Quick! Say the first word that comes to mind.

…

Was it “change?”

“The change we need.”

“Change we can believe in.”

Obama owned that word in 2008. His masterful social media campaign gets a lot of the credit for that.

Do you love the power of words? Do you relish them?

Most blogs consist entirely, or almost entirely, of words.

Words can create. Words can destroy.

Words wield scary power for businesses.

Your blog is going to help or hurt your business in 2009.

How careful are you about the words you use or avoid on your business blog?

What are you going to do this week to become more so?

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2. The Power of Selflessness

Tinhk abuot it.

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Those are the three most despicable words you could ever say as a blogger. Or as a professional.

Or as a human being.

I don’t matter murders your faith, your hope, your courage.

I don’t matter exalts your despair, your doubt, your fear, your failure.

I don’t matter may be why you stopped when your blog stuttered. Why you looked back when it got hard. Why you remain silent.

Why so many bloggers will skip Blog Action Day. Why one more person will die alone.

I don’t matter is a lie. A damnable lie.

I don’t matter shoved me mercilessly to the very brink of doom one dark night in 1998. Those three words would have murdered me had a dear friend not rescued me from the abyss with an embrace I shall never forget.

If you never listen to anything I say ever again, listen to these two gloriously true words:

You matter.

And so your blog matters.

You will never know in this life how great a difference you will make and how many lives you will bless through your devoted service.

Remember these words. They saved me 10 years ago. They may save you or someone through you someday.

Please show this to a friend who needs it.

Thanks to Darren for the inspiration.

Photo by junku-newcleus

—

Note: This blog is all about blog improvement. It’s what I do for a living. And I believe the best way to improve your blog is to sharpen your sense of vision and purpose – for yourself as well as for your blog. The rest becomes so much simpler after that.

Thank you for coming. I hope we can get to know each other.

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1. Why This Visionary Blogger is The Next Authority Blogger
2. Blog Audience Building in 37 Words
3. Course VB 103: Becoming a Visionary Blogger

See Parts 1 through 4:

• How to overcome fear and develop courage
• How to overcome doubt and develop faith

Now let’s talk about how to overcome despair, one of the worst enemies of visionary business blogging.

What is despair?

Despair is the opposite of hope (which we’ll discuss in the next post). It’s a feeling or state of hopelessness. You might believe you nothing to live for and that nothing’s gonna come your way (name that song).

Despair is ugly.

Oh, and Despair has an ugly stepsister named Self-Pity. Together they can blind even the brightest visionary blogger.

Why do business bloggers experience despair?

1. The blog fails to make money
2. The blog takes too much time/energy
3. No one seems to notice/care about the blog
4. Competing blogs/websites appear to be doing much better

What can you do to overcome blogging despair?

1. Figure out where your blog stands. You can’t get anywhere until you know where you are and what direction you’re pointing. Evaluate your blog. Or have me inspect your blog. Turn on the floodlights.
2. Stop tying success to what people say. Start tying it to what they do. So what if a heckling comment bashes your latest blog post? As long as your key metrics are stable, all is well.
3. Learn how to rise from your rut. No need to remain hopelessly ignorant. Knowledge is power. Get it. Find the solutions to blog problems or find someone who can.
4. Move. The classic picture of despair is not a runner, but a benchwarmer. Get up and get busy. The bulk of inspiration comes when you’re on the move. The longer you sit and worry, the less time you’ll have for doing important blogging work.
5. Decide to be sometimes disappointed but never discouraged. The difference lies not in whether you fall, but in whether you spring back up when you fall. Every blogger makes mistakes. Every day brings bad news to somebody in the world. But keep your head up – you decide how to respond to blogging failure.
6. Celebrate even the smallest success. One lead via the blog is better than none. 17 blog visitors a day is better than none. Think “glass half full” and believe in your blog’s incredible potential.
7. Grab a buddy. Despair hits hardest when you’re alone – or when you just think you are. Find a cheerful soul you can trust – bonus if she’s a blogger too – and lean on her when times get rough.

Have You Ever Tasted Blogger Despair?

I have. It’s a dark, bitter thing. If you haven’t, you probably will someday. But tasting it and gorging on it are two totally separate things. I’ve done my share of gorging. It never helps.

You can overcome despair when it attacks. You don’t have to treat every blogging difficulty like it’s the end of the world. You’ve overcome worse. Case in point: being born.

Thank you for helping me overcome blogging despair time and time again. I may never be able to fully repay your kindness. If you’re ever up Despair Creek without a hopeful paddle, you know what to do.

photo credit: lavenderlou

Learn more about our professional services.

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1. How to Overcome Doubt (Business Blog Enemy #2)
2. How to Overcome Blogging Failure: Tips from Author Barry Moltz
3. How to Overcome Fear: A Guide for Blogging Professionals

Previously you learned how to overcome fear, an enemy to blogging with vision. Now let’s talk about fear’s opposite, courage – what it is, why it matters to business blog success and how to increase your courage as a professional blogger.

What is courage?

Courage is a quality that enables you to face scary things without fear. It’s fearlessness. It’s the power to be honest about your circumstances and skills. It’s doing what you need to do despite opposition.

Why is courage an important ally to business blogging?

Let’s face it: Blogging is hard. Sure, blogs make publishing and conversation easy. But their easiness only makes them harder to leverage. If anyone can do it, how do you stand out from the crowd?

Plus, when you blog, you stick your company’s reputation out like a chicken’s neck under the knife of the public eye. You risk damaging your brand, alienating your clientele … and wasting your time and money.

That’s why courage is one of the most important virtues you can cultivate as a blogger (and, for that matter, as a professional).

What does courage have to do with visionary blogging?

Everything. In order to be a visionary blogger, you’ve got to have a strong sense of purpose for your blog. You also need the determination to follow through with your blogging plans. Diligence, the fifth element of the Visionary Blogging method, dies on the vine without courage. And when that happens, the blog’s key metrics for success tend to shrither (that’s shrivel and wither) as well.

How can you strengthen your courage as a business blogger?

