Well my friend and fellow blogger, Joanna Young, is back! Where’d she go? Well, first she moved her blog from TypePad to WordPress – a move that I fully support and applaud her for. Then, she took a week off from writing to move into her new home. Can you imagine….not blogging for a whole week? I recently did it a couple of times and it wasn’t that bad – though I did miss writing.

I had the pleasure of meeting Joanna at SOBCon08 in Chicago last May and she’s even more lovely in person than she is on her blog. And what makes meeting her special is that she, and Chris Garrett, hopped a plane across the pond to be with us at SOBCon. And I only had to drive 3 hours from my home outside Ann Arbor.

Anyhow, I just wanted to welcome my friend back and thank her for some of my favorite blog posts. Here’s a few to check out:

• Kiss Excessive Words Goodbye
• 10 Outstanding Definitions Of Powerful Writing
• 7 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Ask Your Readers Questions: Part V Of Purposeful Questions
  • The entire Purposeful Questions series I loved. Here’s the rest:
  • Part I: How To Ask Purposeful Questions
  • Part II: Creating The Space To Ask Questions
  • Part III: The Purpose That’s Driving Your Question
  • Part IV: Asking Questions For A Change
• Do You Think You Can Tell? Powerful Questions That Wake Us Up
• 27 Secrets To Writing Like Hemingway

When you have a moment, take a stop by. Read some of her latest writings. And drop her a line to say hi and welcome back.

And, oh yeah, remember to grab her feed.

(note: image from Kiwi Mikex on Flickr,  some rights reserved)

They want your stories, your perspectives, your perceptions and your ideas. And in some cases they want your help or they want to learn how to do what you know. Either way, they appreciate the value your blog adds to their life or their business. The value, after all, is why they’re spending their valuable time reading you in the first place.

I was ruminating on this while reading Liz Strauss’ new informational product – an ebook, The Secret to Writing a Successful and Outstanding Blog. In her book, Liz walks you through how to use your blog to create conversation and grow a community. You get insights and suggestions from someone who has close to 70,000 comments on her own blog. I absolutely highly recommend it. And just to be transparent, I did help her a bit on the development and distribution, though I do not receive any royalties from it.

One interesting thing about Liz’s book is that it was created from content she had published on her blog over the past two years. When she came up with the idea to create her informational product, she went back through old posts to use the ones that would fit as content. In all, the core of her ebook is the content from her blog.

Now Liz took the content for her informational product from posts she’d previously written. It worked great for her and if you’ve been writing a while, I’d highly recommend considering developing your own informational products from previously written posts.

Yet, there’s another way to approach using your blog to develop informational products – one that serves product creation and post content at the same time. You can develop and write your info product from new content you post to your blog. With a little planning, it can be simple:

