You’ve started a blog and were all excited in the beginning, but now as you see how much work it takes to keep it up, your enthusiasm is wearing off, and you find it harder and harder to keep your blog going and updated.

Yes, keeping a blog takes time. It’s an investment of your time, and sometimes money.  You have to give it fresh content on a weekly basis and keep it secure and healthy.

Have you calculated the investment that it takes to keep up with your blog?

There is a common phenomenon

happening especially to new bloggers .  Even some people that I know personally have gotten to a point where they lost their enthusiasm about blogging when they realized that they had to put a constant effort into their blog.  Yes,  blogging takes work.

So, what can you do when your love for blogging is wearing off?

You need to be well prepared and understand what it really means to have a blog.  Let’s see what you could do if you are still new at blogging an even not so new anymore but just trying to keep up with your blog.

# 1 Learn About Blogging Before you Start a Blog 

This may seem kind of obvious, but yet, again, maybe not.

What do I mean by learn about blogging?  I mean take the time necessary to find out the ins and outs of blogging, and how much of your time and dedication it’s going to take to keep a blog alive and well.

Not long ago, I was trying to encourage a friend to start a blog, but I quickly realized that even if we were to start a blog he wouldn’t go very far with it.  As a matter of fact, he purchased a domain name and that was about all he ever did.

Let’s be realistic for a minute here.

Blogging is not for everyone. That’s just not possible.  Nothing is for everyone.

But if you do your homework first, and try to learn as much as you can about the whole picture of blogging, and be honest with yourself, you’ll be able to tell if this is for you or not.

# 2 Make Sure you’re in the Right Niche for YOU

If you are trying to blog about a topic that is not YOU, you will find out that’s going to be challenging to keep it up.  It’s much more difficult to blog on a weekly basis about a topic that is remote from you than one that is close to your heart.

Believe me I know!

Even as a freelance writer who can write on many topics without much trouble, it’s much easier to write about topics that are dear to me.  Don’t forget that if you’re not a writer by nature, it will be very difficult to write each week about a topic that is not something you really like.

Remember, your blog posts will reflect how much love you have for what you’re writing about or lack thereof.

Choosing the wrong niche is not a smart move for a new blogger. Do yourself a favor and avoid that mistake.  If you were to make such mistake, your love for blogging would wear off very rapidly.

# 3 Learn How to Write

I know it’s a common thing to say that you don’t have to be a writer to blog. Yes, that’s true, to a point. Some people who are not very good writers manage to keep a blog, but if you already know that you are not very good at writing, I’d suggest that you try to improve your writing skills.

There are blog posts, articles, as well as affordable books that can teach you quite a bit about the basic rules of writing to help you improve your writing skills.

When you know how to write well, writing becomes easier and much more pleasurable.  Remember, writing is going to be the bloodstream of your blog, and write well will  help keep your love of blogging going.

# 4 Be Likable

If you don’t have one yet, you MUST develop a likable personality.  When you have a blog it’s like your stores, and people visiting your blog are like customers entering your store. If you are not friendly and respectful of them they will leave your “store” and never come back again.

If nobody visits your blog you are not going to be motivated to keep up with your blog for long.

How can you be sure you’re friendly to your visitors?

Always reply to their comments, and try to answer any question they may have.  Warmly welcome those who are coming to your blog for the first time, and do your best to go visit their blog.

Don’t ever think that you’re too big for those rules to apply to you.  I don’t care who you are, I’m not going to visit your blog if you are not friendly.  My guess is that I’m not the only one either.

Maintaining good relationships with your reader will help you going with your blog.

#5 Always Keep in Touch with what’s Going on in your Niche

Being up to date with what’s happening in your niche is a huge motivator to keep a blog going.  For example, if you have a tech blog, that’s very easy to keep blogging because technology is a never ending machine where something new comes out almost every day.

When it comes to other niche, however,  it might not be as easy to keep up with the news.  So what do you do?

A good thing to do to keep up with the updates of your niche is subscribe to a few relevant newsletters and watch for online news articles.  Not only this will bring you up to date, but it will give you ideas to blog about.

Keeping in touch with what’s going on in your niche will help you to keep going with your blog.

So, there you have it 5 quick ways to prevent your love of blogging to wear off.  Was this helpful? Please, let me know in the comment area!

When you need to write a blog post each week or even two or more times each week you need to come up with writing ideas constantly.

For some this thought can be overwhelming. For others they may be able to keep up for a while, but over time, they may feel that they have nothing else to write about.

They are running dry, so to speak.

Yet, if you are into blogging for the long run you’ve got to keep up with it.  You’ve got to be able to write good content each week in order to improve traffic and ranking.

So how can you keep on blogging?

Let’s see 6 ways to come with blog post ideas week after week.

#1 – Read, Listen and Observe

You can get wonderful ideas to write about in any niche or topic by reading, listening, or even sometimes just observing.

You need to think like a writer at all times.  The more you learn how to listen and observe, the easier you will come up with writing ideas.

Here are some tips to help you do this.

Read

Read other blogs, blog comments, news articles, newsletters, forum questions and answers FAQ, keyword tools and even ads.  All such sources can be a blog post inspiration.  Make sure you use reading as you first tool to find ideas to write about.

Listen

When talking with people, listen to what they say carefully. Become aware of their interests, doubts, questions, ideas, etc. You can get tons of post ideas just by listening to people, but you need to put your awareness hat, and listen like a writer.

Observe

Observe everyday situations and think how you could turn it into a helpful article/blog post for your readers.  How can you adapt any interesting enough situation into a blog post subject?

