Boom! You just published your latest masterpiece. It took you a couple hours to do so and you?re quite proud of it.

So are two million other bloggers. According to MarketingProfs, that?s the number of blog posts published every single day.

Will your post stand the test of time or be forgotten in a matter of days?

Back in 2005, when blogging was brand new, you could just publish crappy articles on a consistent basis and get a lot of traffic.

Today, if you want to get noticed, you need to create remarkable content. Quality beats quantity on every level.

It?s better to create ONE remarkable piece in a month than to publish numerous boring articles every week. It is true in the short term and in the long term.

In this article, I will show you the kind of results you can get by publishing top-notch content. Then, I?ll share with you 7 strategies that will allow you to get similar results. You will learn:

• How to create content that keeps driving traffic and subscribers MONTHS after publication.
• How to create content that helps you build authority and be recognized as THE expert in your field.
• How to get more guest blogging invitations, more clients and more sales thanks to your blog posts.

Sound good? I even created a handy table of content to help you navigate:

1. What is Remarkable Content?
2. Who Are You Writing For and What Problem Are You Solving For Them?
3. Tell Stories, Give Examples, and Show Instead of Telling.
4. Should You Write Long or Short Articles?
5. Make Your Article Readable, Structured, and Easily Skimmable
6. Write a Compelling CTA
7. Go the Extra Mile
8. Your Next Step

And at the end of the article, you can download a cheat sheet for creating remarkable content that summarizes everything you will learn today.

Ready? Let?s dive in.

1. What is Remarkable Content?

When Tim Soulo looked at his data on guest blogging, he realized he was averaging only 50 visitors per guest post. Naturally, he concluded guest blogging was not a good strategy for getting traffic.

A similar survey by Mirasee revealed that 46% of their audience was getting less than 25 subscribers per guest post.

But is this always true? Look at a few?examples of remarkable content and the results obtained by their authors.

Alp Turan’s How Complete Newbies Can Land Killer Guest Posts: The Ultimate Guide

It?s hard for me to talk about remarkable content without mentioning Alp?s post.

His post is a point of reference in the world of guest blogging. He didn?t just give a few tips here and there to land guest post opportunities. No, he gave you everything you need to know about guest blogging ? everything from building a relationships with bloggers to crafting the best pitch ever.

It is 20,000-word long and is an extreme example of remarkable content. The good thing is that it got him extreme results as well:

• 300+ subscribers (and counting).
• A close relationship with the host site’s owner, Sean Ogle (Alp can reach out to him at any time if he needs help)
• 2 other guest blogging invitations
• 1 joint venture offer
• New 4-figure client

You could never get those results with most of the content you find on the internet. Indeed, it took him dozens of hours to get it done, but the results made it worth it.

Danny Margulies’ How to Become a Copywriter Quickly Using My “Crystal Ball Technique”

This post is SO good that it still gets comments every month?even though it was published over a year ago.

Look at the numbers:

• 200+ comments
• 700+ social media shares
• Probably hundreds of new subscribers

But that is only half of the story.

For more than a year, Danny had only two posts on his blog. Was it because he was too lazy to publish new blog posts?

No, it was because he had published remarkable content and there was no need to publish anything else. The two articles he had on his website were enough to get traffic, subscribers, and establish his authority as an expert in his field.

He shared his story in How I built a 6-figure online business in 12 months. With only two articles on his website, he was able to make 6 figures over a year.

So-called experts often recommend publishing every week?(or even every day) as the key to building your blog. It isn?t true. These experts don?t know the power of remarkable content.

Charles Bordet’s How to Write 1,000 Words Every Day and Massively Create Remarkable Content

This post has been the turning point of my business.

Before publishing it, I was still a struggling blogger with no revenue and a lot of doubts on whether I would be successful one day or not.

Two months after publishing it, with 300 new subscribers, I was selling my first product and made my first 15 sales. I was now in business.

It didn?t stop here, though. Even today, I still reap the benefits of this post without doing anything. Without any promotion, I got 17 new opt-ins in the last 90 days:

Now, it?s true that 17 subscribers are not a lot, considering I got hundreds after the publication of the article.

Yet, when I compare this with the standard content I published in the past that got me less than 10 subscribers (and I?m sure this happened to you as well), I?m pretty happy with this free bonus.

Now that you have an idea of what remarkable content is and the kind of results you can get out of it, let?s talk about how to create it.

The first step is to know your audience like the back of your hand.

2. Who Are You Writing For and What Problem Are You Solving For Them?

I keep seeing time and time again articles about fitness, productivity, social skills, etc. that try to appeal to everyone. And, by doing so, they appeal to no one.

Why You Must Pick a Specific Audience

Let?s start with an example in the productivity industry. I know this industry well, because that?s where I started my website. And like so many others, I made the mistake of trying to appeal to everyone.

For example, you may?try to help people be more productive in their everyday lives by being more efficient ? thereby completing their tasks faster ? so they can enjoy more free time.

It might sound good in theory, but who is your target reader? “Everyone?”

The examples, stories, and solutions that you will give should be completely different depending on who you are trying to help.

Think of how the challenges are different for a 9-to-5 employee, a stay-at-home mom who wants to get freelancing clients, a solo entrepreneur, a student, and so on.

By picking a specific audience and knowing them well, you will be able to have a lot more impact than you would targeting everyone.

For example, when I switched from helping people be?more productive to helping bloggers create more content on a regular basis, my business completely changed. People started to listen to what I was saying and they also started to buy what I was selling.

Instead of helping “everyone”, I was helping a specific audience (?bloggers who struggle to create content consistently?) achieve a specific result (?write 1,000 words a day, consistently, to create a ton of content”) with productivity tools and strategies.

The examples and stories I used directly targeted the specific desires of my audience.

So what is the difference between a detailed, specific audience and a broad audience?

To make sure your writing will be compelling, you need these three things:

• A detailed description of the audience you?re trying to help

• A list of burning pains this audience has

• A list of burning desires this audience has

For example, let?s say you are in the fitness industry. Helping a young woman in her twenties and?helping a busy executive in his fifties are?completely different ? even though the basics of nutrition or exercising you will teach them are similar.

In short, your?language and your marketing strategy will be completely different.

To the young woman, you will tell her about looking sexy, about having a flat stomach, etc. To the busy executive, you will focus your message on?exercising with limited time, about losing the pounds he accumulated through the years, and so on.

Instead of just simply writing about fitness, how to eat better, or exercise more; you will start writing about how your specific audience can achieve a burning desire and solve a burning pain. It?s not about you and your knowledge in fitness ? it?s about them, achieving their desires, and solving their problems.

If you can write about what people want, they won?t stop reading.

Now let?s talk about the specifics: How to define your audience and how to find out about their pains and desires.

How to Define Your Audience

The best way to define your audience is to create an Ideal Client Profile (ICP). This is the story and description of your ideal client. He may only exist in your mind, but he?will give you a specific picture of the type of person you?re writing for.

For example (staying in the fitness industry), let?s say I?m targeting busy executives who are in their fifties and want to lose weight. I will try to create a picture of my ideal client:

He is John, he?s 54, works in a big company, and has had a lot of success in his career. Now he?s a top executive and has a lot of responsibilities. Of course, as a result, he works a lot and has limited time with his family and to take care of himself.

He always eats lunch in front of?his computer and often eats junk food when he?s traveling. When he was younger, he played a lot of soccer, which made him fit, but since his thirties he?s been exercising less and less. And while he?s been trying to jog from time to time, he can?t stick to it.

See how accurate I try to be? And this is just the beginning of the story.

The more specific you are, the better. Don?t worry about being too specific, it?s almost impossible.

There are different factors to define your ideal client that will depend on your industry. For example:

• Demographics: Age, gender, location, marital status, children or not, social status, etc.
• Their activity: Are they working? In a full-time job? Entrepreneurs? Are they staying at home?
• A typical day: What does a typical day look like for them? How are they spending their time? What do they do on a Saturday afternoon?

These are only suggestions.

You shouldn?t try to guess anything. While I made up the story above, you should directly talk with your audience to know them better.

That?s why it?s so important to communicate with your subscribers and people potentially in your audience on Facebook groups, Reddit, in your friends? circles, etc.

The next step is to ask them for their pains and desires.

How to Know Their Pains and Desires

You need to know exactly what they want to achieve (what I call desires) and what prevents them from achieving it (what I call pains).

If you can solve a deep burning problem they think about every day, they will read your article no matter what.

Think about someone who has back pain. Every morning when they get up, their back hurts. They are obsessed with it, so every day they look for solutions on the internet until one day they stumble upon your blog ? specifically, your comprehensive guide on how to reduce back pain.

At that point, you can make grammar mistakes and write like a 6th grader, but it won?t matter because you will be solving their deep burning pain.

That?s why creating remarkable content is not about being able to craft beautiful sentences or being a master at grammar. You need to be good enough at this, of course (you don’t want to annoy your readers), but really it shouldn?t be a priority. No, your priority should be helping your readers with their pains and desires.

The best way to know the pains and desires of your audience is to ask your subscribers in the first email they receive from you. Ask this question:

What is your biggest challenge when it comes to?X?

Replace ?X? with your industry (for example: losing weight, getting more subscribers, writing, etc.)

Then keep the conversation going. Try to go deep in what they want, why they want it, how it impacts their lives, and what it would mean to them if you could solve their problems. You want to picture their lives as accurately as possible.

If you can, jump on a call with them, as you will be able to go much deeper than by emails. Make it about helping them, and as you help them, keep asking questions to know them better.

Once you know who they are, what they want, and what they?re struggling with, you can write a specific blog post that will solve a specific problem they have.

What Problem Are You Solving For Them?

Every article you write should solve a specific problem and let the reader go away with a clear solution.

Before showing you what to do, let?s talk about what everyone else is doing.

Most articles won?t give you any solution for your problems. Here are three types of common articles on the internet:

Inspirational Articles

They tell a story and then leave you with nothing to actually change your life. But, you do get a short burst of inspiration.

Feel-Good Articles

They make you feel good. They have headlines like??18 Reasons why X is important.?Since half the population is doing X,?these articles work as a form of affirmation.

(The other half of the population feels guilty because they aren’t doing X. Think they should do something about it, but don?t know what to do.)

Superficial Articles

Finally, a lot of articles are actually trying to solve many problems at the same time, but on a superficial level. They are often list articles, and a typical headline would be ?10 Habits That Will do X?.

Then, you get a short article with just a few lines per habit and it leaves you overwhelmed because you don?t know where to start. Additionally, it doesn?t guide you in how to achieve each point ? it?s far too superficial.

Some of these articles can be useful sometimes, don?t get me wrong. Not everybody wants to read a big, long, comprehensive guide like this one. But they are NOT remarkable and will soon be forgotten.

On the other hand, when you write something useful for your readers, focusing on one specific problem, giving them one specific solution and a clear action plan, they will come back to the article time and time again until it?s solved.

For example, in this article, I’m helping you create remarkable content because you want to write compelling articles that people will keep reading until the end.

My hope is that every time you want to write a new blog post, you come back to refer to this article to make sure you?ve done everything right.

The best way to solve a specific problem is to write a How-To post.

Basically, the title will be something like ?How to Solve This Problem? or ?How to Achieve This Desire?. The How-To part can sometimes be changed for a number if the solution is broken down into several steps.

For this article, I could have called it ?How to Write Remarkable Content Easily?, but I chose to start with a number because list articles tend to perform better and because the post fit well with this title since I give you several steps on the way to create remarkable content.

Neil Patel is the king of creating remarkable content, and in each of his articles, he will either solve a specific problem or help you achieve a specific desire.

