The Bill Clinton Secret to Writing

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I’ve been a bit busy in wrapping up a few of my projects.A  So I’ll let my friend Daphne take over this post…

The Bill Clinton secret to writing

Last night, my 13-year-old daughter came to me complaining about her social studies homework. “I just can’t make myself do it, Mom,” she said. “It’s soooooo boring.” I squelched the urge to scream, “That’s because the school system has given you the world’s worst textbook.” (Is being dull a requirement for textbook writers? It surely seems so.) Instead, in my best and most patient writing-coach voice, I suggested that she emulate Bill Clinton.

No, it’s not what you might think. It’s just that we had recently watched him in the wonderful DVD Wordplay. If you haven’t seen this charming documentary yet, rush to your local store and rent it immediately. The movie is all about crossword puzzles and it includes interviews with, among others, the former president. He’s certainly not the most interesting or proficient puzzler of the bunch — the real fanatics brag about doing the weekend New York Times crossword in four minutes, in pen! But he does have a strategy worth emulating.

Clinton explains how he looks over the puzzle until he finds one clue he can answer easily. From there, he goes on to look for other openings. I’m paraphrasing here, but he says something like: “I just kind of chip away at it.”

You’ve probably done this with crosswords, too — but did you ever think to adopt the same strategy with writing? Remember the old joke “How do you eat an elephant?” Answer: One bite at a time. Turns out this works for writing, too.

When I produce my newsletter, for example, I never do it all in one go. It takes me about two hours — but I spread it out over six days, mostly in five- to 30-minute increments. Here’s the drill:

Day 1: pick topic
Day 2: do a mindmap
Day 3: start writing
Day 4: write some more
Day 5: revise and copy edit
Day 6: enter into software and proofread

Whether you’re faced with a tricky crossword puzzle or a difficult piece of writing, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. But you can fight that feeling by doing just a little bit at a time, taking a break and then going back to it.

Just as waves gradually wear down granite, so, too, your tiny but repeated efforts will eventually show impressive results.

Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing coach with an international practice. Sign up for her fra_Tee weekly newsletter Power Writing by going to her website www.publicationcoach.comA 

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Its not necessary to stretch the work out to 6 days.A  But its a good idea to stretch it out to 2 days at least.A  What I usually do is sit down at the beginning of the month and write down ideas for about 15-20 posts.A  And create quick mindmaps or bullet points for each of them (Daphne’s day 1 & Day 2.)

And then I pick up one of those topics and write a blog post on it.A  And publish it either after a couple of hours, or the next day.A  (Daphne’s day 3 to 6.)

I never publish the post as soon as I’ve written it down. What I do is usually timestamp the post to be published after a few hours.A  So that I have time to refine and edit the post further. (Disclosure: I don’t usually proof read these posts though as Daphne suggests you should.)

My November Report

I finished writing my November report.A  But its not blogging related.A  So won’t be promoting it on BlogClout.A  If you’re interested in it, please follow this link:
Making Money With Domain Names

Blog Readability Checklist

Heatmap shows how we tend to read in “F” fashion

Did you know that there are two kinds of online readers?

1. Methodical Readers: They read the posts from top to bottom without a lot of scanning.

2. Scanners: They scan headlines and pictures and other display elements without reading all the text.

And research shows that both these groups’ numbers are pretty much even. About 50% of all online readers are scanners and the other 50% are methodical readers.

Are you catering to both these type of readers?

7 Tips to Improve Your Blog Readability

1. Make sure your paragraphs aren’t too wide. 500 to 600 pixels is a perfect paragraph / column width.

2. Use a lot of headlines and subheadlines.

3. Use language that is easily understandable. (But don’t try to talk down to your readers.)

4. Pictures with captions are an excellent idea.

5. Use bullet points. Bullet points are widely read by both: methodical readers as well as scanners!

6. Add a Summary at the end of your extremely long posts to improve peoples understanding of your posts.

7. Use alternative story formats to increase readability. Questions and Answers work brilliantly online. So do blocks of quotes.