For example, last year I’ve written a post inspired by a bird, and few months back I’ve compared writing to painting.

#2 – Write down your Ideas

Ideas are disappearing fast, so make sure you write them down. You don’t have to write your article right away, but you need to write that idea down so you can use it at a later time. Note down any ideas that cross your mind in a place that you can find them easily later.

Those ideas will be your blog post resources when you are running dry.  We all run out of ideas to write about at times. But even if you’re one of the few who don’t it’s always a good thing to have a reserve of ideas to write about just in case.

#3 – Write Blog Posts ahead of Time

If at all possible, write down some ever green topic blog posts ahead of time. The reason for this is that in case you’re unable to write for a while, you’d still have something to post on your blog for that week.

Don’t do what I’ve done, having to move in less than two weeks and still haven’t prepared extra posts for my move.  I know I have to work on that!

Writing posts in advance for times that you may be tied up somehow, will insure that you can come up with your blog post that week, no matter what.

#4 – Always Write for the Reader

How can you not write for the reader you might ask?

Well, we see that all the time, don’t we? There are still marketers out there that only write about products, product reviews, and promotions that are meant to sell the readers, not educating them.

A friend of mine who wrote a book few months ago that received a very limited success, just admitted to me few days ago that he didn’t write the book for people, but more like a statement that he wanted to make. The problem with that is that people don’t care about YOU, they care about them.

If you don’t know how or don’t want to write for the reader, you’ll lose in the end.

No reader, no need to bother to write in the first place. Whether it’s a book or a blog post it all comes down to the same thing.

The more you develop a will to help others, the easier it will be for you to have constant writing ideas for your blog.  Just ask yourself the following questions:

• What do people need to know (in my niche)?
• What could help them?
• What do they seem to struggle with?
• What could be entertaining and educational at the same time?
• What topics seem to get great responses?

#5 – Talk about Others

Now while I know that a lot of my regular readers know and use this blogging idea on a regular basis, there are still some people out there that don’t understand that promoting others on their blog can be beneficial for them.

Yes, talking about others will add up to the ideas to blog about.  If you have nothing else to say, I am sure that you know of few bloggers that you could promote, don’t you?  Some of my blogger friends do that on a weekly basis.  They take a list of other blog posts that they liked that week and create their blog post with that list.

By doing this they become a great resource for other blogs to visit, and their readers love them for that.

Don’t be afraid to promote others. What goes around comes around. And that’s a great tool to use to come up with an attractive post that week.

# 6 – Talk about You

You can use your own experiences to write your blog posts as well. As a matter of fact, many bloggers write about something that just happened to them when it fits their blog topic.

You can use that experience and turn it into a blog post to help your readers or even to entertain them.  A lot of the experiences that happen to us are life’s lessons to ourselves.  The beauty about blogging is that we can use such lessons and share them with the world.

This is another great way to come up with ideas to blog about.

So, what about you? Can you add to the list of ideas to come up with blog post each week?

I know it’s very common to hear bloggers say “I’m not a writer”, yet they do write one to three blog posts a week, or more.

You may not feel like a writer, but if you do write one or more blog posts every week, it does make you a writer, whether you believe it or not.

So, since you are writing that much on a weekly basis, my first question to you would be, are you satisfied with your writing?  Whether you answer yes or no to this question, my next question to you is, would you like to improve your writing?

I know you’re not trying to impress the masses with your writing, you’re just trying to bring your point across.  However, if you even bother to write at all online I know that your goal is to have as many readers as possible, and you want them to enjoy and pay attention to what you write.  Don’t you?

If your answer is yes, then this post is for you, and you might want to learn how to read like a writer to improve your writing skills.  But what does that supposed to mean? Let me explain.

Become a Critic of what you Read

My mother used to be a tailor, and I remember her analyzing and criticizing pieces of garments often. If she saw a woman with a dress that didn’t fit well, or wasn’t looking right in any way, she would notice it.   If a hem wasn’t done right, she would notice it.  If someone was not wearing the right size jacket she would notice.  She was able to see any little imaginable things about what people were wearing.

She was a formidable critic of people’s clothing because it was the tailor in her speaking.  She saw people’s dress as a tailor, not like anyone else who wouldn’t have been able to even tell the  difference.

As a blogger/writer, you should be able to do the same thing when you read other people’s work.  You need to become a critic of other people’s writing to improve your own.  You need to be able to notice what’s right and what’s wrong and learn from it.

What Makes you Tic as a Reader?

What makes you tic as a reader and what doesn’t? What type of articles online or offline make you want to read every single word from beginning to end, and what type doesn’t?  And I’m not talking about topic matter here. No.  I’m talking about the writing style.

When you read an article online or even a book, what are the ingredients that make you want to keep reading, and what are the type of writings that are not attractive to you?  What makes you want to quit reading?

Is the piece that you’re reading monotone? Is it lacking personality?  Is it event-less?  Is the writer cold, emotionless, or just boring?  Is the writing cluttered with too many useless words? If you are reading about a topic that interest you but the piece that you’re reading isn’t  it must be because of one or more of the reasons above.

As a writer, get into the habit of analyzing what you’re reading.  If you do, you will improve your own writing.

Learn How to Analyze What you’re Reading

Just like you would be able to see what’s not quite right with a dress or a jacket if you were a tailor, as a writing you should be able to analyze what’s not quite right about an article. Why does it sound a certain way, why is it not captivating your attention, or why is it?