Great question. Here are 5 tips to increase your blogging courage:

1. Learn about your blogging fears. You might not even know you have them, but once you track ‘em down, you can think about how to overcome ‘em. (See Awareness.)

2. Carefully set lofty goals. If you’re not aiming for the mountaintop, it could be that you need to muster up some extra guts. (See Focus.)

3. Decide to bounce back from blogging failure. No need to wallow. Up and at ‘em. We all make mistakes. (Betcha I’ve made more than you when it comes to blogs.)

4. Start each blogging day with a miniature pep rally. You might just make or break your blogging success in the first 15 minutes of each day at the blog grind. Do you start by gazing nervously at your traffic stats, or do you begin with a spin?

5. Give another blogger courage. Leave a comment on another blog. Send a friendly advice-filled email. Make a phone call. Just do it to make someone else feel stronger. And you’ll naturally feel a boost of Vitamin C (Courage, that is) yourself.

I’m sure you can come up with other ways. Perhaps there’s a tactic you’ve used successfully to expand your blogging courage. I’d love it if you left a comment below letting us know your thoughts.

I just want to take a moment here to thank you, the Visionary Blogging reader, for giving me courage to make a business out of helping people use blogs more effectively. Thanks for being here. It encourages me to no end. I hope to encourage you as well as we move forward together.

As Paul McCartney croons, “Many times I’ve been alone, and many times I’ve cried … anyway, you’ll never know the many ways I’ve tried.” Courage means facing that long and winding road with your gaze fixed in front of you, no matter what obstacles stand in your way.

Blogging can be scary. But you can be a courageous business blogger. And, if you like, I can help you do it.

Stay tuned for my next post on a particularly nasty enemy to visionary blogging.

photo credit: CarbonNYC

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1. How to Develop Faith (Business Blog Ally #2)
2. Business Blog Ally #3: How to Develop Hope
3. 24-Part Series: Visionary Blogging Allies and Enemies

This is Part 1 of a 24-part series on how to use the Visionary Blogging method to overcome blogging challenges and develop successful blogger habits. Subscribe now for free updates.

What is fear?

Fear can have several meanings. In this guide, fear means a disturbing feeling caused by the threat of something bad happening.

Every person experiences fear from time to time. Fear can paralyze you and hinder your success. It can also galvanize you and spur you to succeed.

Your fears may change over time as you and your circumstances change. By following the steps in this guide, you will respond wisely to your fears and eliminate them or use them for good.

What kinds of fear are there?

There are four primary types of fear:

Type 1: Fear of physical pain that you may suffer due to lack of shelter, food, protection, clothing or money.

Type 2: Fear of mental or emotional distress that you may feel.

Type 3: Fear of physical pain that others may suffer.

Type 4: Fear of mental or emotional distress that others may feel.

Your fears may consist of a combination of one or more of these four fear types. The intensity of fear correlates directly with the level of anticipated pain or distress.

What are some examples of fear?

Example 1: You’re walking alone at night on a dimly-lit street in a high-crime neighborhood. You are wearing expensive clothing and jewelry. You feel afraid that someone may attempt to rob you.

This fear is composed mainly of Type 1 listed above, mingled with Type 2 (and perhaps Type 4 if an attack on you might hurt your ability to care for others).

Example 2: You’re watching your teenager drive away in your car to a party with her friends. You worry that she may make moral decisions she will later regret.

You’re primarily feeling fear Type 4, mixed with some of Type 2 and Type 3.

Example 3: You’re working full-time to support your family, but you’re not making enough money to pay the bills. You worry that your spouse and children will not have enough food to eat, and that you will lose the house in which you currently live.

This fear is a composite of all four types listed above.

What about professional blogger fears? What are some examples of fear related to professional blogging?

Boy, I could give you 1,000 examples. I’ve been a full-time pro blogger since 2005, and few things have given me more scares than my blogging work.

Here are three examples of blog-related fear:

Example 1: You’re a small business owner with a website. You’ve heard about this blogging thing and want to set up a business blog to draw more customers to your products and services. But you’re not sure how to get started, and you’re afraid that you might end up wasting your time and money to create a possibly unnecessary company blog.

That’s a nice mix of Type 1 and Type 2 fear. Many small businesses are afraid to start blogs because of this time/money drain possibility, which they allow to worsen their fear of business failure.

Example 2: You’re a freelance Web designer with a website and blog. You’ve been blogging for over two years and have enjoyed a healthy stream of clients through your online efforts. However, over the past six months, your site/blog traffic and customer numbers have mysteriously declined. You’re not sure what the problem is. You’re afraid that if you don’t fix things soon, you may have to return to that day job at the plant.

A lot of Type 2, with some of Type 1 here. Few things are as stressful as forced career changes.

Example 3: You’re a solo entrepreneur with a struggling offline coaching business. You started a blog eight months ago to try to market your skills online, but so far not much has happened. You’re afraid that you might be hurting your personal brand and that everyone is simply ignoring what you have to say. On top of that, your two adolescent children seem to be eating and spending you out of house and home.

Again, we see fear types 1 and 2 here, but we also see some of types 3 and 4 as you fear for the physical and mental/emotional well-being of your kids.

So … how can I overcome my fears and have more blogging success? You promised to tell me.

Right! Now that we’ve established what fear is and how it can affect your personal and professional performance, let me give you a five-step process to overcome it – especially as it relates to professional/business blogging.

Overcoming Fear – Step 1: Identify Your Fears

What are you really afraid of? How much have you thought about that? Have you written down exactly what your various fears are?

Increasing your awareness is the first step of the Visionary Blogging method. You have to know what it is that’s causing you to feel fear.

Let me give you a personal example. Right now I’m working to build Visionary Blogging into a solid blog consulting and coaching business. As I was preparing this article, I realized that my biggest fear as a blog writer is not what I had previously thought. I used to think that what I was really afraid of was that my writing wouldn’t be good enough, and nothing more.

Now I see that I feel all four types of fear. I’m afraid that constant lack of sleep and too much time at the computer will ruin my health; I worry that I’ll keel over from the stress of starting a small business mostly on my own.

