I woke up this morning and thought—there are at least 3 posts I have in my head that I need to write for Epi. I have the time. But I am not making the time. What’s wrong? I got to work and Lee IM’d me and said we need to talk about Epi…

It’s me, not you

I think I’ve started to understand that I am not a teacher. I am a do’er. Though I like to think a lot about theory and ideas, I don’t know that I have successfully been able to communicate them or I have communicated them to death. I haven’t been able to connect universally. One-on-one I have had great success. While I wrote about organic blogging, I found that I spent most of my time wishing that I could just be organic blogging. I don’t know how to write about writing, but I do know how to write.

I have had the oppurtunity to make some great relationships over the last year and that’s what I’ll take with me. Thanks to everyone who commented and started some really great and meaningful conversations. As Lee is about to talk about, I will be moving my posts over to my blog and Lee to his.

This was a great experiment, but I have come to understand that my passion lays in other directions. Feel free to stop by either of my blogs.

Changes, Changes

Life is full of changes. When Rhett approached me with the idea of Epiblogger little did I know that in the next year of launching Epiblogger that my wife and I would move to Regina, my blog would require more time, and that my family would need more time from me. I think Rhett and I both knew the writing was on the wall for Epiblogger back in August, but change is hard for me and I don’t like to give up easily. Now in January 2009 though I have to focus more on my business and my family. My business has been growing steadily over the last year and is requiring more of my time. My family also needs their Dad, especially my little girl, who has a speech development delay. Add it all up and 2009 meant changes, and that change had to be Epiblogger.

There is some great content that Rhett and I have written here and to keep it alive, Rhett and I will be moving our posts over to our blogs. You will be able to find Rhett’s posts over at Rhett Soveran - Web and Blog Consulting and Communications, and my posts will be available at the LGR Internet Solutions Blog. I have created a post already highlighting the Epiblogger content and tagged all the posts from Epiblogger so they are easy to find. I have also created redirects for my posts to their new locations on the LGR Internet Solutions blog, so you should be redirected to the new location.

For all of our great RSS subscribers, I would encourage you to check out both my RSS feed and Rhett’s RSS feed and subscribe. We both blog regularly on our sites and you might see me guest posting on Rhett’s blog or Rhett on mine.

While Epiblogger is closing, this site will remain online for awhile. The hosting is paid for, the domain name is paid for and there are some posts here that will remain. It has been a great experience working with Rhett on Epiblogger and I know that Rhett and I will keep in contact and will partner up again at some point. Thanks to everyone that has been a regular reader here, commented and been a part of Epiblogger. It has been fun.

• Blogging in Reruns
• A Beginners Guide to Blogging - Choosing a Topic
• Make Your Blog Work for You
• A Beginners Guide to Blogging - The Starting Point
• Easy Top Post Widget

I am so f—ing tired of the prejudice against personal bloggers. Leading the charge today, I quote the great Guy Kawasaki:

I may get more value out of Twitter than anyone else on the planet because I use Twitter as a tool—specifically as a marketing tool—for my website Alltop and my book, Reality Check. If the concept of using Twitter in a commercial manner interests you, keep reading. If it doesn’t, then you can continue to send and receive tweets about how cats are rolling over and the line at Starbucks.

Humanities biggest problem is entitlement. Entitlement is a bit of a double-edged sword, if you ask me. I hope it’s appropriate that I believe I am entitled to life, rights and (if I am fortunate) happiness. It gets a little dicey when I start to believe I am entitled to own a hummer (I don’t own a hummer), destroy communities and so on.

Rhett has road rage and blog rage

One of the easiest areas to see our sense of entitlement is when we drive and I am a perfect example. If you want to hear the most foul, evil and vindictive things, just spend an afternoon driving with me. Most of the time it just spews out of me. I can own that. Usually, I shock myself and tell myself I need to cool out. I am entitled to be where I want to be, when I want to be and you better get out of my damn way. This is the bad side of entitlement.

I also have, little known, pedestrian rage. When I worked downtown I walked everywhere and I have almost been hit by a car more times than I would have liked. But there’s a difference between being on time and being hit by a 3/4 ton truck. I am entitled to my life. I am going out on a limb to believe this.

So where’s the line?

I feel entitled to the right to be a personal blogger without chastising comments from the would-be peanut gallery. It makes me angry when people think that I blog about my cat all day. Or that I let everyone know I am about to brush my teeth. Because I don’t do that. And let’s just be clear—Guy’s not the only one saying this stuff. He’s just the one who crossed my path today.

Finding value

I really don’t think Guy is so much further ahead. He’s just in a different line. So he uses Twitter as a “tool” to create “value”. In truth, that’s just some marketing spin. He’s just selling—undercoat not included. This assumption of value might be the most annoying part about all this. It’s like he almost runs you over and then gives you the finger on top.

The numbers are skewed

For work, I was reading up on CTR (clickthrough rates). One person mentioned that depending on clickthrough rates to find value can lead to error because heavy clickers are not necessarily heavy buyers. And generally, they aren’t. It can be relatively easy to get a large following on Twitter, but that doesn’t mean that they buy whatever it is your selling and in fact, I have found that they don’t. Everyone’s just sending links all the time. On Epi’s twitter I do have a lot of friends, but there are also a lot of people I don’t know. When I check that feed it’s usually someone hocking some link to a bullshit list that I’m not interested in.

If you compare that to my personal Twitter feed, it’s a different story. In Calgary, we have developed quite a community and I have developed quite a few new real life friendships because of it. Because we are friends on and offline, we respect one another, and we view Twitter as a conversation between us, when we share something—we are really sharing it.

The value is in the relationship

If you want to sell something or share anything, you need the relationships. I don’t have stats, but in this day and age of complete information saturation, I really believe that the relationships you build are what is going to get you ahead. If you think that Twitter is a blunt tool to hit users over the head with, I can’t imagine you finding success. It works for Guy because he is already a name and because—whether he admits it or not—he already has the relationships.

My hypothesis

I think you probably see where I am going with all of this. But it would be my hypothesis that those marketer-types or whoever they are that like to create this sense of dissonance and divide between them, in their tower, with their selling and money-making, value-creating lifestyle versus we lowly and humble personal bloggers is because we have the community that they want. We have a power that they don’t know how to achieve. We connect in a way that they never can, because they are always looking for an angle to work and we are just looking to have a conversation.

There is value in sharing minutae of my life and I hope you will share yours with me. My name is Rhett Soveran and I am a personal blogger.

Photo by Tony the Misfit

• The Great Personal Blogger Search
• Our Lives on Twitter: 140 Characters or Less
• Blogging Grief
• A Beginners Guide to Blogging - Choosing a Topic
• A Great New Way to Blog for 2008: Conversation

I read an interesting post yesterday of how to save thousands of hours by not writing as much (”My ‘content is king’ belief was directly responsible for the loss of hundreds and maybe thousands of hours of my time”). The premise of the post makes sense. Write only quality stuff, less frequency and use the rest of the time to market or do jumping-jacks or picking your nose. But what about creating intimacy?

You know what I could have done to save 10, at least 20 dollars and probably 25 minutes of my life?! I could have gone straight home yesterday and had my wife pluck my eyebrows. Rhett, what the hell is wrong with you? Think of those savings! Well, let me tell you about the problem with intimacy—you are too intimate. Brilliant, I know. Please, don’t applaud.

My wife knows me and I am a total wuss. Frankly, I would (and have) whined and cried and scream and yelled if she tried to come at me with tweezers. Leah and I know each other too well and are too comfortable around each other. However, when I go to the scalding-wax lady social etiquette says that I can’t whine/cry/scream/yell at her. I have to be tough. I am not allowed to give into my inner wuss. It’s time to man-up and get my eyebrows groomed.