As you finished reading a page or so of a book, an article or blog post, analyze why it was captivating to you or why it wasn’t.  Go back to the written piece and try to find out what was there or what wasn’t there.  May be you could go over it again with a check list such as this one below.

• Is the writer is using the second person (you) as he speaks to the reader?
• Does the writer laid the foundation of the story/article with an enticing introduction?
• Does the writer have included a dose of intrigue that makes the reader want to read more?
• Are the paragraph linked to one another in order for the story to have a natural flow?
• Is the writer using examples, either true or fictional, to help the reader understand a specific point?

Is the story easy to follow or is it very confusing? And if it is why is it confusing?

Those are questions that you can ask yourself as you read.  By asking yourself such questions you will be able to pin point why your reading is captivating you or why it’s not.

Once it’s your time to write, all you’ll have to do is making sure you can answer YES to such questions.  Use such questions as the measuring tape of what you’re reading.

The First Line is Your Most Important Line

Writer and best seller William Zinsser says that your most important line is your first line.  As bloggers trying to get people’s attention with our writing we are well aware of this, aren’t we? That’s why we try to create perfect, catchy headlines.

Zinsser agrees with that. He says that without a catchy and good first line there is no chance that the reader is going to read the second one.

So, keep this wise advice in mind, and do not think that you can start slow hoping that the read will get to your good part.  That reader may never will, because you’ve ran them away with your first sentence.

Then, Zinsser goes on to say that your next most important sentence is… yes, you’ve guess it, your second sentence.

The point he was making is that you need to work one sentence at the time, but you need to do your home work to make it the best possible.  This is what it takes to keep captivating the attention of the reader.

So, the next time you read an article, a blog post or a book, remember to read as a writer.  Analyse what you like and what you don’t like. Why is that so?

So, what are your thoughts on that? I’d love to hear them!

Last week I posted a SlideShare slide presentation to highlight the topic of my post, and one of my readers asked me how I made this slide show.

So, on this post I’m going to show you how it’s done with a step by step slide presentation and a video as well. But first…

What is SlideShare?

SlideShare is a presentation sharing site that was founded in October 2006, and which now receives 60 million visitors per month.  On November 2012 they hit a record of 159 pageviews for that month and their average is about 130 million monthly pageviews.  It’s one of the 200 websites most visited in the world.

Needless to say that being on SlideShare is not a waste of time. Since last week by doing absolutely nothing, but posting my one short slide presentation I’ve got 26 followers and 159 views. And again I’ve absolutely didn’t even try to do any kind of connections yet.

This tells me that by keeping on posting and actually getting involved with this thing tool, could bring me tons of positive results.

Interestingly, I was introduced to SlideShare over two years ago, but I after I posting a couple of slide presentations I kind of forgot all about it, and never used it again since last week.

Another excellent feature about SlideShare is that it ranks really well on search engines.

What can you Share on SlideShare?

You can upload PowerPoint documents, PDF documents, videos and webinars.  Once you’ve uploaded your document on SlideShare you’ll be able to share it anywhere like media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkeIn.  You can share you slide presentation on your blog like I’ve done right,  and any other Web 2.0 sites that you may be using.

In order to share it on your blog, all you have to do is copy and past the embedded HTML code just like for a video.

Why Using SlideShare?

SlideShare offers a quick and easy way to share quick tutorials and ideas that you put together, and it’s a great way to promote you and your online business.  There is no limit to the type of creative slide presentations you can share on SlideShare, and you have the potential to reach millions of people with it.

Want to see it as well? Then just watch the video!

How to Create a Slide Presentation on Slide Share

• Register on SlideShare.net (it’s free)
• Gather some picture of other type of background for your slides (or use PowerPoint tools)
• Create slides like you would for any other PowerPoint pretentation you might have done in the past
• When done, upload it to SlideShare

Slide share is addictive, and I love it. I have now tons of ideas that I want to put on SlideShare. So, be watching for it if  you’re curious.

If you enjoyed this or learned something, please, let me know in the comment area.

Are you striving to write superior content? Because there are so many blogs and articles online, and a lot of them of very good value, we should all strive to write better and better. We should all be working on the art writing superior content.

Yes, Writing is an art just like painting is an art, and just like not everyone can paint, not everyone can write.  But I can assure you that anyone taking painting classes can manage to be able to paint a decent picture, just like anyone learning how to write, can become a decent writer.

Are you striving for the ability to write superior quality content? Do you like to write? Are you willing to improve your writing skills?  If you are blogging on a weekly basis, you should!

Do you Like to Write?

Many people are saying that they don’t like to write or can’t write or can’t put their ideas together into written words. Granted, writing is not for everyone, and I don’t care how much you can and will improve at writing if you can’t get to like it you might never be able to be a great writer.

However, do you need to be a great writer to be able to write on your own blog? My answer is NO. If you needed to be a great writer to own a blog then lots of people would not own a blog at all.

This said, however, it doesn’t give you an excuse not to practice and try to improve your writing skills.

In my case, for example, I love to write.  I’d better be you might say, considering that I write for my three blogs each week, as a guest blogger, as well as for clients.

I really feel that I’m writing all the time, but one thing is sure, in each of those instances I try to write the best piece I can, and I try to raise my standards every time.  One thing that I’ve noticed is that if you don’t, your writing will not improve, and sometimes even regress instead of progress.

That’s why some of the clients that I’ve got have told me that the person who used to write for them was great at the beginning, but the quality of their work diminished over time.  Don’t ever fall into that trap.

