching a new book project. I was quite disappointed when I received two literary agent rejections. But i didn’t let that stop me. I remembered the advice of Tony Robbins: “The path to success is to take massive, determined action.”

And so I did take action…but not just one action. I took three.

1. I contacted someone I had met years ago who works for a publishing house that I believed would be a good fit for my project. He agreed to take a look at my proposal and share it with the acquisitions team.
2. I submitted a totally different project to a small publishing house; I had contact with the publisher about 10 years earlier.
3. I asked the publisher to revert rights for one of my books so I can self-publish it.

I’ve had no response yet from any of these actions, but I feel so much better after taking action. I took back my power, which I had given to outside sources, like agents, and affirmed that I could control my writing, blogging, and publishing career.

Don’t Let Disappointment Put a Damper on Your Blogging Dream

Disappointment can put a damper on your dreams of blogging a book and becoming an author. It can make you feel unworthy, not good enough, and like a failure. It can rip away your self-confidence and courage.

Unless you don’t let that happen.

Instead of expecting a specific result, intend to achieve it. Let your intention energetically propel you toward that outcome like an arrow flying toward a bullseye.

And know that each time you pick yourself up and keep moving forward—despite disappointment—you demonstrate your commitment. And commitment always results in desired outcomes.

How do you overcome disappointment and take new action? Tell me in a comment below. And, please share this post with a blogger who might benefit from reading it.

Photo courtesy of NejroN.

The post How Bloggers Use Disappointment to Motivate New Action appeared first on How to Blog a Book.

There is a way to make changing or developing new blogging habits easier. Change your environment. When you alter the context in which you write and publish your posts, developing new behaviors becomes simpler.

Your current environment supports your everyday writing habits. For example, if your desk sits in a dark corner of the house and is covered in bills, dirty tissues, and books, you won’t find it conducive to writing posts. In fact, every time you show up at your desk to work on your blog, you’ll feel the need to clean up first—and, since you don’t want to do that, you’ll walk away without ever turning on the computer. But suppose your laptop is positioned on the table next to your favorite chair, where the sun shines in and you can hear the birds sing. Then, when you sit down with your morning cup of coffee, you’ll feel inspired to pick up the laptop and begin writing a blog post.

Your environment helps you build and maintain supportive habits and enables you to break unwanted habits, too. For instance, if you want to stop eating sugar, you can create this habit by not stocking your pantry, refrigerator, or freezer with cookies, candy, or ice cream. You’ll actually find it hard to eat sweets in this context. You’d have to leave the house to find something sweet to eat.

The same is true of your blogging habits. If you want to publish posts consistently, you can create an environment that supports a daily blogging habit. For instance, you can schedule daily blogging time; add this writing block to your phone’s calendar so you receive a reminder. Create a space where all your blogging materials or research are handy. Find a blogging buddy or accountability partner, and reward yourself when you follow through and write a post daily, or punish yourself when you don’t.

Positive and Negative Cues Help Build or Break Blogging Habits

As you probably realize, you can design your environment with positive and negative cues that help you break or build habits. So, suppose you want to develop the habit of blogging first thing in the morning. Then, you might put your laptop next to the coffee maker as a reminder. As soon as you have that cup in your hand, you pick up the computer, sit down at the kitchen table, and begin writing a blog post. Before you know it, you’ll have developed this desired habit.

If you want to break a habit, like putting every other task or commitment before writing a blog post, you could commit to writing first thing in the morning. Wake up (and go to bed) an hour earlier in the morning, and, again, have your laptop situated by the coffee machine as a reminder. After you get your coffee, write for an hour before the day starts and you get distracted.

Choose Supportive Blogging Environments

Pay close attention to the context within which you operate. Choose to spend time in environments that provide cues that help you develop a blogging habit rather than develop or maintain bad habits.

In other words, don’t spend time writing posts in a coffee shop if all your friends congregate there. That’s just asking for a distraction from writing. Instead, spend time in a local library (where you cannot talk on the phone), at home in your office (with the door closed), or at a coffee shop far enough away from your stomping ground to avoid seeing anyone you know.

Or, if you want to blog a book, don’t spend time in the living room with the television on. Instead, find a quiet room in your home that is designated as your office.

Different Contexts, Different Habits

Also, notice how you demonstrate different habits in different environments. You may habitually find other tasks to do when at home, but focus and write productively when at the local library. Or maybe you are in the habit of getting distracted by social media (on your phone or computer) when trying to write in your office, but if you bring your laptop onto an airplane, you produce posts the entire flight.