1. First thing is to consider what informational products your audience would be interested in buying. Look at what posts were the most read and most commented on. Also, ask them through polls and short surveys.
2. Outline the major content themes for your informational product. Whether you mindmap or outline, doesn’t matter. Just get down a basic structure for what’s going to be included in your info product. This will help you focus on your info product’s content as well as blog content.
3. Further define your informational product outline. You have the major points, now get specific. What are the individual talking points that your info product will cover? Get as specific and detailed as you can. Layout the entire product so that you can see exactly what needs to be written in order to publish your info product.
4. Create a list of blog post topics. A checklist works fine or just an outline. Either way, translate all the talking points into a list of blog posts you can write. That way, you’ll know exactly what you’ll be writing about in creating your informational product.
5. Create a special category on your blog. Ideally, this category would be invisible, but it doesn’t have to be. Be sure to put all blog posts that you’ll use for your information product in this category. When you’re ready to compile and edit your posts into your info product, it’ll be much easier to find them all.
6. Write. Now that you have your plan, your outline and your post topics, now it’s time to write. In this case, write quality posts. As you write, make sure you’re thinking about how each post will fit into your informational product. Also, don’t feel pressured to make every single one of your next posts for your info product. Write about other things when you’re inspired too. Just remember to return to your info product content.
7. Get feedback. Watch the comment box closely whenever you write content for your informational product. Your readers will give you great insight both into what they’re interested in and how they think about the topic. Utilize this to create a better info product. And don’t be afraid to change your info product based on what you learn from your readers.
8. Compile your content. Once you’ve written all the pieces of content for your informational product on your blog, compile it. Get it from your blog into your favorite word processing or desktop publishing software. Try to put it together in sections as you’ve laid out in your outline.
9. Edit and layout. Now, with your informational product content all compiled, begin editing. Read for content and for flow. And remember to edit for voice. It’s likely you wrote differently on different posts so be sure your voice is consistent. Also, begin laying out how you’re info product will look in structure when finished. You can do this with editing or after – it’s up to you.
10. Proof and correct. Once you’ve finished your edits and your layout, get a few trusted friends and colleagues to read your information product. Get their feedback on flow, content, clarity and value. If there are exercises or to-do lists, ask them if they are easy to understand and clear to follow. Highly consider any corrections that your proofreaders suggest.
11. Decide on your format. Once you have a completed version of your informational product, you need to decide on the format to publish it too. When deciding on format, consider whether your info product will be delivered electronically or by post. If you’ve created a book, PDF works great electronically and bound publishing for sending by post. Audio can be distributed electronically as mp3 or by post on CD. For video, DVDs work great by post while Flash video, MPEG4 or QuickTime work great for electronic delivery.
12. Price and payment. While you can certain go through this process to create free products – which I do recommend, you should also consider creating informational products for sale. That means you have to decide on how much to charge and how you’ll receive payment. There are many ways to decide cost, including comparing to what others are doing. Maybe start with a lower introductory price to get some initial interest and raise the price later. As for payment, PayPal works fine in most cases. They give you a method to collect money and a shopping cart, if you need one. It’s the easiest and cheapest to setup. Otherwise, you’re looking at a shopping cart like 1ShoppingCart and an online merchant account like with Authorize.net.
13. Write your landing page. Once you have your informational product finished, you know the cost and how you’re going to collect payment and manage delivery you have to have a place to put it on your website. Often this means a landing page. While you can find many great resources on how to write a landing page, the basics are that you write customer-focused copy that illustrates how your info product solves their problem. Focus on your info product’s content but do so by highlighting how your info product will benefit the customer. Remember testimonials – which you can first get from your proofers – and endorsements from well-known sources, and a money-back guarantee. And please make the price and the buy buttons easy to find. Last word of advice on landing pages – don’t get bogged down by trying to make it perfect right out of the gate. Write the best you can, publish it and then tweak it later.
14. Market your new informational product. With your informational product completed and your landing page written it’s time to get the word out. But don’t just announce it on your blog – cover pieces of it highlighting, again, the benefits. As your proofers, endorsers and blog friends to do the same. Consider creating an affiliate program around it so people can make a buck promoting it for you. Ask friends to market it to their ezine lists or mention it in your forum. Run a contest with prizes for anyone who buys posts about it. Get it reviewed. Use your social networking contacts to help with the push. Basically, use everything you can think of to get the word out. And don’t forget to publish articles to article banks that focus on specific parts of the content and link to your landing page.
15. Get AND USE feedback. This step is often missed and yet very important to the long-term success of your informational product. You want to encourage people to share with you their experiences with your info product. Ask them for feedback. Send them emails or cards by post that ask them a few specific questions about the product. Even better, get them to a short survey for feedback. And absolutely, without a doubt, continue to get testimonials and endorsements. Then USE THEM on your landing page and in your marketing campaign.

Create great informational products and you’ll have something that you can sell for a long time. That means a stream of passive income. Do this a few times and you’ll have a fleet of info products with the potential of a significant, long-term passive income stream.

By using your blog to develop your informational products, you can serve to needs – writing great blog content that benefits your readers while create an info product that can generate sales and passive income.

Which leads me to the questions: Have you ever considered using your blog to develop an info product – whether with new or previously written content?

If you have, what were some of the barriers you faced and how did you overcome them?

And if not, what stands in the way of you creating and offering your own informational products?