You need to remember that just like an athlete would start losing his skills if he didn’t strive to improve his skills constantly,  your writing skills could diminish if  you didn’t strive to improve them as well.

As a writer, I commit to it, and decide that I am going to give it one hundred percent until I’m done.

What about you, how much are you willing to give to your written piece? Are you committed to learn and practice the art of writing?

Be Willing to Practice the Art of Writing

Even if you never become a great writer, you can still practice the art of writing. I am not a great painter, by any mean, but I do practice the art of painting.

What do I mean by this exactly? I mean that if I decide to paint I will put all my might into it, and try to do my best. Does this mean that I need to be a Monet or a Renoir to be motivated to create the best painting I can? No, most certainly not.

It is the same thing with writing. Do not hide behind the excuse that you are not a great writer to prevent yourself from writing.

As a matter of fact, I am here to tell you that writing is addictive.  The more you write, the better you’ll become, and the more you will want to write as well.

Do you still doubt that? Well, try it.  That’s the only way you’ll know for sure. That’s how you’ll learn to master the art of writing.

How to Develop the Art of Writing

1 – Read

You need to read as much as you can not only about your specific niche, but about other niches as well.

While your read materials from other people, try to notice how they write, how they structure sentences, what tone, style, words and form they’re using.

If you are not very good with punctuation get a grammar book and learn the basics of punctuation. Basic knowledge of punctuation is usually enough if you are a blogger, but no knowledge of punctuation at all will make your blog posts hard to read.

Punctuation is often neglected, but it’s very important and adds value in your writing. I will quit reading an article if punctuation is none existent or wrong.  

Always remember that reading will build the foundations of your writing skills. There is no substitute for this.

2 –  Practice

As William Zinsser mentioned in his famous book “On Writing Well”, practice will not necessarily make you a good writer, but it will certainly make you a better writer.  So whatever is  your level of writing at this point, practice will make you a better writer.

Even if you read materials until the cows come home you will still not be able to write until, well, you actually write.

Even if you’ve never written more than a post card until now, go ahead and start practicing your writing. Don’t think too much and don’t wait until you know exactly what you want to write about.  Just jump in and write.

Do not stop to look for typos or mistakes until you’ve written at least 250 to 300 words straight, because it would stop you in your tracks, and you will lose your thread of thoughts. Remember, practice makes perfect. The more you write the better you will become at the art of writing.

3 – Do this over and over

Just so you know, when you own a blog and need to write on a regular basis, reading and practicing will become your routine.

This is not something you do for month or a year. This is something you’ll be doing as long as you want to have an online presence.

You might not think so right now, but believe me, over time you will develop a true love for the art of writing.

Even if you never become a great writer, you can become a good writer. Even if you don’t really like to write right now, you could get to love it over time.

I’m closing in on my 7th year of writing online.  If I look at how I used to write it almost makes me want to cry.  No way! Did I wrote that?

On top of everything was the fact that English is my second language. I didn’t grow up speaking and writing English. Far from it. Yet, I was still able to improve my writing skills to the point that I can write for people who were born speaking and writing English.  So, if I could do it, what excuse do you have?

If I could do it, so could you!

Some people say that writing a press release is one of the most difficult things to write, because while it can be more promotional than a regular article or blog post, it shouldn’t be a blatant ad either.

A press release needs to be somewhere in between.

A press release has a more specific goal, so to speak, than a regular article, and if it’s not constructed correctly, your press release will not be noticed, read and acted upon.

In this post I wanted to help you create the perfect press release for your business or product so you can grab the reader’s attention, and eventually bring in more business because of it.

What are Press Releases?

A press release is a different type of article since it’s a written statement and an announcement at the same time.  You can use press releases to describe your services or business and give as many details as possible about who you are, what you offer, when you offer it, where you’re offering it, why you’re offering it, and how you offering it. This goes for online services as well, of course.

It’s vital for the success of your press release that such information appears within the first two paragraphs. Studies show that most people will read the first two paragraphs and then skip the middle and go to the end of your press release to find your links.

Two Main Factors why Press Releases are Disregarded

1. No eye catching headline
2. No eye catching opening

Have you ever sat in front of your TV with your remote control zapping channel after channel until you find that one image that will catch you eye, so you can stop zapping and watch already?

The exact same thing will happen with your press release.  You need to grab the press release zapper’s attention pretty fast with your headline, and the first couple sentences.

If it’s not there, your press release will be discarded.

Sad? Yes, but true.

Good bye your terrific press release, if you’ve not been able to catch the reader in the first two sentences.  Just keep this in mind.

Your Press Release Headline

Your headline should be eye catching, news worthy, and include the most important keywords of your message, but do not repeat your headline in the first sentence.

Make sure that your headline is short and to the point with upper case for each word.  A long headline with all lower case words, would be the anti-attention-grabbing type of headline you’d ever want to have.

Avoid this by all means.

When writing your headline, ask yourself these two key questions:

1. What is my key message?
2. Who is my target market?

Six Questions you Need to Answer in your Press Release

In a press release there are six basic questions that you need to answer for your audience. Remember that those questions should be answered in the first two paragraphs, while the following two or three paragraphs will be used to simply build on them for those who will read that far.

But before you even spread this vital information to the two first paragraphs, you actually need to answer such questions in the first couple lines and will see how below.

Those questions should be answered in this order (as much as possible).

1. Who are you?
2. What do you do?
3. When do you do it?
4. Where do you do it?
5. Why do you do it?
6. How do you do it?