Look at some of his recent?articles:

There are many ?How To? articles, and the others could easily?be replaced by a How-To headline.

(The only exception is the article called ?I Need Your Help??, which is a short-term oriented post to promote his book. In this case, he has no need to create something remarkable that people will keep reading months later.)

Now, how to find what problems your audience has?

Again: Communicate directly with your readers:

• Add an email in your welcome series to ask what they?re struggling with
• Send an email to your email list to ask what they want you to write for them
• Find Facebook Groups, subreddit, Quora topics, etc., to know what people are struggling with

Don?t try to guess. People will tell you directly what they need if you ask them, and that?s the only way you can create content that is specifically tailored to their needs.

3. Tell Stories, Give Examples, and Show Instead of Telling

Writing an article is not about providing information. It?s about making a transformation.

Michael Ellsberg put it beautifully in his talk:?Your Competitive Advantage is Not Information, It?s Transformation.

In this talk, he explains how?being an information provider (what a lot of bloggers think they are) is a losing strategy. Nowadays, information is cheap and abundant. You can find everything you need thanks to Google.

However, you?re not just here to provide the right information to your readers ? you?re here to help them change their lives and solve their problems. Your goal is not just to give them the information that will solve their problems, but to make it actually happen.

That?s what Michael Ellsberg call “Transformation.” You provide a transformation to your readers, and that?s where your competitive advantage is.

That is also the reason why you can build a successful fitness blog despite the existence of so many similar blogs in the blogosphere. You may provide the same information, but the way you provide it will make different people take action.

For example, I am a non-English native speaker and I help bloggers to write good content on a regular basis. Other non-English native speakers can more easily relate to my situation and be inspired by the journey I made from not being able to speak English to where I am today.

On the other hand, a?native-English?guy from the United States who does the same thing will attract a different kind of audience that will (most likely) relate to him more than?me.

We are changing the lives of our readers with our stories ? not just by feeding them with information.

So how do you do that exactly? How do you provide a transformation and not just information?

To create a transformation and not just be an information-provider, you need to tell stories, give examples, and add pictures and explanations.

My first blog posts were terrible and huge failures. I thought people only had to have the right information and that I could give it to them.

So I made my first posts about giving as much information as possible. I was giving strategies, tools, techniques, everything I knew that would solve their problems.

But it didn?t work. Those articles were failures.

Then, I changed my approach to writing and wrote How to Find 10 Hours per Week to Work on Your Side Business. This was my first really successful article and it is completely different than what I used to write before.

It is filled with personal stories, with me talking about myself, about my life, my experiences, putting pictures of my life, and eventually talking about one of the most common topic in the world of productivity: the morning routine.

But because 90% of the article was stories/examples/pictures, people loved it. I thought it was just ?me, me, me? and that it would be boring to people, but it was exactly the opposite. People could relate to my situation, imagine themselves in my shoes, and then they felt compelled to take action at the end of the article.

There are four ways you can create a transformation: Stories, examples, pictures, and explanations.

Stories

A story is what I just did in the previous paragraphs. I told you about my experience with my first articles, how they were failures, and what I changed to write my first successful post.

A basic story is:

• I was failing at X
• Then I did A, B, and C
• Finally, I am successful at X

This is the most basic story, but it will work. For a more comprehensive analysis of what makes a story irresistible, I recommend this guide from Alaura Weaver: “Storyhacking: Cracking the code behind the irresistible selling power of stories.”

Examples

I first read about how to use examples from Bryan Harris in his post ?Expanded Guest Post: How to 100x the effectiveness of your next guest post?.

He says that to write a good article, you simply need to use the phrase ?For example?.

Every time you make a point, affirm something, or talk about something; start things off with these two little words:?”For example.”?This will allow you to go deeper, give more details, and illustrate your writing with something concrete with which your readers can associate.

Here is an exercise for you: Type ?Ctrl + F? on your keyboard and search for the phrase ?For example? in this article. You will find it?numerous?times, simply because I?m constantly trying to give more examples to illustrate what I write.

Pictures

Pictures are powerful examples. You?ve heard the saying: ?A picture is worth a 1,000 words?.

I already told you to try to put examples every time you talk about something. Well, also ask yourself if you can add a picture of it. Sometimes it simply won?t be relevant. Other times, it will make your article a lot more valuable.

When you explain how to use a tool, nothing beats a screenshot with some annotations. You can easily add annotations on a picture with Skitch.

I like to use Gyazo. It’s a?tool to take screenshots, upload them at light speed, and then annotate them.

Explanations

Sometimes you?re just not inspired to find a good story. You don?t have any good example in mind and pictures are not relevant to what you want to say.

In this case, you need to explain your point in plain English. This is the least preferable option since it doesn?t really help your reader to visualize what you mean, and it?s easy to ramble?when explaining.

But you?ll notice that sometimes you don?t have a choice, in particular when you get into technical explanations of processes or tactics.

So, there you have it: Four ways to expand on the points you make in your articles. They?re not necessarily exclusive; you can give explanations, and illustrate them with a picture, then add an example, to finally end with a quick story.

You can mix them as much as you want. And I actually recommend that in the first place you write as much as possible, put as many examples/stories/etc. as possible. And later, when you?ll edit your article, you will get rid of the unnecessary components.

Thinking with the ?information/explanation? framework will not only make the writing much easier for you, but also make the life of your reader much easier.

If you?re a blogger, you know that writing is hard. It?s hard for everyone, even for experienced writers. However, using the framework I just showed will make the process?easier. Look at what my outline looked like for this section:

It reads like this: First I make a point. This is just one or two sentences about what I want to say.

Then I put bullet points and fill them with all the stories, examples, pictures, and explanations I can think of.

It takes a little bit of time to write this outline, but it makes you gain a TON of time down the line. Think about how easy it was for me to write my first draft. All I needed to do was copy/paste the sentences in bold, and then expand on the examples.

It also gives you an overall structure of your section. By having such a high-level vision, it helps you decide whether the links between your points make sense or not.

Usually, you start with the main point of the section, and then you try to anticipate the questions your readers might have. Simply ask questions such as ?Why??, ?How?? and ?What if ??? and you?ll get a comprehensive article.

Using this framework, your section will be easily written, well structured, and enriched with a ton of examples. Your readers will love it.

4. Should You Write Long or Short Articles?

Really, length doesn?t matter that much. You should write as many words as it takes to write a compelling article, but no more.

Most content on the internet is too short. People just spend a couple hours on it and don?t really take the time to dig into it. Their goal is quantity-oriented (i.e. posting as many posts as possible) instead of quality-oriented.

For example, you might have heard time and time again that you need to publish on your blog every week. Some people even recommend publishing every day.

But? really? Do you see Kevin J. Duncan publishing every week? Even including guest posts, we don?t see many articles on Be A Better Blogger. But?it doesn?t matter!?Why? Because every time there is a new article, it?s a high-quality one.

Too short doesn?t stand the test of time. It will give you a short burst of traffic, but fade away a few days later. And that leads to you?needing to create more articles. That?s why those people are focusing on quantity and try to publish as much as possible.

On the other hand, remarkable content gives you a lot of traffic right away, it slowly fades away but still sticks for months, and builds up as other articles are added.

A study done by OkDork and BuzzSumo showed that the longer the content, the more shares it gets.

What?s even more interesting is that there were 16 times more content with less than 1000 words than there were content with 2000 or more words. This proves that?most bloggers focus on quantity. So if you want to stand out and do something differently, focus on quality.

Now, too long is not good either. First, it?s long, by definition, so it takes a lot of time to read, and time is the most limited resource of your readers. So if you ask them of their time to read your stuff, you better have something really good.

You should have just the ideal length that gives you enough words to explain everything you want without rambling and repeating yourself too much.

How to find the ideal length? I use a two-step process in the writing of my articles: First, write as much as possible, then cut as much as possible.

I use the ?Information/Explanation? framework that I explained in the previous section, so I write information, and then I explain it with stories, examples, and so on.

The first step of the writing is to put as many stories and examples as possible. I put everything I can think of, write the stories completely, and I don?t hold myself back.

Of course, if you publish this draft, it will be filled with lots of rambling, repetitions, and boring stories.

The second step is to cut the writing as much as possible. For each paragraph, I ask myself questions such as:

• Is this story/example/etc. essential to explain my point?
• How could I explain it more simply?
• Can I replace this explanation by a picture? How can I show instead of tell?

The goal is to keep the same information and to make it crystal clear with just the right amount of examples explained in just the right amount of words.

Yes, this is a lot of work. You need to go through your article a second time, and it?s not just editing for grammar mistakes. It?s not something you can outsource easily. But remember, we?re creating remarkable content here.

5. Make Your Article Readable, Structured, and Easily Skimmable

As stated before, remarkable content tends to be long, and long content takes a lot of time to read. So you better make it easy for your readers.

What do you do when you stumble upon a long article? Before even starting to read it, you scroll down to see what it looks like.

What do you see then? The subheadlines, the overall structure of the article, and the pictures. This all happens in a matter of seconds and this is your first contact with the article.

It means that if the subheadlines aren?t good, or if the overall structure of the article is confusing, people may just close the window and move on to something else.

In the introduction of this guide, I showed you an example of remarkable content by Alp Turan: How Complete Newbies Can Land Killer Guest Posts: The Ultimate Guide.

Now, despite being a good article, it?s also a good example of what a confusing structure is. If you start scrolling down, you?ll quickly identify 3 main parts for the article.

However, the article being 20,000-word long, you need a bit more structure than those 3 big parts, and that?s where it gets confusing. The issue is that different levels of headlines look exactly the same:

So, when you scroll down, you don?t really know where you are in the article, and you have to take a step back to identify the overall structure of the post.

How can you?avoid this?

First, you could simply put a table of contents. When you read a book, this gives you an idea of what the book will contain. If there is no table of contents and you need to skim through the book to find all the chapter titles and so on, it gets confusing and will take a lot of time.

For example, in the article The Ultimate Guide to Creating High-Quality Content Every Time, there is a nice table of contents right at the beginning that tells you directly and clearly what you will find in the article. It also gives you links to easily navigate in the article:

Your readers need to have a clear idea of what your article is about and what it contains in a matter of seconds.

Here is what you can do to have a clear structure to help your readers:

• Add a table of contents if your article is long.
• Limit yourself to two levels of headlines maximum. More gets easily confusing. Different levels of headlines need to have different formatting (H2, H3, H4, bold, etc.).
• Number your headlines.
• Write short paragraphs.?More than 5 lines for a paragraph looks like a wall of text, and nobody likes to read a wall of text.
• Cut down complex sentences into simple ones. This is a bit of an extra, but this will help you article looks a little bit better. Copy/Paste your article in the Hemingway App. It will identify the very hard to read sentences, then it?s up to you to find simpler alternatives.

If you’ve made it this far, you have done an incredible job at creating a remarkable article. Now you don?t just write articles for the sake of writing articles. You have a goal behind it: being getting exposure, getting subscribers, getting sales, etc.

This goal will be achieved thanks to the Call-to-Action (CTA) at the end of the article. This is the one thing you don?t want to screw up.

6. Write a Compelling CTA

A good CTA won?t make your article more remarkable, but a bad CTA will make it a complete failure and screw up all your efforts.

Before telling you how to write a good CTA, I want to show you a CTA that has performed extremely well:

This CTA is an entire subsection right at the end of the article. It performed well for so many reasons that we will discuss in a moment. But this CTA wasn?t?given only once. It was also spread throughout the article.