The problem with intimacy is that you can’t fake it. Maybe a small tear slipped out during the waxing yesterday, but I maintain that was just because she was pulling out hairs near my eyes and so… it… made a tear… come out. It hurts, a lot. Okay? Lay off. But I am beautiful for it.

The problem with creating intimacy on your blog is that people are going to know when you aren’t really engaged or when you are dreaming about other, younger blogs. No one is crying out Problogger anymore. It’s all Oh Ittybiz or Mmm MenWithPens.

Wow, that was a real tangent. Plus, if there ever was an analogy in this post I totally destroyed it. But you don’t need analogies, you aren’t four years old. You don’t need stories about Buzz Lightyear, no matter how dreamy you are. Okay maybe sometimes we need analogies. Lord have mercy, get on topic Rhett.

Maybe Mr. Save-Thousands-of-Hours was right in saying that creating content for the sake of content doesn’t and has never made sense. You will never save time, but you can use the time you have to offer insightful information and connect with the community around you. Create intimacy where it makes sense, like on your blog.

Creating quality content will always be a hit. Creating quality content with a sense of intimacy and sharing will be a knock-out. (Do you ever get a sense when you write closing lines like that one that you are a huge cornball? Me neither.)

Photo by Cia de Foto (You should check out this persons photos, they are fantastic)

• Keywords Does Not a Blog Make
• Closing up Epiblogger
• RSS - What, Where, Why and How
• A Great New Way to Blog for 2008: Conversation
• Blogging with Google Maps

I was talking to my friend Mark Steadman earlier this week about authority. He felt he didn’t have much because his niche is saturated. Which is interesting. Mark is a brilliant .NET Developer who is currently working on his own CMS, as well as a brilliant podcast and working full-time. How can he not have authority? It’s because there’s a bizillion other .NET developers, all blogging and all using up authority in that area. Authority is being shared and can Mark, can I get a piece of that pie?

If you want to be an authority, at anything, you have to develop, dig deeper, go further and you will find an undiscovered niche. A gem waiting for you to exploit. That’s where your authority lies. There will always be another niche, right?

I think you could argue and say that I am just not imaginative enough. If I were truly engaged I would find a niche. Or I did the unthinkable and dive into a heavily developed niche, like metablogging, and try to yank some authority from my, would-be, competitors: Darren, Chris, Liz, and so on. And if I want to get authority I need to link to my competitors so that they will notice me and hopefully take pity on me and spare some change. In real life, I am a normal/weird, happy person and online I am a panhandler for authority.

Even Seth noticed this the other day:

It’s tempting to use a medium to write about the medium. It works for a while, but there’s a limit.

Sooner or later, our niche runs out. The well goes dry. It’s all used up. We have nothing else to say or someone else says it better. So we go back to the drawing board and start again. Develop, dig and go further. This method hasn’t lead us astray yet, has it?

Yes, it has. It has in the real world and it has online. Global warming is real, just as much as our desires to mine the internet for every last dollar. But, at the risk of pushing this analogy to it’s breaking point, there are other ways to develop authority. We don’t have to use coal to make power and we don’t have to exploit niches for authority.

And the answer is the exact same thing I have been saying all along. We have to reassess how we approach the net. We need to start with a renewable resource. Something that continues to grow without running out.

Let me suggest to you that you (or your “people”)—yes, you—are that renewable resource. When you come before the subject, when you bring yourself into the equation, that your niche, your content and your authority grows through your vitality. We when approach the web organically than we have something that will only run out if we let it.

Photo by Amanda

• Bring the Audience to You
• A Great New Way to Blog for 2008: Conversation
• Where Are Your Pictures?
• Make Your Blog a Home
• Developing Money Making Niche Sites with WordPress

Once again, I am speaking in generalities and just making observations. About two months ago, I was in Vegas. I was overwhelmed, but Vegas is no place to make general judgments about America. But Idaho feels like a good place. It’s a little more realistic.

You might say that Canadians have a bit of a mania about being compared to Americans. It would likely be fair to say we are often overshadowed by the magnitude of America. But the truth is we are extremely similar to America, in many ways. We hold very similar values, but there are small differences that make us individual.

In my last Nationality and Blogging post, I was concerned about having Authority. And I wonder if this push for authority comes from the congested areas of the world. The west side of Idaho is very similar to Alberta (the province where I live). Trees, hills, mountains, lakes, rivers and ranchers. One major difference is simply the amount of people. Canada has some 30 million people. America has 300 million. Even in Idaho, I could feel the swell of people. It’s a subtle difference, but once you sense it, the feeling doesn’t go away (or it didn’t for me). Therefore, I can’t help but wonder if the necessity to be noticed amongst the crowd only increases.

So how do you Americans stand out in such a big crowd? Perhaps that’s not a question I can answer. But the people along the trip who stood out to me were the honest ones. Like the woman at the gas station who made fun of me for asking the time when there were clocks on every single wall. The border guards, who had a lot of authority, were just another face in the crowd.

But, I open the floor to you American or non-American bloggers once again. Let me hear what you have to say.

Photo by Hot Ash

• Nationality and Blogging
• Niches are Non-Renewable
• Navigating the Downs
• Blogging Grief
• The War of Numbers

Earlier this week, I was questioning if my tone, style and character for Epiblogger really worked. Maybe I should shift towards being clean and precise. Something closer to say what your typical problogger would do. More upfront and in your face. I was wondering if I was too subtle. Because to be honest with you, even though I hope to provide you with unique information every day, my overall goal is to inspire you with a different style of blogging. Maybe you would call it character blogging or personal blogging, but really it’s organic blogging. A form of blogging that grows naturally. And part of being natural is displaying who you are—which, I would think, is generally risky.

Also, this week, I was thinking about how to get passed hurdles and walls. To be honest, it’s not much of a hurdle to show you how silly I am. For some people, it might be. But there is another part to all this dragon business that isn’t that silly. It comes from where that saying came from—”Its okay if you think I am a real dragon”. It’s an original Rhett Soveran saying.

I was talking to Kev yesterday on Skype (user: rhettna if you want to chat) and I admitted to him how much anxiety I have to deal with when I write. Which was a surprise to him and maybe you. Severe anxiety is my wall. And a lot of that anxiety came from my days in university when I would get locked up while attempting to write papers. And, in my infinite wisdom, I dealt with that anxiety very poorly, which is where the dragon saying came from.

I used to be a big MMORPG player. That was my escape from the anxiety. I played Ultima Online for almost three years and the saying came from that game (because it’s a fantasy game and you could ride dragons and morph into a dragon and all that nerdy stuff). Somehow I (and friends) ended up running around telling other gamers that it was okay if they thought we were dragons and we laughed. But the truth is that I wasn’t a big player, I was an addict. And for those that don’t know about addiction, general symptoms include lying to loved ones, anxiety, depression, sense of euphoria (when playing and withdrawl when your not), avoiding friends and family, and the list goes on. I exhibited all those things at that time. I got rid of everything except for the anxiety (and the addiction (arguably you have that forever)). The anxiety isn’t just from gaming, but it was certainly amplified.

Today, I won’t be too subtle. I have been sitting here for a bit wondering if I should just press and hold the delete key. It scares me to share that I, in fact, have weaknesses and problems. It’s hard to admit that I was addicted to a silly game and even worse that it affected my life so completely. But part of me is my weakness. And for me and for my definition, I have to have integrity when it comes to being an organic blogger. There is risk here for me, in being open, but there is also a challenge to myself and to, hopefully, you. I’m not saying you have divulge everything. But there is nothing better, in my opinion, than to read a human blogger and it is my argument that we should strive to bring humanity into every corner of the internet, including your blog.

This was the fourth part of a seemingly unending series ‘Being Sold (Out)’. You can also read part one, two and three.