Tell You Story in the 45-50 Opening Words

Unlike an article or a blog post, you do not want to keep the reader in suspense and make them guess what your press release is about.  This type of opening doesn’t work for press releases.

In a press release you need to be very shrewd to catch the busy eyes of your reader, and you need to grab their attention by giving them a mini story within the first 2 or 3 lines.  If  your first 2 or 3 lines are interesting enough you greatly improve your chances that they will read the rest.

Get into the habit of telling a story in 45 to 50 words and your press release will do well.

Here is an example:

Stress to  you and your pet can be reduced by 70% just by having the vet come to your home.  P-A-Y-D will come to you for your pet’s veterinary visits Monday through Saturday. Your veterinarian at your door step for a more pet friendly experience at about the same cost than regular vets.

In those two sentences I’ve introduced the who (P-A-Y-D),  the what (at home veterinary services), the when (Mon-Sat), the where (at your home), the why (less stress to your pet and to you, and the how (about same cost as regular vets).

That’s a lot of information for 50 words don’t you think?  About the size of tweet.  Not bad at all.

Now, with that attention grabbing opening where it tells it all, the interested person will want to know about this in more details. That’s when, and ONLY when the rest of your press release will actually be read.

How to Conclude your Press Release

Once you’ve created your perfect eye catching headline and perfect short 45-50 word story that are answering the vital press release questions of who, what, when, where, why and how, the rest is just building in more details around what you’ve already mentioned in these couple of attention-grabbing lines.

In the conclusion of your press release you should point to your website by including the whole URL with a call of action such as: Click Here to http://tomywebsite.com

It’s  up to you if you wish to include more information such as contact name, phone number, email, etc.

at the very end of your press release it’s common procedure to write the word “end” or include three ### (hash tags) to signal that your article is ending.

I hope this information was valuable to you if you are intending to write a press release in the near future.

I had scheduled a whole different post for today, but what Hubpages did to me this past week needed to be revealed to the world.

Ever heard the phrase if it can happen to me it can happen to you?

Late last year I had written a post about Squidoo versus Hubpages, and I was giving you advice about those two article directories based on my experience with them.

I was telling you how I got tired of Squidoo giving me a hard time with my articles on their site, and why I preferred to use Hubpages at the time.

Well, as you know, nothing stays the same in the online world, things change all the time whether you want it or not.

This past week Hubpages stabbed me in the back in a way that I wouldn’t have suspected a reputable article directory such Hubpages ever do .  But they did!

Today, to inform you about what happened to me, so you could be on your toes if you have content with them.

How it All Started

I had a total of 12 articles (called hubs) under my real name on Hubpages, and the problem started when I decided to write an article about coaching this past week, but first less rewind a little and start this sad story earlier on, so you would better understand the whole thing.

Few months ago, I wrote an article about the Law of Attraction.  A complete out of my head original article that they decided was a duplicate.  It wasn’t.

Since I know how hard it is to make those guys understand that something can’t be a duplicate since you know that you’ve written this out of thin air from your own brain,  I thought I’d rather take the darn article back and put something else totally different in its place.

So, this past week, I wrote an article about coaching and place it in the spot of the article that they refused to publish under false accusation to start with.

I put a fresh article in that spot, because you can’t delete a hub on Hubpages, so your best bet is to replace any article you can’t publish by another.

That’s what I did this past week.

So, now I’ve fixed the problem (I’m thinking), and I’m all happy and excited waiting for my new article to be approved.

However, day after day, my poor article is still not approved and I’m getting notice after notice in my inbox about other people’s hubs being approved every day.  What do those articles have that mine doesn’t? Nothing!

So, I got a bit impatient and sent them an email.  I admit I was a little rough in my email which basically said, OK, I didn’t even expected you’d noticed that I placed a completely new article in the spot of the one that you’ve decided was a duplicate, but at this point I just want to know if you’re going to post that article or not?

I clicked sent and forgot about it all for a couple of days until this past Thursday where I decided to Google the phrase “Sylviane Nuccio Hubpages” which would lead me directly to my account without login in and see if my last article was there.

This is how I discovered that they had taken down ALL my hubs (articles). They were not deleted, but they were all disabled. EVERY SINGLE ONE!

Bye bye my how-to’s about freelance writing. Bye bye my article about the danger of bullying, bye bye my cat story (a memorial to my Tony) which had quite a few comments, and so on.

Every single hub had been disabled by Hubpages. I assume by someone who didn’t like my email or maybe who was on her PMS.

I was totally shocked as I had never even thought that an article directory could have a grudge against one single customer.  Because, yes, by the way, anyone posting articles on their site is a customer to them, and should be treated as such.  They make money thanks to us. That’s why Hubpages actually advertise on places like Problogger to get people to write for them.

Could I Ever Trust Hubpages Again?

Frankly, I was totally shocked by their behavior and couldn’t believe it!  Since I wasn’t home when I saw that, I couldn’t wait to get home to remove all my hubs from there. Which I did.

As I mentioned above, you can’t deleted a hub entirely on Hubpages, but you can delete each module one by one, and in place of the title I wrote a big fat “DELETED”.

Today if you’d looked at my account, it’s as if I had never posted a single word there yet.  So, on top of entertaining a grudge, looks like Hubpages is also a liar in a way, because, I sure had articles there that were as good as anyone else’s featured there, anyway.

When I was taking off all my hubs I could see a warning highlighted in yellow that said “Warning, this hub might be deleted for suspicious links”.  Wow, suspicious links? Are you kidding me? The darn hubs linked only to my blogs and YouTube.  What suspicious links? Looks like someone has some serious issues over at Hubpages!

