Group Writing Project: Write a ‘How To…’ Publish

Update: your competition facet of this project has ended. I’ll draw the champion and announce it Monday!

Years back here on ProBlogger we accustomed to run ‘group writing project’ where I’d nominate a method of posts after which all visitors would disappear and write a brand new publish for the reason that style to rehearse their blogging… after which would return here and then leave us a hyperlink towards the publish.

The Project were built with a couple of benefits:

first of all it gave all of us an opportunity to practice a particular type of writingsecondly it had been an chance for writers to demonstrate the things they could dobloggers reported seeing increased traffic arrive on their own blogbloggers reported making new connections along with other writers

Now we’re likely to do probably the most popular ones in the past – the theme is ‘HOW TO…‘.

Yes – your challenge would be to write after which return and share a hyperlink to some ‘How to…’ publish. Update: I’ve since released a 7 step help guide to writing How you can content on the blog.

Please be aware – with this project to become associated with a real help to you like a ‘writing’ project it's about writing a brand new publish – not only discussing a hyperlink for an old ‘How to’ publish that you’ve already written.

You can write a ‘how to’ publish on anything that's highly relevant to your niche.

To provide you with just a little added incentive to sign up I will set up just a little prize for just one participant who submits a brand new publish (sorry but you’re ineligible if it's a mature publish).

One individual who creates a brand new publish and who shares a hyperlink into it in comments below before Friday 22nd March at night time (US Eastern time) is going to be at random attracted to win the entire library of 6 ProBlogger e-books (worth $250 should you bought all of them individually).

Here’s how you can participate and place yourself in the important for that prize (please be aware – one entry per person – not per blog and please only submit NEW posts).

Be as creative as you would like – absorb it any direction you would like – it may be on any subject (ensure that it stays neat and ‘family friendly please), it may be any length, it may be serious, funny, it may be a listing publish, a rant, an essay, a pictorial or video post… etc Provide your publish a great title. Once all of the posts are listed it’ll simply be your title that sets it aside from others. It doesn’t need to have what ‘how to’ within the title – but when can if you want.You can write your publish in your first language – I’ve formerly incorporated numerous non-british posts and am excited by the possibilities of causeing this to be a multi-lingual project.Please consider placing a link to this publish in your publish to ensure that your visitors know you’re taking part. It's not necessary to get this done – but it’d be appreciated to assist grow the project.Once you’ve published your How You Can publish tell us about this by departing a comment below. Please make certain you incorporate your title, your publish title and also the Hyperlink to your How you can publish.Comments should be received by night time on Friday 22nd March to become incorporated within the prize draw. This is when the project has possibility to get pretty awesome. Surf the distribution received within the comments. Leave comments, make connections along with other ProBlogger visitors and revel in reading through what others are saying. By surfing one anothers links you’ll hopefully have some awesome new blogs but additionally have new connections (which might well result in people going to your site too!There's no formal ‘judging’ from the ‘how to posts’ received because this is not really a competition. Rather – I encourage you to definitely surf with the links left within the comments below and never only comment but share individuals with your personal network that you want probably the most. Connect to them in your blog (you may even prefer to write a ‘top 5' publish), Tweet out some links towards the ones you want or share them on Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc. Share just a little love and you will think it is returns to you!Most likely the good thing from the last group project was the quantity of inter-connecting I see happening between taking part writers consequently of the posts. It’s apparent that individuals found new blogs through it which the advantages of taking part was way beyond obtaining a link here on ProBlogger me but ran onto lots of new connections and links between other writers.Over the past weekend following this finishes I’ll at random draw a champion and announce them around the blog. Depending the number of distribution we receive I might even attempt to compile all of them into a listing (although before we'd ALOT to ensure that might be beyond me).

I can’t wait to determine how this week’s project goes – your time and effort to begin writing starts…. now! Have some fun!

Update: your competition facet of this project has ended. I’ll draw the champion and announce it Monday!

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The Science of Storytelling: 6 Ways to Write More Persuasive Stories

Guest post by Gregory Ciotti.

When it comes to crafting “words that sell”, the research shows us that stories are among the most persuasive forms of writing out there.

Persuasive writing is an essential part of blogging—there’s no two ways about it. So if you plan on selling anything, connecting†deeply with your readers, or going viral with a post that bares all about your life (like Jon Morrow did), you better be prepared to create stories that actually move people.

Why do stories work so well?

They work because “transportation leads to persuasion,” and as such, if you can capture your reader’s attention, you can nudge them towards being a customer or a brand advocate who supports your business at every turn.

That’s all good and fun… but how exactly can you write more persuasive stories?

Today, I’ve got some academic research that will show you how!