Let’s talk about it.

(note: image from Knilram on Flickr, some rights reserved)

Without a doubt we fear writing. But why? I’ve thought about this questions a bunch over the years. But seldom have I considered writing about it until the lovely April Groves left a comment on my post 3 Easy Steps to Creating a Web-based Business yesterday.

In 3 Easy Steps, I (and Matt Cutts) suggested that the second step to creating a successful online business is to start a blog. Why? Because it helps you engage directly with your target audience. It’s also the easiest way to begin driving traffic to your site and, hence, have the opportunity to grow your business. Here’s what April said:

I completely agree…but, I’ll tell you… When I present the blogging idea to people I know, the writing aspect scares most of them to death. I hear “But I can’t write” more times than I can count. My best counsel is for them to try writing the way they talk. It goes right to the heart of authentic. But, if you have other coaching suggestions to this block, I’d be all ears.

So why do we fear writing so much?

What I find most interesting is how the belief that we ‘can’t write’ is completely and utterly made up. At best, it’s something we took away from our junior high or high school education. Really, the idea we can’t write is thrust upon us because it just happens to be the opinion of our teachers. It’s not ours – unless we believe it.
But are they right? And can it change?

No, they’re not right. And yes, it can change.

I was one of those students who couldn’t write – so said my teachers. While I excelled at science and math, I could never write. Or at least that’s what I was told. And when I look back, they may have been right – at the time. But it certainly didn’t help to be told I couldn’t write each time I got a paper back.

And yet I sit here today with hundreds of blog posts – the great majority of which are written well enough that hundreds of people like you have wanted to engage me in conversation. Each of those posts has brought some value to people’s lives, their blogging and their business. And I don’t care whether I follow traditional writing methods. I care about communicating with you. So as long as I can do that, I know, without a doubt, that I can write.

So what’s the difference between what I’m writing today and what I was doing in school – other than a few decades of life experience, focus and a bit more maturity?

I think it’s relaxing and letting go of how I was taught to write. Forget the 5 paragraph model. Forget sentence structure and grammar (for the most part) and just write. Just get the words out from your mind. Let them move through your arms and dance you fingers on the keyboard just like they move up from your throat to create symphony between the tongue, larynx and lips when you speak (okay, so I went a little overboard). The point is – let go, and just write.

And for God’s sake, forget that you were ever told you can’t write. Because you can! With the blog – if you can speak, if you can communicate thoughts and ideas, you can write. And you can certainly blog.

I agree with April – write like you speak. Think about writing as a conversation and write that way. All of us can speak at least well enough to be understood in a conversation. So treat blogging like it’s a conversation. And remember that you, the blogger, get to start each conversation, you get to choose the topic and the way of looking at the topic. Then, invite the world to respond.

People care much more about what you want to communicate, what you want to share and how valuable it is to them then they do having beautiful, flowing prose. If you can write like that (communicatrix, I’m thinking of you), great. But if not, just ‘talk’ with people through your keyboard. They’ll learn far more about who you are, how you see things and how you can help them with their problems.

And that’s what leads to sales.

So what do you think…can you write (you should know the answer by now)? What was the biggest thing that you feel hurt your confidence in your writing? And how did you overcome it? I’d love to hear…and so would the people April talks with.

A few business owners seem to get this. But don’t seem to get it, though. It makes me wonder how business owners see themselves relating to their target audience.

Perhaps that’s the first mistake…target audience. What image do you create when you hear the term target audience? For me, I’m looking off the deck of a boat at an expansive sea whose swells ebb and flow. What I don’t see are the individual drops of water that make up the sea. In other words, I don’t see the individual people in the term target audience. I can’t imagine I’m alone.

Most marketing copy I read today does one of two things: It either tells me all about what ‘you can do for me;’ or it tries to make me identify the problems I face. Both work to some degree. The former by being straight forward in what we offer. The latter perhaps more so by getting me to feel that you understand me and my problems and, thus, can help me solve them. Yet I think they both miss the boat.