Photo by Leah Soveran

• Blogging with Character and Leave Botox Blogging Behind
• Bring the Audience to You
• Make Your Blog Work for You
• Where Are Your Pictures?
• Navigating the Downs

Showing is hard and there are several levels that I imagine exist. Showing is something I have struggled with on Epiblogger. Specifically, because I am essentially trying to sell the idea of organic blogging and I have no proof that it works—except my analogy between the success of organic farmers and the potential success of an organic blogger. But before I wrestle that issue, there are other, arguably more important, ways to show.

Showing is probably one of the most important things in writing. Likely, if you have ever taken a creative (or any) writing class they would have mentioned this. What I mean by showing is being concrete. Using real images to portray something. For instance, if I were to write (like I usually do ): My day was a never-ending abyss of despair and hopelessness—you would think, I understand what he is saying but I don’t really know what an abyss is or what it looks like. But what if I said: My day was a pile of rotting bananas. Probably not my most brilliant example of poetics; however, it certainly gives you a sensual reaction and you connect with it much easier than an abyss. Being concrete or showing doesn’t need to be as melodramatic as me either. I read on a blog the other day, can’t remember which one, the blogger wrote “He is a small knot of a man”. What a simple and brilliant image that illuminates the person without taking a paragraph to tell us all about him. There is a story in that concrete image. Part of being organic is taking the time and putting in the effort to truly connect with your audience.

Do you remember in grade 1, when you brought the conch shell to class that your dad brought back from Hawaii for you and everyone thought it was so cool. And you blew the conch and it’s trumpet-sound echoed down the hallways. Then the smelly kid got up and talked about how he played with cows on the weekend and you almost fell asleep? Well, if you don’t remember it, I do, but I am not sure whatever happened to that conch. On the macro level of showing, you need to show and tell. For us organic bloggers, we are storytellers. In a nutshell, it is my personal belief that all we are is stories. And so the question is: are you a pre-packaged story or an organic one? Gather round, it’s story time: The Apple.

Story #1: The pre-packaged farmer, in his overalls and corn-cob pipe, spends his spring spraying his orchard with pesticides and fungicides. Days before the apples will naturally ripen, while they are tough like baseballs and don’t bruise easily, he loads the apples in bins by the thousands and ships them to the stores for mass consumption.

Story #2: The organic farmer, in his Birkenstocks and his Easy Rider hair, grows the counter-culture apple. His spring is spent with natural fertilizers and encouraging varieties of insects and birds to care for the orchard. The morning before he drives to the local Farmers market, he hand picks the ripest apples and puts them in re-usable bags.

Rhett, those stories were too cliche and entirely unfair. Could be, but they are my stories and I can tell them however I like. For the record, I know very little about farming, apples and the production process, but I do know that I like eating them. I think it is very easy to fall into the category of blogging in a way that works. Of course, pre-packaged posts work. That’s why they are pre-packaged (we all already know it will sell). But, organic blogging is about, again, connection, taking risks and trying to do something truly unique.

The last part, maybe the boring part, of showing is being accountable. How can I sell organic blogging if I don’t know it works. I can’t show you the data that proves this to be a successful model. But, I can show you, in every post so far, that I have tried to be a blogger who is organic and shows in every way possible. For now, I can tell you that this is an experiment in action and thus far the response has been great.

This was the second part of the series “Being Sold (Out)”. You can read part one here.

Photo by Alejandro Forero Cuervo

• Being Sold (Out): The Organic Switch
• All Bloggers are Liars
• Blogs as a Seed
• Blogging in the Microwave Age
• Blogging with Character and Leave Botox Blogging Behind

Today, for the majority of us, in order to buy or give anything, we want to get first. If you aren’t giving me anything, you better believe that I am not going to invest in you or your product. For instance, a new cell provider in Canada just opened called Koodo. It’s the first mobile phone provider that I know of that doesn’t make you sign a contact. It’s always funny to me that every other service that I have (tv, phone, internet, etc) doesn’t require a contract, but somehow the cell phone industry would fall apart if they couldn’t put me in stranglehold contracts. As a the owner of a terrible contract, I feel listened to and understood. Why did that take so long? Don’t know. But doesn’t it feel great when you can connect with a product?

I told Lee when we started Epiblogger that we couldn’t sell our blog with cheap content with large overhead revenues. I said we will be organic. I think Lee was skeptical (or at least not as idealistic as myself), but I think he has even come around more and more. It’s as simple as creating an analogy between looking what an organic farmer does and bringing that to the blogging world. Growing a natural product, without artificial enhancements, and letting the product sell itself. It tastes better and is better for you.

When a product or service can speak for itself, than I can honestly sell it to you without making greasy promises of making an eighteen figure salary or all the fame and glory or a smaller waste after only two days.

I guarantee that the startup of organic blogging (selling/showing) is more work and it is extremely likely that you will run into barriers, questions and walls. But when you and I get to the harvest and we can reap the benefits of our work, it will be worth it—monetarily, communally and (even) ethically.

This is the first part of a series that I just decided to write. Watch, in the following days, as I continue to explore what it means to be an organic blogger and how you to can switch to the new method of selling. How’s that for some marketing lingo?

Photo by Bill Bradford

• Jott Blogging
• Being Sold (Out): Showing and Telling
• Free Blogger Cards
• Navigating the Downs
• Personal Blog Prejudice

I have two children. A four and a half year old boy and a two and a half year old girl. They are adorable, most of the time. I have learned over the last four and a half years that if I want them to do anything I need to repeat the instructions not once, not twice, but three times. It can get frustrating having to repeat the same instructions over and over again, but I know if I don’t repeat myself three times my kids will not understand everything I want them to do. There will be something that is missed and then we will often have to do it over again anyways.

When I was in seminary taking my Master’s degree one of the things that stuck in my mind from my homiletics class about writing sermons is it is a good idea to focus on your main theme in three different ways. Find different ways to repeat your theme and topic. Everyone will hear and focus on a different part of your sermon, but hopefully they will hear your main point.

Blogging is not very different. You need to focus on your topic, whether it is a personal blog or a professional blog, and repeat it. By repeating your main topic in a post you are more likely to have people understand your point and take away with them what your main point is.

• A Beginners Guide to Blogging - Choosing a Topic
• Reasons Not to Blog
• A Beginners Guide to Blogging - The Starting Point
• Winnie the Pooh Blogger
• Closing up Epiblogger

The idea of grief came up when someone on my personal twitter account tweeted that their mom was on her last few days. I was shocked. I don’t personally know this person, so I have no connection except that I received that tweet. When Twitter ask What Are You Doing? I think I imagined that was superficial. Like when someones asks How are you? and you say Good even if you are having the worst day of your life. You certainly don’t answer Twitter and say—I’m watching my mother die. Or do you?

Up until the launch of Epiblogger, I have been primarily a personal blogger and I have come up against the problem of writing grief. Now is the time where I should say, if you were curious, that I am not a psychologist nor do I have any professional experience with grief counselling. But, I like most people have experienced grief in a few different forms and I had to decide if and how to share it.

I think most of us would recognize the 5 Stages of Grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance)—at least when we aren’t grieving. Technically, I have been blogging for just over three years now and I have had opportunities to share celebration and grief. I got married, finished university, found jobs, adopted pets and many things to celebrate. But I have also grieved the death of pets (two 18 year old cats and a 17 year old dog) and, at times, I have grieved the status of society, faith, the planet and probably a few other things.

Now this is where I don’t have any clinical knowledge, but I am just going to go with my thoughts. But I would imagine that there are different types of grief. Or at least, we could distinguish differences. Such as the difference between mourning the death of a loved one and mourning the environmental affects we have had on our planet. I think there is a difference there, but I could be wrong.

