Tag: blogging

Want to 10x your Content Writing Game?

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Here are 2 books to help you understand what you can do to improve:

1. A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters: A Resource for Writing Headlines and Building Creative Confidence by Dan Nelken.

A practical read with exercises, examples, sprinkled with personal experience. 

  1. Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling by Matthew Dicks.
  2. Learn how to craft your words in a way that makes people lean in. 

However, reading books will only get you so far.

The real key to 10xing your content writing is to practice your writing and get feedback on it. 

Our team at the Habit Factory is launching a 21 day Content Club this month.

Check it out and sign up for the list here

How I started my blog

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Writing was always an interest of mine.

I’ll never forget the time I wrote a 20 page story for my 8th grade teacher when she only asked for 1.

To be fair, I was already 12 pages in when I realized there was a page limit. Might as well go all out right?

Fast forward a few years later, I found myself writing as a means of self growth and reflection.

Eventually I posted some of these onto Instagram, which didn’t do too well because Instagram isn’t necessarily a text-based platform.

Still, I needed a place to put my words so I bought a domain and published my daily posts on WordPress. 

However, the downside of WordPress is that it isn’t an awareness tool. If you want more attention for your stuff, you have to go to where the people are. 

That’s where social media comes in.

Fortunately for me, LinkedIn is a flexible professional platform that allows long+short text posts, photos, and videos on the feed. 

Now I publish all my posts onto LinkedIn (+ more).

I treat it as part of my blog, and I get to talk and meet with some cool people.

Why does it feel wrong to repost a piece of content you’ve already published before?

Anna Peng2 Comments

Question: Is it wrong to repost a piece of content you’ve already published before?

No.

But many creatives have a hard time accepting that.

I used to feel really weird about copy and pasting my own work and republishing it as new material for the day (yes I do that occasionally).

Here’s why.

It didn’t feel original.

It didn’t feel like I was actually writing.

But if we focus on those 2 faults, the bigger picture is lost.

Who is this message for?

And if we choose to dedicate our craft to someone else, personal originality and pursuit of the act is actually not in the interest of the end consumer.

As a writer and marketer, reposting old pieces of content isn’t a hack.

It’s simply giving people information that they will find beneficial in this specific moment of their lives.

Reposting content is never about you.

It’s about your audience.

P.S. I’m building a content club for people who want to take their brand seriously. Want in? Join the waitlist with 17 others today.

2 rules for writing your first blog post

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  1. Write from true experience and curiosity. Nothing is more captivating than a piece of writing that desperately wanted to be written by the writer
  2. Publish ASAP. Not 2 weeks from now or 2 months from now. I need you to go ASAP, because the quicker you learn from market feedback, the better your writing will become

Now go write something you care about!

5 reasons you shouldn’t listen to whatever I have to say about social media

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  1. I’m 25
  2. I don’t have 10+ years of experience
  3. Everything i write about is from personal experience 
  4. I go with my gut instincts 90% of the time
  5. I’m 25 

But hey, I’ve found a process that works for me. I’m happy to talk about it and see how it can work for you too. 

Follow this blog for more content about social media marketing

3 thoughts that stopped me from starting my blog

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Before I started publishing my writing, I thought:

  1. I don’t think anybody really wants to read what I have to say (I didn’t have confidence in myself) 
  2. Is this worth my time? (There was no clear cut reward for doing this, except for scratching my own itch)
  3. What happens if what I write isn’t perfect? (My family values academics, so naturally I worked hard in school to write the perfect essays. I was scared to fail)

Now that i’ve been publishing for 3 years, 

  1. I’ve been able to learn about myself through writing my own ideas 
  2. I’m confident that I’m doing this for my own sake, to scratch my own itch
  3. I’ve learned to accept that perfect standards aren’t what I need

If you’re thinking of starting your own blog, or becoming a content creator what are you waiting for? What’s stopping you? 

The key to keeping a blog

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The key to keeping a blog isn’t dependent on the host you use, how much you spend on your website plan, or even the amount of expertise you have in your field.

The key to keeping a blog is being the type of person who keeps blogs.

That means you write and publish things frequently. 

It means you show up with an idea and you make it come to life. 

If you want to start a blog, become the type of person who keeps blogs. 

Writing your first blog post ever? 

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If there was one thing I wish I did differently about my first blog post, it would be publishing it earlier. 

Publishing to an audience of 0 (because I had no followers at the time, it was writing only for myself) grants you the permission to grow. 

When you’re starting out, you don’t know what makes a good blog or a bad blog. 

So the key is to start earlier rather than later.

The only way to learn is to start publishing posts and doing it over and over and over again. 

If you have an idea, share it. 

Keep doing that until you find others who care. 

Start building a social media following for your business. Here’s how

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Make posts regarding the solutions you provide to your audience.

Simple right?

Now you must be wondering,

“How do I do that?”

Here’s how.

Let’s say you’re an independent graphic designer who works for mom and pop clients. 

Here are 2 ideas you can publish on popular social media platforms:

  1. A video process reel of a previous project you did, showing the before, after, and all graphic iterations in between to get to the final result. 
  2. A carousel with the headline, “5 Logo Ideas You Can Steal For Your Family Business” with a call to action at the end with your name, contact, and price on it.

Why will these work? 

Because the target audience are small business owners who do not have enough skill or time to do everything on their own. 

The above ideas present solutions to those problems.

Next, let’s say you’re a new podcast host who covers lifestyle tips on minimalism. 

Here are 2 ideas you can use as content: 

  1. A carousel titled, “8 Tips on Living Minimally”, and keep them short (to stick with the theme)
  2. A 30 second -2 minute audio clip of your podcast with video subtitles, answering a common question most people have when starting out with a minimal lifestyle. Example: “How do I know what to throw away and what to keep?” 

Why will these work? 

Because the target audience are those who are looking to practice a specific lifestyle (minimalism), but do not yet know how. Your content is the guide for these people. 

And if you’ve read this far, you get the point. 

Social media is all about serving your audience. 

The more you know your audience’s pain-points and struggles, the more likely they are to like and follow your content. 

And if your posts fail and nobody likes them?

Change it and try again.

Now go build that following for your business.