There’s an endless ebbing, flowing ocean of content to navigate. It’s always raining and pouring more ones and zeroes, a downright deluge of data that never relents.

I know what it’s like to feel overcome by the flood of it all.

The streams and memes, the passwords and profiles, the alphas and betas, the announcements and contests and promotions.

Deadlines, deadlines.

Expectations and writer’s block and stat tracking and following the latest news from anywhere and everywhere all at once.

It’s miserable unless you force yourself to just calm down.

Oh, the unspeakable power of calm. Oh, the unspeakable power of it.

Can you do something for me? Just for a second?

Stop, please. Just stop.

Shh. Listen.

Okay, hold it right there. You’re not holding still enough.

CALM DOWN.

The Internet’s not going anywhere. Just trust me on this one.

Forget about Twitter. Forget about Facebook. Forget about your inbox.

Let’s take a minute, one full minute, and just remain calm and quiet and breathe.

Only by letting your eyes rest can you set your sights on a higher purpose.

Let go of the idea that you’re on some kind of treadmill with no off switch.

Let go of the worry that you’re always missing out on something that’s happening on the social Web.

Let go and take some time each day to calm down. You’ll be much more successful in whatever you’re doing with blogs and social media. It’s so worth the time.

What makes you frazzled online? What calms you down?

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I’ve had it.

No more.

I’ve had it.

The slope is too steep.

The wind is too fierce.

The pain is too great.

I could never reach the summit.

Why did I even bother?

Nobody cares.

Go on or go back – it won’t make a difference.

So scream the voices.

But I refuse to listen.

Because I can see.

And I can see …

… because I believe.

photo by Peter Gene

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That event changed me forever.

May we never forget that we are all beggars.

5 things I learned from my BAD ’08 work:

1. Scalability is crucial to virality.

If you can’t scale, you can’t spread. Your idea may spread somewhat on its own. But if you can’t handle huge spikes of incoming information, you won’t be able to give your meme the constant attention it needs in order to achieve maximum reach and effect.

Blog Action Day 2008 was highly scalable in structure. The organizing team did a fantastic job preparing this event to spread virally. We had a solid strategy for contacting high-profile blogs and non-profit organizations. We had a website that made it easy and appealing to register for the event. We had a viral video.

But we all wished we had a few more members on our team. Especially when the big day came and I found myself hosting a live 12-hour-long radio show, manning the event Twitter and email and social media accounts, and fielding last-minute phone calls.

2. There is an unspeakable amount of needless suffering in this world.

The thousands of wonderful blog posts, photos, podcasts and videos published for Blog Action Day 2008 made my heart deeply feel what my mind already knew – that you and I have millions upon millions of brothers and sisters on this planet who are suffering needlessly at this very moment.

There is suffering and then there is needless suffering.

None of us can afford to ignore the monstrous magnitude of worldwide poverty.

We should do all we can, always, to rid poverty from the earth.

As I wrote for The Blog Herald:

“Last Friday, Chris Garrett asked what you are doing for Blog Action Day 2008 – Poverty. If every blogger involved in the annual October 15 event would have left a comment at Chris’s post, there would be well over 10,000 of them. And yet, if every person living in poverty were to comment, there would be more than 3 BILLION comments. Can you fathom it?”

3. There is an astounding amount of love in this world.

We just need to spread it.

No sooner had the Blog Action Day team launched our 2008 campaign than we began to receive emails and phone calls from people who wanted to help the event. Dozens of volunteers showed up at our doorstep, translating our website into at least 25 languages and promoting our event in dozens of countries all over the world. More than 80 companies and organizations willingly partnered with us, some of them offering their space, resources or tools for free.

Not to mention the incredible acts of kindness and selflessness manifested by thousands of people on Blog Action Day itself. Just look at the event website for a glimpse. People gave money to charity. They taught each other about poverty in their neighborhoods. They pledged to be more caring from that day on.