Right at the beginning:

And also in the middle of the article:

Now let?s talk about why it performed so well. Here are the 7 elements for a successful CTA:

A)?Make it natural

In the above?examples, my CTA is a part of the article.?Too often you will see a separated CTA in a box called ?Biography? or ?About the author? that people can ignore so easily.

B)?Make the CTA directly related to the article

When I was starting out, I had one lead magnet as an incentive to get subscribers, and I was using the same lead magnet for every one of my articles.

As a result, it wasn?t always a good fit and thus didn?t perform well. In this case, though, I built what?s called a Content Upgrade (something I learned from Bryan Harris) that was specifically made for the article. It was a great fit and a logical next step for every reader that liked my article.

C)?Make the CTA about THEM, not about you

So often you see CTAs in the ?About the author? box, and because it?s called like that, people just talk about themselves. Let me be honest with you: Nobody cares about you and what you do. People care about themselves and what you can do for them.

That?s why I don?t explain what I?m doing with my life, but I explain what clicking on this CTA can do for THEM.

D)?Make clear what the reader needs to do

That may sound stupid, but just putting a link is not enough for your CTA. You need to make it clear that your reader needs to click on the link. That?s why I always include “by clicking here” in the CTA so that there is absolutely no doubt about what the reader needs to do.

That might seem like overkill, but the internet is full of distractions. You?need to make the decision brainless to ensure the best conversion rate.

E)?The CTA explains clearly what it is about

Notice that I don?t use marketing language in my CTA. I use the same words as if I were talking to you, and I explain what it will do for you. So many times you will see things like ?Get the Professional Kickstart 5-Step BluePrint for Boosting Lead Engagement.” What does that even mean? Honestly, I’m asking.

You?re not in the corporate world when you write on your blog, so please use normal words that everyone can understand.

F)?The CTA appears multiple times

Of course, more CTAs are?better. If people miss the first one, they might see the second one, and vice versa.

But another benefit is that it allows the readers to prepare in advance for what they?ll get. In this example, I mention my writing framework right at the beginning. The readers don?t know what it is yet, but it builds expectations. And once they read about it, they already know that they can download a cheat sheet about it.

G)?The CTA is clear and visible

We just said that more CTAs are?better, but this is true only as long as you’re using the same CTA. If you have CTAs about:

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In this case, more CTAs are?not better. They’re actually worse because, faced with too many choices, your reader will end up not taking action at all. That?s why you?d rather have one CTA and put all your focus on it than have multiple CTAs that will perform worse overall.

This is very important, as sometimes you write a guest post and your CTA will be?surrounded by many other CTAs from the blog’s owner. Usually, yours is just a couple invisible lines, and his are huge pictures with flashy colors. This simple detail can be the difference between getting hundreds of subscribers or just a few.

7. Go the Extra Mile

Writing the perfect article requires a ton of effort. As you learned in this article, there are many factors that influence the quality of your article, and you might think that you need to get all of them right.

It isn?t true.

Most people out there aren?t ready to put the necessary hard work to create remarkable content. As a result, most blog posts are just common short pieces that all look the same and bore their readers.

That?s good news for you. It means being remarkable isn?t that hard. If you apply only the first two strategies of this article, you?re already way ahead.

Sometimes, you want to write something epic. We?re not talking about remarkable content anymore, we want something that is truly excellent.

I actually don?t recommend you spending too much time on each of your articles to make them all perfect. At a certain point, the benefit becomes too small for the amount of time exerted.

But that being said, here are extra items to consider if you want to take your article to the next level:

A) Fix grammar mistakes and awkward phrases

When people think about writing well, they think about style and grammar. But that?s actually the least important stuff.

All you need is to make simple sentences and to not have too many grammar mistakes in your articles. It?s totally fine if you have a few typos here and there. People won?t be mad at you for this. I promise.

Recently, I asked a friend for advice on how to go to Thailand and live there for a few months because he just did it recently. We jumped on a call, during which he told me it wasn?t necessary to take notes because he would send a follow-up email with all the information I needed.

He sent his email. It was long and detailed, and I was incredibly grateful for the considerable time he had spent?to help me and give so many insights. At the end of the email, he wrote:

P.S. Excuse the typeos, bad grammar, etc, I just went for a complete brain dump with no edits lol

I was like? WHAT? This guy just gave me a TON of value, and he apologizes for making mistakes? I don?t care about mistakes ??this was extremely helpful!

And this should also be true for each of your blog posts. When you write epic articles that help them, most people won?t care about grammar!

For any normal article, do this:

• Print the article
• Read it aloud
• Fix any mistakes and any awkward phrases you spot on the paper
• Edit it
• Stop here

That is good enough.

If you want to go the extra mile, I recommend hiring an editor who will do it for you. You can find one on Fiverr for a cheap cost. I did it when I was starting out and was making a lot of grammar mistakes because I?m not a non-native English speaker. That?s how I learned.

B) Put links to more comprehensive resources

You can?t put?everything into your articles. You need to have a specific focus and then redirect your readers (via hyperlinks) to more comprehensive resources when you talk about something else.

Links allow you to promote other content you have written. Through the links, anyone reading your article will have the chance to discover other articles from?you.

Links?also allow you to promote the content of other people. Of course, you don?t really benefit from it, but everyone will appreciate it and it can help to build relationships.

Keep links natural and try not to overwhelm the reader. Sometimes, I stumble upon articles with links in?almost every sentence. As a result, I just ignore all of them. It?s too overwhelming.

You shouldn?t force yourself to put links. Only add them when you feel it is necessary and really add value to your reader.

Always keep the reader’s interests in mind. You?re writing articles for them, not for you. Even if you want to put more links for SEO purposes, make sure they?re relevant.

C) Use expert quotes

Something that helps a lot with establishing your authority and bringing more credibility to what you say is to strengthen your writing with expert quotes.

Simply show that famous people share the same opinion as?you. We mentioned earlier to add examples, stories, etc. Adding experts? quotes is another possibility to illustrate your points.

You could either use something they already wrote as a quote or directly ask them for an original quote. That?s what people do when they create those “expert roundup” posts.

They gather a lot of quotes from experts in one article around a specific topic. The next step then is to let those experts know, contact them, and hope that they will share your article because they?re featured in it.

And speaking of?sharing your article, here is another important point to go the extra mile…

D) Make sharing easy

If people need to copy/paste your URL and think of a message to tweet your article, they won?t do it.

However, they will if they can directly tweet your article with?one click.

That?s why you should use something like a “Share” bar. There are many social sharing?plugins out there, but my preferred one is the one from SumoMe.

In two clicks, you can easily share the article on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and any other social media channel.

E) Write a compelling introduction

Look, the headline of your article is super important ? it will determine how many people click on it.

But even if they click, they?re still not convinced that the article is worth reading. That?s the job of your introduction, so you better spend enough time on it to make it really good.

Here are some great ways to write a compelling introduction:

• Write a question that triggers your reader?s curiosity. For example: ?Wouldn?t it be great if you could [enter burning desire]??
• Paint a picture with a quick story. The story has to illustrate the pains the article is solving and end with a win. For example, the basic story ?I was failing, I did something, then I was successful? works.
• Keep it short and simple. You need to convince your reader that your article is worth their time, so don?t spend too much time convincing.
• Explain?what they will get with the article. Go back to the introduction of this article and notice the three bullet points. It tells you exactly what you will get out of this.

8. Your Next Step

I won?t lie to you. Creating remarkable content is hard. It takes a lot of time, dedication, and effort. You will not be able to create something outstanding in just a couple hours.

My best articles took me more than 10 hours to write. We?re even getting closer to 20 hours for the longest one.

But it?s completely worth it?for the right article. You get hundreds of new subscribers, you build authority, you get noticed by the big guys? there are so many benefits that completely crush the strategy of ?I?m just gonna publish crappy articles every day and Google will notice.?

And to help you with this daunting task, I have created a 1-page Remarkable Content Checklist. You can download it by clicking here so that you can refer to it for each of your future articles and make sure they stand out.

Sweat.

Tears.

Hair pulling.

Nail chewing.

This is just some of what your body can endure when you have a blog. Or when you attempt to write a post.

It?s so much work, and the stress can be brutal at times. So much that it makes you want to quit.

Admit it.

You bail on those posts sometimes. Don?t you?

You decide to tweak your about page, or look through your Twitter stream, or even clean the keys on your laptop. Anything to avoid writing that post.

Why is it so difficult?

And why do you keep putting yourself through it?

You?re not getting any more readers.

Your subscription list is in a constant two steps forward, two steps back state.

And you can?t seem to get the engagement levels that so many other bloggers have.

Maybe you?re better off on the sidelines. It?s easier being the audience, the reader.

Well, you know who else has these thoughts but pushes through them?

Marathoners.

They have sweat. They have tears. Hair pulling and nail chewing, not so much. But they have blood, blisters and bladder issues to deal with. They have more gory issues too, but this is a family show folks, so we?ll leave it up to your imagination. And if you?ve run a marathon before, you know what I?m talking about.

So what lessons from marathoners can bloggers learn to push on when things get tough?

Besides the promise of a participants? medal and a dry bagel at the finish line?

The following nine lessons will get you through the sometimes grueling process of blogging.

And these lessons are practical. If you?re looking for inspirational clich?s or for ways to channel your writing muse, this is not the post for you.

So put your shoes on. Let?s go.

The Start Line

If you?ve never run a marathon, you may think the actual running part is what?s difficult. It is. But just getting to the start line is difficult too. And that?s not a metaphor.

Your alarm wakes you up at 4:00 am. You eat your pre-run tested breakfast. You get dressed.

Do not underestimate that last step.

I know you?ve been dressing yourself since you were a child, but it takes on a whole new dimension when dressing for a marathon. Why? One word. Chafing.

Then there?s transportation. Do you have a supportive friend who has no young children, enjoys waking up before sunrise on a weekend, and is willing to drive you an hour or more to the race?

And you won?t be your usual cheerful self on the ride there either.

No, you?ll worry ? out loud – that you should have eaten the whole banana instead of the half. Or that you should have brought nine energy gels instead of seven. Plus, any digestion issues you may be having. And if you?re not having any digestion issues, just wait until mile 20, my friend.

So what can bloggers learn from this?

Well, it?s not easy to start writing a post. It?s probably the hardest part. And you have to do it several times a month, or more. When you sit down, you may not even have an idea in your head yet. But if the race starts at 7:00 am, you can?t say you?re not ready yet. You just show up and start. This is what you gotta do when it?s time to write.

And it doesn?t end there. Writing one post is just the start. You?ll also need to create a plan for promoting on social media, give a compelling reason why readers should subscribe, oh, and don?t forget to create a great freebie like a checklist or a whitepaper.

So much to do, but at least you don?t need to worry about chafing.

How do you get started? Try one of these lessons:

Lesson 1:?Schedule a time in your calendar to write

Stick to it. When it?s on your calendar, it becomes a part of your day, not something you try to squeeze in if you get the chance.

Lesson 2:?Get a blogging buddy

Someone you?re accountable to. Tell them you?re going to send a draft by Thursday at 2:00 pm. There?s nothing like a commitment to a friend to get you moving.

Lesson 3:?Fuel your body

Good nutrition and sleep are not just important for athletes. It clears your mind and helps you focus. Make it a priority.

And away we go

A common strategy for marathoners is to divide the race into thirds. If you?re thinking about mile 22 in your first mile, it feels overwhelming and a long, long way away.

So you only think about the next eight or nine miles. It?s more manageable.

The first chunk of time, you?re seeing how things shake out. Is your hamstring feeling okay, can you sustain this pace, and should you have included that Bruno Mars song on your playlist?