According to some fascinating research by Dr. Philip Mazzocco and Melanie Green, called Narrative Persuasion in Legal Settings: What’s the Story?, stories are powerful because of their ability to affect emotional beliefs in a way that logical arguments just can’t touch.

That is to say, stories get in “under the radar” because we are so open to hearing them. We tend to block out sales pitches or “do as I say” styles of dictation, but stories are inviting, personal, and capture our imagination.

The researchers looked at persuasive aspects of stories in the court room, which is certainly one of the hardest places to craft stories, as you have another person (the other lawyer) trying to shoot down your arguments at every turn.

From their research, Mazzocco and Green found six consistent elements that are apart of startingly effective stories…

As a blogger, you have far more control over this aspect than a lawyer does, so pay attention!

Above, I mentioned a post by Jon Morrow than went viral here on Problogger.net. While the story was an amazing one, a key element of that post that many might miss is that Jon constructed it for a very particular audience: those looking to do what he’s done (i.e. turn blogging into a lifestyle-sustaining business).

Picking Problogger.net was perfect because he knew the audience would be receptive to such a story. He’s done it time and time again—here’s another post on Copyblogger in a similar vein that addresses fighting for your dreams.

How can you implement this critical technique in your own efforts?

The answer lies in finding your target customer (or reader) and crafting your message and content entirely around them. What are their hopes, fears, and dreams? You better know if you hope to stay with them after they leave the page.

If you can’t identify this ideal reader, then who are you really writing for? Without this information, it’s much harder, if not impossible, to tell a really persuasive story: you need to have the right audience in mind first.

If you’re going “off-site” (via a guest post) like Jon did, then you also need to be careful in choosing another blogger’s platform: be sure to write for their audience.

This one may seem surprising, but it’s actually not if you look into the reasoning.

Although fiction stories are popular, the best ones are always easy to relate to on some level. Although you may not be a WWII spy or a dragon-slaying knight, you can relate to the emotions, struggles, and thoughts of the characters.

Roger Dooley put this best when he said:

Even if you are painting a fictional picture with the story, its elements need to relate to the reality that the audience is familiar with, for example, basic human motivations.

Make sure your stories have something the audience can relate to on a deeper level, beyond the events that are being told.

For instance, in Joel Ryan’s article titled, An Unexpected Ass-Kicking, he relays the tale of meeting the inventor of the computer.

The story wouldn’t have gone viral without another element, though: Joel connected the tale to his readers’ own psyches by relating how it’s important to not be afraid of things that “haven’t been done before”, because if Russell Kirsch had believed that, we wouldn’t have the computer today>

In the same way that a comedian’s timing is practically everything, Mazzacco and Green found that story delivery was critical to crafting a tale people could get wrapped up in.

Delivery is a mix of pacing, flow, and hitting readers with heavy lines at the perfect moment.

One of my favorite examples (in fiction) is how George R.R. Martin, author of the A Song of Fire and Ice series, ends his chapters with a surprising close or a startling realization.

This example isn’t a story, but it perfectly demonstrates my point: Brian Clark’s post called, The Writer Runs This Show is a fantastic demonstration of using dramatic pacing throughout a post.

Note how he interrupts the manifesto with “The writer runs this show,” over and over to drive his point home.

Did the sun rise, or did the sun’s rays reflect rainbows off of the crisp morning dew?

Interesting research on the matter says that your stories should be describing the latter: the human mind gets swept up in stories only when the visuals are painted clearly.

Transportation (the key to story persuasion) cannot happen if you use vague details and boring language.

You have to craft the scene with startling detail to wrap your reader up in your message: they need to share in the struggle you went through, the joys you encountered, and the doubts you battled.

If you read Benny Hsu’s post on his first iPhone App store feature (and his subsequent $30,000 week), you can feel his excitement with every word; you’re not just getting the play-by-play of what happened.

Let readers see what you’re “seeing” in your tale, and they’ll be more willing to go along with the journey.

While some movies, like Memento, can get away with switching things up once or twice, the classics always follow this one golden rule: keep story structure simple.

People prefer stories that follow a logical manner, for example: elements of suspense are most effective when they’re established early to keep people engaged, plot twists are best saved for the climax, and having a strong ending makes a story more memorable.

This is especially true for writing in the business world. Let your creativity shine through the actual story being told, not in how you decide to structure it.

When you try to get cute with plot structure and other storytelling staples, you’ll risk losing people rather than creating something memorable.

In all of the most popular story-related blog posts I’ve come across, I’ve yet to see a story that defies the classic story structure that focuses on being enticing in the beginning, building up in the middle, and finishing with a satisfying conclusion (and a powerful message).

