NuNomad Location Independent Living, Lifestyle Design, Independent Travel

The Background I Feel I Need to Spew

Believe it or not I’ve been writing this blog since mid 2006.  I know – it has not really grown to massive sizes nor does it have a huge readership yet like many.  Actually, I really didn’t get serious about it until this year.  In fact, due to some family stuff we were going through, the NuNomad blog was basically abandoned for about a year and a half from mid 2007 to early 2009.

I started blogging as a total ignorant.  I had no idea of anything, SEO, subscribers, RSS, anything.  These last nine months have been a steep learning curve for me and I’m happy to say we have seen some of the benefits of the work by increased readers and traffic. (I also want to plug the Rock Star Business Series which gave me massive help in pushing us further into the scene and raising our visibility.  I recommend it to anyone starting out and yes, I might get to by a sandwich if you buy one).  At this point I’m still not an expert and so you might wonder what gives me any right to write this post.  The answer is – nothing – except a gut feeling that I need to get this sentiment out there.

Anyway, in these last nine months I’ve read a LOT of posts on how to write great content, how to write blogs that get traffic, etc. etc.  In a nutshell, most emphasize that to get great traffic it all boils down to providing solid content.  I have to agree with that wholeheartedly.  Then most go into all sorts of tips for things you can do to get people to click over to your post.  Usually, you get told to create lists, “how to’s”, use hot keywords in the title and all sorts of tricks that people have learned work.  I’ve tried several and it’s true – a lot of them work.  I’ve also learned that stupid tricks such as putting the word “Ass” in the title work really well.  In fact, I’ve started to think I should probably put “Ass” or “Asshole” in every title regardless. You can see a couple of my attempts with “Be a SMARTASS and Design Your Best Life“, and “How to Travel Like and Asshole, Endanger Yourself and Be Hated by Locals“.  Both of those posts drew a good size audience.

Where My Thoughts Are Now

But recently I had a chance to take a week long trip to the beach and I promised my family and you all that I would go without my laptop ( see Always Traveling but Never on Vacation).  Just to let you know, I did that and it was great.  Someday I’ll tell you the scary part about how I dreamed scenes from my laptop screen on the first night – pull down menus, back end admin dashboards, it all was flashing in front of my eyes for about 24 hours.  But I regress.

Anyway, what became very clear to me is something we don’t often talk about – what it REALLY takes to write great blog posts.

1. Have a life – Unless you’re a blogger that writes exclusively about tech stuff, you’ve got to get out and have a life.  Without your own experiences to draw from you’ll have nothing to write about.  I mean, who’s going to be motivated by someone who never leaves a dark room?
2. Read a lot and read good stuff – As they say, “Garbage in. Garbage out.”  So I imagine the reverse should also hold some truth “Quality in. Quality out.”  If you want to be able to create great content, you need to fill your own mind with quality thoughts and material from others.
3. Develop your skills - Recently I was contacted by someone wanting coaching to grow an internet business.  He had already started a blog.  Out of curiosity I went out to see it.  The grammar was poor.  The spelling was incorrect.  Some of the sentences were so nonsensical that I wondered if he was an English speaker.  If you want to write as part of your living be sure to develop your skills.  You don’t have to be perfect.  I certainly don’t use perfect grammar.  You do need to have basic proficiency and be able to communicate your thoughts in a manner that others can understand.  Better yet, see if you can get to the level of writing that compels others to keep on reading and gives them a sense that they know you personally.  Two of my favorites in this regard are Colin Wright and Ashley Ambirge.
4. Live in your niche - None of us are islands.  If you want to write about carpentry, get to know other carpenters and their work.  Blogging about parenting?  Read other good parenting bloggers.  In other words, know what the top writers in your niche are saying, know what others are doing and network with them.  It’s embarrassing to write about your latest great idea only to find out 4 other people in your niche wrote about it the week before.
5. Feed your soul – If you, like me, are a blogger trying to develop an audience, it can become an all consuming obsession.  It’s easy to live in front of the screen trying to figure out what separates the wheat from the chaff and what’s going to bring your blog success.  But this kind of life can really eat away at your soul.  You can’t pour from an empty cup and as a blogger you need to be able to pour – and pour a lot!  Balance your life by doing activities that feed your soul.  Take a walk in nature, spend time with your kids, go diving, whatever it is that invigorates you.  Blogging is a very giving activity and sometimes there is little response.  You’ll need to nurture yourself so that you can continue to give.
6. Let it flow – If you’ve taken the steps above you should find yourself in a good mental place and ready to write.  When that happens let it flow.  Try to let the thoughts be unfiltered by concerns about what others might think.  Don’t be shy to let your own opinions and personality show through.  The beauty of a blog is that it belongs to you and you will have complete control over the publishing.  Take advantage of that freedom.  Even if people may disagree with you at times they will be drawn to your honesty.

I really believe that if you live an enriched and balanced life, if you fill yourself with great stuff, you’re going to have a lot to offer to the world and that offering is going to be great content.  Once you’ve got your great content if you want to use some of the tips and tricks that experts out there can offer – go for it!  You’ll know that you’ve put out value and in the long run that’s what will matter.

So – am I making any sense at all?

Photo by: Pensiero