The great thing about blogging is that it gives a room for a voice. I believe that when we encounter some type of relational/personal grief than that’s the time for a blog to shine, that’s the time when we need a space where we feel comfortable to talk and for me my blog is the perfect place. I would say, at this point, no matter where we are in the 5 Steps, that we should write out exactly how we feel. Whether we are angry or depressed or whatever, we should just be writing/talking/expressing.

Generally, I don’t censor myself, but grief that is outside of me is often a tough thing to communicate. For instance, if you noticed, I included that I have grieved faith. Well that’s a little jam-packed gem of information, isn’t it? I mean that in both in a personal and universal sense. Without going into an extremely long story, faith has always been a rocky place for me. A couple months ago I watched a documentary that held a very abusive view of a several world religions and so I went straight to my blog, I was so upset, that I wrote an angry rant that, in the end, really didn’t reflect how I actually felt because I wasn’t angry, but sad and it brought back a lot of memories of hurt. After a day of it being online, I pulled it off (the one and only time I have done that) and took a week to re-write the article thoughtfully and the response was very favourable. What I learned that day is that I write very poor rants and now I know that when I am grieving something that isn’t immediate (in the sense that death is) I need to take time to realize where I am at and think about whether it’s a good time to publish anything.

More than anything, I am really interested how you approach grief online? I know a lot of you may not have a personal blog, but there are lots of ways to express yourself. Would you tweet grief? Or blog it? Or Facebook it? Or what woudl you do? Generally, grief takes me more than 140 characters, but for some it might be all that you are comfortable to share.

Photo by Jessica

• Personal Blog Prejudice
• The Great Personal Blogger Search
• Our Lives on Twitter: 140 Characters or Less
• The Looking In Advantage
• Lather, Rinse, Repeat

I find this trait both enabling and disabling when it comes to writing and managing a blog. Striving for an idealistic plateau of perfection means that great care is taken in the construction of a post. I’s are dotted, T’s are crossed (okay so this cannot be done in a literal sense but a good old spell check is carried out along with several rereads to ensure good readability). References and statements are checked for accuracy. As an advocate of usability and accessibility online, erroneous terms such as ‘Read More’ and ‘Click Here’ are labelled descriptively, with, for example ‘Read More on Introducing the idealist’ and ‘Navigate to the offers page’. It is these small, commonly overlooked items that make me happy when I see them being used on blog posts I am reading.

So how does idealism become disabling? Some bloggers have the ability to piece together a post very quickly, a splurge of thought dumped onto the page at an alarming rate. This, after what I have just mentioned previously sounds like something I would not care for. However, ideally I would love to be able to carry out several conversations per day and create a real buzz around my blog by capturing the hearts and minds of a wider audience. This is where the idealist comes unstuck. With this inane idealist mind that worries about the small items, the research, the content, a brain dump or thought splurge is out of the question. Not to say I do not try. No. Idealistic I strive and try to splurge from time to time. It is a constant battle.

We as bloggers, in order to grow need to be in tune with our personalities. There is no hard and fast rule to blogging. Some of us write essays, others bullet point. Some write personal diaries, others news or corporate blogs. Plugging into our own traits and using these to our advantage will allow us to develop our own voice. Use what is in your head to your advantage, whether it be a battle like mine or a road of creativity lined with roses. Also be in tune to the fact that there are many other styles too. If your own is hampering you or today you fancy a new approach don’t be scared to give another a whirl to break the mould of your current style. You never know your audience may prefer it. Gauge it through your analytics software.

I would be interested to hear how you approach your blogging style and whether you put up your own personal barriers. How do you overcome these?

Kevin Rapley is a web designer, developer and blogger from Birmingham, UK. Branching into social media and educating both clients and web visitors to his site website www.Digikev.co.uk has been his goal over the past year. He currently works for HRO’C, a digital agency, as a web developer and also gets involved in online projects www.newmediajunkie.com as well as various freelance projects and meetings with local blogger groups.

• The Problem With (Blog) Intimacy
• Where Are Your Pictures?
• The War of Numbers
• Nationality and Blogging: America
• Reasons Not to Blog

If I were to stick myself in a genre of writing, I would like to think I fit in a sort-of dramatic comedy or maybe even a comedic drama. But really, I am just a personal blogger. Even when I am doing this professional blogging, I am still a personal blogger. You haven’t caught me writing any tutorials or technical manuals or reviews or anything impersonal. I have tended to be a bit more didactic, than on my personal blog. But that’s because I am usually trying to make a point. I am not saying this because those other styles of writing are wrong or that writing tutorials/reviews/etc have no value, they have a lot of value. Lee generally writes those types of posts and he generates a good amount of traffic to those posts. However, I want to make a case for personal blogging and the benefits that I see arising from it.

The interwebs are a cold and lonely place. In it’s natural habitat the internet is devoid of humanity. Just calculations. But, in true human fashion, we have colonized the internet. We kicked out those binaries and built a system of interaction. Or something. I am of the opinion that just being transparent is no longer enough on the web (and never has been). I think a website is a 100x more effective when there are pictures of people and 200x more effective when you feel like you are reading content of a real person (those numbers are used were not based on any stats other than pretend ones in my brain).

During my degree, I had to suffer through one Art History class. One of the few interesting things I remember is that, at some point in Europe (I’d say maybe in Amsterdam), a style of paintings based around looking in on people doing every day tasks were very popular (the “Big Brother” of a few centuries ago). There was a window open or a door and you could see into peoples lives. No matter if it was spinning yarn or cooking, getting a glimpse of closed off area is always intriguing. I believe that writing from a personal place is very similar to this. It gives all of us a feeling of connectedness, intimacy and sharing—plus it makes for a good show. And now I am going to do something I never do—a list.

Reasons for a personal, looking in approach:

• Adds a higher level of humanity and interactivity.
• Requires more of the reader because they have to engage with a more real person (good and bad depending on your point of view).
• We love drama and creating your own soap opera can only stand to help.
• Not only a higher level of transparency, but also honesty on all sides.
• Even though there is honesty, there is more flexibility to tell a story.
• Requires more of the writer to choose to be open.
• Takes less time. Is there anything easier to do than talk about yourself?
• Accountability.
• What else?

There are benefits to other styles of writing, but I believe that the personal approach makes the most sense. I can’t think of a niche that wouldn’t benefit from it. We can pretend to be objective and have all the answers, but the truth is that all we are is our stories and the stories we tell each other is how we learn.

For me, it would be impossible for me to come here and say “blog this way, blog that way, listen to me, I’m smart”. I think telling you a story of how I came to a certain idea and let you decide is much more valuable. Not only because stories are more fun and interesting, but it allows for you to interpret and take my idea in any direction you like. Go forth and take ideas and then give them back to me in whole new ways and we can keep moving forward.

Photo by Alexia

• All Bloggers are Liars
• Where Are Your Pictures?
• Blogs are Worse Than Ex-Girlfriends
• Being Sold (Out): Showing and Telling
• Reasons Not to Blog

Prior to beginning this post do you know what I saw? Of course you don’t. A “Make Money Online” blogger linking to us. A linkbait attempt, no doubt. It’s humorous to me because we are the furthest thing from a “Make Money Online” blog. You know why? We are not homogenized, pasteurized or generic. At least we better not be. That might be a bit cocky or arrogant, but I don’t mean it to be. I was watching television earlier and that guy that usually sells some sort of amazing oxygen cleaner was back on TV yelling about an amazing new, absorbing cloth. The cloth was nothing more than a shammy. But that’s beside the point. He was yelling. I don’t want to be yelled at. And I get this feeling, in the blogging world, that I am being yelled at. DO THIS TO MAKE MONEY. YOU CAN MAKE MONEY. MAKE MONEY, MAKE MONEY, MAKE MONEY. Everyone is yelling make money.