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

While the study referenced the storyteller and the physical environment as important factors in how persuasive the tale was, for online storytelling we have a different set of variables…

For the storyteller, the author of the tale still matters: elements of trust established with the audience and social proof play roles in making a tale believable and easily digested.

As a blogger, you should already know about the powers of social proof, but are you utilizing it in your off-site features? A persuasive story on another site should always include a brief introduction explaining why you’re qualified to tell it, otherwise people will glaze over and block you out.

For surroundings, we now have to turn to a element that strictly applies to the web: design.

According to a fascinating research study entitled, Trust & Mistrust of Online Health Sites, it’s your blog’s design that is most likely to influence first-time visitors about the site’s trustworthiness, not the quality of your content.

A bad design makes people feel like your site isn’t trustworthy, and any storytelling efforts that you attempt will be greatly hindered, so clean up your surroundings!

Here’s what to do next…

Let me know in the comments what you thought of this research.Tell me about one of your favorite stories that you’ve read on the web, and let us know which blogger told it.

Gregory Ciotti is the content strategist for Help Scout, the invisible customer service software for solopreneurs and small-business owners. Get more from Greg on the Help Scout blog.

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Get More Comments: Write Unfinished Blog Posts

This is a guest post by Jeff Goins of Goins, Writer.

Most bloggers want to know their words are leaving an impact. They want to know people are listening.

One of the best ways to measure this is to see who’s commenting.

Not all blogs have a comments section, but many do. Comments provide an opportunity for the reader to participate in the content, to give feedback and share his or her own ideas.

Comments are a blogger’s best friend.

But the biggest struggle, especially for bloggers just starting out, is getting the first few comments. It feels like a grueling task, akin to pulling teeth.

“How do you get so many comments?” people have asked me. It didn’t always used to be like this, I tell them.

So what changed?

I started employing one simple, but overlooked tactic. You can do the same, if you want to see more comments. Here it is:

That’s right. The best way to get readers to comment on your post is to write a half-finished article.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but it works. Here are three reasons why.

Whenever I write a completely formed thought and share it on my blog, it rarely gets as much traction and feedback as an off-the-cuff rant.

Why is this? It’s not because readers don’t appreciate quality. They do.

It’s because they want to be part of the process.

That’s the magic of social media: we aren’t just consumers of content, anymore. We’re co-creators.

When you don’t finish a post and ask readers to help you complete it, you’re giving them a sense of purpose. They now have a significant role to play. And most take that role very seriously.

There’s a reason why news sites that offer comments don’t get as much response as a lot of blogs do:

People want more than information. They want interaction.

One of the best ways to encourage community on a blog is to be imperfect, to show your scars and share your flaws. To have an honest conversation.

Be conversational. I try to write in a pretty informal tone to invite readers to engage with the content. My blog posts don’t have to be perfect. Usually, it helps if they’re not.

This is a challenge for me, though, because I’m such a perfectionist. But a blog is not about perfection. It’s about community.

I don’t want to deliver a monologue. I want to engage in a conversation. Turns out, that’s what other people are looking for, too. If you aspire to build a tribe, to say something people want to hear, this is a non-negotiable: it has to be a two-way street.

Good ideas spread. Big parties usually get bigger. In everything, there is a tipping point.

The same is true for blogging.

Once you start getting ten comments on your blog, it’s pretty easy to get 20, then 30—even 50 or 100. Of course, those first few comments are the hardest. But once you build momentum, it gets easier and easier to continue.

The cool part about having an active community of commenters is that conversations can quickly go viral. A question you asked or challenge you posed can turn into a whole new source of content in the comments.

Usually, when I write a post that gets a lot of comments, it also gets a lot of tweets and shares on Facebook. If you are generous with your platform, your readers will reciprocate.

There is an important concept at work here: the more social your blog is, the more your content will spread.

If you create opportunities for conversation on your blog, you’ll see the fruit. But you have to leave room in your articles for dialogue.

If you do this, you’ll be surprised by how much people will brag on you. They’ll tell their friends, who will, in turn, join the conversation.

This is the secret to most successful blogging communities: it begins with one, but is finished by many.

Start building your community today by publishing half-finished work. It’s so crazy, it just might work. Try it out and see what happens.

What do you think? Is there anything I missed? Share your own tricks and secret weapons in the comments.

Jeff Goins is a writer, speaker, and blogger. You can get his widely shared eBook, The Writer’s Manifesto, for free when you sign up for his newsletter. You can also follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffgoins) and Facebook.

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doshdosh: @marsdorian Soon I hope! I have got some blog ideas but man, it's such a chore to write when you haven't done it in a long time.

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