Sad, to say, but you bet I will have some serious trust issue with Hubpages from now on.  Looks like they stab you in the back and they lie to cover their tracks.

Why you Need to Beware of Hubpages as well as Other Directories

I know I’ve said that in the past, but this is the perfect time to remind you guys who might trust article directories too much.

Once you post an article on their site, it doesn’t really belong to you anymore, and they control if and when they are going to publish it or taking it off the web.

If they decide that your article is a duplicate, then it is. If they want to be picky and drive you crazy with an article, they can.  If they decide that your links are suspicious (even if they’re not), they are. If they want to get back at you because they didn’t like the tone of your email, they can.  Don’t ever forget that!

Three Important Lessons to Learn From what Happened to me with Hubpges

Sorry if this post sounds like a big rant, but this is a free country and right now I find Hubpages pretty petty, and I had to tell what they did to me!

Here are three lessons I’ve learned the hard way with Hubpages, and I hope you can learn them too in a much softer way then I did.

Lesson #1 – If they decide that your content is a duplicate, there’s not much you can do to change their mind.  They will always be right and you will always be wrong.  Do not ever replace an article that they flagged.  Just write another brand new article.

Lesson #2 – If you publish an article for a directory, they control the show.  You have no say.  This goes not only for Hubpages, but all directories.

Lesson #3 – They can shut down your account for no reason at all. Just because they want to.  Sad, yes, but so very true.   So, make sure you always save all the content that you publish on directories.

What’s the Positive Side of all this?

As a coach I am trained to see the positive side of anything and everything. As a matter of fact, if I didn’t have such training I would have probably been very upset this past Thursday. However, while I was shocked I certainly didn’t let that upset me.

I made sure I took out all my content, and saved it before it all disappeared completely, and I will most definitely re-purpose it somehow.  As a matter of fact, I already have some ideas.

In the end I’m not the loser, Hubpages is. They will be missing on quality original content that they are begging for on their advertisements.  If they don’t watch their act, they may be losing out  in the end, no matter how big they think they are. They need people to write for them!

So, that’s all for today’s big rant, but it needed to be said. This is the beauty of blogging.  I am the writer, the editor and the publisher and I say what I want to say!

Now, it’s you’re turn to say what you have to say about this.  We’re listening…

Last year I had written a post about blog comment blocking issues after I had read a shocking article from a blogger who was happy to tell that he had blocked comments on his blog.

Now, I feel that I have to write about this subject again as I was shocked to hear that one of my blogging friends (this time) closed comments on his blog.  According to what he read, Google is penalizing sties because of the bad links from people leaving comments, and even guest posts.

Then, he added that for him comments were a complete waste of time, and that most comments were just reciprocating comments from people’s blogs which he commented on.  He added that since he is a one man show he didn’t really cared about comments, and was actually very happy without them.

Hum, I’m not sure I agree with that at all, but, for the sake of this post I wanted to analyze those statements and discuss them with you. Then, you can leave me a comment, and let me know what YOU think about this.

Is Google Penalizing Sites for Bad Link on Comments?

Yes, Google can penalize you for bad links that may come with your comments to your blog. However, there is a very easy cure to this, especially if you are using the best commenting platform there is, called CommentLuv (my affiliate link) which most of my readers here are already using.

With CommentLuv you can monitor each comment one on one. You can simply spam and trash the comment or you can get rid of the link on any given comment if you don’t trust it or don’t want it. You can also remove the dofollow as well. If I see someone who has a link from a sales page or “commercial” site, I usually simple remove CommentLuv link, and boom, their link is gone.

If I see that they are not genuine comments I simply remove the whole thing all together.

Would few annoying comments be worth shutting off all my wonderful readers who are leaving fantastic comments on a weekly basis? NO! Heck NO!

Is Google Not Liking Blog Comments at All?

As soon as I’ve got that email from this blogger friend I shared his thoughts (without mentioning his name) with other friends that happen to belong to my mastermind group, and here I am going to share what they each said. (Thanks to all of you I had my post pretty much written this week).

So here is the reaction of some great bloggers and social marketers.

As you can see, those ladies agree with what I was saying about just removing links and comments you don’t want, while not getting rid of all comments together.  That would be such a huge mistake.

As a matter of fact, I read myself that Googlebot don’t only value long articles, but shorter valuable articles as well, and even tweets that seem to generate lots of feedback and comments.

All in all, it seems that Google actually favors articles that encourage a discussion. In the case of a blog such discussion would be called “comments”.

Your Blog is your Own Personal Social Media Site

Is blogging a one man show? Why are you online guys? If you want to write for yourself, then you might not need to have a blog to start with, you could just have an online journal of some sort.  Now if you want to have a blog and even do business from it, but cut off the conversation from the people that help you get business, I want you to explain this to me because I don’t get it.

Why are you on social media sites?  Isn’t it to connect with people and ultimately promote your business?  Your blog is your NUMBER ONE social media site.  Frankly, I’d rather have a discussion on my blog than on any other social media site.  Would you rather give more traffic and proof of traffic to Facebook, or Twitter than your own blog?  If your answer is yes, then, please, by all mean tell us why down below in the comment area.

Don’t Need Comments for Traffic?

My blogging friend who blocked his comments told me that only 1% of his traffic left comments on his blog.  If I look at my traffic I can come up with the same type of statistics.  For example, almost none of the people on my list leave comments on my blog and I see that many do go read my posts, though.  However, that doesn’t mean that I should shut my comments for everyone.