If there is anything I have learned from my real estate trials lately is that I want a house with character. I don’t want a cookie-cutter house. I don’t want a house that screams I AM THE SAME AS EVERY OTHER HOUSE ON THE STREET. There are problems with character though. Characters aren’t perfect. They need work. They make mistakes. They disappoint you. They sometimes let stress get the best of them and wallow.

I want to challenge you today to show your gray hair, show your bald spot, show the wrinkles, show the spots, show everything that gives you character. It is absolutely more difficult to read someones blog who writes with character and honesty. There’s no getting around that. It’s easy to let yourself, to let myself, be yelled at and if we listen long enough we just might believe that we can actually make money online without doing much work. Similarly, if we stretch, inject, raise, tighten and augment ourselves for long enough we just might begin to believe all the easy promises. You might say, Rhett you are 25 years old, you don’t know anything. I will tell you right now—you might be right. But I will always be happy to tell you what I think and that, perhaps, is a fault of my character.

Finally, though I will say it is more difficult for everyone if you blog with character, you will be infinitely more interesting to me and I will wager that you will find other people interested to you as well. I am here to share, to blog openly and to blog organically and part of being organic is being honest and authentic. Give it a try or if you are already doing it keep going.

You’ve got a lot of character, I know you do. Show me your character.

Photo by HAMED MASOUMI

• Make Your Blog a Home
• Add Some Spice and New Perspective to Your Blog
• WordPress & Amazon.com
• Ads on Epiblogger? Oh My!
• A Beginners Guide to Blogging - Choosing a Topic

Lee is really good with titles. He came up with the title for All Bloggers are Liars. That was a great title. Otherwise, Lee just comes up with solid titles. Titles really aren’t that difficult. What’s your post about? Sum it up into 5 descriptive words and put them in a coherent order. If you can do that and add a little creativity you are even better off.

So what is more important than titles? Content. How do you get someone to read your brilliant content? The title? Maybe. I would say it’s mostly in the first line or two. I think you could define the first line or two as the hook. That seems like a bit of a violent image and perhaps even a corporate one, but it works and I can’t think of anything better.

A lot of people make a very common mistake with their opening line. They start talking about their subject. They launch into their post without thinking about the performance. And you have to perform, at least a little, if you want to catch anyones attention. If you haven’t come to grips with this yet let me break it down for you—we are putting on a show. We are storytellers. We are actors. We perpetuate our own drama. So let me ask—how are your acting skills?

I have no melodrama in my life. Maybe that’s why I watch TV, go to the theatre and like performing myself for whomever will watch me, in what ever venue, with any content. The most drama I have in my day is when my wife gets mad at me because—for the eight hundredth time—I have put my dirty dishes in the sink instead of two feet away in the dishwasher. Our writing and my life needs a splash of drama.

Your first line should be dramatic. It should be engaging. Maybe even preposterous. Not necessarily short, but shorter usually works better. Once you catch someones eye they won’t stop reading. Did you notice my first line: I hate titles. It is completely ridiculous. Who could honestly hate titles. You would be a very silly person and we have no time for silly people here at Epiblogger.

I have taken a brief survey from a couple of blogs that I read. First, some good ones:

DigiKev never disappoints.

There is a bug going around Birmingham at the moment and I have caught it.

Leo at Zen Habits is eloquent and inviting.

Parenting is equal parts skill and art.

Usually, I don’t go for all caps, but Ben Gray at openswitch pulled it off nicely.

FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, FAIL.

Adam Kayce at Monk at Work gives a subtle, yet compelling intro. And it’s funny.

When I was in my early twenties, I was learning Chinese martial arts from a Taoist teacher (known as a “Shr Fu”). In addition to teaching us how to seriously maim anyone who might want to mess with us defend ourselves, there were also some lesser publicized teachings available to the student who knew to ask.

And here are a couple that need a little more drama:

Seth Godin came up with a near miss. Imagine if he removed everything after the comma and just ended the sentence at friends. That would have really packed a punch.

I was talking today in a teleconference about how ‘friends’ aren’t really friends, at least not in most social graphs.

I really like Skellie. I think she is a great blogger. But I would like to see something a little more eye-catching in the first line.

While I’ve already discussed the benefits of trying to grow a blog in a competitive, crowded niche, I want to devote some attention to how you can best grow a blog in an empty or under-served niche.

Of course, because Melissa wrote a list post I feel it is necessary to pick on her. In truth, it’s actually a great post, but it could use a pinch of spice to get us going.

Here’s a fun, quick list of things ten you need to do to become a screenwriter.

I know, at times, that I am over the top. Some times it’s beneficial to be over the top. But you can still hook your audience with subtly. I think it is important to realize the impact your initial words will have and that they are the first impression for your post (aside from the title). Take some time to warm up your audience to your content. I know people like to jump in, headfirst (don’t do that unless you can see the bottom), but when I do that I usually find out it’s way too cold and then jump back out. Ease the audience in and they will stay a while.

Photo by Richard Hook

• Blogs are Worse Than Ex-Girlfriends
• Who Are We as Bloggers?
• A Short Reaction to Skellie’s Post: Why Great Writing Doesn’t Matter Online
• A Beginners Guide to Blogging - The Starting Point
• 5 WordPress Search Engine Essentials

There are a couple core ideas that we are showing an unwavering allegiance to: organic blogging, authenticity and creativity. I imagine that all those ideas overlap; yet, they are separate. I have challenged you and in return you have challenged me to test the limits of blogging. I know that most bloggers wouldn’t consider themselves novelists or poets, but you are liars and I mean that in the best way possible. What I really mean is that we are storytellers and myth-makers.

There is a confusion around the idea of myths and metaphors. What is a myth? It’s a lie, right? No. It is just a grandiose metaphor. I have a story for you today and not one I wrote. One from the late and great Joseph Campbell, who understood the power of myths and metaphors perhaps better than anyone in the past few centuries. This excerpt is from the opening pages of his book Thou Art That:

When the first volume of my Historical Atlas of World Mythology, The Way of the Animals Powers came out, the publishers sent me on a publicity tour. This is the worst kind of all possible tours because you move unwillingly to those disc jockeys and newspaper people, themselves unwilling to read the book they are supposed to talk to you about, in order to give it public visibility.

The first question I would always be asked, “What is a myth?” That is a fine beginning for an intelligent conversation. In one city, however, I walked into a broadcasting station for a live half-hour program where the interviewer was a young, smart-looking man who immediately warned me, “I’m tough, I put it right to you. I’ve studied law.”

The red light went on and he began argumentatively, “The word ‘myth,’ means ‘a lie’. Myth is a lie.”

So I replied with my definition of myth. “No, myth is not a lie. A whole mythology is an organization of symbolic images and narratives, metaphorical of the possibilities of human experience and the fulfillment of a given culture at a given time.”

“It’s a lie,” he countered.

“It’s a metaphor.”

“It’s a lie.”

This went on for about twenty minutes. Around four or five minutes before the end of the program, I realized that this interviewer did not really know what a metaphor was. I decided to treat him as he was treating me.

“No,” I said, “I tell you it’s metaphorical. You give me an example of a metaphor.”

He replied, “You give me an example.”

I resisted, “No, I’m asking the question this time… And I want you to give me an example of a metaphor.”

The interviewer was utterly baffled and even went so far as to say, “Let’s get in touch with some school teacher.” Finally, with something like a minute and a half to go, he rose to the occasion and said, “I’ll try. My friend John runs very fast. People say he runs like a deer. There’s a metaphor.”

As the last seconds of the interview ticked off, I replied, “That is not the metaphor. The metaphor is: John is a deer.”

He shot back, “That’s a lie.”

“No,” I said, “That is a metaphor.”

And the show ended.