I was overwhelmed at the responsiveness and generosity of the Blog Action Day community.

4. Keep track of everything.

I sent hundreds of emails in my capacity as an offical Blog Action Day 2008 team member and read thousands more. I also created and maintained dozens of social media accounts and other online accounts for the event.

The only way I was able to do this without going bonkers was to keep track of everything I possibly could.

Spreadsheets, email filters and RSS alerts became my best friends. Without them, I never would have been able to remember who needed what by when, or who was saying what about Blog Action Day where.

At first I had to force myself to stay organized. But a little truly went a long way and the event went much more smoothly as a result.

5. Flow quality is much more valuable than flow quantity.

On the Web, you’ve got to give people a clear path to follow. This is especially true of events like Blog Action Day that have a central hub online and revolve around a single point in time.

We generated more buzz by doing and being and offering less. We were one day. One topic. Two officially supported ways to give money. One page with all the images/banners/widgets to embed on your blog. Etc.

More than once, I fell behind on answering emails for Blog Action Day. There was just so much coming in. What finally conquered the pile-up was attacking it with a system for directing flow. I made several template emails to save typing time. I filtered incoming messages extensively. I made each response as complete as possible to reduce the number of follow-up questions.

Give people clear instructions and simple choices all the time and you (and they) are bound to get more of what you want and less of what you don’t out of an event or a business.

And just for fun, here’s a bonus lesson I learned.

6. Sleep is wonderful. Try to get enough of it.

I came to cherish sleep while working for Blog Action Day 2008. During the last few days, I came to absolutely crave it.

I spent 40 hours or so in a row on October 14-15 working feverishly for Blog Action Day. Zero sleep in that span. The last 12 hours of that was the BlogTalkRadio talkathon. When I finally got to bed on the night of the 15th, I fell asleep within seconds and remained motionless on my back until morning. My wife had to check to make sure I was actually breathing at several points throughout the night because I never moved. There was no prying the precious prize of slumber from my exhausted body and brain.

So I resolved that, barring life-threatening emergencies, I will never again do that to myself.

If I could do it over again, I would have at least taken a catnap or two during that final 40-hour stretch. And every day I would have tried to grab a few more winks of sleep. It probably would have made my work more effective and less stressful.

Thank You to the Blog Action Day 2008 Team

To Collis Ta’eed for inviting me to contribute to this year’s extraordinary event; to Fuad Ta’eed for helping me see the vision of the event; to Cyan Ta’eed for adding an incredible amount of cheerfulness and energy; to John Barton for his tireless development and tech support work; to Leo Babauta for picking poverty as this year’s theme; to the dozens of volunteers who translated Blog Action Day materials and helped us promote our event worldwide; and to everyone who participated in any way, I say THANK YOU. You made Blog Action Day 2008 unforgettable for me and for many, many others. I hope that someone in this world will be less poor as a result.

What Did You Learn from Blog Action Day 2008?

I’m interested to know what lessons you have to share. Please leave a comment below. Or if you have any questions for me about Blog Action Day, please feel free to share them as well!

If you liked this post, please subscribe to Visionary Blogging. I focus on honing the blog improvement process and using blogs with a sense of vision and strategy to make your business and your life more effective.

And please share this article with your friends!

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One of the most common questions I ask in reply is this: “What’s your overall vision for your blog? Where do you want it to take its target audience in the next 12-24 months?”

Once they answer that question, they’re ready to hear what I have to say about how to improve their blog and get the results they want. Here’s why the blog improvement process ultimately hangs from the feet of vision.

1. Vision is Light

I’m being abstract here, yes. But think of vision (or strategy) as light. The clearer your vision of what your blog can become and why you have it in the first place, the brighter the light shining on your blog and the easier it is to spot the areas in most dire need for improvement. The murkier your long-term goals, the darker your blog improvement blueprints and the harder it is to figure out the nuts and bolts of what you ought to do with it.