The reason why people on my list don’t comment is that they are mostly affiliate marketers selling products. Their only objective when coming to my blog is learning about writing and marketing while not necessarily wanting people know that “they” are.  It doesn’t mean that they couldn’t comment, but I know such breed of marketers aren’t much of blog commenters. That’s just the way it is.

Then, there are people who might be interested in my content, but who don’t have a blog or any type of online presence, yet, and therefore, won’t be interested in leaving a comment, because they might not even know how.

Then again, there might be people looking for writing services or coaching services and in that case, commenting on my blogs might not be what they want to do either.

However, this is the very reason that I am going to cherish even more the 1% commenters that are in fact not only going to come to my blog, but also show me that they did.

Bottom line, I think that even though there might be some downside to comments, and there’s some downside in just about everything, comments are well worth having on one’s blog.

So, over to you now.  What are your thought on that?

Last week I gave you basic tips about writing your first book and how to be consistent until you complete it.

As promised, in this week post I am going to discuss publishing and promoting your book once you’ve completed your work.

As you know, a book is not only about the writing and editing part; it’s actually only the beginning.

Now you have to publish your work so it can travel and reach potential interested people all over the world.

To me, writing the book is the easiest part.  Once your book has been completed, edited, and proofread, you’ve got to choose how you are going to publish and promote it.

As I was mentioning in the previous post, it used to be a time when you didn’t have much choice to go about publishing a book. Today, however, self publishing has made it much easier for anyone who wants to publish a book.

Nonetheless, self publishing will not fix all your problems, so to speak. There are still some things you need to know and be aware of.  Let see what those are…

Publishing Your Book

There are four different options to publish a book today.  Traditional publishing;  digital publishing; self-publishing; and print-on-demand.

While traditional publishing can cost you a lot of money, and might not be the best route to take for book publishing nowadays, the other 3 are low cost, rather easy and fast.

Self publishing means just that. You are publishing your book yourself rather than having a publisher doing the work for you.  This goes from cover design, page design, and distribution.

While I wouldn’t trust all self publishing services out there, as some have been reported to be total rip offs, others such as Lulu, Smashwords, and CreateSpace, are reliable.

Lulu

Lulu is an online publishing and marketing service that allows you to create paper back, hard cover or eBooks, and help you sell your book through their own Lulu market place, Amazon and even retail stores.

Lulu has a free do-it-yourself service as well as various paid services to help you publish your book. You can also ask for a free consultation to discuss what your wants and needs are with and expert that will advise you.

Lulu can also distribute your book all over the world in print or eBook retail channels.

Smashwords

Smashwords is an eBook distributor where you can format your manuscripts and distribute your eBook to iBookstores in 50 countries around the world.

Your eBook will be distributed throughout various iBookstotres such as Apple iPad iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kodo and more.  You can also sell your eBook on their site.

CreateSpace

CreateSpace is an Amazon company. It’s very similar to Lulu.  CreateSpace also has a free and a paid service.

The free service allows you to download your book and use the tools to create the design you want. With the paid service you can choose a tailored publishing method and design that fits you and your budget best.

They take care of your book manufacturing and shipping with an on demand inventory.

Kindle

You can publish a book in Kindle format on Amazon using the free service Kindle Direct Publishing.

You can create your fee author page, and start selling your book immediately all over the world while keeping 70% of the royalty.

Kindle is probably the best way to sell and promote a book or eBook today.

Don’t Print Too Many Books

Unless you print your book on demand for special occasions, there is no need to have printed books anymore.

For example, if you wanted to print few copies of your book for a book signing, make sure that you’ve got the OK first.

The reason I’m saying this is because book stores are rather reluctant to have book signing for self publishing authors.  Sadly, book stores would trust you more if you’d published your book with publishing companies such as Penguin or Random House, than if you are a self publishing author.

You might also want to print some of your books to give them away to “influential” people that could help spread out the word for you, but my advice is that you do not give a single copy to someone that has not shown a real interest in your work, or your book will be collecting dust somewhere, and it will be a waste of your time and money.

Promoting your Book

Getting the right promotion for your book is less about having a big budget and more about having a great communication method.

For example, if you write a book before building any type of relationships with your audience, your book won’t go anywhere. I can promise you that because I have seen this happened before my very eyes.

Whether you create a book or any other product, having an audience and followers will help you sell your book tremendously.

The other thing that you need to keep in mind is to target the right market for your book.  Even a heavy promotion to the wrong market won’t do you any good, while a simple promotion to the right market could generate leads like a wild fire.

Avenues to Promote your Book

Social Media

Of course, if you have a book ready to sell, I hope that you also have an account on the main social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (at the very least), and that you’ve been building relationships with like-minded people prior to the publishing of your book.

The reason why I’m saying that is that I know someone who had not done that and still has not spent the time creating any type of relationships on social media sites, or anywhere else online for that matter.

The result of this? The book completely stalled.

This a huge mistake, and you would struggle big time selling your book, if you left the online relationship building out to the equation.

Create a Blog

I’m sorry to say it like this, but if you are trying to sell a book, and don’t have a blog, God help you!

If you have a product such as a book you need to have a blog where you can talk about the topic of your book, about you, about your future upcoming works, and anything that will help your future buyers to get to know you, and what you do.

You may have the best book in the world, but if  you don’t have a way to talk about it far and wide who’s going to know about it?

Other Avenues to Promote your Book

Here are other avenues that you should tap into to spread the word about your book.

