More Effective Blog Writing Starts with Being A More Effective Writer
If you want to start writing better blog posts, odds are, you need to become a better writer. That may sound obvious, I know, but there's a surprising dearth of books on writing blog posts that approach it from a writer's perspective. But, finally, Ali Luke wrote the book that I've been wanting to see: it's a book written from an experienced, talented writer who's also a phenomenal blogger. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know Ali - she's a friend that I somehow convinced to be a contributor here. Her last post blew me away, and I'm looking forward to the next one. But she's all over the blogosphere, too, and every post that she writes is of an extremely high caliber. I've often wondered how she gets it done; now I know. She tells it all in The Blogger's Guide To Effective Writing.
What's The Blogger's Guide To Effective Writing about?
The short story: it's a guide to learning how to write great posts effectively. The name has a double entendre, though. Effective writing is actually about two things - it's about becoming more effective at writing, and it's about our writing having the desired effect. This ebook helps you on both fronts. It'll help you become more effective at writing because she gives a lot of tools for generating ideas, thinking about post structures, types of posts, and so forth. The templates and idea-generation techniques are worth the cost alone. It'll help your words have the desired effect because she has sections about headlines, intros, and conclusions - which experienced bloggers know to be the critical parts of a post. You can mess up the middle part of a post and be okay, but if you have a weak headline, intro, and/or conclusion, the post won't land right. One thing that I really appreciate about the Blogger's Guide is that she slows down to focus on style. So many of the products on blogging focus solely on the science of blogging, and that's important. But what about the art of blogging? You can be good at the science but weak at the art - but it's the art that will set you apart and keep you doing it. Thank you, Ali, for elevating the art of blogging.
A Reading Strategy
There's a lot to The Blogger's Guide To Effective Writing, but one of the reasons it's such a great product is that it has something for everybody. If you're a new blogger, you'll want to read the whole thing. It'll probably take you a couple of hours, but it's the best two hours you can invest to learn how to be an effective blogger. You'll also want to pay attention to her templates - there's no need to recreate the wheel here. Chapters 3, 5, 7, and 13 are going to be high leverage for you, and print out those templates and review them every few weeks. If you're a veteran blogger, you'll want to check out Chapters 3, 4, 8-12, 13, 15, and the Appendix. This is a great product to go through a bit of a boot camp for your blog; if you're in a groove and want to take it to the next level, it'll be a great guide. Pair this product with Darren's 31 Days to Build A Better Blog and you've got everything you need to turbocharge your blog. While you're going through this ebook, be thinking about how you can work up your chops to start guest posting. I didn't guest post for the longest time because I had trouble writing in my own voice on someone else's blog, but some of the insights from Ali's Staff Blogging Course helped out a lot here. If you buy The Blogger's Guide to Effective Writing, you'll be able to get the Staff Blogging Course for $9. You'll want to grab that, too.
Is It Worth It?
The trouble with blogging is not that there's so little information out there about it, but that there's so much of it. You can spend weeks reading and chasing links, and while you'd know a lot, true learning comes from implementation. Consider the Blogger's Guide a shortcut to what you need to know. The question is two-fold then: how much is your time worth and how much is it worth it to you to become a better blogger? I want to be clear here about the "better blogger" bit. What I mean by a better blogger is a blogger who writes effectively in her own voice. It's about more than readers and pageviews, folks - but the Blogger's Guide will help you with that, too. Here are three easy scenarios that could happen from reading and implementing the content from the Blogger's Guide:
It might help you write a series that sticks and helps you provide a ton of value to your readers.
It might help you write a review that helps your people make an informed decision about a product, possibility generating affiliate income for you.
It might help you come up with good templates that help you get your ideas out much more easily. Imagine if you wrote an extra post a week because you weren't struggling with structure.
Would either one of those be worth $29? It's a no-brainer to me. As you can tell, I'm excited by the Blogger's Guide. The bottom-line is that, if you're a blogger, this is a must buy. I wasn't going to tell you about her money-back guarantee thing, because, honestly, she doesn't need it. I was expecting her to offer the normal 30 day satisfaction guarantee, so I was surprised to see that she actually has a 6 month satisfaction guarantee. That's plenty of time for you to buy it, read it, and implement it - I'd be surprised if she gets a single return.
PF Exclusives For The Blogger's Guide
Ali and I have been talking, and we'd like to offer you a couple of PF exclusives. First, if you buy the Blogger's Guide and use the coupon code "Flourishing" - everything between the quotes - you'll save $5. So the Blogger's Guide will be $24 for you. I know I sound like a late-night infomercial here, and as much as I hate that, the truth is that this is hands-down one of the best products I've read on blogging. I really do want you to buy it - not because Ali or I will benefit from it, but because it will help you become a better blogger.
If you'd like to grab your copy of The Blogger's Guide to Effective Writing, please do so by clicking here. Don't forget to type "Flourishing" in the coupon box to save $5.
The links to The Blogger's Guide to Effective Writing and 31 Days to a Better Blog in this post are affiliate links and this review falls under my review guidelines. Please purchase it by using my link if it helps you make an informed purchase. Thanks!