Take blog monetization/ROI, for instance. Sometimes the underlying long-term growth strategy for a blog is for it to generate ever-larger reams of money. On the other hand, maybe the blogger’s vision is to simply build a tight-knit community of friends who love the same niche subject. Can you see how the blog improvement process diverges depending on the nature of the path the blogger imagines traveling?

2. Vision is the Center; Processes are the Spokes

Picture a bicycle wheel. Your blog is that wheel. Your growth/ROI strategy for the blog (or one aspect of it) is the hub in the middle. All the spindly spokes sticking out from the center are the individual growth processes and methods and tactics you will use to make your blog worthwhile for you and those to whom you address it.

So if you’re looking to beautify your blog design, that’s the center of its own wheel. Make sure you get a razor-sharp picture of what constitutes that center. Maybe it’s that you want a better design in order to tip prospective customers over the edge and convert them into faithful followers. Maybe it’s that you really just want to attract more honeybees to the computer screen (in which case I recommend bright colors).

Once you decide where you want to end up, it becomes so much simpler to determine how to get there.

3. Vision is the Power to Point The Leaper

I love the mantra, “Leap and the net will appear.” Christine Kane was the first to teach it to me.

Imagine yourself on a platform suspended in space. Around you in every direction are invisible cargo nets hanging hammock-like in the black. I guarantee that if you truly leap, I’ll make sure you land in one of them.

You just have to decide which direction to jump in first.

So What?

So if you want someone like me to help you make your blog better, you need to think about your vision for the blog before anything else. Before you set a budget. Before you decide on a color scheme. Before you choose which flavor-of-the-month social media website you want to dominate.

And of course I’m willing to help you clarify that core.

Because with the core correctly placed, all else flows naturally.

photo by iboy_daniel

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Welcome to Part 5 of a 5-part series on the elements of visionary blogging. This article will help you become a more diligent blogger so you can increase your blogging success.

• Part 1: Increase Your Awareness (the ability to see)
• Part 2: Sharpen Your Focus (the ability to look)
• Part 3: Hone Your Discernment (the ability to evaluate)
• Part 4: Excite Your Imagination (the ability to create)
• Part 5: Strengthen Your Diligence (the ability to endure)

Recognize this mountain?

Look closely at the colossal peak in the photo above. Can you name it?

• Hint: It’s bigger and taller than Mount Everest.
• Hint: It can be seen from two cities that are more than 350 miles (560 kilometers) apart by car.
• Hint: Its name in Athabaskan means “the Great One.”

You’ll find the answer at the end of this article.

What’s with the mountain shot anyway?

I showed you the mountain photo to help you ponder two things.

First, the incredible diligence required for a mountain to rise up from the earth over millions of years.

Second, the incredible diligence required for a human to climb it in a matter of days.

What is diligence?

Diligence is zealous, intense, sustained effort. It’s refusing to give up no matter what. It means never forgetting or laying aside your vision for your blog.

Why does diligence matter to business blogging?

A lack of diligence has killed more business blogs and ruined more bloggers’ efforts than anything else, with the possible exception of self-doubt.

I’ve seen hundreds of professional blogs start out well, like hikers setting out for a summit on a clear summer day.

But then the weather begins to rage. One by one the mountaineers turn back, exhausted or afraid.

Only the bravest and stubbornest of souls can conquer the highest, loneliest peaks on earth.

So it is with blogging.

If you haven’t wept over your blogging, maybe you are not diligent enough.

If it hasn’t physically hurt, you might not be working hard enough.

Do you know what it’s like to clench your teeth in frustration because your blog is not making the difference you had hoped?

Or what it’s like to bite your lip and push forward, whatever the consequences and no matter the obstacles?

Without diligence, none of the other visionary blogging elements can guarantee your blog’s success.

It is diligence alone that seals the deal, making sure that your blogging vision finally becomes reality.