When you?ve finished that first section, you can re-evaluate. You might be feeling great and can push your speed. Or it?s warmer than you expected, so you adjust your pace and drink more water.

You can do this when blogging too. Don?t think about hitting the 2000-word mark right when you start typing, or selling your e-book before you have any subscribers. Getting too far ahead of yourself will slow you down. You lose focus. You get distracted.

Focus on one thing at a time. And when you?re done, move on to the next.

Use the following ways to do so:

Lesson 4:?Be specific about your goals

For each block of time you?ve set aside, just work on one thing whether it?s headlines, an email campaign, or building your profile on a social media platform.

Lesson 5:?Be flexible

Maybe you?ve written the introduction for a post, and you suddenly get a great idea to include in the conclusion. I wouldn?t wait until conclusion writing day. Get it down now. Sometimes, you get a little wind at your back ? so go with it.

The lost miles

A time comes in every marathon when the energy and excitement of the beginning ends, but the finish line is nowhere in sight. I call these the lost miles.

This is when your mind starts playing funny tricks.

You see a tree, and there?s a glowing light surrounding it. Calling you. Telling you this is the perfect place to take a nap.

Or you wonder why you thought this race was a good idea. It?s not a good idea. It is, in fact, a bad and painful idea. You should stop.

And you think about stopping. But then what?

You’ll experience immediate relief. Then regret. Then shame.

So you keep running instead. It?s actually easier than dealing with the shame of stopping.

Then you start humming the chorus from that Bruno Mars song. You hum that same chorus, again and again, for the next five miles.

You’ll get no immediate payoff when you?re nurturing a subscription list or while you?re in the middle of writing a blog post. It may even feel like a chore. But you don?t want all of the work you?ve put in to waste away. Yet, you?re not sure where you?re going with this whole blogging thing.

It?s so much work, and you can?t even tell if it?s going to lead somewhere. Will anybody actually read it this time? Or what if you write a killer post but then never get another idea again?

So many thoughts are running through your head.

Maybe you?ll just finish writing one more post, then quit.

Yes, let?s do that.

Or, you could try this:

Lesson 6:?Think about how you?ll feel if you stop

Unsatisfying, right? When marathoners feel like stopping, they tell themselves they?ll just run one more block or until the next water station. When they get to that spot, they do it again. You can finish the whole race, an entire post, or a newsletter this way.

Getting Closer

Marathoners have a saying. They say that all of your training is for the last six miles. Yes, you?re running 26.2 miles, but it?s those last six that count.

The end is in sight, but you?ve got the most arduous miles ahead of you. You?re definitely not going to stop now. You might walk, or limp, but you?re still upright and moving forward, dammit!

You can?t decide what?s more painful. Is it your left hip, your right ankle, or your lungs? Or that once-loved Bruno Mars song? (You?ll never listen to it again.) Everything else is numb. Numb or painful. I?m not sure if I?ve emphasized the painful part enough?

And now there?s a hill. Really?

Why do the spectators look so relaxed and cheerful while holding their stupid coffee cups and wearing their stupid athletic wear? They?re not even participating in a sport. They?re just standing there. Why do you need to wear Lululemon just to stand there? Don?t they know what you?re going through?

Sorry. I?m cranky. This part?s hard. It?s a bit difficult to find perspective.

Oh.

Is that?

Yes, it?s the finish line. Look at all these people cheering for me. I love spectators. I can see the end. I can really see it! Here I come. Watch me fly.

I get that same unexpected burst of energy when I?m close to completing a blog post. This is really happening, I think. I?m really going to do this! The words, which were so difficult to excavate earlier, are streaming through my fingers. The keyboard on my laptop sounds like a tap dancer rather than the slow drip of a leaky faucet.

Yes! I did it! My 17 subscribers are gonna love this post!

Maybe your second wind comes when you hear from a reader who says your blog helped her learn a new skill, or when you get a bunch of new subscribers, or when you finally figured out how to add that widget to your site.

And when you get that second wind, it feels incredible. You feel powerful and forget about the struggle ? you think, ?That wasn?t so bad.?

Which leads me to some final lessons:

Lesson 7:?Success looks different for every runner and blogger

Maybe you?re an elite runner, and you?re gunning for gold, or maybe this time last year you could barely jog around the block. If you?re new to blogging, getting a single post out every month is a success; if you?re a veteran, you may be looking to sell your book to the subscribers list you?ve been nurturing for years. Define your own success.

Lesson 8:?Compete with yourself

Marathoners are competitive people who are always working for a personal best. Most are not trying to beat someone else; they’re trying to find excellence within themselves. Strive to improve something every time you sit down to write.

Lesson 9:?Encourage your fellow bloggers just like a spectator cheers for a marathoner

Comment on their posts, or share them on social media. When it?s your turn to get cheered, the encouragement will help you to keep moving forward.

The Finish Line

You did it! You crossed the finish line. Whatever your finish line is ? a move to full-time blogging, financial independence, or consistently writing a post.

Things were rough for a while.

But you kept up your momentum. One step at a time.

It wasn?t easy. You endured pain. And the voices in your head almost made you stop.

Think about how you feel right now. Good, right?

No, not good. Awesome! Like you can do anything you want.

Enjoy this feeling. Remember it. You earned it.

You?ll think about this feeling when things get difficult again (and they will).

But you know how to cope now ? with nine solid lessons to keep you going when you want to quit.

With these lessons, you?ll look forward to new challenges. Why? Because every challenge you meet changes you for the better.

But for now ? enjoy a long shower and a good meal. You deserve it.

It isn’t any mystery how popular bloggers make money.

They send 27 different emails to their list of 100,000 subscribers with any old offer they’ve cooked up, and boom! Some of them buy.

Or they pop AdSense ads all over their blog, and make thousands a month in affiliate commissions.

Unfortunately, it’s not so easy for those of us with a smaller blog audience. We have to go about selling a different way.

But small bloggers can earn very well. You don’t need to go massively viral and acquire a giant email list — if you build a close relationship with your audience, and sell products or services that are exactly what they need.

I know, because I started earning six figures from my blog back when it had less than two thousand subscribers.

How can small blogs earn big? Let me unpack a few tips the big gurus don’t tend to mention, that help low-traffic blogs rack up serious money with their own offers:

1. Don’t jump the gun

I recently reviewed about 100 of my readers’ blogs. Know what I saw, over and over? Tiny, startup blogs with no audience, no comments, no social shares — but covered in advertising.

When I asked if those ads were bringing in any real money, I didn’t get a single ‘yes.’

That’s because selling the moment you launch a blog is a bad plan.

Selling is not step one in building a blog that earns. It’s down the road.

First, you need to envision a focused niche for your blog, where you see other blogs earning well. Once you’ve launched your blog concept, just focus on attracting readers — and getting them to subscribe.

Work at that until you have at least 100-200 of them. If you’ve got 300-500, that’s even better.

Now, you’re in a position to begin thinking about what you could sell, and figuring out what to charge for it.

Here’s how you answer those questions:

2. Don’t guess — ask

Now that you’ve attracted some readers who’re interested in your topic, you can take the first essential step toward earning without a huge list: Bond with your readers. Give them free goodies. Send them exclusive emails with useful or inspirational ideas that don’t appear on the blog.

Once your readers are raving that you are their go-to source for info on your topic, you can develop something to sell them.

How? Start asking questions. One of the advantages of being a small blogger is that you can get closer to your readers than the big guys.

If you have an idea for a product or service you think would be useful to your people, don’t assume your idea would be a hit with your audience. Don’t create your offer in a vacuum!

Instead, ask readers. Take a poll. Create a question-based blog post. Start a discussion. If they’re local, take a dozen of them out to breakfast to chat (yes, I’ve done that). Find out what they may have already purchased and what they thought of it. Discover what’s missing from the marketplace that they wish they could get their hands on.

While you’re at it, ask them how much they’d expect to pay for this item — and do some market research on what other, similar offers cost.

Important final question to ask, if you’re developing your own unique offer: How would your people like this delivered? You don’t want to bust your hump creating a video series if they’d prefer PDFs.

You may think just a hundred or so subscribers is too small of a sample for this market research to be useful, but in my experience, it’s not. I created a service that earns over $300,000 a year with the data from an 80-person survey.

Even with a small sample, you’ll be miles ahead compared with simply guessing at what product or service to create. Gather all your input, refine your idea, and then you’re ready to move forward.

3. Preview your coming attraction

Now that you’re no longer fantasizing about what your audience wants and have real data to work with, you can create a first version of your offer. Don’t worry if it doesn’t have every bonus or feature you’d like — just get the fundamentals of it together. Next, recruit beta-testers to try it out.

If you’re like me, you’ll get a ton of valuable feedback from that process, and refine/expand/alter your offer based on that input.

While all this is going on, you are slyly engaged in preselling your offer. For low-traffic bloggers, preselling is critical.

You’re mentioning your offer and describing it, when you recruit volunteers for the beta-test. Maybe you’re posting sample covers of that e-book on Facebook. You can email and let people know how the beta-test is going.

You might create a free case study from your course, or a sample chapter of that e-book to give away. More useful preselling.

You’re not overtly saying, “Buy something from me” during all this, but you’re educating your audience that a paid offer is coming. The more you do this, the easier the next step will be.

4. Be a low-key seller

Now that you?ve built all this vital groundwork ahead of your sale, selling should be fairly easy. The only trick is not wearing your small subscriber list.

Remember those 27 emails I mentioned up top? I never send that many ? and most of my subscribers only see a few messages about any particular offer, unless they express some active interest.

Here?s a typical segmentation sequence for one of those premium course marketing cycles I describe above:

• Presale email: Waiting list only ? The offer you wanted is ready ? here?s a special price on it
• Email 1: All subscribers ? I have a free event coming up, save the date
• Email 2: Only those who didn?t open email 1 ? ?Don?t want you to miss this’
• Email 3: Useful post or email exclusive on the topic, with banner or link to offer
• Email 4: Only those who?ve opted in????Here?s how to get the most out of this free training?
• Email 5: Email everyone the day of free event
• Email 6: Only opt ins ? Here is the replay link
• Email 7: All subs — ?last day to sign up for replay/registration open now? email
• Email 8: Only those who opened recent campaigns ? FAQs or a success story about the product
• Email 9: Only those who?ve clicked nothing yet???A ?lifestyle? message about how the offer will make readers? lives better
• Email 10: Everyone gets a ?last day to sign up? email
• Email 11: Opt-in list only ? gets a second last-day email 4-8 hours before closing

You can see that with this method, most subscribers don?t get very many emails, and the whole email sequence is shorter than what the big bloggers often do. You avoid annoying your readers this way.

If you?re still getting a lot of unsubscribes despite segmenting your list during your email sales cycle, there’s one more tactic you can use: Offer them an ‘opt out’ box they can check to not receive any more emails in this sales cycle.

Yes, that means they don’t buy now — but it also means they don’t unsubscribe. They stick around and may buy your next offer.

5. Price for volume sales

If I see one more training about how you?ll never earn well until you have a $10,000 product, I?m going to puke. Price points like that really fail for small-audience blogs. We just don?t have enough prospects, and can?t hit our lists as hard as you need to, in order to sell a pricey offer.

Instead, drive volume sales with crazy-low prices on an offer that delivers high value. This has been the whole secret of my success ? most of my sales are from products and services that cost $25 or less. With fewer readers, you need a higher percentage of them to buy than the popular bloggers do.

Especially if it?s your first offer, you should be pricing it super-low. Think $1-$5. The point of this first product is just to start people buying, not really to make money. Use this as a ?previous buyers? list you can hit harder when you sell the next thing.