Consider also how your habits in specific contexts impact other habitual behaviors. For example, maybe you always turn on the television when you enter the living room. It’s no wonder, then, that you struggle to blog when you use the living room as your office. Your brain believes the living room is for television watching, not writing.

If your living room is where you want or need to write, create a different relationship with it by only using that space for writing. Habitually walk into the room, sit down, and begin writing (without the television on). Even better, put the television in the family room or an extra bedroom. These actions change your mind’s association with the living room, and, as a result, you will develop the habit of blogging effectively in that space.

Change Your Environment to Change Your Habits

The concept is simple: change your environment, and you change your habits.

Recall a time when you went on vacation. You weren’t in your typical environment—your home or office—and your habits likely changed. Maybe you slept later and drank more alcohol than usual. Your habits were different.

Maybe you want to blog a book but feel challenged to develop a writing habit. You try to produce a post every day sitting at the kitchen table. However, your environment cues you to empty the dishwasher, do the laundry, feed the birds, walk the dog, and start cooking dinner instead. Your environment is not conducive to forming a blogging habit.

But what if you go to a coffee shop every day to write (one where your friends don’t congregate)? Instead of seeing laundry baskets, empty bird feeders, the dog staring at you, and the dinner ingredients stacked on the counter, you see other people working at their computers. The first day you write in this environment, you knock out three 1,200-word blog posts without effort. And after a week, it seems like second nature to sit down with your latte and write a post. You’ve formed a blogging habit.

Avoid Mixed-Use Spaces

A space used for more than one activity results in confusing cues. That makes it hard to develop habits.

So, try to create a space for an individual activity—blogging. Don’t try to write in a mixed-use space, like the kitchen; instead, only use your office, for instance. Then, focus on habits related to specific spaces. In other words, focus on writing in the space you designate as a blogging space.

For example, develop the habit of writing in your office, exercising in your garage, watching TV in the living room, or eating in the dining room.

That means the kitchen is for cooking—not blogging or eating. And you don’t read or surf the Internet in your office; you do that in the living room.

Create or Break Habits Quickly

Design your environment with habit formation in mind. And develop your blogging habit in a context that helps, rather than hinders, your efforts at change.

As a result, you’ll find it much easier to create supportive blogging habits and break unsupportive ones. Plus, you’ll never have to wait weeks or months to develop a blogging habit—or any positive habit—again. Instead, you’ll create or break habits quickly.

Have you found it easier to develop a blogging habit in a conducive environment?  Tell me in a comment below. And please share this post on social media or with a writing friend.

Photo courtesy of NejroN.

The post How Changing Your Environment Helps You Develop New Blogging Habits appeared first on How to Blog a Book.

You’ve heard the advice: Get out of your comfort zone! Indeed, life takes on a different quality when challenging yourself to go beyond what feels easy now. And if you have blogging goals and publishing dreams, you probably realize that achieving them requires stretching past your current competence and confidence levels, and that can feel uncomfortable.

It’s no wonder many bloggers prefer to remain in their comfort zone—one where things always remain the same, they don’t have to do anything different or hard, and they don’t have to show up big. It’s just…well…comfortable. And comfortable equates to easy.

Most of us like easy, right?

But remaining in that comfortable state is a long-term blogging and publishing plateau existence. You may have worked hard for the comfort you enjoy, and you should enjoy it! But there’s more to a blogging and writing life past that point. There’s another publishing peak to ascend.

You know that. You feel it.

That’s your soul whispering to you…even pushing you…to do and be more…to fulfill your potential as a blogger and author.

You probably already realize that you are meant for more. And something more exists for you…if you push past the plateau and give up the comfortable blogging life.

Credit Yourself for Creating Comfortable

Comfortable is an achievement for sure. So, be sure to give yourself credit for creating comfortable. Unfortunately, many bloggers never get to that point. Instead, they remain caged and struggle to alter their circumstances and achieve higher levels of success.

But admit it… A comfortable blogging life is not your endpoint. (You know that, or you wouldn’t be reading this post.) The plateau where you now write is not the height of your blogging or publishing potential.

Your soul knows that. It wants more. And to achieve that, you must challenge yourself to get out of your comfort zone.

How do you do that while knowing you will feel uncomfortable in the process? I can think of three ways.

Discomfort is Temporary

First and foremost, know that any discomfort you feel while getting out of your blogging comfort zone is temporary. Honestly, it is!