Then there’s the blogging itself. The fear of public embarrassment. The fear of failure. The fear of success. The fear of breaking stuff. The fear of overpromising and underdelivering. The fear of other people mocking your fearfulness. Fear of clowns. Fear of offending. Fear of being boring.

Have you ever experienced fears like these? I bet you have. (Just kidding about the clowns.)

Now, you may feel downright frightened at the thought of talking about and dwelling on your fears. But remember – you can’t fight the enemy if you don’t know anything about him.

In a few minutes, we’ll talk about actually defeating your fears. For now, the point is to understand them.

Consider the following questions:

1. How do my fears make me feel? What do they cause me to do or avoid doing?

2. What prompts me to feel fear? When am I most afraid?

3. How does my blog and/or business suffer because of my inability to overcome my fears?

4. What would I like most to change about those situations which bring my fears to the forefront?

5. What would I like most to change about my response to my fears?

As you answer each question, think about the types of fear you may be experiencing. The four fear types generally run in descending order of urgency – while all are important to address, you should probably prioritize your attention as follows: Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Type 4.

Studying your fear is like shining a bright light in a dark room. Everything becomes clearer, and things that once seemed menacing often turn out to nothing but shadows. And even the really scary stuff becomes easier to face, because you can discern its shape, its color, its direction. You can finally look fear in the eye and prepare to fight it.

Overcoming Fear – Step 2: Track Your Interaction With Your Fear

The second step of the Visionary Blogging method is to sharpen your focus. Just as a person first sees light and color entering from all directions and then decides to look at one thing for a certain time, you need to first identify and then focus on your fears and your experiences in relation to them.

So now that you’ve identified what makes you afraid and how your fears cause you to behave, you need to form a plan that will keep your attention fixed on facing your fears and your response to them.

Here’s an example of how you could do this for your pro blogging efforts.

1. Get out a blank sheet of notebook paper and turn it sideways.

2. Make eight columns going across the page, with Fear as the title at the top of the left column and the days of the week as the titles of the other columns.

3. In separate rows in the left column, write each of the 3-5 most significant blog-related fears you currently face.

4. Go across the page and fill out when you expect to interact with each fear and what you intend to do when that interaction takes place.

5. Review your written plan each morning and each night, writing down the results along the bottom of the page under each day.

The main idea here is to keep close track of what you actually do about your fear now that you know what it is. In fact, if you’ve had trouble identifying your fear in the first place, this step may help jolt you into seeing it more clearly.

When you fail to plan … you know the rest. And it may take several weeks or months (or longer) of sustained focus to really understand the nature of your fears and how you tend to react to them.

So don’t skip this step, please!

Overcoming Fear – Step 3: Decide What to Do About Your Fear

Honing your discernment is the third step of the Visionary Blogging method, and it’s the next thing to do about your fear in order to overcome it.

If you’ve had any difficulty up to this point in identifying or paying close attention to your fears, this step should really help. While Steps 1 and 2 make you look carefully at the past and present, Step 3 shifts to a view of the present and the future. It makes you ask the question, “Where will this choice lead?”

Here’s a six-point routine to help you discern and decide more clearly what you must do to vanquish your fear.

1. Simplify complex things - Insist on a simple plan of action. Complexity will only make conquering fear harder at this point. So instead of ten resolutions for improvement, go with two or three.

2. Understand the nature of something – Look at the charts or measurements you took in Step 2. What do they tell you about yourself? About what scares you? About what works and what doesn’t?

3. Perceive character, thoughts and intentions – Peer into your mind. Why do you want to overcome your fear? What results do you hope to achieve by meeting fear head-on?

4. Estimate value – For each potential plan, analyze its strong and weak points. Try to quantify it somehow.

5. Recognize difference – Compare your possible plans to each another. How do they differ? What advantages and disadvantages do they present?

6. Determine truth – Be scathingly honest. Now is the time to get real about what makes you afraid and what is the most effective way to respond.

Once you’ve come up with an action plan to face your fears, write it down and review it daily. Exercise your decision-making power of discernment. Make decisions about your fears or they will govern you.

Overcoming Fear – Step 4: Imagine New Solutions

Until now, you’ve spent your attention mainly on answering these three questions:

1. What are my biggest fears?

2. What happens when I encounter my fears?

3. What should I do to face my fears?

Let’s add a fourth:

4. How can I approach my fears more creatively?

Imagination can be incredibly powerful. Without it, life’s vibrant colors fade to gray. That’s why exciting it is the next step in the Visionary Blogging method and the next step you should take to tackle your fears about blogging.

Here are a few examples of imaginative approaches to blogging fears:

Example 1: You’re afraid that your business blog is wasting your time and your customers’ time. Rather than posting a dry “What do you think of our blog?” article today, you decide to face your fears with some creativity. You make a contest announcement at your blog – the first 10 people to tell you how they think you should improve your blog get entered into a drawing for one of your flagship products. You reward the participation by sending each suggester a coupon for a discount on that product, and you give away at least one or two to randomly selected winners.

Example 2: Your biggest blog fear is posting. You spend hours and hours poring over post drafts, never satisfied with their quality. On top of that, you develop a strong fear that people are upset with you for posting so rarely. So you settle on a slightly unorthodox way of overcoming these fears. You resolve to post five times a day to your blog for three weeks straight, without explaining why to anyone. As you force yourself to post even when your drafts aren’t “perfect,” you come to realize that your audience actually prefers your new, more authentic voice.

Example 3: You have a somewhat popular blog that is rapidly losing ground to a competing blog in your niche. You are afraid that people will stop coming to your blog altogether. Instead of merely begging for them to stay away from your competitor, you decide to try to befriend her, or at least network with her. Over the course of three months, you and she develop a healthy cross-promotional relationship and both see an increase in business as a result.