Credit: Photo by Travellin’ Librarian

Product Development Strategy for Blogs - FAQ

Strategy: Pump your first product profits to buy ads and generate more traffic for your blogA 

I’ve had some fascinating discussions with a few bloggers via email and skype these past few days after the Create a Quick Info Product post.A  Most of them have been quite fruitful and we shall see at least a couple of top bloggers come up with their own info products soon.

But there were a few hesitant people.A  This post is for them.

1. I don’t have the time to create an info product

Even the slowest of writers can write one page in one hour.A  10-12 pages is all that is required for a report / hotsheet that can be sold for less than $10.A  Are you telling me that you can’t work one weekend to raise your blog one notch ahead?

2. I’m not ready yet

Its December 2003.A  I’ve just started promoting BizTactics.com.A  I may have as many as 3 subscribers!A  But thats the time my mentor Sean D’Souza forced me to write a report for the website.A  What do you have to get ready for to write a quick report?

My suggestion: you should create an info product even before you start blogging.

That way - you can start buying ads to promote your blog from Day 1.A  And buying ads will make you popular quicker than not buying ads.

What are you waiting for?A  Can’t you dedicate one weekend this November to write a quick info product?

November Goal: Create a Quick Info Product

Did you know that the entire month of November is the “National Novel Writing Month?” The idea is to write a 50,000 word novel within 30 days. The focus is not on writing a master piece. But its on completing the novel.

Here is the amazing truth most NaNoWriMo participants stumble upon:

Time constraints Brew Insane Creativity!

The less time that you have, the better work you’ll do. How come? Because you’ll only focus on the most important things. You’ll develop the main plot and give more depth to the main characters.

NaNoWriMo Adaptation for Bloggers

Let me propose an idea: Lets ride along with NaNoWriMo. But instead of writing a novel from scratch, create an info product for your blog. An information product that can be sold for anything between $3 and $20.

Why Should You Create an Info Product?

Instead of relying on making money through ads alone, you’ll have your own product that you can sell. And you can pump in the profits from the sale to further promote your blog. And become more popular. You can then parlay your popularity to earn a full time income from your blog and quit your day job and live your dream life…

Info Product Formats

You don’t necessarily have to write a 50,000 words 175 pages info product. Here are some other quicker alternatives:

1. Write a report / hotsheet / manifesto: 5,000 words.

2. Create an audio book: 9,000-12,000 words. (You’ll have to record the words to make a 60-80 minute audio book.)

3 Quickfire Ways to Create an Info Product

1. Expand on one of your posts

Pick out any one of your old posts and add more details and depth to it. Cover all the angles to convert the topic into a report. Just answer the 6 W’s relating to your topic.

i. What is the idea about?
ii. Who should read it?
iii. Why should they read it?
iv. How, When & Where should they implement the idea?
v. Frequently Asked Questions and their answers.
vi. Case studies.
vii. More case studies.

2. Compile your back posts

Popular cartoonist and blogger Scott Adams recently did this. He deleted some of his older posts so that the public could no longer read them. And converted the posts into a book “Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!”

If you’ve been a long time blogger, then this is something you can do without spending a lot of time.

3. Interview an expert

This may be the easiest way of creating an info product. Especially an audio product. Just interview an expert. Steps?

i. Find an expert and get her permission for the interview.
ii. Create a set of 20-25 questions. Send the list of questions to the expert prior to the interview so that she can prepare the answers.
iii. Call the expert on a pre-arranged time and start interviewing.
vi. Record the phone call. Thats one audio product for you.
v. Transcribe the recorded call. (Or outsource it for around $100.)
vi. Edit the transcript for a second polished info product.

Action Summary:

• Set a goal to create one info-product before November 30th.
• Make a post on your blog announcing the info product. (Optional.) What this will do is make you accountable to your readers. And make sure that you meet your goal and create the info product.
• Let me know in the comments if you plan to create an info-product this month.

Note: If you’re stuck and cant come up with an idea to write on, let me know and I’ll brainstorm with you so that you have a viable idea that would make a good info-product. Just post a comment or contact me privately.