This guest post is by Nate St. Pierre.
There’s too much of the same out there. A hundred million blogs, most of them saying the same thing: “I’m boring.”
Yours should be better.
Your blog is a tool to break through the established structure of this world, a way to clear the existing landscape of monotony to make way for creativity and newness of thought. Your blog is a wrecking ball, and you should use it as such.
When a wrecking ball wakes up in the morning and goes to work, it’s not thinking about the number of links in its chain, the color of the paint on the cab, or how many hours there are until lunch. It just gets out there and starts swinging. It knocks into things. That’s its job.
Just for today, stop worrying about how many subscribers you have, how you’re using SEO, the conversion rate of your sales funnel, and your website stats. Just for today, sit down and write something amazing.
And guess what? You don’t have to worry about whether or not it’s the right fit for your audience if you create something that the world will love . . . and more importantly, something that you will love. If you can do that consistently, your perfect audience will find you, and the rest will fall into place.
I did this last month on my own little blog, something just to entertain myself because I was bored with all the same tired old articles shuffling across my screen. I told the world that Abraham Lincoln invented Facebook, and the world believed it for a day. I did it because I wanted to write something interesting and have some fun, and it turned out to be the biggest thing I’ve ever written.
Whether you agree with the concept of pranks or not, the point is that this article got out into the world and changed things. In this case, it made journalists think twice about the quality of the stories they write (or rather, share).
Your work should challenge the status quo and make people think. But that doesn’t mean you have to be controversial. It just means you have to be so good that the world can’t ignore you. And you can only be that good when you’re writing for yourself and the things you believe in.
The longer I write, the more I realize that if I’m not putting out stuff that I’m proud of, each and every time, I’m missing the point. I’m not going to hit it out of the park every time. None of us are. But we need to try, and even if we fail, at least we can be honestly proud of the attempt.
We all have the ability to use our platforms to help shape the environment around us. Wherever I am, when I sit down to write, I say to myself, “I can change the world from this desk.”
I have done so. And you can, too.
Nate St. Pierre is a web marketing consultant with a background in web-based philanthropy. His goal is to build projects that change the world. You can follow him on Twitter at @NateStPierre.
The point about not needing to be controversial is key. So many blogs have become so focused on numbers that controversy is used at its most base form – solely to beg hits versus broadening perspective.
I was able to truly understand your points. I always wrote, but now I have to do it to assist in building a new career. I feel I have some know how, but can always use the wisdom. GOOD STUFF!
Nice inspirational post. Thank you for taking your time to write it I appreciate it. Learned some too:). Look forward for reading your other posts.
This is pretty insightful!
It’s really easy to be boring and I do my best to be somewhat entertaining. Storytelling (when done properly) always keeps people’s attention more than informational posts, so a balance between the two is almost perfect.
What I am getting out of this is to be remarkable and make an impact and its a great message!
Thanks for the awesome post,
-Gabe
I’ve found this to be true as well, but I don’t always take my own advice, haha. And then when something that I think is interesting actually flops, most of the time I realize that I thought the content would be strong enough to sell itself, and I didn’t take the time to craft it correctly.
Good content + good storytelling is always the best way to go.
Nice, thoughtful post. I agree completely. After looking over my earlier posts, I saw that the winning action was to simply write good stuff. I have also started using original illustrations. Interestingly, going with lots of images started getting me a lot of international visitors and all kinds of stumble upon traffic.
My promotional efforts seemed to account for perhaps 1% of my page views but were taking 50% of my time—time I could have spent writing or drawing.
You are definitely on to something.
Cheers,
Rick
Yeah, original illustrations do really well, especially for that “random” traffic, like through SU. I wish I could draw…
Hi Nate,
If fear drives you, look out! You note how bloggers tend to worry about stuff. So worry is their driver. Meaning they receive worry-plagued results. Which creates failure, boring blogs, all types of low energy stuff you note. Excellent advice
Pull back now. Breathe deeply. Let your personality come out. Add a bit of emotionally charged salty language to your blog, if it feels right. Shoot from the hip. Let go the fear of what other bloggers will say, think or do in response to you being you.
Create memorable content. Not a targeted blog post, or a helpful blog post, but something that makes an impact like your Abe Lincoln post.
So he was a vampire slayer AND created Facebook? Wow ;)
Thanks Nate!
Ryan
Knowing your audience comes first and finding a blog subject that actually will go ‘viral’ beyond your readers is something that very rarely happens. Look for trending subjects on Google Plus, Twitter and Alltop can set you in the right mood to start ‘that awesome post everybody needs to read’. Chances are very slim though. But you know what they say… ‘Never give up’.
Hello Nate,
Thank you for this post!
I believe in this idea and I think it can make you feel a lot better when you start a new day with a clean slate of a post.
The feeling that you have no topic to write on can give a kick to most who like writing about random subjects on the daily and for those who don’t, they might find it difficult to start with. However I am sure they will love it once the ink hits the paper (or should we say fingers hit the keyboard) and paragraphs start to flow.
Who knows it can even make one’s blog go viral.
You quoted ‘…the concept of pranks or not, the point is that this article got out into the world and changed things.’, I want to ask is this OK to use pranks to gain valuable readers and community?
Will first time users who flock by the thousands (if it may be) to your post have trust in you when then find out its a prank and not fact when it is meant to be a factual post?
Regards,
Shuiab
Sure, you always run the risk of people not trusting you if they first come to you by way of a prank. However, if you label it as such from the very beginning (which I did), and have a large body of “legitimate” work (which I do), you should be okay.
But there are always gonna be haters when you go that route. Part of the job.
Well said Nate.
Reminds me of an old David DeAngelo teaching that you cannot bore a woman into being attracted to you.
Keep up the good work.
I’d never heard that one, haha – love it. :)
Great post. Especially the part on that none of us are going to hit the mark every time, but we still need to try. It’s such a difficult balance sometimes, isn’t it, keep on trying to write better posts, but without getting bogged down by perfectionism and fear.
Very inspiring post! Many fear of what others will think if they get overly creative or post something they may consider “strange”. Thanks for sharing your example too. It really got me thinking :)
Thanks Nate for the inspiring post! Sometimes I suffer from doubt of what I’m writing as well, but its important not to take myself too serious and just write genuine opinions. People will decide whether they like it or not, but it will be the people who truly share your views that will remember your work!
shades of War of the Worlds, yes? I do agree that playing it safe all the time can be boring. Fun post!
I’ve always been a fan of that War of the Worlds escapade, yeah. :)
Great post Nate!
I agree with you if you having a clear vision in your mind than you can be able to produce something on what you can be proud of but for that still needs hard work and knowledge to accomplish your goals, but for me having clear vision & thoughts in mind than quality content will become more pure.
Thanks for sharing great experience & tips :-)
I read it as an effort to adds more value on blogging. blogging isn’t about make money online an sich. it has better meaning, value and impact as well.
that’s true. we’re aware the impact of social media and google update too :)
Love the ideas in this article. Very helpful!
I guess in conclusion you should always blog about something your passionate about. Those hundreds and millions of blogs out there which are boring have only one motive. To make money. I find myself blogging and writing about topics people never really talks about. As a result, i get quite a good amount of feedback.