Today’s Brief: ‘Ten Blog Tips from Bloggers Like You’

If you’re a member of Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger.com Community, you’ll already be aware of this.

A few weeks ago Darren issued a challenge for bloggers to create and forward a blogging tip they feel has been useful to their development as a blogger.

What followed is this first post.

Then the second.

Check out the short video posts.

You might learn something you can use on your blog today.

As Michael Martine over at Remarkablogger suggests,

It’s the fastest way I know of to “splat” out ideas and see them whole (and how each topic relates to others). “

I’ve used mind maps for years.

I’ve used them for planning blog content, outlining goals, and even designing a vacation. I’ve even given talks and lectures using only a mind map sketched out on an index card.

The use of mind maps are endless.  But I find them most useful these days for planning.

There’s something very satisfying about seeing a plan as a mind map. As Michael mentions, it allows you to see how all your component parts fit together in a larger context. It can provide you simultaneously with the Big Picture as well as the Small.

The Blog As Religion Master Mind Map

Today, I begin giving away the BAR Master Mind Map to demonstrate how planning your blog’s structure and strategy can be combined into one document, thereby making it easier to grasp where your blog is today and where you might be going next.

This tool demonstrates both the strategy and structure required to build a Blog Religion.

I’ll be writing more about both in future posts, but for now why not get your copy and begin playing with your own Master Mind Map for your blog!

How To Obtain Your Full-Sized Copy

There are two ways to get your copy of the BAR Master Mind Map.

1. If you’re not a subscriber, simply fill out the form you see on the right with your name and email address and I’ll send you a couple of free gifts including this mind map.
2. If you’re already a subbie, look for a link to the mind map in the next few days via email newsletter.

Either way, you win.

Break Free & WRITE should be a hoot!

I can’t think a better way to get the creative juices flowing than to spend 7 fun-packed days on a cruise ship in the Eastern Caribbean!

In support of this, I’m offering my eBook version of Becoming Irresistible: How To Pack Your Copywriting Business With Five New Clients Every Month to seminar attendees at the rock bottom price of just $18. 

So why limit this great, one-time limited-offer to those folk and not my own peeps? Good question!

The short answer is that I’ve just reduced the eBook price by 40% and now BAR folks can take advantage of this Special Discount offer as well.

But you should hurry as it won’t last very long!

But do it the right way, OK?

For nearly ten years, I’ve been a subscriber to Terri Lonier’s Working Solo Newsletter. Terri’s focus has always been helping Solo Entrepreneurs succeed.

In today’s newsletter, Terri gave us a link to download the audiobook version of Seth Godin’s, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, for free from Audible.com.

Now, I’m going to urge my readers to do the right thing and become a subscriber to Terri’s newsletter first…and download your copy of the Tribes in audiobook format.

Here’s what to do:

1. Subscribe to Working Solo. Click here to subscribe (opens a new window).
2. Come back to to this post and then click here to view Terri’s current newsletter. You’ll want to scroll down to #4 in her newsletter and look for the the hyperlinked phrase “this link.” Click it and it will take you to Audible.com where you can open a free account and then download the audiobook for free.

Unless you already have an Audible account, you’ll need to open one (it’s free).  Choose your download format (iPod/iTunes, Windows Media Player, other MP3 player) and you’ll be able to listen to the unabridged version of Tribes.

Why Am I Pushing This?

For one thing, I think Seth Godin is God…not in a blasphemous, yeah I’m goin’ to Hell kind of way…but in regard to identifying trends that almost always come to fruition big time for small business.

I say ‘almost always’ because I’ve yet to actually see a Purple Cow.

Secondly, blog’s built on the BAR Structure are positioned to create, educate, and lead tribes! And the most devoted members of your tribe become your Evangelists, those mad, insane, raving fans eager to spread the word that you rock!

A Big Thanks to Terri Lonier and Working Solo!

I’m putting that in really big letters in hopes that she won’t unsub me from her list after seeing this. I didn’t exactly ask her permission before writing this, but I’ll take my chances there.  Sometimes you strike when the iron is hot.  But seriously, without Terri’s regular doses of sober, solo-business advice over the years, I’d not be where I am today.