Here’s one from my own experience as a blogger. I started blogging about business blogs back in October 2005. It took many months for me to acknowledge and face my fear of rejection. I slowly came to see that my vivid imagination was the culprit. I would daydream of someone visiting my blog, rising from their chair in anger and accusing me of wasting their time, for instance. So one day I finally decided to let my natural sense of humor emerge. The result? Blog posts I felt more passionate about – and smiled at more. Reader responses that egged me on. A greater sense of satisfaction and less worry about what others thought.

In short, I stopped taking myself so seriously.

So learn to laugh at yourself. After all, isn’t it funny how we let ourselves be afraid of trivial things most of the time?

It’s often this “imagination” step that converts a paralyzing fear into an electrifying one.

So get a little crazy. It just might be what your blog needs to survive.

Overcoming Fear – Step 5: Go the Distance

The final step of the Visionary Blogging method is to strengthen your diligence. And it’s the pinnacle of any quest to overcome a serious, deep-seated fear. If you’re not willing to go an extra hundred miles to make sure you’ve left your fears behind, you’re not ready to call them gone.

The best thing you can do to increase your determination in the face of fear?

Talk.

Talk to yourself. Talk to others. Don’t stop preaching to yourself about how powerful you really are and how much you deserve to be free of fear’s shackles. Don’t stop talking about your fears and exposing the cracks in their armor. Don’t stop asking other people to help you get up after a fear-filled fall, or to make the final grueling steps to the summit.

The other best thing you can do to finally destroy fear?

Walk.

Keep walking. No matter how far you’ve come, your journey will be in vain unless you decide to take one more step, one more step, one more step. You must continue until you reach your goal, pausing occasionally to catch your breath but never turning back or giving up.

Remember: There is no growth without overcoming. We need obstacles like fear, blogging and otherwise, to give us opportunities to grow.

Hurricane Katrina, that terrifying monster of a storm that tore through New Orleans and the U.S. Gulf Coast in the fall of 2005, left battle scars not only across the land, but also in the hearts of its battered victims. A year later, I was blessed with the opportunity to get to know a tight-knit community of bloggers who lived in the storm-stricken areas. These men and women, many of them professionals, chose to publish their frustrating journeys to the world, day after day, despite a slew of fears that could nearly suffocate and drown even the strongest of souls. Some of them still do.

Their example of diligence in the face of fear changed me forever – and not just as a blogger.

Overcoming Fear – Conclusion: You Can Do This … So Do It

Fear is an enemy to blogging and business success – unless you face it wisely. Then it becomes an opportunity to improve. The five steps to follow:

1. Increase Awareness: Shine a light on your fears. Get to know them inside and out.

2. Sharpen Focus: Track your confrontations with fear. Watch your performance closely.

3. Hone Discernment: Choose carefully how to combat your fears.

4. Excite Imagination: Try creative approaches to solving fear.

5. Strengthen Diligence: Never give up. Resolve to overcome fear no matter what.

If you need help overcoming your blog-related fears, contact me. You can always ask me for free blogging help, or learn about my professional services. I’m not a scary guy, so your situation can only improve.

What are some things that you’ve done to overcome fears related to blogging? What are your most serious blogging fears? What will you do differently after studying this article?

photo credit: u-JU, Unfurled, MShades, piccadillywilson, Torley, Izzard, Jeff Kubina, A Touch of Glass

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Related Articles

1. How to Overcome Business Blogging Despair
2. How to Overcome Blogging Failure: Tips from Author Barry Moltz
3. How to Overcome Doubt (Business Blog Enemy #2)

Vision polarizes. It has only allies and enemies. No fence-sitters.

Blogging too. You’re either improving your blog or making it worse. Never standing still.

But how can you improve your blog without a vision of its purpose, audience and future?

And how can you leverage your allies or combat your enemies without knowing who they are?

That’s why I’ve created a 24-part series called Visionary Blogging Allies and Enemies. It’s a 12-week look at the virtues and vices that professionals with blogs face every day.

We’ll analyze one enemy of visionary blogging every Tuesday and one ally every Wednesday, wrapping things up the week of September 2-3.

Tomorrow, we’ll kick things off with Enemy Number One.

Please subscribe now. Lock and load.

Part 1: How to Overcome Fear: A Guide for Blogging Professionals

photo credit: McGun

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Related Articles

1. Visionary Blogging Ally #1: Courage
2. Table of Contents for the Visionary Blogging Book
3. What is Visionary Blogging?

Update: Welcome StumbleUpon visitors!

I heard about Bounce! from a friend a few months ago and got a copy. I read it. I recommend it.

I recently had the opportunity to ask Barry some questions by email about blogger failure. If you’re ever struggling with a blog-related problem, I want you to remember Barry’s answers. They can help you become a more visionary – and more successful – blogger.

Easton: What can struggling bloggers learn from your book?

Barry: I talk about that it is okay to have great visions – wanting to be in the top 100 or 1,000 blogs in the country. But in order to get there, I believe we actually need to downsize our dreams and set patient interim goals. If traffic is what you are after, first try to get 100 people a day to your site, then 200, then try to become in the top 1,000,000 blogs etc. Most overnight successes take years.

Easton: What is the number one thing a blogger can do to overcome a blog-related setback?

Barry: Bounce! Grieve for 24 hours. Have a great pity party! Then let go of whatever the setback was, learn if you can from it, but then bounce! so you can take another action to get you to another success. This type of resiliency will give you the confidence to succeed in the long run.

Easton: How can entrepreneurs decide what to say at their blogs regarding their failures?

Barry: Be honest. We can all relate. But don’t whine or feel sorry for yourself. When I am introduced as a speaker in front of a large audience, my bio starts – “Barry has been starting businesses for 15 years with a great amount of success and failure.”. We all fail – people say failure is not an option – well, it actually is a very good one – and a likely outcome. If you can be honest, you will be able to give up the shame that comes with it and let it go!

—

Thanks to Barry Moltz for letting me pick his great mind. I hope his words help you remain resilient in the face of any blogging failure you may experience.

A few final points from me on blogging failure:

Boy, have I failed as a blogger. Many, many times. I’ve also been blessed to be able to succeed after a lot of my failures. Through it all, I’ve learned that perseverance and (as Barry mentioned) resilience have limitless power to overcome the snafus and hiccups and shocks that come with professional blogging.

