Why Writers Need Video & How to Do It Well in 15 Minutes a Day

Posted on June 29, 2011 Written by

This is a guest post by Sean Platt of Ghostwriter Dad.

A lot of writers make the mistake of assuming video isn’t for them.

This makes sense, were writers. We build our worlds with words not images, right?

Well, yes. But whatever future we’re writing for ourselves will need to be fueled with intelligent marketing, and video offers raw potential like little else.

I made the same mistake, but I’m not making it anymore. Video is already BIG, but it’s going to get BIGGER. Once Google finds a way to index video the way they index copy, it’s game over.

The Time to Start Learning How to Use Video is NOW

Smart writers will get comfortable on video before then. If you don’t develop the skills necessary to capitalize on video, you’re locking a lot doors for your writing career.

If the idea of doing videos makes you uncomfortable, I understand. The same was true for me. I recently recorded a metric ton of videos (over 60 in one week) and so my comfort level is now growing, but when I first started I may as well of been standing on my front porch naked.

Turns out, the cure for getting over your fear of making videos is to make over 60 in a week.

Video is good for you, good for your audience, and good for your future. The best way to get it done is to look in the camera and do it.

 

Creating a Custom RSS Feed for Guest Posts

Posted on June 27, 2011 Written by

If you’re like me, you write a lot of posts for sites other than your own and want to be able to share those posts with your readers. Figuring out how to do this with particular systems might pose a specific challenge, especially if those networks only allow you to import one RSS feed. There may also be times where you want to only share writing by you, and if you have a lot of guest bloggers on your site as well as guest posts on other sites, having a full RSS feed for your blog won’t do.

Creating a Custom RSS Feed

The solution to this would be having an RSS feed with only your content in it from each of the sources you write for. Of course, that is a challenge in of itself. When I came to the realization that I wanted this type of an RSS feed, I thought “Super, I’ll use Yahoo Pipes.” That didn’t pan out so well, however, as some of the feeds I wanted to use didn’t work with their system. If I ever do get it to work, or they fix the issues I’ve been having in the upcoming 2.0 version, I’ll add the details here or create a new post.

In the meantime, I went for it the old fashioned way – by creating an XML file from scratch. Ok, not from scratch, but using the base elements from another RSS feed.

 

Fetching Friday – Resources Mashup & Sloths

Posted on June 24, 2011 Written by

This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the best posts of the week in blogging, making money online, SEO, and social media on kikolani.com.

The Resources Mashup

Here are some of the best articles I have stumbled upon, retweeted on @kikolani, and read in RSS subscriptions this week.

Blogging / Writing

 

Dispelling Misconceptions About Bloggers

Posted on June 23, 2011 Written by

I’ve been reading a variety of blog posts and reactions to them recently about how bloggers should be doing this but should not be doing that that. I’ve come to realize that there are a few major myths about bloggers circulating out there that are just wrong.

I’m ready to dispel these myths – right here, right now. Here are some things about bloggers that should be obvious, but obviously aren’t.

 

When All You’ve Got Is a Hammer, You’ll Break Your Blog To Pieces

Posted on June 22, 2011 Written by

This is a guest post by Danny Iny, author, strategist, serial entrepreneur, and proud co-founder of Firepole Marketing

Are you everywhere, or are you nowhere?

Some bloggers seem to be everywhere – they have active profiles on Facebook and Twitter, they blog, they email, they comment, and they use every new technology and channel as it becomes available.

Other blogs seem to have a much narrower focus – they write their posts, allow you to subscribe via RSS and sometimes email, and stick to what they know.

There is an obvious issue with being everywhere: you get so distracted by one thing after another that you run the risk of never getting much traction with anything.

But there’s an issue with focusing too narrowly, too.

But isn’t focus a good thing?

Yes, focus is a good thing – but there are two different kinds of focus:

GOOD FOCUS: This is when you’ve identified your customer profiles and you’re diligently sticking to the strategy and tactics that are going to work best for them. Good focus is audience-centric; cutting out distractions to deliver value to your audience.

BAD FOCUS: Bad focus is when you know how to use Wordpress, aWeber and Facebook, so everything you do is a combination of Wordpress, aWeber and Facebook (these are three random examples – substitute your three favorite technologies instead). Bad focus is blogger-centric – avoiding new things and staying inside your comfort zone.

This post is about bad focus, and how to avoid it. But first, we’ve got to learn how to identify it. This is easier said than done, because we don’t have a conscious thought train going through our minds that says:

“I’m afraid to learn new things, so I’m going to stick with what I know instead.”

If only it were so easy! But it isn’t – our thought processes usually look more like this:

“Okay, so I want to accomplish X. How can I do that using the tools that I have at my disposal?”

That’s an innocent question, and a good one at that – it’s what you’d expect from a resourceful internet entrepreneur who is looking to make the most of his or her resources and abilities.

 

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