In our modern area we believe in science and math. We believe in a right and wrong, or a truth and a lie. We believe in historical facts and stories are for entertainment and children. However, if we were honest with ourselves, we would recognize that all we are is stories. In my eyes you have one of two choices in front of you as a blogger, as a human. You can tell stories that connect with the people and truths of our time or you can stick to the cold-hard facts and the quick dollars. You can lift up the potential of humanity or you can dwell on yourself. Are you talking to a person or a machine?

I have bad news for all us bloggers out there, we are all liars! Don’t believe me? Let me explain. You might have guessed I took the title for this post from Seth Godin’s book “All Marketers are Liars”. The basic idea behind the book is that the world view is there before the marketers and those that can tap into the lies that consumers tell themselves can make a lot of money by continuing to build on that world view. From the books description “Successful marketers don’t talk about features or even benefits. Instead, they tell a story. A story we want to believe.”

Think about some of the commercials that you see on television. What stories are they telling you? One of the commercials that always gets me, and my wife, is a Pampers commercial. It usually airs around Christmas time. It features Silent Night being sung and pictures of all these cute adorable babies. There are no words, they don’t sit there and tell you how much better Pamper diapers are than all the other brands, but it is a very effective commercial. They are telling you a story, a story that parents can understand. Parents will do what they think is best for their children and if that means spending more on Pampers diapers so they sleep like that then parents will do it. Pampers did not create this world view, but they found a great way to tap into it.

Now think about blogging. Blogging is about telling stories, whether you blog about blogging, making money online, writing, or your blog covers a specific niche that you are interested in. Your blog is about you telling a story. That story will be a part of the lie your readers will tell themselves, so your blog will resonate with some readers and not with others depending on the truths that they hold. Don’t try and make your blog something it is not. It is your story that people will want to read and share in, not someone else.

Epiblogger was born because Rhett and I were tired of reading the same unauthentic stories on other blogs. Make money online blogs always promise to show you how to make money online, but never really do. Writing blogs tell you how to write headlines to attract the most readers and get “Dugg”, but they never really deliver. Blogs on blogging say they will help you to become a better blogger, but often just put out superficial lists of things that have already been done. Blogging has been taken over not by authentic stories, but business stories that don’t really connect to real people. This does not mean that at some point we don’t want to make a living running Epiblogger. Both Rhett and I would love to spend our days just writing here, but we will do it authentically. You could say we will do it organically.

It is this idea of telling authentic stories that makes all bloggers liars. If we as bloggers are being authentic, we are telling our story, a story we want to believe, and that story will be a part of some larger “world view”. Tell your authentic story and people will find something in your story that they will connect with.

Photo by Renato Souza

• Reasons Not to Blog
• Vocation or Vacation?
• The Looking In Advantage
• Being Sold (Out): Showing and Telling
• Blogs as a Seed

I quickly came home for lunch yesterday to leave a beautiful bouquet of flowers for my wife to find when she got home. I also took the time to make some Ichiban Noodles. They take three minutes to cook. Anything that can be done in three minutes or less is always a good thing, right?

I am certainly a child of the microwave age. I want everything pre-packaged, pre-cooked and ready to go—in three minutes or less. If we could only get to the point where whole meals could be swallowed by a pill. Or maybe we could just inject it. The new drug. Delicious, quick and almost painless. Though everyone who is scared of needles would have a tough time, but—for the sake of efficiency—I am sure you would bare it.

I hope we can agree that we don’t really want that. I hope you don’t. At least, not beyond a novelty. We might live life like that from time-to-time or fairly regularly, but I would rather eat a big, juicy apple and sit under a tree while enjoying a bird’s song. There is certainly a push in the blogging world to say things quick, efficiently and entirely swallowable—no chewing required. Lee forwarded me one of Seth Godin’s posts a couple of weeks ago. It was everything that is efficient:

Don’t let the words get in the way. If you’re writing online, forget everything you were tortured by in high school English class. You’re not trying to win any awards or get an A. You’re just trying to be real, to make a point, to write something worth reading. (Seth Godin, January 26, 2008)

As I sat and swallowed my three minute noodles everything came together (I suppose it could be argued that three minute noodles are good for epiphanies). I don’t need to just say it. If I did that—for this post—I would say: Be more creative with your writing, use a fragmented style but don’t actually shrink the length of your content. There you go. You now do not have to read any further. I hope you do.

If you ever have to pick between 1 or 2, for the sake of all that is holy and profane in this world, pick 3. I know what Seth is saying. Some people know how to talk. That’s fine. It’s just the ones that now how to talk without saying anything is the problem. We know that the internet is full of people who are microwave children. I am one. However, we are easily tricked by fragmentation. We are tricked by continually shifting and heading in different directions—as long as you continue to head towards your goal.

Kevin is using fragmentation to his benefit. He doesn’t force his content into a pill or blend it up. He does, however, use fragmentation to his advantage. He gives us short bursts of information, as if it were a whole-wheat-bread-crumb trail and we are starving for the good stuff. The stuff that fills. He uses excerpts from comments and emails to create a dialogue and—more importantly—a story that reveals that all important third option. Revealing a balance between polar options. And if you look carefully, and pay attention to how sly he is, the conversation gets longer and longer. He gives a taste to begin with and then starts leaving bigger chunks and I ate it up.

Try using conversation to fragment the content to give short three minute bursts. Or look at what I did. I just wrote some six hundred words and it likely took you more than three minutes, but—if I did my job right—then you didn’t notice. If you did, than I just have more to learn. You don’t need to squish, blend or pulverize your content to have your reader enticed. Just cut it into bite-sized pieces.

Photo by Paul Downey

• A Short Reaction to Skellie’s Post: Why Great Writing Doesn’t Matter Online
• Titles or Opening Lines?
• All Bloggers are Liars
• Avoid Failure by Capturing Your Audiences Attention
• Add Some Spice and New Perspective to Your Blog

I noticed a certain pattern in my posts over the last month and a half—writing about the status blogging and then giving (mostly) abstract ideas on how to change. Today I am doing more of the same. A lot of theory. But, I recognize that this approach is going to get old and I want to mix it up a bit. Today, I want to setup a pseudo-series about writing approaches that will grab your audiences attention. Let’s get physical *dances* (I hope that song is in your head). Or rather let’s get concrete.

First off, if you want a brief outline on what my idea of success is then you should read: The Cool Bloggers. So we won’t talk about success. However, we will talk about avoiding failure. In this case, I mean the failure to communicate.

I watched the video blog on ShoeMoney today and, while I generally subscribe to Jeremy’s blog for the poorly constructed sentences, amazing grammar and profanity, today I found his post thought provoking (that was just a little for-funzies poke; I do enjoy his blog). Jeremy says (not necessarily verbatim):

The odds are that most people in this [internet] business will fail. Probably 80-90%.

I agree with Jeremy Shoemaker. Obviously that’s not based on any actual statistic (I don’t think), but I think it’s fair. People who enter internet community expecting an immediate audience, immediate money and immediate success. It’s unfounded expectation. I believe there are two appropriate reactions to Jeremy, especially if we want to find success. One: Screw you ShoeMoney and your poopy, potty-mouth. And two: He makes a good point. I need to make sure I am one of the successful bloggers. I will focus on the second.

My dad is an engineer. A large group of my friends are engineers. When my friends came to my dad for advice about doing their degree he told them you really have to love it, otherwise you won’t succeed. I have an English degree and I don’t like math. I never even bothered. The apple fell far from the tree, in that regard.

There is a false assumption out there that everyone can write. It’s true that the majority of the world is literate and generally capable of putting together sentences, but that is not the same as being able to write or communicate. However, there is no divine gift that enables one person to write and not another. It comes down to whether or not you are passionate about writing and effectively communicating. If you aren’t or don’t believe you can be than the web and it’s community is not going to respond to you. If you cannot connect with a readership than this is not going to work. If you don’t love it, you can’t succeed. That’s what my dad said. That’s what Jeremy Shoemaker says. That’s what I say.