There is no such thing as a successful blogger who has never also been a failing blogger at some point.

So stick with it. And if you ever need help, I’m right here.

How have you overcome blogging failures in the past? What do you think of Barry’s advice?

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Related Articles

1. How to Overcome Business Blogging Despair
2. How to Overcome Fear: A Guide for Blogging Professionals
3. How to Overcome Doubt (Business Blog Enemy #2)

Use these 139 tips to improve your blog and make your business more successful. I wrote them down at the SOBCon08 business blogger conference last week in Chicago.

Welcome StumbleUpon users!

UPDATE: I’ve re-categorized some tips for better organization. Added 2 tips as well.

First time at Visionary Blogging? Learn about me and what I can do for you.

I’ve broken the tips down into 13 sections:

1. The Big Picture (21 tips)

2. Business Ethics (4 tips)

3. Business Planning (33 tips)

4. Branding/Positioning (2 tips)

5. Market Research (7 tips)

6. Blog Content Improvement (22 tips)

7. Blog Design Improvement (5 tips)

8. Blog Community Improvement (5 tips)

9. Affiliate Sales (3 tips)

10. Business Tracking/Automation (4 tips)

11. Business Promotion (16 tips)

12. Responding to Criticism and Correction (10 tips)

13. Entrepreneurship/Business Growth (7 tips)

Total: 139 tips (and counting; leave a comment below to suggest more)

1. The Big Picture

1.1 Don’t just “blog;” rather, use blogs to enhance your business.

1.2 We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Stop delaying the amazing things that you were put on this earth to do. Don’t sell the world short. – Wendy Piersall (via Marianne Williamson)

1.3 Explain clearly who you are, what you do and for whom. Be so clear that no one can misunderstand you.

1.4 Write down your personal mission statement – something you could say in 12 words or less if someone held a gun to your head. – Anita Bruzzese

1.5 Make people think. – Chris Garrett

1.6 Be original, unique and honest.

1.7 Trust and value mean more than love and attention.

1.8 Create conversations that nourish communities that provide value and generate revenue.

1.9 Leap and the net will appear. – Christine Kane (via Zen Buddhism)

1.10 Keep the dreamer’s disease. Give and you will receive. – Terry Starbucker (via the New Radicals)

1.11 Let go of total control. Of course you want control over everything about your blog and your business. But you must let go in order for things to grow. – Wendy Piersall

1.12 Before you ask for anything, give something for free. – Wendy Piersall

1.13 Why will your customer buy from you – price? Pride? A relationship? – Liz Strauss
1.14 Don’t try to sell your customers something you think they need. Sell them something they want. If they want it, then they’ll need it. – Liz Strauss
1.15 Make it all about your customers. – Liz Strauss

1.16 You need fiber and sugar. Head and heart. – Liz Strauss

1.17 Being remarkable is great, but it’s not enough. People have to want what you have that’s remarkable. – Liz Strauss

1.18 Your business must have meaning to people. There must be a place for it in their lives. So tell them how it fits in their lives. – Liz Strauss

1.19 Strive to make your business mean something to each customer. – Lorelle VanFossen

1.20 Remember that we often teach best what we most need to learn. – Lorelle VanFossen

1.21 Remember that you may use a blog in your business, but your blog is not your business. – Lorelle VanFossen

2. Business Ethics

2.1 Identify your line in the sand – the point beyond which you refuse to go regardless of the situation. – Anita Bruzzese

2.2 Stand up for truth, no matter the consequence. – Anita Bruzzese

2.3 Write so you can be proud of every story. – Anita Bruzzese

2.4 Remember that reputations are hard to build and easy to destroy. – Anita Bruzzese

3. Business Planning

3.1 Reflect regularly on who you are and where you intend to go.

3.2 What exactly do you want to happen? – David Bullock

3.3 Regularly evaluate your own honesty.

3.4 Regularly face your regrets and resolve to improve.

3.5 Make your service into a product as much as possible. – Brian Clark

3.6 Automate every process as much as possible. – Brian Clark

3.7 Strive to offer products or services that give customers constant value without requiring your constant attention. – Brian Clark

3.8 The word “blog” will evolve and may someday fade. Avoid its overemphasis. – Brian Clark

3.9 Remember that blogging is just one part of what you do to promote and strengthen your business. – Brian Clark

3.10 Think of yourself not just as a blogger, but rather as an entrepreneur who uses blogs as part of your business model. – Brian Clark

3.11 Seek to offer the right product or service for the right target audience at the right price. First, get their attention by doing the right things; second, establish yourself as an authority in your niche; third, accelerate your growth by putting the right workers and systems in place to automate as much as possible for you. – Brian Clark

3.12 Never be shy to explain your business and offer something for sale. People value sincerity and openness. – Brian Clark

3.13 Content is marketing. – Brian Clark

3.14 The best assets bring you money even when you’re not working hard at them daily. – Brian Clark
3.15 Offer independent value with content – the articles need to stand on their own and remain valuable for a long time – Brian Clark
3.16 Utilize headlines and tools – Brian Clark
3.17 Make content that the leaders in niches like yours will love and will love to talk about with their audiences. – Brian Clark

3.18 Don’t outsource thinking to somebody else. You have to come up with the vision. Then get somebody else to implement it or do it for yourself. – Brian Clark

3.19 Content is the new advertising. So, integrate copywriting elements – especially direct response copywriting – into your blogging. – Brian Clark

3.20 Headlines are so crucial. You win or lose by them. People will ignore you unless your headlines are insanely awesome. – Brian Clark

3.21 Hooks are what make your stuff stand out. What you say is important, but how you say it matters most. Not what you sell, but how you sell it. – Brian Clark

3.22 You’re not in a content business – you’re in a business that utilizes content as a marketing strategy. – Brian Clark

3.23 Transform attention into authority via social proof (number and quality of comments, incoming links, high-profile media mentions, etc.). – Brian Clark