For example, imagine that you want to wake up earlier every morning and spend two hours writing and publishing blog posts. The first few days feel hard. You drag yourself out of bed and feel grumpy and groggy for the first 30 minutes. But by the second week, waking up earlier becomes easier; you swing your legs over the edge of the bed, rub your eyes, and don’t even consider getting back under the covers. Not only that, you begin to see some progress with your blogging. By week three, you are eager to meet the day and inspired to start blogging after the alarm clock rings. Two months later, you can’t imagine not getting up early, and you have a ton of published posts (and even the makings of a blogged book) to show for your effort.

Or consider building your author platform on social media. At first, you might feel scared and awkward posting anything, let alone going live. However, if you decide to do this consistently—maybe two or three times per week, by the second or third week, you will start feeling more confident and courageous. After about a month, using social networks to create an audience for your blog will begin to feel enjoyable, fulfilling, and even exciting.

In both cases, by the second or third month, you may have reached a new plateau you may later choose to move beyond. (Stay there too long, and you enter your comfort zone again.) In the meantime, you have reasonably quickly pushed through your discomfort. And that process allowed you to achieve something you desired.

So, when you decide to move out of your blogging or publishing comfort zone, commit to whatever discomfort you encounter for at least 30 days. By then, the discomfort will fade away and become a thing of the past.

Challenge Yourself

Second, challenge yourself to move out of your blogging and publishing comfort zone somehow. Challenge is a human drive. In fact, humans (including writers and bloggers) thrive on challenge because it helps us learn, grow, change, and move toward our potential.

Taking on a challenge moves you out of your comfort zone quickly. No wonder you can find so many challenges online for things like weight loss, manifestation, writing books in a month, and accessing your intuition. Most transformational coaches and experts know that people rise to them and want to continue pursuing excellence afterward.

Also, the word “challenge” easily replaces “discomfort.” Discomfort can feel like a struggle—or you might believe you will struggle if you are uncomfortable. But when you reframe the discomfort as challenge, your mind sees this as something positive.

The brain—specifically the reptilian brain—is more willing to accept a challenge than discomfort or struggle because it is wired to help you avoid pain or anything dangerous (i.e., anything different). It constantly conducts cost-benefit analyses on your choices and actions, evaluating how uncomfortable it feels to exert effort and if it is worth doing so.

However, the ventral striatum, a brain region that helps process rewarding outcomes, can be helpful when moving out of your comfort zone. It becomes more strongly activated when you achieve something through higher rather than lower effort. And studies show that you can learn to enjoy the journey, regardless of the destination or the discomfort level, because the brain perceives the effort itself as rewarding.

So, don’t focus on the discomfort but on the effort you are making to become a successful blogger and author and the reward you will enjoy when you reach the next summit.

Enjoy Being Outside Your Comfort Zone

Third, decide to be someone who enjoys getting outside your comfort zone. You don’t have to choose to start sky diving or bungee jumping if those things feel scary and seem to have little reward for you (although, to some people, they do.) Simply become someone who thrives on stretching, changing, and growing as a writer, publisher, and author.

Then, do the things that allow you to accomplish that. For instance, you might learn a new skill, begin submitting queries to agents or editors, create daily Instagram reels, or begin guest blogging.

I realize you might wonder how you suddenly become such a person. Simple: change your identity.

How do you do that? First, decide to be a blogger who thrives when uncomfortable—who finds that state exciting, enjoyable, and rewarding because they know they will be better off for having experienced it. Then, do the things that person would do.

By deciding to be such a blogger, you will much more easily develop the habits and mindsets that align with your “new self.” For example, you can stop telling yourself you hate discomfort and want to stay somewhere comfortable. Instead, tell yourself you enjoy discomfort because it helps you get off your plateau and climb the next writing or publishing mountain.

Neuroscience has proven that by choosing a new identity—and thinking and behaving in alignment with that identity—you create neural pathways that support that state of being. Thus, if you start telling yourself you are someone who thrives on the journey to your next level of human potential, prosperity, health, relationship, or whatever you desire, that journey will become more comfortable every day.

The journey will also become enjoyable, exciting, and fulfilling. And the next time you find yourself on a blogging or publishing plateau enjoying your comfortable life, you’ll want to get a little uncomfortable again and recreate that charged-up blogging and publishing life.

How do you withstand the discomfort of getting out of your blogging or publishing comfort zone? Tell me in a comment below. And please share this post on social media or with a writing friend. Tell me in a comment below. And please share this post on social media or with a blogging friend.

Photo courtesy of NejroN.