Final thoughts

To sum up, if you haven?t attracted a few hundred subscribers yet, just concentrate on making that happen. Then, involve your readers in creating your offer. Presell it, and then soft-sell it. You shouldn?t have to work harder than that, if your readers were instrumental in creating your product.

Your information is solid.

Your take is unique.

And you?ve got your niche.

But it?s still just a handful of people on your subscription list.

It feels impossible to get more readers. And the ones you do have are not engaging with your content. Just silence ? except for the occasional notice about unsubscribers.

The writing comes easy. You?re bursting with ideas. It?s really just a matter of transcribing your thoughts.

When you read your finalized posts, you like how you explain every detail, but it doesn?t sound as exciting as you feel it should.

It leaves you feeling empty, like you?re missing something.

That something is the step you must take between writing and publishing your post.

You must edit. And not just a spell check and a scan for missing punctuation.

If this is your idea of blog editing, there?s good news. Your posts will only get better.

But before we start, you should know something first.

Editing hurts. It demands focus. It takes nerves of steel and a willingness to say goodbye to that brilliant turn of phrase in paragraph 42.

But once you learn how to edit, you?ll have readers hanging on to every perfectly thought-out word, foraging through previous posts to get more of what they crave, sharing your words with their hungry friends, and waiting, with mouths watering, for your next polished post.

Ready to serve up some quality copy?

Appetizers

Before we get to the entr?e, let?s talk about how you can revise your introduction to whet your readers? appetites.

You may have some facts and preamble that are endlessly fascinating to you about what led you to write a particular post.

But you know what?

I hate to say it.

I don?t care about the dry facts or the boring preamble. Not at all. Nobody else does either. Even your mom. She?s just being polite.

We all just want our information and carry on with our day, thank you very much.

I?m being selfish you say?

No more selfish than you wanting to write a page of backstory before you tell your audience what you?re writing about.

(I?m rubber. You?re glue.)

So when you?re editing an introduction, you may discover that some of the facts are better sprinkled throughout your post to back up your statements, or that the information you have in paragraph four has the most interesting point you want your reader to learn.

But how do you know if a fact is dull and what the most interesting point is, especially when you think that everything you wrote is so very interesting and necessary?

Think about it this way.

You?re watching TV and you see a giant monster invade your city, rampage through the streets, and crush buildings as if they?re made of cardboard. The newscaster says the monster is a result of an experiment gone wrong and explains the scientific facts behind it.

You need to get out of town. On the way to your car, you see your neighbor over the fence. Do you tell her about the facts or the experiment first, or do you skip that part and go straight to, ?Get the heck out of town before the monster crushes you!?

Once you?re safely in your car, you can fill your neighbor in on the details and the back story.

You want to compel your reader to keep reading. And by offering the tastiest morsels first, you make it easier to swallow.

Deleting the first three paragraphs will be hard. It will cause you some anxiety.

What if your new version stinks and you can?t put it back together? Or you put it back together and it doesn?t quite look right? Kind of like that Ikea bookshelf.

If you truly can?t bear to delete your words, paste them into another document. They may work better further into your article, or you can save them for another post.

But you?ll probably never see them again. Carry on.

Hot Dogs

Okay, let?s get to the meat, or to the meat-like substance.

Read enough blog posts and you?ll see a whole lot of filler. Long-winded stories, interminable anecdotes, and superfluous details.

It?s like hot dogs. They?re made up of lips, and, well, other parts you don?t want to know about.

After you?ve eaten that hot dog, you don?t feel so good. You?ve got a tummy ache, and you?re a little bloated. Then, an hour later, you?re hungry.

You won?t be fooled by a hot dog again.

This is how you feel when you read something that?s in desperate need of an editor. Full of stuff you don?t want, and the bits you do want are drowning in mustard. (Or ketchup, if you eat your hot dogs wrong.)

Take a look at the following paragraph that?s in need of a good edit:

Researchers from the National Walkers Health Study analyzed 23,000 people who walked 30 minutes three times per week, and 15,000 people who were sedentary. Over a five-year period, the research group looked for differences in health outcomes for the two groups. Scientists discovered that walking just 75 minutes per week improves fitness and reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and type 2 diabetes. All participants were between the ages of 35 and 65.

How to improve it:

Scientists say that walking just 75 minutes per week improves fitness and reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and type 2 diabetes.

This is good news for sedentary people. Even just a small amount of physical activity can make a significant difference to your health.

Researchers learned this after a five-year study that examined both moderately active and sedentary people.

The first example buries the interesting stuff under some dull information and sentences.

Forcing your readers to find the good stuff will send them looking elsewhere.

Steak

Instead of giving your readers filler, give them some quality information.

Give them steak. It?s a meal you look forward to. A special occasion meal.

Don?t you want your readers to show up hungry with anticipation and leave satisfied? Satisfied and looking forward to that sweet, sweet melt-in-your-mouth taste again?

So give them what they want. They want to be informed, or entertained, or inspired.

They don?t want long-winded musings, or stream-of-thought ramblings.

When it?s time to edit, remove the filler, and give them premium fuel:

Short paragraphs

Whether you?re new to blogging, or you?ve been at it for a while, you know one of the basics is to keep your paragraphs short and scannable.

This doesn?t necessarily mean you write a paragraph with six or more sentences and then divide it up during your edit.

First, eliminate words and information you don?t need. You might just end up with two sentences that say the same thing, but better.

Take a look at the following:

All exercise programs will help you to improve your fitness level, no matter what level of fitness you are at currently. Whether you are sedentary, a weekend warrior, or a beer league athlete. The problem is that people are not consistent with their exercises and routines, or they get impatient with the speed of improving their fitness, or they are unrealistic about the fitness level they think they can achieve. My cutting-edge program combines over 10 years of experience, successful results for my clients and backed up by the latest scientific evidence as well as real-world experience.

How to improve it:

My exercise program has proven results to help you achieve your fitness goals.

Whether you are sedentary, a weekend warrior, or a beer league athlete, I have the experience and scientific evidence to make things work for your lifestyle.

I will help you overcome the obstacles that have prevented your fitness success.

Short paragraphs are easy on the eyes. And despite having fewer words, they say so much more to your readers.

Concise sentences

Trim the fat. You don?t need phrases such as ?at the end of the day? or ?due to the fact? or ?unbeknownst to me.?

Remove these phrases, and leave only the words you want to say and nothing else.

Full of fat:

Due to the fact that people are not getting enough exercise there is a growing epidemic of preventative diseases.

Lean, mean writing machine:

Regular exercise prevents disease.

When you don?t remove excess words, it slows down readers and muddles your brilliant thoughts.

Easy to understand analogies

When you write to educate about a specific industry or a complex idea, see if you can use an analogy to explain it. Review your post and look for jargon ? if you find some, take it out. Think about your readers, and explain it in a way they can understand.

You might have an auto repair blog post that explains why OEM parts are superior to aftermarket parts, but if your readers aren?t familiar with these terms you?ve lost their attention.

Or worse, you?ve made them feel stupid.

Remove the technical jargon, and replace it with an analogy. Let them know it?s brand name versus generic, and they get it.

Active voice

Use an active voice. “Eat that juicy steak.” Not a passive voice. “A hot dog was eaten by that sad-looking man.”

An active voice is both more interesting to read, and it creates authority and credibility. When you write with a passive voice it sounds like you don?t quite believe what you?re writing.

Scan your post for passive voice, and see if you can make it active. That?s not always possible. Sometimes, your only choice is a hot dog – as all parents who?ve been to a school fundraiser know.

Redundancies

Eliminate redundancies from your writing. Redundancies occur when you write information that is repeated or not necessary.

Like this:

The hot steak is hot.

This is better:

The steak is hot.

Or like this:

Removing redundancies gives you the opportunity to tighten your writing and improve the reading experience. And we all want to write better. When you remove sentences that say the same thing as another sentence, it makes for tighter writing and better reading.

Do this instead:

Remove redundancies to improve your writing.

Sometimes, you want to repeat information for emphasis or to make it stick in your reader?s mind. If you do this, it should add to the reading experience. Like a side of buttery mashed potatoes.

Walk, then talk

After dinner it?s nice to go for a walk before you eat dessert.

It gives you time to digest. To create some space in your tummy for that chocolate cake.

So give yourself some time away from your post too.

Create some space in your mind. Give your thoughts some room to move.

When you?re ready to review your post, read it out loud.

That?s an effective way to hear the rhythm of your writing, and to find inconsistencies with your style.

If you?re aiming for a conversational style, you may discover that your writing sounds formal when you speak it. You might have missed it is or you are when writing, but when spoken, you hear that you should turn them into contractions of it?s and you?re.

You may also find that you keep stumbling over your sentences when you?re reading out loud. Stumbles can indicate more editing is necessary.

Or it might just be that your mouth is full of chocolate cake.

Dessert

Getting your words on paper, or online, is just the first step in creating delicious content. The kind of content that readers crave.

Before you deliver your appetizing words, take some time to edit. Making hot dogs is easy, but steak takes skill.

With these Grade A tips, you can slice and dice with the best of them.

Forget the filler. No more handing out empty calories to your readers.

Because you want to serve up the leanest, most flavor-packed post possible.

And now you know what to look for. Get rid of those redundancies, banish the boring backstories and add some analogies.

With these edits, your posts will satisfy your readers? hunger, leaving them full, satisfied, and looking forward to more.

Bon app?tit.

Are you obsessed with blogging?

As bloggers, it’s easy to find ourselves up late at night tweaking this or that, checking our analytics obsessively, or responding to our latest comments.

But what does this mean for our friends and family?

Unfortunately, it often means putting them on the back burner. More and more, time we once spent with loved ones has become time spent indulging our latest blogging obsession.

It’s not because we’re cruel or indifferent – we just want our blogs to succeed. And with this drive to succeed comes a compulsion to fully immerse ourselves in the task at hand.

So how can we remain connected to our loved ones without sabotaging our blogging efforts?

How can we reignite connections with our loved ones even when it feels like we’re focused on completely different things?

The Anatomy of a Typical Social Life & Why Blogging Disrupted Yours

Before diving into how to reignite a great connection with our dearest, let?s first examine what makes good times together feel so good.

Is it just about being physically together? Or is there something more to it?

Most often, quality time is about joint enthusiasm ? a joint focus on anything from a great TV series, a hike, or even joint projects like home renovations and?parenting.

And before blogging inserted itself into your life, you probably had a routine carved out to regularly engage in such activities with your loved ones.

But then, likely quite suddenly, blogging swooped into your life and ripped you away from your social routines.

And there your family and friends sat, dumbfounded, wondering what happened to your relationship. They probably even felt a bit abandoned.

Of course, logically, they likely?realize you?re just excited about a new hobby or venture. But emotionally? It’s difficult for them not to?feel displaced.

If you?re like most people facing a situation like this, you probably feel quite torn between going back to how things were and your new addictive interest.

Fortunately, there’s a solution.

The key is to learn a new way of connecting with family that isn?t about coincidental joint enthusiasm.

By developing a bit of skill, you can blog while knowing?your loved ones feel as close to you as ever.

The Secrets to Getting Your Friends and Family Cheering For Your Blog

In the past, you felt emotionally connected to your friends and family most easily when you shared mutually enjoyable experiences.

Your connection was fueled by a coincidence of interests.

The secrets to staying connected even while you pursue a new, different interest are all about efficiency and skill.

The better you get at creating emotional connections ? instead of relying on coincidental joint enthusiasm – the less you?ll feel pressure to revert to the status quo instead of spending time on your blog.