3.24 Constantly test different content configurations (e.g. A/B landing page testing).

3.25 Seek to have an asset, not a job.

Money without freedom is hollow. So outsource. Automate processes and form strategic partnerships. Start somewhere. Figure out how you can escape without your business suffering. – Brian Clark

3.26 Start with your core website. Build it up. Then start building around it. – Brian Clark

3.27 Trust, or lack of it, determines the sale. – Brian Clark

3.28 Plan frequently and regularly. – Chris Garrett

3.29  Write down every new idea. – Chris Garrett

3.30 Regularly organize your ideas. – Chris Garrett

3.31 Try to post like 5x/week if possible – 1x/day at least. Really useful stuff of course, but frequent enough that people can use you often. – Chris Garrett

3.32 Do not delay the publication of excellent content just because it is not perfect. – Chris Garrett

3.33 Maintain a detailed editorial calendar. – Chris Garrett

4. Branding/Positioning

4.1 Own a space, not just a channel. Be the go-to person for something, online and offline, in any format. – David Bullock

4.2 Tell people exactly what unique aspects of your product or service make you worth their time and money. – Chris Garrett

5. Market Research

5.1 Who’s going to love what you do? – Lorelle VanFossen

5.2 If there’s no market – if you’re the only one who cares – you’re dead. Period. – David Bullock

5.3 Trying to give people what they don’t want is the quickest way to fail. – Brian Clark

5.4 Get into the right niche fast and stay there long enough to plant yourself firmly. – Brian Clark

5.5 Speak according to the language of your target audience. – David Bullock

5.6 Learn from your audience. – Chris Garrett

5.7 Listen more than you speak. – Chris Garrett

6. Blog Content Improvement

6.1 Your words can have great power. You therefore have a great responsibility to use them carefully. – Anita Bruzzese

6.2 Be fair. Tell both sides of every story. – Anita Bruzzese

6.3 Be trustworthy. Back up your assertions and cite your sources. Admit your biases. Never be lazy when spreading information. – Anita Bruzzese

6.4 Cite sources according to their relevance and value, not according to your personal taste. – Anita Bruzzese

6.5 Constantly offer perspective and background to make your content easier to understand. – Anita Bruzzese

6.6 When you publish inaccurate information, correct it as quickly and visibly as possible. Identify the mistake, explain the truth and apologize. Correct it on your blog and everywhere else on (and off) the Web it may have reached. – Anita Bruzzese

6.7 Don’t write for your 8th grade teacher. Write conversationally. – Liz Strauss

6.8 Don’t tie everything up. Let people take the ball and run with it. – Liz Strauss

6.9 Blog your experience. – Liz Strauss

6.10 Publish content that your target audience will love and spread. – Chris Garrett

6.11 Remember that the amount of content does not directly correlate to its value. 10 words may do more than 10,000, and a single question may do more than a hundred statements. – Chris Garrett

6.12 People like stories. Tell stories that lead them to care about you and trust you. – Chris Garrett

6.13 Break out your creativity. Do something different that is still useful. – Chris Garrett

6.14 Keep a reserve of several evergreen articles to publish in case of need. – Chris Garrett

6.15 You’re only as good as your last post in many people’s minds. – Chris Garrett

6.16 Start with the end point for the post – what do you want to accomplish with it? Why? And then go backwards to write the content, and then lastly, fix the headline up. – Chris Garrett

6.17 Or, start with a great headline and fill it out. – Chris Garrett

6.18 Let your content be an ambassador for what you do. – Chris Garrett

6.19 Make posts visually appealing. Don’t beat around the bush – just say what you mean. – Chris Garrett

6.20 Don’t be perfect. Perfect leaves no room for discussion. Imperfection attracts discussion. – Chris Garrett

6.21 Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means. – Chris Garrett (via Koichi Kawana)

6.22 Tell your story – what you are trying to do – and match it with your customer’s story – what he wants and needs. Your blog content is a bridge between the two. They want to go somewhere. Let your content take them there. Give away some stuff for free. But reserve the best for a price. – David Bullock

7. Blog Design Improvement

7.1 Keep your blog and any feeds or email offerings clean and neat. – Lorelle VanFossen

7.2 Regularly make sure your blog/feed/email offerings appear correctly and work properly for as many people as possible. – Lorelle VanFossen

7.3 Make your email address and phone number as easy to find as possible. – David Bullock

7.4 Display advertising only if it benefits the reader and does not overwhelm or interfere with your blog content. – Lorelle VanFossen

7.5 Pay attention to everything people see – every link, every word, every pixel. – Lorelle VanFossen

8. Blog Community Improvement

8.1 Treat every blog visitor and commenter kindly. – Chris Garrett

8.2 Reward your blog commenters, backlinkers and social media promoters. Give them exclusive access to some content or experience, give them recognition, or even give them something tangible. – Anita Bruzzese

8.3 Thank your fans and commenters. Encourage more conversation. – Chris Garrett

8.4 Always strive to convert conversation into a stronger community. – Chris Garrett

8.5 Ask your blog community members to tell you what they want you to publish and how you can serve them better. – Chris Garrett

9. Affiliate Sales

9.1 Promote affiliate offers to see what the market wants – this is a great way to make revenue, and also a great way to test the waters to see what people really want – just observe and people will tell you what they want – so build trusting relationships, and just listen closely to what people want – ask directly, watch their comments, study what is said on other websites, etc. – Brian Clark

9.2 Disclose affiliations clearly, creatively and without apology. – Brian Clark

9.3 If you own it and love it, endorse it. If not, don’t. If you’ve just heard of something, investigate it. Buy it if you can. If it’s great, promote it. The more you know about a product, the better you’ll be at selling it. – Brian Clark

10. Business Tracking/Automation

10.1 Write each business process step by step. Determine the outcome, set the sequence, run through the process, refine the process. If someone takes over that process, you’ve just automated one piece of your business. – David Bullock

10.2 Make an efficient revenue-generating process that you can easily repeat. – David Bullock

10.3 Pay attention. – David Bullock

10.4 What exact results do you want? Get the tools to track every action by people so you can understand what they’re doing when they visit your website. Track first, then test. – David Bullock