The post How Bloggers Get Out of Their Comfort Zone appeared first on How to Blog a Book.

You can publish your writing in so many different places. However, the place you need to publish your content is on your blog.

I’ve said this many times, but it bears repeating: Do not use social media or someone else’s publishing platform as your blog.

A blog belongs on your author website. You can share the content on other sites, but your work should be published on your site first.

I know it seems easier to publish your posts, build an audience, and make money on sites that offer built-in audiences. But easy isn’t always the best practice, and I never said blogging was the easy road to success for writers. To truly be a successful blogger (and author), you need to publish your posts on your blog.

Let’s discuss why this remains true so long after I first shared about this topic.

The TikTok Example

So many influencers and content creators, such as bloggers, have made a name for themselves on TikTok. These people have also used TikTok as their primary income generator, either selling products and services via their site posts or driving people to their websites. For these individuals, losing this social media site means losing their income.

However, many bloggers also use TikTok as their primary social media marketing channel. They post on the site to gain followers and make money. But what happens if TikTok gets banned in your country? Your hard-earned audience and income generated by your presence on the site will be lost—unless your marketing strategy was to drive them to your website and subscribe to your mailing list.

According to Mashable, “In the U.S., a ban has been looming since last year, and a congressional hearing with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has made many a headline. Come 2024 and the House of Representatives passed a bill, with overwhelming majority, that demands its parent company ByteDance to divest from the app—or face a ban in the country.”

Eleven countries have already banned TikTok, including:

• Afghanistan
• Australia
• Belgium
• Canada
• Denmark
• India
• Nepal
• The Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Somalia

You surely realize that being dependent on TikTok—or any social media site—is a risky way to run your blogging or writing business.

The Red Room Example

But this is not the first time writers and bloggers have lost their subscribers and content. You may recall a site called Red Room. This was “The Place for Writers”…until it was sold and shut down.

On July 18, 2014, Publishers Weekly reported, “Online writing and reading community Wattpad has acquired the Red Room, an online community originally described as a ‘Facebook for authors.’ The Red Room site will be subsumed into Wattpad and go offline beginning July 8.”

Writers were invited to migrate their content to Wattpad; most found that an undesirable choice. If they were quick, they might have copied all their content for use elsewhere…like on their own site. If not, their content and readers were lost.

My Lost Content and Readers

Twice in my blogging career, I’ve lost published content and readers.

In the first case, I served as a contributing writer to a site called The Future of Ink. For two or three years, the site owners published my posts monthly. Then, they decided to close the site. They supposedly archived the content, but I can no longer find it.

Also, I contributed to The Book Designer blog when it was still owned by the late Joel Friedlander. Once the site was sold, most of my content disappeared.

In both cases, I had the original documents saved in Microsoft Word. As a result, I could repurpose the documents for my own sites. However, I did lose my readers.

Keep Your Writing Eggs in Your Basket

Here’s the point: Any site you do not own can disappear. If you use it as your so-called blog, primary marketing tool, or income-generating strategy, when it leaves, it will take your content, followers, and income with it.

This is true of popular writing sites like Medium and Substack, too. Imagine you have built a large list of subscribers who follow and pay you for your newsletter or blog on Substack. Then, entertain the possibility that Substack shuts down for some reason.

What happens to your subscribers, content, and income?

Poof. Gone.

Do not put all your writing eggs in one online publishing basket…unless it is your own website and blog.

Maintain Control

I’m not saying that you can’t use such sites. Just don’t make them your primary publishing and marketing tool.

Create a self-hosted site that you own and pay for. That ensures you retain control over your blog. You decide what to do with the site—sell products and services, run ads, publish video and audio, change the theme, and develop a mailing list of avid readers.

No one can tell you how to run your self-hosted website or blog. You own it. You control it.

More importantly, no one except you can suddenly decide to shut it down. That means you never have to worry about losing your content and are always in control of what happens on and with your site.

Of course, when it comes to traffic, you are at the mercy of Google’s algorithms. But, if you do a good job writing posts that are on target for your audience, that shouldn’t pose a problem.

Retain Followers

Your blog is the best place to create an audience of raving fans. Yes, author platform consists of social media followers, email subscribers, and website traffic.

You must create an audience on at least one or two sites, like X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, or TikTok. However, building an audience on these sites should take a back seat to creating your email list.

If one of the social media sites becomes unavailable or you are banned from using it for some reason, you will lose your followers. Some might seek you out on another site, but many will not.