Now it’s your turn. So, my exceedingly deserving Tribe members ( to his Lordship), do the right thing first (subscribe to Terri’s newsletter), then and rejoice, for your Tribe is waiting to be led!

For the first time in three years, my son called me to tell me this on Tuesday.

Not bad…13 years old and he’s never lost his keys.  Technically, his keys weren’t lost and he told me as much.

“They’re on my nightstand,” he said when I asked him about their whereabouts. However, this knowledge did nothing to get him inside the house.

A lot of bloggers have this problem.

They feel like they’re standing on the other side of the door without their keys. I know I felt this way for quite a while.  And it’s not a good feeling.

You feel like you’re spinning your wheels; like every other blogger out there has it figured out…everyone but you.

You could spend a lot of time getting nowhere by…

• buying another eBook
• subscribing to another newsletter
• or just walking away altogether

None of these choices represent what you really want to do. After all, if you’re anything like me, you’d continue blogging even if no one read your blog.  It’s in your blood.

What you need is a map.

I love maps. Maps are cool on their own but they do double duty by providing two things for you:

1. An overview of the area. You can see where you’ve been, the roads you didn’t follow, and the dead ends you did.
2. Immediate direction. You can see where you are in relation to where you want to be.

Some people are good with maps. They can study it a while and see the error of their ways before charting a course to their destination.

Some people aren’t so good with maps. They need someone to point out the best way to get to their destination.

It doesn’t matter which kind of person you are, I have some good news for you.

I’m going to give you one.

In this week’s Blog Religion SECRETS Newsletter, I’m going to give you a map – a mindmap – that clearly reveals where you are, where you might have traveled, and where you need to go.

Here’s a sneak peek at what I’m talking about. (I made it small here so you’d get really curious. Is it working? )

In the newsletter, I’m not only going to give you the map, but explain why this map is crucial to the development of your Blog-Religion.

The newsletter version will also include an 8 1/2 X 11 PDF of the map suitable for very nice color printing. 

Look for the newsletter later this week. Not a subscriber yet?  Subscribe now! Just follow the direction in the sidebar and you’re in!

One more thing…I actually created this mindmap on my iPod Touch with the SimpleMind app.  If you’ve got an iPhone or an iPod Touch, SimpleMind is a very useful application.

The paid version of the app allowed me to upload it to a server and download it for further editing on my laptop as well as get it in PDF.  (The email support I received by Gerrit was worth far more than the price of the app.)

I recommend it.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Little Elvis went to the library and did his homework until I was free to pick him up,

Today’s Brief:

How It Works

Has this ever happened to you? You’ve been working on a blog post document in a text editor (or a Word, Excel, Photoshop, etc. project) while on your work computer or at a friend’s house and you want to save it to your portable  USB drive to take home.

Problem: You don’t have it with you. Bummer.

Solution: Save it to the Dropbox folder on the computer and when you open your laptop at home, your file is there and automatically updated.

Dropbox installs in minutes and is free. It’s a great way to save files without the need for a thumb drive. It uses cloud computing, kind of like your blog software, to store files on Dropbox server and automatically updates to whichever computers you choose to link to your Dropbox.

I stumbled across Dropbox and man, am I ever glad I did. 2 GB of free storage (paid version has a lot more, but the free account is perfect for transporting files between computers) and if you refer people to Dropbox and they sign up for a free account, you’ll receive an additional 225 MB of storage on your own free account.

Click here to find out more!

Michael Bungay Stanier of BoxOfCrayons has released a book called Finding Your Great Work.

I downloaded the first three chapters today.  Michael does it the right way unlike the other example of a few days ago.

He’s even got this great 8-minute mini-film that you can view right now for free. It’s thought provoking and it made me wonder about the value of right livelihood and doing great work.

Are you doing ‘Great Work?’

OK, I’m making way too much about this, but hey…I’m a single dad, fifty-ish and well, we won’t go there.

I’ll just close with one more look those incredible blue eyes. Pssst…Thanks, Colleen.