11. Business Promotion

11.1 Constantly nurture and protect your online and offline reputation. – David Bullock

11.2 Talk freely about your achievements and successes if it leads more people to do business with you. – David Bullock

11.3 Think of the Web as the last place to promote your business. Start with people. Start with your customers. – David Bullock

11.4 On your About page, share your details as powerfully as possible. Give customers the story that will resonate with them most strongly. – David Bullock

11.5 Get all the testimonials you can. When someone says something good about your business, ask permission to quote them.. – David Bullock

11.6 Let your customers work for you – they will say nice things about you. Ask them to get you more business. Send an email. Call them. – David Bullock

11.7 People will pay you for what you know that they want access to. – David Bullock

11.8 Go through obstacles or around them. Do it or avoid it, but make decisions. – David Bullock

11.9 How do you talk to businesses? You don’t. You talk to people in businesses. Businesses are full of people. – Chris Brogan

11.10 Give more than you ask. – Chris Brogan

11.11 Get the marketplace right. – Chris Brogan

11.12 People do things for people. – Chris Brogan

11.13 Sell things at the marketplace, not at home. Home is where you should focus on conversations that build trust. – Chris Brogan

11.14 Make people feel that they are part of a special community. – Chris Brogan

11.15 Without trust, community dies. Don’t wreck trust.- Chris Brogan

11.16 Embrace your passionate fans and amplify their voices. – Chris Brogan

12. Responding to Criticism and Correction

12.1 Thank those who correct or criticize you. – Liz Strauss

12.2 Respond to information, not emotion. – Liz Strauss

12.3 People just want to be heard, so saying thank you lets them know you appreciate their input. – Liz Strauss

12.4 No need to work a conversation thread to death. If you have stuff that really adds value, just say it. But is it gonna be worthwhile for somebody to read? – Anita Bruzzese

12.5 Respond to somebody’s points calmly and clearly and when they repeat themselves, just let it be done. When you wanna keep ranting, let it be done. Silence is not a response – that is, if someone doesn’t answer, don’t assume what they might mean. Try to get a response. – Anita Bruzzese

12.6 Be tireless in getting the truth out there. Hold the truth up very high. – Anita Bruzzese

12.7 Respond calmly to attacks, with facts and with the truth. Don’t attack back. – Anita Bruzzese

12.8 When you need to disappear, explain the situation before people get the wrong idea. – Anita Bruzzese

12.9 Delete only those blog comments that insult the conversation via personal attacks or deceit. – Anita Bruzzese

12.10 Make it clear that you will not be held legally liable for destructive comments. – Anita Bruzzese

13. Entrepreneurship/Business Growth

13.1 Remember that you cannot create a successful blog or business without taking risks. – Chris Garrett

13.2 Grow your business a little each day. You’ll never really get “there,” because every time you do, there’s another “there” there. So just focus on constantly improving. – Wendy Piersall

13.3 Define exactly what success means to you for your business. – Wendy Piersall

13.4 Give more of yourself. Not just numbers and time. But more meaning from you. Then things will fall into place. – Wendy Piersall

13.5 A reader, visitor or subscriber who is not interested in buying something is not good for your business. – Brian Clark

13.6 Only consider a model that keeps you in the red for a while if you have the savings or funding to make up for it. – Brian Clark

13.7 Seek to form partnerships with professionals whose strengths match your weaknesses and vice versa. – Brian Clark

To those who organized and attended SOBCon08: Thank you. You wove a beautiful tapestry of lessons, feelings and friendships that I will always clutch close to my heart.

Liz, Terry: I won’t let you down.

Subscribe to Visionary Blogging today so you don’t miss my upcoming article on how to create a successful blog commenting strategy. And so you can be ready for the contest.

3 Questions For You

1. What are you going to do now?

2. What would you add to this list?

3. Will you attend SOBCon09?

Photo by Becky McCray

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Related Articles

1. SOBCon08 Attendee List and 2008 SOBCon Resources
2. The SOBCon08 Step Forward Challenge
3. Business Blog Tips: My 3 All-Time Favorites

Welcome to Part 4 of a 5-part series on the elements of visionary blogging.

Part 1: Awareness
Part 2: Focus
Part 3: Discernment
Part 4: Imagination
Part 5: Diligence

This article will help you become a more imaginative blogger.

come with me and you’ll be

in a world of pure imagination

take a look and you’ll see

into your imagination

What is Imagination?

Imagination is the ability to create.

To create means to make something new using existing material.

In particular, imagination is the power to create ideas.

Ideas are the currency of the attention economy.

Valuable ideas rule.

Imagination is the key to discovering original solutions to our problems.

With rare exceptions, today’s most influential bloggers are masters of imagination.

They are master idea creators.

While the first three elements of visionary blogging (awareness, focus and discernment) must build upon each other, imagination stands alone.

we’ll begin with a spin

trav’ling in the world of my creation

what we’ll see will defy explanation

You have the power to imagine – and therefore do – things that defy explanation.

I know you do.

How Imagination Boosts Your Blogging Success

With imagination’s power, you can do things never before done.

Your imaginative blogging can make a difference in this world.

Here are just a few ways in which imagination benefits your blogging:

1. Imagination helps you learn faster. Creative thinking cements newfound blogging tips in the mind.

2. Imagination helps you understand people and situations better. Ever wondered what it’s like to be in someone’s shoes?

3. Imagination fuels virality. Often, it’s the main difference between a meme that spreads like wildfire and a meme that quickly turns to ashes.

4. Imagination makes ordinary blog content exciting. It’s that sentence worded unexpectedly, that fresh angle, that astonishing assertion.

5. Imagination freshens stale blog design. In perhaps no other characteristic of a blog is lameness so quickly detected or uniqueness so highly prized.

6. Imagination invigorates a weak blog community. Your blog visitors, commenters and backlinkers all depend on you to give them creative conversation cues – give them what they want or they may stop conversing with or about you.

7. Imagination enables powerful mind mapping and blog planning. You can’t reach goals you haven’t set, and you can’t publish articles you haven’t dreamed of yet.