Let?s look at the key examples in action.

1. Ask These Magic Questions to Make Them Feel Cared For

If you’ve been blogging for any real length of time, I?m willing to wager you?ve dealt?with some discord at home due to your blogging obsession.

It?s important to remember your loved ones are probably feeling a bit abandoned. Before, they had a companion who shared common interests. Now it feels like?you’ve moved onto something else without them.

The old you may have delighted in 20 minutes of playful banter around choosing the perfect pizza toppings, but the new you is jamming 2 slices into your mouth in 5 minutes flat and scampering off to your laptop.

Whereas in the past you didn’t have to do anything special to show your loved ones you cared about them, now you do. Now you need to go?above and beyond to prove to them you’re on the same page.

And the best way to do that is?asking them questions.

This is a basic relationship skill that was always important, but it?s even more important now that you?re not sharing the joint pleasures you used to share.

In the past, feeling close happened after watching a 2-hour movie or going on a long walk together. With the right questions, you can spend 10 or 15 minutes and get the same feelings of closeness.

If you?re stumped on what to ask, consider picking a question or two from the acclaimed list of questions that psychologist Arthur Aron found to be so powerful. How powerful? They’ve been shown?to?induce romantic love in total strangers!

Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?

If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you choose?

If you could wake up tomorrow having gained one quality or ability, what would it be?

(Don?t worry; you can use these questions on your platonic friends without danger of converting them into love zombies.)

After you ask the questions, sit back and LISTEN to the answers. (You can check out a special guide I prepared on how to listen like a pro for free by clicking here).

Questions like these will definitely get your close relationships back on track, but chances are your family will want to talk about more than fun, hypothetical topics.

They will probably also want to talk about you and their own questions and concerns about what the heck you?ve been up to hidden away in your home office.

Handling those questions?is the next base you?ll want to make sure to cover.

2. Address Their Concerns Head On, Even If You Think They?re Silly

Since you know you still care about the people in your life, you may find the notion of having to defend your loyalties a little silly and annoying.

You may wish the people in your life would “just understand.” You want support, not concern.

However, for the reasons mentioned above, it may not be that easy for them.

You?re going to have to do the opposite of what you feel like doing. Instead of emphasizing your own point of view, you need to emphasize theirs.

That means putting?yourself in the shoes of your loved ones and probing into their fears and concerns – even if you yourself know some of the concerns are silly and unfounded.

Depending on the vibe your friends and family have been putting out to you, ask questions like:

Do you feel like I have been preoccupied lately?

Do you feel kind of abandoned by me?

Are you worried that I?ve lost my mind?

Does my new project make you wonder about whether or not I?m planning on changing my career plans?

By anticipating and acknowledging their feelings, you will be going a very long way in helping to stabilize them.

This technique ? validating feelings ? is the main technique employed by suicide hotline volunteers to stop possible suicide attempts in their tracks. It is that powerful.

So, now you know how to reassure your friends and family that you care about them, but?what about your emotional needs?

How do you get your friends and family to care about your new hobby and make you feel supported?

3. Use This Simple Trick to Inspire Their Interest in Your Journey

Since you?re in the midst of a long and fascinating blogging journey, you may be inclined to share everything about what you?re learning with your friends and family, just as you?ve always done when something?s been exciting to you.

If you reflect on it, I suspect you?ll notice one of the things that?s been getting in the way of you and relationship bliss is the fact your friends and family might not be as excited about the ins and outs of blogging as you are.

Blogging can feel like it involves 101 different skills. There is so much to digest and master as a blogger it can make a person?s head spin.

But if your head is spinning and you?re the one dedicating hours to learning and understanding each week, imagine how your loved ones must feel every time you launch into a long monologue about the virtues of email marketing over social media marketing.

Yeah. Exactly.

Still, you want your faithful companions to bear witness to your journey. That’s part of what a relationship is about, after all!

Fortunately, there is a neat little trick that will make getting this need met much more likely.

All you have to do is ask before launching into a long, complicated, meandering story about whatever it is that?s on your mind.

Say:

“I’m debating?whether or not to?put pop-ups on my blog. Want to hear my pros/cons list?”

By simply requesting permission before dumping something technical and potentially boring onto the lap of your companions, you make it much more likely they will be open to listening.

Why? Well, autonomy has a lot to do with it. When we feel like we have control over something, we are less likely to feel overwhelmed by it.

And let?s face it: The ins and outs of blogging can be straight up overwhelming -?especially for a bystander.

So get permission before sharing about your project! And don?t take it personally if the answer is ?no? from time to time.

Finding out what aspects are interesting to your friends and family (and which aren?t) will be very helpful in cultivating the?long-term interest and support of your loved ones.

4. Avoid This Mistake or Risk Turning Them Off Your Blogging Adventure Forever

Even though blogging involves a very broad spectrum of skills and topics, in time you’ll begin being perceived as?somewhat of an expert.

This will put an even bigger space between you and your loved ones, and at times you may feel tempted to wave away or dismiss their naive suggestions and ideas.

Don’t do this.

If they are engaged with your blog to the point of offering input, be happy! Cherish and nurture their interest – don’t?undermine it by not poo-pooing their opinions, even if you think they’re?uninformed or flat-out wrong.

Remember: Engaging in conversations with your loved ones about your blog is about staying?emotionally connected. It?s not about having a homegrown mastermind group.

So always be polite and give sincere weight to whatever feedback?they lovingly send?your way.

At times, it may make more sense not to bother explaining why something is or isn?t possible.

The words ?that?s an interesting idea?- thank you? will go a very long way!

Recruit Support Early and Stay Blogging for the Long Haul

Embarking on a blog can be an all-consuming activity. It can be thrilling and exciting, but it can also mean leaving our loved ones feeling left out. If you’re not careful, blog jealousy will set in.

And when the going gets tough, if we haven?t maintained the emotional support of our friends and family for our blog, we may be tempted to abandon it and lose out on all of our hard work.

But it doesn?t have to be that way!

By understanding how a new, all-consuming interest can destabilize our relationships, we can learn the simple techniques to keep our relationships strong amidst a new project, and we can get our loved ones on board with our blogs.

And imagine how wonderful life will be when you have a flourishing blog and an excited support system to go with it!

Writer’s block is real, isn?t it?

You sit numbly at your keyboard, thumping on your forehead and thinking:

?What shall I write about?? ? thump, thump, thump
?How should I start it?? ? thump, thump, thump
?What examples should I use?? ? thump, thump, thump

But no matter how much you thump your forehead, you?re not getting any further. The ideas just aren?t coming to you. Your inspiration tank is dry as old bones abandoned in the Sahara.

It makes you want to tear your hair out.

What if you could stop all the thumping and banish your writer’s block forever?

Good news!

Banishing writer’s block is 100% doable.

Where Writer’s Block Really Comes From

Think about this for a second: have you ever experienced talker?s block?

Have you ever been completely stymied when a client asked you a question? One that hits the sweet spot of your expertise? And for which you have the perfect answer?

Of course not.

On the other hand, writer’s block strikes when you sit isolated before an expectant screen.

So what?s the difference?

When you’re talking, you have a context. You have another human being to stimulate your ideas, and you have real-world issues that demand your consideration. So the ideas flow thick and fast.

In a verbal interaction, you?re not focused on being word-perfect.

You have the knowledge, and you want to help. So you dive in and tackle the question, working it out as you go in comfortable, conversational style.

That makes all the difference.

And that is why writer’s block is avoidable. Because it?s not some malevolent lack of inspiration that has you at a standstill. It?s the isolation of the writing process.

But it doesn?t have to be that way.

You have plenty of ideas and answers in your head. You just need a way of accessing, on tap as it were, the questions that a real live person wants to ask you.

How Process Trumps Inspiration

In one of my favorite posts from James Clear, he talks about?why systems trump goal-setting in terms of getting results. It resonated with me.

Years ago I had?set a goal for myself to lose weight, but it just wasn?t happening. Only after I joined a local weight-loss group and submitted to their system?did I?start seeing results.

As a blogger, your goal is to have a successful blog, and for that, you must blog consistently. But that won’t happen if writer’s block keeps showing up and putting on the brakes. No way will you write a blog post week in, week out if that?s happening.

So what?s your system for busting through writer’s block and achieving consistency?

Here are my five proven steps to banish writers? block:

1. Tell Them What?s Coming

When you tell your subscribers when and how you will show up in their inbox, it has powerful effects on you mentally. It forces you to tap into your creativity and flesh out your ideas. Feeling?blocked still happens, but backing away is not an option.

You started your blog because you wanted to share your best ideas. You have life-changing insights to offer your readers and subscribers. Commit to giving that to them on a regular basis rather than waiting for inspiration to strike.

You?ll find that the more you share, the more ideas you will have.

That?s the beauty of creativity. When you share your insights with your audience, your mind generates more and more ideas.

2. Harness Inspiration Immediately

Good ideas strike when they strike. Inspiring material shows up everywhere.

Are you able to capture the inspiration?

It might happen in the middle of the night, in the shower, or while driving the kids to school. Ideas are guaranteed to show up almost any time except when you are sitting in front of your laptop.

You need to capture your ideas no matter where you are. You don?t have to use them all, but why risk them going to waste? Nothing is as frustrating as the dim memory of a brainwave but too few details to flesh it out for your readers.

And you have loads of ways to harness your best ideas.

Most phones these days allow you to capture short notes as lists. You can use an app like Evernote to tag and file your inspirations, ideas, and references in different notebooks, whether online or offline.

You can even go analog and use a notebook or a nearby scrap of paper. The key is to make sure you always have something on hand when inspiration strikes.

3. Use Structure as a Creative Springboard

Saying ?write an outline? may sound too dull to release a flood of creativity, but it is your most powerful tool for getting your fingers typing, which is what you need.

An outline lets you bounce your ideas around and then stand back and inspect them before putting them in a logical order, with perfect punctuation and inspiring language.

You can select the outlining process that best suits the type of post you?re writing.

If it?s a ?how to? post, you can use a question-driven process like this:

• What are we learning to do?

• Why is this important?

• What?s the first step?

• What?s the next step? And the next?

• What can go wrong?

• What about an example?

If you?re writing a story-based post, you can use a narrative outline:

• Where did the action take place?

• Who was there?

• What happened first? Why was that important?

• What happened next?

• And then what?

• And so on?

Outlining your post helps you avoid writer’s block because you can avoid starting with the opening?lines, which tend to be the most block-inducing of all. With an outline, you?re free from that pressure?because you can skip the opening to work out the meat of your post first.

The outline helps you get to grips with the body of your post, which is the bulk of the writing work. Once you?ve done that, you can feed off the sense of achievement. ?And craft a powerful opening paragraph, and then add your rousing conclusion to be sure they take action on your idea.

4. Construct Your Best Headline? Afterward

Every blogger knows that headlines are the most important part of your post. They largely decide whether people read or don’t read your content, which can truly put you under pressure to come up with the perfect one.

But we can obsess about getting a cracker of a headline and never get to writing the post. So just settle for a working headline that encapsulates your idea. Next, get the writing out of the way. Lastly, come back to honing the headline.

Without a headline idea at all, an article can quickly lose focus and meander all over the place. So a working headline keeps you on track. At the same time, the writing process gives your subconscious time to mull things over. As I?ve mentioned before, inspiration strikes at the weirdest moments.

Chances are, by the end of the writing process, you?ll have an excellent headline idea in mind, and then it?s just a matter of polishing it to a dazzling gleam.

5. Set Yourself up to Succeed

Do whatever you must do to break your writing process down into independent stages so that you are always writing while mentally on top of your game.