How can you strengthen your blogging diligence?

It’s simple. It’s hard, but it’s simple.

1. Look in the mirror. Becoming a harder worker is impossible until you examine yourself carefully. When are your least productive times? Your most productive times? What do you waste the most time doing? What causes you to work harder? What leads you away from blogging diligently?

2. Decide. Set an ultra-specific goal that tests your utmost limits as a blogger. If it don’t make you hurt from the strain, it ain’t gonna make you more diligent.

3. Work like a burro. Or work like a banshee. Take your pick. Either way, make up your mind to put one foot in front of the other nonstop until you stand on the summit – the roof of the world.

If you do these three things on a daily basis, I promise you that you will always be a little more diligent than you were before. And your blog (and your blog visitors) will thank you for it.

Remember These Words

I once sang them in front of a crowd. They mean everything.

I can climb up to the mountaintop
Touch the stars out in the sky
And I can change this cold world to a better place
Brother, you can bet I’m gonna try
Just watch me fly

Thank You

You have now learned the fifth element of the Visionary Blogging method for blogger self-improvement.

And whatever makes you a better blogger will also make your blog better.

I know that awareness, focus, discernment, imagination and diligence are vital to long-term blog success.

I challenge you to set a goal right now to work to become a better blogger in one of these five areas over the next seven days.

If you stubbornly strive to achieve that goal, you will make yourself a more skilled, more successful blogger. I promise.

I invite you to subscribe to Visionary Blogging so you don’t miss future updates on how to speed up the blog improvement process and make it more effective.

If you’re serious about improving your blog, I also urge you to try my Iris blog consulting service. Your blog will never be the same.

Thank you so much for reading and responding to me. I appreciate your support, your questions and insights.

My next post will reveal the ultimate secret to easy blogging success. Unless you already know it, of course.

I wish you the best as you strive to become a more diligent, perseverant blogger.

Enjoy this inspiring video.

Photo by Unhindered by Talent

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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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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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For whom is your blog?

Who writes the blog posts?

Who typically leaves comments?

Who’s the target reader? The target buyer?

Who your blog?

Who your blog matters more than what your blog. It’s bigger than when or where or how, too.

Let me rephrase it: Knowing why you’re blogging and who you’re blogging for is more fundamental than deciding anything else about your blog, including what to blog about.

When you’re birthing a blog, the why and who are the head and shoulders.

Concentrate first on why your blog and who your blog and the rest will emerge easily.

So … boy or girl?

Imagine all the bloggers …

photo credit: Gaetan Lee

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Why your blog? Why is it special?

Why your blog? Why did you choose the blog format?

Can a new visitor tell me “why your blog” within 10 seconds?

Can you?

Why your blog?

Learn more about our professional services.

This article is about discernment. I’ll explain what discernment is, why you need discernment in order to be a successful blogger, and how you can improve your power of discernment.

I’ll give you some homework, too.

The 5 Elements of Visionary Blogging

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

What is Discernment?

Discernment is the ability to evaluate. It requires awareness (the ability to see) and focus (the ability to look), the first two elements of vision.

Why You Need Discernment In Order to Be a Successful Blogger

Discernment enables you to compare things to each other and judge their true nature and value. It helps you tell whether someone has the right to be called an expert.

Without discernment, you cannot tell if a blog you’ve just discovered is real or fake. You cannot decide which blog post ideas are most worth writing about or which blogging activities deserve your attention.

In short, you need discernment in order to make wise blogging decisions.

The 6 “SUPER-D” Discernment Powers

• Simplify complex things
• Understand the nature of something
• Perceive character, thoughts and intentions
• Estimate value
• Recognize difference
• Determine truth

The Fork in the Road

So you come upon a fork in the road.

No, not that kind of fork.

A fork where you must decide between two or more paths, neither of which leads straight ahead.

In other words, you have to change something about what you’re doing – but there are multiple options to choose from.