There goes the platform you built with such effort and care.

But drive them to your website to give you their email addresses in return for a lead magnet, and they remain on the list until they decide to unsubscribe.

Publish on Your Site First

Don’t get me wrong… I believe sites like Medium and Substack have their place and use. Contributing to other blogs also remains an effective strategy.

But if you are going to use other sites to showcase your writing, build audience, and make money, post first on your own blog. Then, copy and paste or repurpose your content to another site.

Publishing on your own site first and then sharing it to others has been the Golden Rule for bloggers for as long as I can remember. Doing so lets search engines, like Google, know you are the original owner of the content.

And it lets you get the most bang for each word you write.

Sustain Your Livelihood

Let’s say you publish primarily on your own blog. It’s also your practice to share a link to the post on social media sites. This strategy continues to be the best practice for bloggers, especially those who want to sell something or build a platform.

Think about it… Even ads appearing on social media sites send people who click on a button or link to a website. That’s what you do when you share the link to your post.

Once on your site, you can market to these readers in any way you like, such as with ads. You also can encourage them to join your mailing list and send them email marketing campaigns.

Do these things, and you will never have to worry about losing your audience or income if a social media site suddenly becomes unavailable.

Build Your Google Ranking

Of course, blogging on your own site continues to provide the best organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tool available. Every blog post contains tons of keywords that can increase your site’s ranking in the Google Search Engine Results Page for your topic.

Publishing content on another site will never get your blog and website to appear on the first page of a Google search.

Blogging is Not Dead

I read an email from a well-known blogger who announced he was moving his successful blog to Substack. If I recall correctly, his subject line said, “Blogging is Dead.”

I disagree. Blogging is alive and well and can help protect your content, author platform, and income. Plus, it can help you, your content, and your books become more discoverable in online searches conducted by new readers.

So, think twice before you use anyone else’s site—even a free one—as your primary blogging platform. I predict that in the long run, you’ll be happy you didn’t take the easy way out.

 Do you use some site other than your own as your primary blog platform? Tell me in a comment below. And please share this post on social media or with a blogging friend.

Photo courtesy of liudmilachernetska.

The post Why You Need to Publish Your Content on Your Blog appeared first on How to Blog a Book.

Have you ever felt like your hands are tied, and you can’t reach for your blogging dreams? If you have, you may realize that the restrictive feeling you experienced comes from lack and fear, both of which stem from your thought processes.

Let’s say you believe you lack time to write and publish blog posts. This belief brings up fearful thoughts, such as “If I spend an hour writing a blog post, I won’t get other important things done.” And that thought leads to another, like, “If I don’t get those other things done, I’ll feel overwhelmed. And my (boss, partner, children, or parents) will become angry at me.”

Your mind doesn’t focus on potential options—such as getting up early or staying up late, using your lunch hour, or using half the day on Saturday to write and schedule posts. Instead, it deems those options impossible. As a result, you believe you have no viable choices—you think your hands are tied.

When that happens, you become a victim of your circumstances. You give all your power to your situation and believe you have no way to do anything different. After all, your hands are tied, right?

Then, you blame your circumstances or someone or something else. You don’t see the situation as your fault. Something outside you has put that rope around your wrists.

How do you untie your hands so you can pursue your blogging and publishing goals? Take back your power and exercise your freedom to change your thoughts and emotions. Then, you’ll feel the rope loosen and drop off your wrists.

Feeling Tied Up by Lack

First, let’s look closely at why lack makes you feel like your hands are tied.

Most often, when someone talks about lack, they mean not having enough money or time. But there are other types of lack—lack of choices, lack of strength, lack of will, lack of commitment, and lack of courage, to name a few.

The more you think about how you lack something—and, therefore, can’t write or publish posts as you’d like—the more you go down the rabbit hole of victimhood. You become a victim of your lack.

Your self-talk will sound like this: “I can’t do or be a blogger because I don’t have ___.” You believe the circumstance—something outside you—has power over your ability to have what you want or need to move forward.

For instance, you may not have the money to hire a website developer. Perhaps you don’t have the time to consistently work on your blogged book project. Or, possibly, you don’t have the freedom to focus on your career as a blogger and author.

And, as mentioned, the more focused you are on lack and blame, the more fear rises within you. You think: “What if nothing changes?” “What if I can’t ever blog and publish my book or create a successful blog?” “What horrible result will I create if I focus on blogging?” “What will so-and-so do/think if I don’t/do ___?”