But wait. Don’t give up yet. This isn’t all about doom and gloom. I am not preaching fire and brimstone. I am all about hope. There is hope for me and you. Let’s get better together. I am not going to teach you how to use commas. Grammar is so boring and dry. I barely understand it myself and I still use commas incorrectly—but I am not going to get started on comma-hatred. Plus, other people do it much better than I could (and I know there is more but those are two that I read).

Here’s what I bring to the table. It will be my goal with upcoming posts to inspire you to be passionate about communication. Do you ever get excited by a beautiful semi-colon? I do. And I think I can pass that on to you. Or I am going to try. Plus, I will highlight easy ways to spice up your writing without doing a lot of extra work. This isn’t a scheme, but just taking the time to make small changes to improve the readability and flow of your content.

First off, we had to start with theory. That’s where everything starts. Can you imagine a world where sentence structure, new word combinations and questioning the overall structure of your writing is exciting? It’s worth it.

PS - I will need some writing samples to use for upcoming posts. Anyone want one of your posts critiqued (you can remain anonymous)? Send me an email or leave a comment and I will track you down.

Photo by anonfx

• Keywords Does Not a Blog Make
• Reasons Not to Blog
• Make Your Blog Work for You
• Closing up Epiblogger
• Do You Love Your Blog?

1. The water was really salty.
2. The water was powerful.

No one ever said I was a genius, but when you have never been in an ocean they both come as a real shock. The waves weren’t as bad as that picture. Actually, they were nothing like it. They were barely anything and they tossed me around like nothing. In the lakes on the prairies it’s fun to fight the waves. There was no fighting those waves in Florida—mostly I tried my hardest not to die.

The past couple of days in the blogging world I have felt a bit like I was being knocked around again by the waves. I have spent a month writing about how we can overcome the traps that lead us to inauthenticity and sub-par writing. Why hasn’t the blogging world already changed? Some times I fall into a trap of believing that everyone is thinking the same as me. I get a little too far ahead of myself. Like when I stopped watching Friends after the third season and a couple years later I was surprised to find it was still on television.

Two different events over the last two days have left me feeling a little battered and wondering one simple question: who am I as a blogger?

Two days ago, I was chatting with a theme developer and we got to talking about Epiblogger and he asked if I would do a guest post. The first thing I said was sure. He told me he would give me a link back to the site—which is almost all I was looking for. There was one more thing I was looking for—will I get credit? He simply replied no. I do not want to be a ghostwriter. This was the first shock out of my puffy idealistic mind. I asked friends—why would anyone want to be a ghostwriter? The obvious answers: money, traffic and money. But it’s so corporate. There is no community or openness involved. There is nothing about what I love in the internet in ghostwriting. Money and traffic is not why I blog, it is not who I am as a blogger—is it?

The second event that shocked me back to reality (which, ultimately, is beneficial) is a post I read today. Some highlights from it include (some hyperbole applied): use one syllables words, don’t make your audience think, offer phonetic spelling of any big words, you aren’t important only the reader is and put the salt-lick in an easy to find place.

After this—and you might be thinking it really doesn’t take much (it doesn’t)—I was feeling a little blue. I was sopping wet, tired and my hair was slowly becoming a delicious salt crust. So what’s the point? Why go on? Because the internet usually finds a way to lift my spirits. I stumbled onto a tribute to Heath Ledger from Christopher Nolan, the director of The Dark Knight. It was a very touching piece and one part in particular answered my question:

I’ve never felt as old as I did watching Heath explore his talents.

Who are we as bloggers and why do we bother? We do it to explore our talents and ultimately explore ourselves. We are just as much the audience as we are the author. Our blog is just as much for us, as it is for our readers.

Salt is a great spice and too much of it is a bad thing. There are a lot more options out there, just as there is for us bloggers. Try them all. Don’t settle for what works. Try new things and stretch yourself. Go beyond your boundaries and create something that is truly great.

Photo #1 by Sister72 | Photo #2 by andy hayward

• Bring the Audience to You
• A Beginners Guide to Blogging - The Starting Point
• Ten Things Teletubbies Can Teach You About Blogging
• Add Some Spice and New Perspective to Your Blog
• The Taxman or A Taxman?

I am not talking about anything too fancy, but simple ways to bring new perspective to our writing that require just a bit more work. Basically, try this and you will lose ten pounds in five days1.

Joint Blogging

On Friday, Lee and I did our first ever joint post. I don’t know if this has been done before. I have never seen it. If it hasn’t been done then let it be known that it was my brilliance that thought of joint blogging and praise me for my creativity and genius—lord knows my self-esteem could use it.

The idea came from seeing many joint press releases going past my eyes. I think you could apply this in several different ways. For our first joint post, Lee blogged first and I blogged second. If you have a blogging partner then try this out. If you don’t, maybe instead of another guest post, write a post with another blogger. You could switch off like Lee and I did or maybe try alternating paragraphs. Or sentences if you really wanted a challenge. I think switching off words would just be ridiculous. Play around with it and I think you will find favourable results.

Character Blogging

There is a lot of discussion amongst writers about finding your voice. Finding and having a voice in writing and blogging is important. It gives consistency to your work. However, finding ones voice is not easy. In fact, it’s relative to going on a pilgrimage to the Vatican/Mecca/etc barefoot. Finding ones voice is generally a painful and confusing experience. I feel fairly confident in my blogging voice, but as far as writing is concerned I think I have a long way to go. However, in lieu of a voice, why not try character blogging?

Blogging in character is a lot easier. For instance, if you wanted to blog in the character of Hulk Hogan you just need to say brother a lot and talk about all the little Hulkamaniacs. The most famous character blog that I know of is Fake Steve. While working towards finding your voice, try on a character. Experimenting with other voices will likely help you find yours as well. Furthermore, I think we would often be tempted to start a second blog if we wanted to express a different opinion or topic. You should consider creating a special character to post on a different opinion or topic at the same blog.

Interviews

Interviewing, like joint blogging, can give some fresh perspective to a post that if it had been singular likely would have been very dry. The one thing I would encourage is to ask questions that directly interest you. The interviews that I enjoy best are by the interviewers that ask questions that aren’t generic. I think the interviewer and interviewee should both be excited by the conversation not just milking questions that the blogger down the road already asked. I know the temptation is to simply ask the basic questions, but if everyone is doing that, then why bother? I permit one generic question and then you need to go in for the kill and get the good stuff.

I know there are more ideas out there. What do you do to add a little spice once and a while? Something you want to try or haven’t yet tried?

1 Blogging has never been proven to increase anyones chances of losing weight. In fact, it probably hurts more than it helps… I am going for a jog.

Photo by pshutterbug

• Blogging with Character and Leave Botox Blogging Behind
• A Beginners Guide to Blogging - Choosing a Topic
• The Cool Bloggers
• Bring the Audience to You
• Blogs are Worse Than Ex-Girlfriends

Last night I was working on the free eBook that we will be releasing soon for our subscribers. Actually, I wanted to have it ready for today, but a couple things have kept me busy and I am behind schedule. The eBook—which would be more appropriately called an eEssay, but that’s too difficult to say—outlines the current status of blogs/bloggers and where we should be heading. In lieu of having the eBook available, here is a brief look at one of the ideas in the essay.

The tagline for Epiblogger is: The organic center of blogging. Ignore organic for now. The true center of blogging is writing or communication. This is what we are doing. We are communicating with each other, helping each other and building relationships. But, I read post after post from other meta-bloggers about how to write for your audience. How to get the attention of X, Y or Z audience. If you want to get dug, write this. If you want to get stumbled, write that. And so on.