Why? Well, neither are really about having a conversation. When you just tell me about your business, there’s no room for me because it’s all about you. And when you make it about me and the problems I face, it’s still from your perspective. You’re not there, in it, with me. And if you were once where I am, it’s difficult to recapture the difficulties I face when you’re no longer in them.

I think that’s what Colleen Wainwright, the Communicatrix (gosh, I can’t help by love that name), was getting too when she wrote this comment on a recent blog post of mine around having the conversation with your niche.

Most of the time, people are thinking about what they want to say, rather than the people they’re going to say it to. You can’t possibly have a conversation with your customers (or anyone else, for that matter) over the sound of the projector running, if you catch my drift.

And that seems to be the crux of most marketing content I see today. Not all, but most. Business owners seem to spend more time being concerned about what they want to get across to people than they do considering what people want to hear. Yet giving them what they want and need is the key to being successful.

So how do you do that? Make it a conversation. Instead of being so concerned with getting all the right content so gingerly placed so perfectly on the page, engage in a conversation. When you write copy, think about it like you’re sitting down with someone referred to you from a friend. First, listen to them. Figure out what they need. Then speak (or write). But do so as you would in a verbal conversation by adding to it, not trying to turn it into something you want.

You may be the expert on your topic and the referral may be coming to you. But they want to feel honored, cared for and listened too. They want their opinions to matter. And they want to know that what they know has value and merit.

Just remember, your target audience is made up of individuals. Engage them as such and you’ll be doing business with people instead of a trying to reach a marketing buzzword.

What do you do to engage individuals in your business? How does your blog serve the conversation and how has it helped build relationships?

P.S. …I just found out that today is Colleen’s Birthday. Stop by and shoot her a b-day wish.�

On a recent blog post, 20 Surefire Ways to Beat Writer’s Block, we were discussing methods for working through write’s block. Mark Tillman Tillison of Tillman Tillison Consulting (sorry for the typos Mark) offered the very interesting idea that:

…writing (or typing) using colour can also be very effective (in overcoming writer’s block).

This works because creative and technical processes are handled by the two different hemispheres of the brain. Using colour helps the two hemispheres to work together.

Funny, I’d never thought about it using different colors to help stimulate different parts of the brain when I write. I’d love to know more about it. Have you had any experience with this?

What I found even more interesting was a link to The ColorText Brain Teaser that LaurenMarie of Creative Curio added during the conversation.

The ColorText Brain Teaser was put together by Phillip Miller Eberz who say something similar posted on a middle school wall in Texas.

The basic idea is to see how easy it is to trick the brain through association. You have to try it…

Below is an example of The ColorText Brain Teaser. You do it by saying the color of each word. Be careful not to say the color named by the word. Example: if you see Blue you would say “red” because the color of the word blue is red. It’s harder than it looks. Give it a try…

Now, I have warn you, it’s very easy to trick yourself. Try saying the colors out loud. Or better yet, say them in front of someone else so they can check your accuracy. Then, tell what you think.

I didn’t get six words in without making a mistake. And I’ve done this a dozen times and haven’t made it through once without making a mistake.

I’d love to hear how you do. How far did you get before making a mistake? Tell me about your experience.

If you’re a blogger, a business owner, or a writer of any type, I don’t have to explain to you what writer’s block is. You’ve almost certainly had it. I know I have. And Daphne’s suggestions have helped me work through the blocks when they come.

Daphne’s not blogging yet and so she’s graciously allowed me to reprint her article, Twenty Best Ways To Beat Writer’s Block, which went out on her newsletter the past couple of weeks. Both of us hope you gain from it. Enjoy