If you set things up so that you regularly need to generate a post idea, outline it, write it, and then craft the headline all in a single sitting, writers? block will take up a permanent position and taunt you from the top of your workstation.

If you set things up right, you will always write when you?re fresh

?Write when fresh? sounds so obvious, but is it realistic in the breakneck speed of life? The reality of achieving it can feel as remote and unobtainable as the quest for the Holy Grail.

Or not?

Let?s say you publish to your blog once a week. You could aim for the following as a possible process:

Monthly:

Plan out the posts you want to complete, plus the day and time you?ll publish them.

Weekly:

Day 1: Select your outline, and write the post.

Next day: Edit your post, and come up with a headline.

Day after: Publish the post to your blog, and notify your mailing list about it.

Daily:

Add one idea to your swipe file. Outline one blog post idea to use the next time you have a blog post to deliver.

It might seem simplistic, but it?s a start. Planning ahead allows you to pace yourself. And pacing yourself is more than half the battle of banishing writer’s block.

Your Turn

Blogging can be an inspiring, exhilarating, and addictive endeavor. But it?s also relentless in its demand for tending.

It takes a special kind of person?to meet that demand.

If you use the tips above to conquer your writer’s block, you can be that person.

Just imagine the exhilaration of gushing your ideas onto the page. Imagine the sense of achievement as you effortlessly meet your?publishing schedule week after week after week. Imagine your blog?s audience growing more and more engaged with every post you publish on time.

It could be you.

Nothing can stop you now.

That’s exactly what you want, right?

An insanely loyal audience for your blog. I know I do.

And if you?re anything like me, you dream about thousands of eager followers craving to read your latest post as they click through the moment you hit the publish button.

You want hundreds of appreciative and thoughtful comments. You want them to Tweet, “You have to read this!” and share your post with everyone they know on Facebook.

But it?s not happening, is it?

Instead, you spent hours crafting your post. You hit publish with a proud flourish.

And then… nothing.

Not one lousy click-through.

No likes or shares.

No comments.

No audience.

Just a trickle of fickle subscribers.

You?re ready to give up.

But hang on. Maybe you should try the Walt Disney approach?

Yup, you read that right. Walt Disney.

Sure, he wasn?t a blogger, but he built one of the most devoted audiences in history, long before the Internet came along. Imagine the audience you could attract today ? with all the advantages of the web and social media ? if you applied some of the skills and characteristics of Walt Disney.

Let’s examine how it all started for him back in 1920.

#1. Be Passionate About Sharing Your Passion

Walt Disney had a simple goal: to earn a living doing what he loved – drawing. So he got a job as a commercial artist for an advertising company in Kansas.

In the evenings, he would go to the movies where newsreels and cartoons were as popular as the feature films.

Like blogging today, the animation industry was young. There were no rule books. No conventions to follow. The door was wide open, and Walt Disney was hooked.

He found his passion.

He was itching to produce his own cartoons. He knew he could improve on what he saw. His brain was exploding with ideas.

He had always wanted to make a name for himself. He realized that sharing his ideas through this exciting new medium was the way for him to achieve that ambition.

The potential of engaging with a cinema audience through his cartoons sent shivers up his spine.

And that?s what you need to feel.

As a blogger, you must have the drive to share your ideas with a massive audience who craves the knowledge and information only you can provide.

If those two stars don?t align, your blog?s already in trouble, and you?ll never find – let alone build – your audience. Seriously.

So the first thing you must do it find your passion, and be passionate about sharing it.

References & Resources to Help You Find Your Passion

1: How to Find Your Blogging Niche

Barrie Davenport explores the three-part formula to finding your blogging niche: you must have a passion for it, there has to be an audience for it, and it should have earning potential.

2: How to Find Your Passion in 5 Creativity Exercises

Five interesting ways to find your passion, by Lisa Girard. I particularly like the one about revisiting your childhood.

3: Try This If You?re Struggling To Find Your Passion

Leah Manderson argues that your passion needs to be remembered – that it?s been in you all along.

#2. Work Your Tail Off – You Have a Lot to Learn

Walt Disney experienced his ah-ha moment sitting in a darkened movie theater. I bet he leaped to his feet and rushed into the night, bursting with ideas and excitement.

He probably raced home, pulled out his artist?s pad, and scribbled down rough sketches of his first cartoon.

But he was smart enough to know he had a lot to learn.

We?re lucky. We have the Internet. Walt Disney had to rely on his local library.

He borrowed a book on the human form in motion and studied every page. He devoured books on animation and filmmaking. And books about storytelling and creating characters.

Similarly, as a blogger, you must learn how to do the following:

• Choose the right audience to share your passion with
• Get inside their heads and master the skill of empathy
• Write jaw-dropping headlines to stop them in their tracks
• Write consistently great blog posts that provide answers to their burning questions

Be prepared to study hard.

Learning how to build an audience doesn?t happen overnight. Like Walt Disney, you must work your tail off. Day after day, week after week.

There?s a lot to learn.

References & Resources to Help You Learn

1: The Myth of The Captive Audience

This is a thought-provoking piece about the importance of connecting authentically with your audience. A wonderful starting point. If you do nothing else today, subscribe to Bernadette Jiwa?s superb updates.

2: Why Your Blog Doesn?t Stand a Chance in Hell of Succeeding (and What To Do About It)

Leanna Regalla has packed this piece with actionable tips on how to master the art of empathy.

3: 52 Headline Hacks

Jon Morrow is the king of headlines, and his cheat sheet (42 pages to be exact) should be on every blogger?s bedside table.

4: How to Write A Blog Post: The Definitive 10,273 Word Guide

Be A Better Blogger?s very own Kevin J. Duncan recently updated this epic post, which is also available as a handy 38-page PDF. It?s the ultimate guide to writing a blog post and should sit right next to Jon?s Headline Hacks on your bedside table.

#3. Get Yourself Noticed

Disney soaked up all the knowledge he could about his craft while he was still working at an ad company. Then he borrowed a film camera from his boss and made his first cartoons at night.

After several attempts, he managed to sell them to a small cinema chain in Kansas. The price didn?t cover his costs, but he gained something much more important.

He got himself noticed.

He gained exposure to a wide audience. He won applause and attention. His audience wanted more, and Walt Disney experienced his first taste of success.

Today, we call this guest blogging.

Disney was able to give up his day job and launch his first commercial cartoon venture because he already had an audience.

You may already have a blog but not a sizeable audience. Or you may be about to launch a new blog.

Either way, you should consider guest blogging.

Why?

Because it puts you in front of a large audience who already shares your interests and passion. It gives you the credibility and endorsement of the blog owner and exposure to a wide network of influencers. It gives you traffic, clicks, and shares.

All of which are much harder to achieve when nobody notices you.

References & Resources to Help You Become an Expert Guest Blogger and Get Noticed

1: Guest Blogging Certification Program

This is an invaluable product from Jon Morrow and his team at Smart Blogger. It?s not free, but it?s worth every penny.

That?s it. No other resources required.

#4. Be Prepared to Fail

“You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” – Walt Disney

When Disney started his first cartoon company, Laugh-O-Grams, he had stars in his eyes and was ready to conquer the world.

But he was inexperienced and na?ve, and he got stiffed by a movie distributor. It was his first failure.

Battered, but not discouraged, Disney packed his bags, scraped together the train fare, and headed to LA.

Over the next few years, he found success again with his Alice in Cartoonland series, and he followed this up with a new character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

However, Oswald turned out to be not so lucky. Once again, Disney was double crossed by a distributor, and in 1928, he lost his team of animators and his rights to the rabbit.

He felt betrayed, alone, and broke. For the second time.

But giving up wasn?t in Walt Disney?s DNA.

Legend has it that on the train back to LA from New York – after the final failed negotiations over Oswald ? he sketched some ideas for a new cartoon character.

Boom.

Mickey Mouse was born.

Some of the world?s top bloggers experienced failure before they made it.

But they learned from these failures and used them to become a success. So should you.

Follow Walt Disney?s example. Make failure your inspiration to create something even better. Find your own Mickey Mouse. Your audience will love you for it.

References & Resources to Help You Learn from Failure and Overcome Your Challenges

1: 33 Entrepreneurs Share Their Biggest Lessons Learned From Failure

Read this motivational advice compiled by Brian Honigman every time you feel like a failure. Then pick yourself up by your bootstraps, and keep going.

2: The Most Inspiring Famous Failures

Pin them, print them, or just take inspiration from these great quotes from the world?s greatest failures compiled by Ruben Garcia.

3: 25 Valuable Lessons from Seriously Successful Writers

As Bryan Collins? opening line says, “Stop feeling sorry for yourself!” Use this informative post to find out how top writers overcame their challenges.

#5. Add Massive Value

Walt Disney was always searching for ways to add massive entertainment value to his cartoons. To make them stand head and shoulders above the rest.

He wanted to make his audience draw their breath in collective surprise and beg for more.

Imagine his excitement when he discovered synchronized sound.

When Disney created Mickey Mouse, voice-overs and sound effects were new concepts in the movie industry. They were unheard of with cartoons. Literally.

Walt Disney believed he could synchronize sound with the cartoon action. He wanted to make sound itself play a character role in the Mickey Mouse movie, Steamboat Willy.

It was a highly complex and expensive technical process, and nobody had attempted it before. But Disney knew it would add massive value.

Steamboat Willy ran for two weeks in November 1928 to mesmerized audiences.

“It knocked me out of my seat,” one critic wrote.

Some audiences even begged the projectionist to delay the start of the feature movie and re-run Steamboat Willy.

It was Disney?s first viral moment, and it catapulted him to the top of the industry overnight.

Entertain, inform, educate, or inspire. It doesn?t matter as long as you are adding MASSIVE value to your readers? lives.

References & Resources to Help You Add Massive Value

1: How to Create Massive Value Content

Pooja Lohana provides a comprehensive list of how to plan your posts and the type of posts you must write to create massive-value content.

2: 11 Common Blogging Mistakes That Are Wasting Your Audience?s Time

While this post by Henneke Duistermaat isn?t strictly about adding value, that?s exactly what it?s about, if you get my twisted meaning. Simply reverse these 11 common mistakes into 11 habits every blogger should get into, and you will automatically add value to your audience.

#6. Be Different

Cartoons in America in the 1920s were rough and ready. Crude and violent. They made people laugh at the expense of others? pain and misfortune. The industry gold standard was Felix the Cat.

Walt Disney spent hours studying these popular cartoons. He looked for ways to enchant his audience through his own voice. To stand out from the crowd and be different.

And, boy, was he different.

He put a real girl in Alice in Cartoonland and achieved mind-boggling success with Mickey Mouse, initially through the magic of sound.

Mickey went on to win the hearts of audiences around the world. No other cartoon character had been so likable, so human. And that was his point of difference.

Finding your own point of difference as a blogger takes practice, but you can do it.

Just remember: it has to be authentic. It has to be your voice.

It has to take your readers on an unexpected journey that leaves them captivated, educated, or entertained.

And moved enough to share the experience with an ever-increasing audience.

References & Resources to Help You Be Different

1: How to Stand Out in a Sea of Grey Content

Henneke Duistermaat shows us why a writer?s voice is important and how to strengthen it.

2: How to Find Your Writing Voice

If anyone knows about finding their writing voice, it?s James Chartrand. And if you don?t believe me,?read this.

3: 10 Steps to Finding Your Writing Voice

Jeff Goins provides some useful exercises to help you find your writing voice.

#7. Aim For The Heart

Almost 10 years after creating Mickey Mouse, Walt Disney risked everything he had on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

If it failed, he would be wiped out. Again.