• Press releases,
• Email marketing campaigns
• Article campaigns,
• Guest blogging
• Book reviews
• Videos
• Podcasts

Final Promotion Tips

Remember that your book like any other product that you might have created is not about you, the author; it’s about what the book can bring to the readers.

I read a report, recently, about publishing that said that the reason why many press releases are not bringing sales is because it’s written in a way that talks about the book, but not about the benefits of the book.

I think that this is a really important detail that should be remembered by anyone trying to sale a book.  No matter what type of book that may be. Write your press releases, reviews, emails and other articles about the benefits of your book, not just about your book.

The customer is king, because he’s the one who buys. And the customer will buy only if there is something for them. That’s as simple as that.

I hope that this post could be of some help to you if you are thinking about writing and publishing a book or eBook.

Please, leave your thoughts in the comment section below!

Have you ever thought about writing a book?

It used to be a time when writing and publishing a book wasn’t as easy as it is now.  Nowadays, however, if you want to write a book it’s a pretty easy thing to do with very little money, and a lot of tools that can help you to make your book idea a reality.

This post is part one of how to write your first book.  Next week, we will discuss the publishing and promotion part of your book.

Do you Want to Write a Book?

I know about some people who are reading this blog on a weekly basis that have already written and published a book, on Kindle, hard copy, or in the form of an eBook, and I know some who are in the process of writing a book right now.

However, they are other folks reading this blog that would like to write a book, but don’t know exactly where to start and how to go about it.  If this is your case, then this post is especially for you.

Decide What your Book will be About

Writing a book is a different endeavor than writing an article or a blog post.  You may start writing an article while not being sure where you are going with it at first, while finding your way as you go along.  I’ve done that myself many times before and still do it on a regular basis.

When writing a book, however, I strongly suggest that you KNOW what your book is going to be about, and what type of market you are going to target with it.

There is no way that you would be able to sustain a 100+ page book (or even less) if you didn’t know in advance where you were going with it. If you start writing without a specific idea in mind one or all of the following situations would happen.

1. Your book would probably go all over the place and nowhere at the same time.
2. You would probably not be able to keep on writing for long.
3. You would have a very hard time to be consistent with with your story.

In order for your story to make sense and have a solid structure you need to have a precise idea in mind for your book.  This will be very useful for your readers and help you to be consistent with your writing.  In other words, it will be your ultimate motivator to write, and define the outcome of your book.

Create Your Chapters the Outline of your Book

When you write a simple article, it’s not always necessary for you to have all your subtitles ready, even thought it might be helpful.  When you’re writing a book, however, it’s a MUST.  It’s not important if you change the title or subtitles as your book advances, but it’s very important that you define your chapters and outline of your book.

This will be the structure of your book on which you will be constructing the story (either fiction or non-fiction).

Think of a building.  It would be impossible for the builders to build a building without a blue print and a structure.  If they did, the building wouldn’t be able to stand; would it?  It’s the same thing with your book.

No structure. No story. No book.  It’s as simple as that.

This is what you need to have before you start writing:

1. A theme.
2. A title (that can be eventual changed).
3. Chapters with titles (that can be changed).
4. Eventual subtitles for each chapter.

This is the strong structure of you book, so your book will stand.  This is what will help you write a book that makes sense, whether you’re writing a fiction or non-fiction story.

Schedule your Writing

Do you need to schedule your writing? The answer is a reasoning YES!

It’s absolutely necessary that you schedule your writing, because if you don’t I can promise you that you won’t be writing at all after a week.

Don’t get me wrong, writing a book is not what I would call a “hard thing to do”, but it does take commitment on the part of the writer.

No commitment. No writing. No Book.

Have a daily appointment with your book.  Write it down on your schedule and don’t budge from it, unless it’s an extreme emergency.

Here are a few pointers for you to be consistent with your writing schedule.

1. Write every single day.
2. Don’t make any other appointment during your writing appointment.
3. Choose a quiet place.
4. Choose a quiet time of the day.
5. Ask people in your household not to bother you during your writing appointment.
6. Don’t do any other task while you’re writing.
7. Take your writing time very seriously.

Edit Several Times Over and Over

Now, trust me, editing a 50,000 to 80,000 word book is not like editing a 1,000 word article.

Not only you are going to have to edit your book a handful of times yourself, but once you’re done with your own editing, I suggest that you give your book to at least another two pair of eyes.  The more people you will have to help you edit your book the more mistakes, typos, and errors will find and eliminate.

I know personally a couple of published authors who have found such errors over and over as they were editing their books.  Don’t be discouraged by this fact, however, as it’s just normal and part of a book process.

Multiple editing by multiple people will help you go through such process without too much frustrations or discouragement.

Decide how you Want to Publish your Book

There used to be a time when there was one and only one way to publish a book, and that wasn’t easy to do to say the least.  You had to send your book to editors and they had to agree to read your book and agree to publish it.  Then you had to have enough money to pay for the publishing process.

Today, however, the internet has made it so easy and cheap to publish a book that it can only motivate you to write and don’t even worry about the publishing part.

There are many incredibly good, reliable and cheap services that will help you publish your book in the form of a Kindle, eBook and hard copy all at the same time.  The choice is yours.  It’s not about if you can publish a book anymore, but who and what you are going to choose for the process.

To put it simply, it’s very easy to publish a book these days.

Next week we are going to discuss the process of publishing a book and the promotion techniques that are available to you.

So, do you want to write your first book? If yes, let us know.  If not, you can still give us your feedback and ideas down below in the comment area.