Twenty Best Ways To Beat Writer’s Block

1. Write something else. Most of us who write professionally have a hierarchy of horribleness. That is, we know which projects are going to be a little bit awful and which ones will be tremendously awful. My advice? Start with a less awful one. Procrastination, yes, but it’s productive procrastination. (You’ll be happier to face the Project of Doom once you have a bit of good writing under your belt.).
2. Ask a series of questions. Stuck? Instead of writing your article or report in the “normal” way, brainstorm a list of questions your readers are most likely to wonder about. Then answer them. This may take only minor editing to turn into the “real” report or article.
3. Write an email. This is a variant on the old trick of pretending to write to a friend. But verisimilitude is important. To maintain the “this isn’t really work” illusion, you must write your piece in the body of an email. (Just use “move block” to copy it into a word processing document when you’re done.)
4. Change your setting. We all get bored and stuck in ruts. You may be dreading writing because you’re dreading your office. So move to another room. Try the kitchen table or the cafeteria. Or decamp to a coffee shop. It worked for J.K. Rowling.
5. Go for a walk or run. There’s lots of evidence that we think better when we’re moving, so take your writing on the road. Just be sure you have a way of capturing your thoughts. A small digital recorder does the trick very nicely.
6. Do a brain dump. Sometimes you just need to get all the information out of your head and onto paper. Mindmapping, which I’ve written about many times before, can be very useful for this. Take a blank piece of paper, turn it sideways and write your topic in the middle. Draw a circle around it. now draw some lines radiating out of the circle (like spokes on a wheel) and write down all the other words that come into your head. Draw circles around them, too, and join them to the spokes. Keep going until your head is empty or until you feel, “aha! Now I know what I want to say.”
7. Write the headline or title. A headline or title is a bit like a poem. It must distill your big idea into a very few words. It must also be catchy. When you write the headline first, the entire direction of your piece is likely to become more clear. This will make writing substantially easier.
8. Find your best time for writing. We all have our own biorhythms. I used to be a night owl. It was my best, most productive time for writing. In recent years, I’ve turned into a morning lark. Now I do my best writing at 6 am or earlier. But I’m a disaster by 11:30 am because my blood sugar is crashing and I’m starving. As Socrates said: Know thyself. Identify your predictably “good” times and use them. Don’t try to write during your bad ones.
9. Tell yourself you have to write for only five minutes. This is the trick they teach to runners. Okay, so you don’t feel like exercising today. Well, pull on your sneakers and tell yourself you have to run for only five minutes and then you can quit. Many times you’ll discover that the simple act of starting will give you enough momentum to continue. It works for writing, too.
10. Stretch. Even if you’re not blocked, you should do this. Stand up. Reach your hands to the ceiling. Now, clasp your hands behind your back. Straighten your shoulders pushing back against your shoulder blades almost as if you were trying to get them to touch each other. Those of us who work at computers all day tend to spend a lot of time hunched forward. This kind of stretch is not only good for your back, it’s also invigorating. Breathe deeply a few times, too. Oxygen stimulates the brain.
11. Give yourself permission to write badly — really badly. Many times we’re blocked as writers because we’ve raised the stakes too high. “This report will make or break my career,” we tell ourselves. “My income depends on this sales letter,” we fret. Those thoughts may be true, but set them aside while you’re writing. If you simply must beat yourself up, do it when you’re editing.
12. Ask yourself, “have I done enough research?” People often worry about over-researching as a form of procrastination. This does happen, but, interestingly, I find the problem is more typically the reverse. People often try to write before they have the raw materials to do the job properly. This inevitably leads to much staring at a blank computer screen. Before you begin to write ask yourself: “If a friend, partner or colleague grilled me on this topic, could I answer most of their questions easily and in plain English?” If not, continue your research without feeling guilty. (Hint: Make sure your research includes more than facts and figures. You need stories, anecdotes and colour. These are what will make your writing come alive.)
13. “Speak” your writing. Most of us have no difficulty talking. So go with the flow and dictate your words into a tape or digital recorder or even your voicemail. If all else fails, ask a friend to interview you.
14. Prevent interruptions. Okay, I don’t need to tell you this, but turn off your email and shut down your browser. No pings. No “control + m.” No peeking. Email, blogs, checking online forums and surfing the web will keep you busy — and unproductive. Instead, use these interruptions to “reward” yourself when you’ve finished your writing. To avoid non-digital disturbances, I also like popping on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones (these are also excellent for keeping children at bay if you work from home.)
15. Break your writing job into a number of smaller tasks. This is the oldest time-management trick in the book — use it because it works. Do many small jobs rather than one big job and the work will feel less onerous. Here’s how you can divvy up your writing work: print out research from Google; go through your research with a highlighter or sticky notes; interview people; make a mind-map; write a rough draft; rewrite an early draft; copy edit.
16. Reward yourself. If you’ve worked hard on a piece of writing, give yourself a prize. I don’t recommend double fudge brownies for obvious reasons, but there are lots of other options. Allow yourself 15 minutes reading blogs. Call a friend. Play some music. Buy a Moleskin notebook. Get a cappuccino.
17. Turn off your screen so you can’t see what you’ve just written. This tip does depend on your ability to touch type, but if you have that skill, it’s the single best way to stop yourself from endlessly editing your work when you ought to be writing.
18. Limit your writing time. Work expands to fill available time (Parkinson’s Law.) Writing thrives under constraint. (Daphne’s Law.) I know this sounds counterintuitive but we often give ourselves too much time to write. Don’t set aside a day for that report. Tell yourself you have to do it in two hours. Remember how productive you can be just before going on holiday? Create the feeling artificially by limiting your writing time.
19. Pretend you’ve phoned a friend and said, “Guess what?” Then continue the conversation by explaining the key elements of the topic you’re writing about. What makes this technique so effective is that it follows a natural progression. Because you’re telling a story, you’ll start with the most interesting material, give detail where it belongs and end by reinforcing the point you want to make.
20. Read a short but good piece of writing that’s similar to the kind of piece you need to complete. Get yourself a folder for essays and brief magazine pieces you can dip into for inspiration. If you write sales letters, you probably already have a “swipe file.” That works too. For extra reinforcement, you can even re-read some of your own writing. This is often a welcome reminder that while writing can be awful, having written is the most wonderful feeling in the world.