Set Yourself Free

The way to liberate yourself is simple: Realize you always have personal freedom and power. In other words, get out of victimhood.

Maybe your thoughts have you tied in knots, but you can reach for a different thought. Changing your thoughts opens your mind to new options. When you realize you have the power to choose, you can make a new decision—and you do that because you have personal power and freedom.

When you become responsible for yourself, you can decide to take a new action, form a new belief, respond rather than react, or be different in some way. You will then realize your hands were never tied in the first place. You just thought they were.

My Hands Were Tied

I am no stranger to the feeling of having my hands tied due to lack and fear. I’ve allowed myself to be a victim of circumstance and, as a result, didn’t write or publish anything for a long time.

I realized recently that I had perpetuated a belief that I don’t have the money to hire the best person to promote my next book. I’ll have to hire based on who I can afford or do it all myself. There might be other people I could hire, but I told myself the inexpensive person was my only option.

And I believed I had to continue working with my long-standing web developer because I couldn’t afford the programs he used, lacked the knowledge to use them myself, and wasn’t sure anyone else could do the work affordably. A belief in lack and fear of starting with someone new kept me stuck.

Have you ever felt that way? It’s not pleasant, is it?

This experience made me think about other times when I have hired people, like for my coaching business. I identified at least three times I’ve hired based on affordability, not gotten the best services or products, and ended up feeling like I didn’t have the power or freedom to ask for what I needed and get it on time and well done.

In these situations, I have believed my hands were tied, too.

Three Steps to Un-tying Your Hands

With this all weighing on my mind, I reached out to the coaches in a program I attend. I received feedback and clearly saw that I was stuck in lack, fear, and victimhood.

Then, I began to make some changes. I want to share those with you because they worked for me, and they are likely to work for you, too.

First, take responsibility.

I took responsibility for my part in my professional hiring decisions. I created the circumstances repeatedly from my habitual focus on lack and fear and feeling powerless and constrained.

I also acknowledged I was angry, frustrated, and disappointed in myself for my hiring decisions and not choosing to make new ones to remedy the circumstances. I had to accept responsibility for that while not getting stuck in blaming myself.

Plus, I had to stop blaming the people I hired. If dissatisfied with their work, I could make new decisions about who I worked with. I hadn’t chosen to do so. That was on me…not them.

Lesson learned. I won’t hire with my hands tied ever again. And when I feel like hiring a specific person is my only option for whatever reason, I will remember that is only the case if I believe it. Then I’ll look for other options.

You can’t be a victim if you take responsibility. Do that, and you stand firmly in your power and freedom.

Second, uncover new options.

Rather than continue feeling as if I had no option but to use the people I hired to date, I contacted colleagues for names of others who could do the work I needed, like marketing my next book or working on my website. I also spent some time exploring contractors on Upwork.com. I already have found people who might fit the job descriptions and be affordable. I feel much better knowing I have options from which to choose.

Admittedly, I may not like all the options on my list. However, it’s freeing to know I have them. And the only thing that stops me from deciding on any one of them is lack and fear. But now I am conscious of how lack and fear keep me stuck and lead to victimhood. Thus, I can make different and more courageous choices.

Third, shift your focus.

Every step involves a shift in focus. The simple action of choosing where to place my attention put me firmly in my power and demonstrated my ability to make free choices.

Instead of focusing on what wasn’t possible—hiring great and affordable marketing or website help—I focused on what was possible. I stopped concentrating on my fears of not having enough money, not being able to afford good service, not getting what I need to succeed, not being able to ask for help, the negative ramifications of speaking up, and not finding help. I focused on options instead.

With each of these three steps, I felt the rope around my wrists loosening!

You Can’t Create from Lack, Fear, or Victimhood

I’m always saying, “You are a creator!” But I needed to remember that fact. I needed a reminder that it’s impossible to create what I want when I believe I am lacking, fearful, or a victim.

Life always mirrors what you need to learn. Obviously, I needed to look in the mirror. Then, I could stop operating with the constraints of lack, fear, and victimhood. With that perspective, it became possible to step into being the powerful creator that I am. And I know I’ll find just the right book marketing and website help as a result.

These three strategies can help you untie your hands. They will help you change your belief that you lack what you need to reach your blogging and publishing dreams. You can use them to stop feeling afraid to take new actions and feel powerful and free to create whatever you want—including a successful blogging and publishing career.

Have you ever made decisions with your hands tied? What was the outcome? Tell me in a comment below. And please share this post on social media or with a blogging friend.

Photo courtesy of Anna Tolipova

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