Bloggers get forks in their roads all the time.

For instance, you may have to choose between sticking to your original brand or rebranding for your evolving audience.

Or you may need to decide which T-shirt would look best on your blog readers.

Or you may have trouble just figuring out what to blog about.

Discernment shows you the best fork.

Discernment makes you a better blogger.

How to Convert Information into Wisdom in 3 Steps Using Awareness, Focus and Discernment

Visionary Blogging Theory

1. Awareness floods you with information.
2. Focus filters and converts some of that information into knowledge.
3. Discernment evaluates that knowledge and transforms some of it into wisdom.

Real-Life Blogging Example

1. Awareness: You open your favorite RSS feed reader to see hundreds of new blog posts and other items published in the last day. You quickly become aware that many people are discussing the new launch of WordPress 2.5. You have access to information but do not yet possess knowledge on this subject.
2. Focus: You decide to look for advice on whether to upgrade your blog to WordPress 2.5. You scan the feed item headlines and articles selectively, opening relevant items in new browser tabs and ignoring the rest. You take a few minutes to carefully read each article matching your focus. Now you have some knowledge about this topic and feel prepared enough to make a wise decision.
3. Discernment: You make a list of the different opinions you find and spend a few minutes weighing what others have said about the pros and cons of upgrading to WP 2.5. You think about your past experiences upgrading your blog platform. You consider a variety of other factors and finally decide to go ahead and make the upgrade. You now possess some wisdom, or applied knowledge, on this subject; you have made an informed decision on what to do with the knowledge you have gleaned from the information you have encountered.

10 Ways to Improve Your Discernment and Become a More Powerful Blogger

1. Observe carefully. Pay close attention to details. Pay extra close attention to the blogs and people whose examples you want to follow. Hang onto their every pixel and word.
2. Experiment. The only way to know if a seed will grow into a tree is to plant it. If it grows, it’s a good seed. If not, either it’s a bad seed or its growing conditions are too poor. Similarly, you should have the courage to try things out on your blog and in your blogging routine. If they work, keep doing them. If they don’t, stop and consider changing your approach or replacing your idea.
3. Imagine the future. Think of the possibilities and probabilities involved. Should your blog become a company? Depends in part on how many gray hairs or wrinkles you think that would give you.
4. Remember the past. What to write about? Well, what worked before? That’s one good approach.
5. Think about needs. For instance, what does your blog’s target audience need?
6. Gather things together. It’s much easier to compare, say, possible blog niches if you’ve assembled a list of them in one spot.
7. Narrow your field. Of vision, that is. Limit the options to make the right choice easier to discern. For example, instead of wondering which of a billion post ideas is best right now, you could force yourself to choose from among just three.
8. Ask for help. Maybe someone in your blog audience, in your email contact list or in your apartment building has a better sense of discernment on a particular matter than you do. Maybe they’ve got access to a light source that you don’t. Or maybe they’re just positioned at a better angle.
9. Write everything down. Well, not everything. But if you’re stuck in the discernment process, having a written collection of thoughts can help you begin to get clarity.
10. Refresh your focus. Sometimes you lack discernment because you’re distracted.

Pobody’s Nerfect

Not every tactic in this article will work well for you. That’s part of the point here – you need to try to discern what to apply right now. The only one who can make up your mind is you.

You cannot expect to have perfect discernment in all areas of your life. You will make mistakes. But as you identify and learn from your mistakes, you will improve your ability to discern between good and bad choices, or between useful and useless knowledge. Discernment is the key to making better decisions in spite of human weakness.

So, Your Homework

Your homework this time is simple. I want you to leave a comment below and tell me how you intend to hone your discernment over the next week. Don’t be shy. I’ll do it too.

What’s Next?

In Part 4, we’ll discuss the fourth element of visionary blogging: imagination, the ability to create.

Photos: fork of divergence by djloche; Cliché by Mayr; /ponder by striatic

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