I’ve used a number of these myself. And many, such as 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14 & 18 are part of my blogging routine – especially when I’m stuck.

Pretty good tips, huh? And practical. That’s what I love so much about Daphne’s newsletter.

If these tips were helpful, subscribe to her newsletter, Power Writing, where weekly she publishes practical tips for improving your writing – and the speed of which you do it. It’s one of the few newsletters I still subscribe too myself.

So how do you deal with writer’s block? I know you get it… Have you had success with any of Daphne’s suggestions?

Well, Andrea, over a Baby Steps…To Getting Started Online Today, has a great post that might just be the best copywriting tip I’ve seen.

She says, “You allow your subconscious to do the work for you.”

Pretty simple, huh? But what does it mean?

Well, for me, it means getting out of the way of making your words perfect. When I’m writing a blog post, I’m not writing for a Pulitzer or to recreate the English language with flowing prose.

Rather, I’m looking to express my thoughts, ideas, opinions and knowledge just as I am…just as if we were having a conversation. That’s the way I approach writing – as a conversation…a conversation with you.

So, forget all the rules you learned in school (though spelling, punctuation and simple grammar are quite helpful). Forget that your 7th grade English teacher told you math was your subject not writing (yep, happened to me). And just write. Write how you speak. In other words, have a conversation with your readers.

And when you feel like you’re writing in a conversational style with your readers, then check out these resources to help you go to the ‘next level:”

• Brian Clark’s Copywriting 101
• Brian Clark’s Magnetic Headlines Series
• Okay, basically any post on Copyblogger
• Darren Rowse’s How to Be a More Creative Blogger – Methods of Creativity, How to Write Home Run Posts
• Lorelle VanFossen’s posts on ProBlogger Blogging Tips: Writing Purposeful Content, Telling Your Story With Words and Images and Blogging Is About Writing
• Leo Babauta’s The 4 Pillars of Writing Exceptional Blogs
• John Wesley’s How to Write Something Worth Reading
• Daniel Scocco’s How to Use Punctuation Correctly
• Aaron Wall’s Less Writing, Higher Quality

Really, there’s tons of great posts on copywriting in the blogosphere. These are only a few.

What are you favorite posts? When sitting down to write, what’s really worked for you? And what do you think of the ‘best copywriting tip ever?’ Is it?