Imagination makes you a better blogger.

Imagination makes your blog better.

if you want to view paradise

simply look around and view it

anything you want to, do it

want to change the world, there’s nothing to it

What can you see? What do you want to see?

How much are you limiting your blog’s growth by stifling your imagination?

How to Improve Your Imagination: 14+ Ways

1. Approve. It’s okay. Go ahead. Give yourself permission. Nobody’s watching. Don’t worry about embarrassing yourself.

2. Exercise. Take a few minutes each day or each week to do nothing but imagine stuff. No imaginary pain, no imaginary gain.

3. Write it down. Take notes as you daydream or imagine things. Wait until your imagination time ends if you’re concerned about breaking its flow. But once you’re done, write down what you’ve learned or experienced or thought.

4. Start with anything. Picture your blog if you like. Or picture a blue barracuda named Bob. It matters less where you begin than where you go.

5. Change something. So there’s Bob the barracuda in your brain. Now change something about him. Poof! His name’s Shirley. Poof! Give him legs. Poof! Red legs.

6. “What if …?” Ask yourself how the outcome may change if you change the input. Be merciless with the input, sensible with the output. “What if I posted once every 10 minutes to my blog for an entire week? My brain might turn to alfalfa, but I sure would get attention from the other bloggers in my niche. Maybe there’s a viral idea in there … how can I prevent the alfalfa and still get the attention? Aha! What if I just did this for one day? And all around a central theme? And invited others to do it too?”

7. Be silly. You’d be surprised at how many serious, useful ideas are born of ridiculous, useless parents. I say useless because so-called “crazy ideas” may not serve any real purpose by themselves – but they may become powerful means to coming up with totally sane concepts. So maybe Bob the barracuda’s image flashes in your mind, and you give him a bowtie and have him speak Hungarian backwards … and then you realize that the pattern on the bowtie would make a perfect logo for your blog, and that a single backwards word would make a brilliant catchphrase to go in your next post headline.

8. Go sideways. You think and act in well-worn paths all the time. When you practice honing your imagination, make sure to spend some time not forsaking those paths altogether, but rather following them for a while and then taking a brief detour. So if your habit is to answer every thoughtful comment left at your blog with a heartfelt expression of thanks, perhaps you might tweak (but not completely redo) your approach so that you always try to end with a follow-up question inviting further discussion.

9. Consider opposites. Let’s say your blog’s color scheme is dark on light. Without stopping to question your logic, just imagine the absolute photo negative opposite – a light on dark scheme. Allow both extremes to stand before you. Ponder their differences. What do you observe that can be applied whether or not you make a complete shift from the light scheme to its polar opposite?

10. Tell a story. Make it up as you go. It can be set in the past, present or future. “It’s tomorrow morning. I’m reading a bunch of new blog posts on how to increase my RSS subscriber numbers when there’s a knock at the door. It’s my favorite blogger! We’ve never met before, and it’s great to say hi in person. We sit down together and form a plan to play a practical joke on 100 other bloggers – the most audacious such plan ever concoted.” Etc. The point of this exercise is to evoke feelings or thoughts in passing that you can then latch on to and do something about.

11. Drink from imaginative fountains. Go to a creative blogger and ask them for inspiration. Talk to just about any eight-year-old. Watch a movie with lots of surprises in it. Just chug lots of IJ (imagination juice) and see what color your pee turns. In other words, you are what you drink. So partake of as much creative content and conversation as possible.

12. Mix things together. Bob the barracuda and your first blog post. The aftertaste of strawberries and the smell of whipped cream. Put any two or more things together and see what happens.

13. Consider iterations. Ask yourself what the next logical step in a progression should be. Fetus, baby, child, adolescent, adult, worm food. So after you put out that huge resource list post to charm the legions of StumbleUpon, del.icio.us and Digg fans, then what? Then you’ll probably get a lot of first-time visitors to your blog. So how can you prepare for that influx? What needs to change about your design, your content and your community? After the social media traffic spikes come and go, then what? Etc.

14. Apply everything. Try to always glean a meaningful lesson from your escapades to the land of enchantment and imagination (or whatever you wish to call it). And apply each lesson or insight like mad to your blog and to your blogging activities.

15. You tell me. Please don’t let this list stop at 14. There are so many more ways to improve your imagination. Let me hear some from you. Imagination, when shared, becomes almost frighteningly powerful.

Two Big Reminders About Imagination for the Intrepid Blogger

1. Imagination isn’t everything. It’s wonderful, but it’s still all in your head. You have to do real work to make the internal become external. But hard work can make imagination pay off like – well, I guess you can imagine. (We’ll cover hard work in our next article.)

2. Imagination can be scary. Especially when you let it run wild. Don’t let fear of the unknown paralyze you. You can control it. You can be its master. Remember what Mark Twain said: “Some of the worst things in my life never happened.”

Your Real (Not Imaginary) Challenge

I challenge you to become more imaginative. Let your mind wander a bit more. Give yourself permission to think and dream of incredible new things.

As you work to strengthen your sense of imagination, you will become a more visionary blogger and you will be able to improve your blog and your blogging skills more efficiently. And this, in turn, will increase your blogging success faster than ever before.

there is no life I know

to compare with pure imagination

living there, you’ll be free

if you truly wish to be.

Next: In Part 5 of this series, we’ll talk about how to increase your diligence in order to become a more successful blogger. Nothin’ like hard, hard, hard work, smartly done.

Subscribe to Visionary Blogging today. We’ve got a ton of great stuff about the science of blog improvement coming your way.

Remember: You can get free blog advice from me anytime. Just ask.

Thank you so much for reading this article all the way to the end.

Please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear what you think.

Photos by abernmf, KaCey97007, tanakawho and gurdonark; lyrics from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Learn more about our professional services.

Related Articles

1. Elements of Visionary Blogging, Part 5: Strengthen Your Diligence
2. Elements of Visionary Blogging, Part 3: Hone Your Discernment
3. Elements of Visionary Blogging, Part 2: Sharpen Your Focus