I completely disagree with this strategy. It is too hard to write for an audience that you don’t really know. It’s true, they might pick it up. The idea of being dug is a huge temptation. Lee and I were even discussing the possibility of his 404 post being dug. That’s not why he wrote it, but I was excited that the Digg kids might dig us (I am sure that joke is more than dead, but I like Dane Cook so I don’t actually have a real sense of humour, right?). But more often then not, they won’t pick it up. You used all your energy, targeted a group and missed. You can try again tomorrow or maybe it’s time for a new approach.

Why not put the work of writing something brilliant into something you want to say, in a way that you want to say it? The reason there is a picture of Dane Cook is because of something brilliant he said in an interview (not verbatim): I don’t tell jokes that I think my audience want to hear, I make them come to me. Whether you like Mr. Cook or not, I think you will agree that he tells jokes his way, his style and makes the audience part of the experience. He doesn’t mimic Seinfeld or Hedberg or Chappelle. He brings the audience to him, with his jokes (although he has been accused of stealing material, but just ignore that because it will ruin my post).

There are enough people trying to say what they think people want to hear—eBrown-nosers. It’s a guessing game that only a few will win. Instead, write your way, in your voice and bring the audience into your world and subject. I am one of thousands of meta-bloggers. Why do I even bother with this blog? Because I believe that I have a unique view and way of communicating, not necessarily because I have something new to say. You do too. I promise. It might even take a while to find something that feels right. Explore different voices and styles and when it’s right your audience will find you.

Photo by merfam

• Ten Things Teletubbies Can Teach You About Blogging
• Welcome to Epiblogger
• Blogs are Worse Than Ex-Girlfriends
• Avoid Failure by Capturing Your Audiences Attention
• What Does Occam Know About Writing

1. Make up your own language.
2. Listen to the giggling sun baby.
3. Be more non-communicative.
4. Use more bright colours to relate with toddlers.
5. Treat your audience like they are toddlers because they probably won’t get what you are talking about anyway since you are a genius (and so am I)…

I am going to do something that I rarely ever do—I am going to go out on a limb. You might be thinking: Rhett you are too heavy to go out on a limb, but—if we are going to be honest—you are probably thinking: When am I going to get another delicious serving of mashed peas and who is going to change this diaper that I just soiled? You probably wouldn’t use the word soiled though because it’s a bit too adult. Making a poopy is better.

Teletubbies has nothing to teach you about blogging. I have no easy-to-follow (or swallow) list for you. Writing is hard work and very little can be gained from analyzing Teletubbies. You are not a child, nor are your readers (if they are then analyze Teletubbies to your hearts content).

If you read any of the meta-blogs out there you have seen these posts: Ten Things ______ Can Teach You… Because it’s Friday I am not going to go on a tirade about lists. There are times when lists are beneficial.

Last week in my post What Does Occam Know About Writing I said: I do not mean your writing should be simple, but the path to your subject matter needs to be and I meant it. There seems to be a golden web rule that internet users are lazy and require jot-note lists in order to understand anything. If there are more than ten items you will lose the attention of your audience. I think that was and continues to be true for the static web, but now we are evolved and if I am reading your blog then I am reading your blog. So don’t treat me like I can’t handle more than your jot-notes.

Your writing should not be simple. Make it as complex as you want. Take on tough subjects. Or take on an easy subject but hone your writing with beautiful, challenging prose. In the end, I want to understand what you wrote—lead me—but give me, give us something to chew on. I will read it and so will your audience. This fad of treating readers like simpletons is over. More and more readers are getting tired of this. You don’t have to water-down your subject matter or your writing, but plan a strategy to explore it. Make a list of the top ten points that you want to cover, write your post and then delete the jot-note list forever knowing that you are better for it and your audience will be too.

Or they might get mad because no one has changed their diaper yet. Have a great weekend.

Photo by swoodie

• Blogs are Worse Than Ex-Girlfriends
• Winnie the Pooh Blogger
• Bring the Audience to You
• Titles or Opening Lines?
• It Takes a Community to Raise a Blog

Welcome to Epiblogger and welcome to 2008. My name is Rhett Soveran. That’s me in the picture this past Christmas with my sister’s dog, Flame (who is a 50 pound lap dog). I am 25 years old, live in Calgary, Alberta (Canada) and I am married. By day I work for a newswire service called Marketwire as a Senior Editor and Trainer. In 2006, I completed my Bachelor’s degree in English and I am a writer and poet. This past summer I had the opportunity to read some of my work at a music festival near Calgary. It was the first time I truly considered myself a rockstarpoet, which also happens to be the name of my personal blog. I have been blogging at rockstarpoet for almost two years, but I have been on the net for a lot longer. My true entrance onto the internet was when I signed up for my first Hotmail account and they had just reached their millionth user. Now you know a little bit about me and there is a reason I think it’s important that you do.

There is a lot of talk about being an authority in your blogging niche. I would like to change that jargon. I believe it is more important to be a leader. You might think I am splitting hairs, but hear me out. There are a lot things that make a great leader, but there are two things that are the most important to me: (1) the ability to know when to lead and to know when to be lead and (2) to take the time to see where change needs to be made and to endeavour to make those changes. I don’t want to be an authority on blogging or writing, but I do want to be a leader. I recognize that there have been and are leaders who I need to continue to learn from, but also recognize that I have ideas that I want to share and want to make improvements where I see deficits.

One of my ideas is that I want to bring a renewal to the sense of community and conversation in blogging and that is why I introduce myself. It seems to me that there are too many blogs that are abusing their community for the sake of profits. Let me be honest, I would love to blog for a living. I would love if at some point this blog enabled that, but I won’t allow that desire to come before community, conversation and friendship. There are too many blogs that build a community superficially for the sake of making money. I want to start Epiblogger on the right foot. Or the left foot. Actually, I want to start Epiblogger with both feet planted firmly in the commitment to converse and not lecture, to be a leader and not an authority and to be open and organic to the changes in myself and to the bloggers around me.

Now that we are firmly rooted in an ongoing conversation let’s move forward.

• It Takes a Community to Raise a Blog
• Nationality and Blogging
• Niches are Non-Renewable
• Welcome to Epiblogger
• Blogs as a Seed

When I was nineteen I worked for Sears Parts & Service’s call center where I was part of a trained team to troubleshoot appliances and home electronics over the phone. This is the place where horror stories about setting up an senior’s VCR over the phone are born. One phone call sticks out in my mind. A man’s washing machine was broken, he called for parts to fix it, and luckily someone passed him to me. He was having a hard time because the tub wasn’t spinning properly. He had already replaced the motor, timer and a handful of parts, but he couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I know that some of you are doing the math in your head because this guy had probably already spent more on parts than the machine was worth. I said to him it sounds like the belt is just slipping. He said I never thought of that. He bought a new $5 belt and I never heard from him again.

If you are anything like me or the belt-guy then you probably have a tendency to assume that you need to do more to fix the problem, but the truth is—more often than not—you need to do less. This is especially true in writing. I often find that I have so many ideas that I want to weave together and the harder I try the more convoluted it gets—the quicksand of writing. I end up writing more and more to try and explain myself. When (if) I finish that post it usually doesn’t make sense to me and I know it won’t make sense to anyone else.

The solution? Keep it simple. I do not mean your writing should be simple, but the path to your subject matter needs to be. Write exactly what you want to say down. Just a concrete sentence or two. Begin writing with those sentences as the center of your post. Then you can begin to use your ideas to build on and add more to the subject matter. You will likely find in the end you won’t use that initial sentence. Take the time to center your writing and the rest will be simple—right?

Photo by Tom Chambers

• Welcome to Epiblogger
• Bring the Audience to You
• Jott Blogging
• Free Blogger Cards
• Epiblogger Valentines Giveaway!