Every star in Hollywood turned out for the premier in December 1937.

But Walt Disney was in agony.

He was unsure how his audience would respond. He guessed they would laugh at the antics of the seven dwarfs. He hoped they might boo at the cruelty of the evil queen.

But could he make them cry at Snow White?s apparent death? Could he take his audience on such an authentic, emotional journey with a cartoon?

It had never been done before.

The lights dimmed. The curtains opened, and the music boomed across the auditorium.

The audience was spellbound from the start. They oohed and aahed. They gasped and laughed.

But still Disney was in agony.

He gripped the arm of his seat, white-knuckled, for a full 75 minutes. Until that moment when Snow White took a bite of the poisoned apple and died.

You could hear a pin drop.

Then the audience started weeping. Shirley Temple, Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, George Burns. All in tears.

It was a triumph.

One reviewer wrote, “I could not help but feel that I was in the midst of motion picture history.”

He was right.

The movie went on to break every box office record across the world, with millions of people flocking to experience the magic for themselves.

It was Disney?s greatest moment.

So pack your post with emotion and surprises. Take your readers on a positive journey that broadens their minds, touches their hearts and makes them say:

I have to share this.

That?s how you build an insanely loyal audience.

References & Resources to Help You Tap Into Their Emotions

1: On Dying, Mothers, and Fighting for Ideas

This is the ?article that shook the Internet,? by Jon Morrow. It?s one of the finest examples of a post that connects on a deep emotional level.

2: 7 Steps that will Hook Your Audience through the Magnetic Force of Fascination

Andrew McDermott takes us on an analytical journey about why people become engaged with certain information and how to capitalize on those emotional triggers.

3: How to Engage and Delight Your Readers So They?re Begging for More

Henneke is one of my favorite bloggers. She engages and delights while she?s telling us how to engage and delight. And that?s an art.

Bring It All Together and Create Your Own Magic

After Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney went on to repeat his phenomenal box office success with movies like Pinocchio and Bambi. Over the next 30 years, he built an empire of such epic proportions that even he would have found it hard to imagine.

And he did it all off the back of seven inherent characteristics and skills.

Inherent in him, perhaps. But here they are, laid out for you like the secret recipe to a wizard?s spell.

You start with a pinch of passion (and a strong desire to share it).

You add some serious study, getting noticed, the odd failure, and massive value.

Then you stir it into an offering that?s so different it?s going to surprise and delight your audience.

And the final ingredient? Emotional connection with hundreds of thousands – no, millions – of people who want to share it.

Now, close your eyes and whisper the magic words:

My audience is waiting. Step by step I can do this. And today I will take the first step.

Yes! (fist pump)

Now go do it!

Do you ever spend lots of time and effort writing?great content, only to be disappointed by the lack of blog traffic you?receive?

Not only that, but hardly anyone shares your posts on Twitter or Facebook. And almost no one leaves comments.

Sound familiar?

If so, you know how frustrating and disappointing it can be.?You probably wonder if your blog will ever?become popular – much less successful and profitable.

What if I told you there was a way of writing blog posts that not only are popular, but also grow your email list and help you sell your products or services?

Stalking the Blogosphere Looking For Pain and Suffering

It?s all about knowing your prospective audience?-?your potential readers.

Who are they? Where are they? With what are they suffering?

You need to know what they want to change, what they want to do, and what they want to be.?Not only that, you need to know what blog topics will compel them to take the action you want them to take – such as joining your email list, or buying your products or services.

How do you do?all that?

You figure out their pain point – the thing they are struggling with.

Every day, your potential readers are trawling the blogs in your niche trying to find answers to the questions keeping them up at night.?And they’re getting frustrated because they can?t find anyone who can help.

If you can help them, they’ll be?eternally grateful to you.

They’ll also likely?bookmark your blog, subscribe to your list, share your posts, and eventually become?your customer.

For example, here?s a post I wrote for Mirasee?about?promoting guest posts:

With over 80 comments, it’s one of the site’s most successful guest posts.

And if you read those comments, you?ll see several readers talking about?how “timely” they found the information inside the post – proof they not only liked reading it, they found it useful.

That?s the key to writing blog posts people want to read.

Usefulness.

How did I know?Mirasee’s readers would find my post?useful? Because I followed a simple formula.

Let me?walk you through?it…

The Simple Formula That Helps You Create Popular Posts

Step 1. ?Find Their Pain

At the time I wrote my?guest post for Mirasee, there were lots of posts across the web?advising people on how guest blogging is an excellent technique for?driving traffic back to your blog.

And it is – if you know how to do it right and if you know that getting your guest post accepted and published is only part of the strategy.

That is why people found my post so useful.

All the advice out there talked openly about how to write a guest post, or how to pitch a guest post and get it accepted, or how it could build an email list. But they were leaving out the most important part.

That’s why so many?people were struggling to make their guest posts drive traffic back to their blogs.

How did I know they were struggling? I listened.

Before writing my guest post for Mirasee, I researched other posts that had been written on the topic.

However, I wasn’t interested in what those posts were discussing – I was interested in what the readers of those posts were discussing.?More accurately, I was interested in what they were complaining about.

I kept reading comments like ?guest posting hasn?t worked in driving traffic for me.? Or ?I?ve written several guest posts that just haven?t delivered the traffic I expected.?

Comments like these were goldmines of information?because they showed me that people were following the blogosphere’s well-worn advice on guest blogging as a great traffic-generation strategy, but they weren’t getting the results they wanted or expected.

It was clear there were gaps in the advice people were getting. Missing steps. Want to discover the pain points for readers? You need to keep your eyes peeled for gaps like these.

Then you need to go fill those gaps.

Step 2. Take Away Their Pain (Solve Their Problem)

The most important part of getting traffic from guest posts – the part other tutorials on the web were failing to address – is promotion.

Not many people seemed to recognize the need for a well-executed promotion plan for their guest posts. If you want to drive traffic back to your blog, such a plan is a must.

And you know what? Mirasee’s readers loved it. They loved it and found the information incredibly useful.

That?s the beauty of finding out people?s pains – the thing they?re struggling with, the thing that’s not working for them, the piece of advice they?ve been failing to receive.

When you find the ailment, and when you give them the cure, they’re hooked.

They’ll happily read every piece of content you write.

But it doesn?t stop there…

Of course, merely knowing the pain points of readers isn’t enough. You have to execute.

You have to get your solutions, your blog posts, in front of these struggling readers.

And you do that by echoing their problems or frustrations back to them in your headlines.

For instance, look at my headline:

“Why Your Guest Posts Don?t Drive Traffic To Your Blog (and What To Do About It)”

In this headline, I repeated their problem to them and offered a solution. I offered them a way to actually change their poor traffic results for results they wanted and expected.

Let?s undress this. You?ll see in the image below how this 2-part headline repeats the problem of guest posts not driving traffic back to your blog.

The first half pinpoints the problem: guests posts not driving traffic.

The second half offers a solution and a promise: ?Ah, finally, a way to make my guest posts work!?

If you?re struggling with this problem, would this headline get your attention?

Of course it would.

It presents a known problem, and then provides a solution.

Let’s dive into this concept in more detail…

The Problem-Solution Content Method

It?s how I wrote what quickly became one of the popular posts on my blog, Traffic Smart Marketing…

This headline is almost a direct quote from a disgruntled, discouraged, and frustrated reader who left a comment on a blog post I read:

“With all the blogging tips, tactics, etc. out there, it?s hard to know which one to follow without getting burned.”

I understood this commenter?s pain. I knew what it was like to be struggling as a blogger and hoping that some piece of advice out there was actually going to work (and not turn out to be another dud).

So, I wrote a post about this strategy on my blog. The results speak for themselves.

But it’s not just me…

Smart bloggers know writing blog posts using The Problem-Solution Content Method lets you create blog posts people want to read because they answer real problems, real pains, and real frustrations.

These kinds of posts build your email list. They create income for you.

It?s how Brennan Dunn created his first tiny product for freelancers and now has a thriving online business.

It?s how Nick Piegari writes (and creates video posts) that grow his email list with people hungry for answers to their video problems, pains, struggles.

It?s how I?m building my email list and planning my first product.

And it?s how you can start building and planning yours.

After all, a product you create after discovering what’s nagging your readers is a product that has a pretty good chance of getting SOLD.

But, I’m getting off track.

We?re talking writing popular posts here. Let?s get back to the task at hand…

How Do You Use the Problem-Solution Content Method to Write Blog Posts People Want to Read?

As mentioned above, there are TWO steps:

Step 1. ?Find Their Pain

Step 2. Take Away Their Pain (Solve Their Problem)

But how do you actually take these steps? What action do you need to take to make these steps work? And how?

Let me walk you through a real-life example.

Finding the Pain

I searched for pains in my niche in places where my potential readers hang out.

I searched in forums like Reddit, private Facebook groups, and in the comments sections of blogs that focus on Blogging and Blogging For Business.

And what did I find? I found comments and questions like these…

This comment was from a reader of one of my guest posts.

?…feeling discouraged today, another post but little response.? ? This was a comment shared by a member of a Facebook group I belong to.

?How do you figure out what to blog about? How do you get people to read it?? ? This was from a person on Reddit.

These are a just a few of the problems expressed by people still struggling to find readers (and asking for help).

They?ll be people like them in your field, or topic, or niche ? whatever you want to call it. You just need to look for them.

Offering the Solution

You need to put their ?deep heart? problem into your headline. The pain I kept finding was related to lack of readership. So, I came up with the following headline:

“Why Nobody Reads Your Blog Posts (and What To Do About It)”

By putting their ?deep heart? problem into my headline, I immediately grabbed the reader’s attention.

But it isn’t enough to simply call out their problem. Any yahoo can do that. No, you have to make a promise…

“Yes, I know you have this problem. But guess what? I have a solution. Just read this!”

But it doesn’t stop there. Yes, you’ve hooked them with your headline, but the best headline in the world won’t do you any good if your opening paragraphs suck.

Show them they were right to click on your headline or ?Read more…? because ? hey! ? you really know what they?re going through. Someone like you is bound to have an answer. Right?

So, reflect their thoughts and feelings back to them.

For instance, if you find your pain point via comments saying something like this…

?What I really want to know is how does one go about finding where one?s readers hang out in the first? It?s all very well saying I should go where my readers hang out. But where is that? What if I can?t find them when I get there??

…you take those words a frustrated commenter used to describe their problem and use them in your opening paragraph.

(Incidentally, I used a reader?s comment very like this one to write this blog post.)

And once you’ve hooked them with your opening paragraph, answer their questions. Give a solution to their problem. Just make sure you don’t give too many solutions.

As Derek Halpern says?

The problem is, people think “more is better,” but in the real world, long product lists are conversion killers. And if you want to increase your sales by 1,000%, you must streamline your offerings.

One solution for one problem prevents your readers from feeling overwhelmed.

“One thing? I can do that,” they’ll think to themselves.

And then they’ll go do that one thing. If you’ve done your homework, found their pain point and offered a well-thought-out solution, you’ll see them again. They’ll return to your blog, subscribe to your list, leave you comments, and share your posts.

And when you have a product to sell, they’ll be among the first to purchase it.

Are You Ready To Write Blog Posts People Want To Read?

Then it’s time to find people’s pain points.

Writing blog posts people want to read is all about knowing your audience; your readers. Who are they? Where are they? What are they suffering from?

Find out what’s troubling them and then offer a solution.

They’ll love you for it.

What do you think of The Problem-Solution Content Method? Have you tried it? Are you going to? Leave a comment below and let Kevin and me know.