How To Cure ‘Blogger’s Block’ [4 Ways]

Do you suffer from blogger’s block?

Blogger’s block is inevitable! Any blogger is bound to stare at a blank sheet of paper or a blinking cursor on their screen.

Blogs are essential in building your personal brand credibility and visibility. While it is exciting to have a blog and even more exciting to actually have people subscribe to and read your content, it is a BIG commitment. Once you start a blog you need to provide regular content, or else your blog will become an empty parking lot and nobody will come by for a visit.

Here are a few sources from 4 blogging experts to keep at your fingertips then next time your blog hits a dead end:

  1. Brain Clark of Copyblogger has a great infographic highlighting 22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue.
  2. Michelle Shaeffer started Dailybloggingideas.com to help bloggers keep a steady stream of ideas. Every day Michelle posts a blogging idea prompt that you can use to blog about, or as a teaser to come up with your own idea.
  3. Jon Morrow, also of Copyblogger fame, recently released a free report called 52 Headline Hacks where he gives 52 actual templates to generate 52 headlines to use for your blog posts.
  4. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger has a great post with 25 techniques to battle bloggers block adapted from how he deals with speakers block.

I am certainly not a blogging expert, but a technique I have used is hosting ‘blog-a-thons’ and ‘vlog-a-thons’ on my own blog. In June I hosted a ‘30x30x30 Personal Branding Blogathon’ and in September a ’30-Day Personal Branding Vlogathon’. I was amazed how quickly I found people in my network willing to join these efforts and share content. Every day I feature a new thought leader’s post or video.

Seeking guest bloggers is a great way to add fresh content to your own blog, and give you a bit of a break when you suffer from blogger’s block! Why not apply to become a guest blogger here at the Undercover Recruiter?

How do you deal with blogger’s block? Share your ideas below.

Peter Sterlacci

Peter Sterlacci is known as “Japan’s personal branding pioneer" and is one of 15 Master level Certified Personal Branding Strategists in the world. His company, BeYB, is introducing a leading global personal branding methodology to on-the-move careerists in Japan. Follow Peter on Twitter @PeterSterlacci

Filed Under: Personal Branding, Uncategorised Tagged With: , , , , ,

6 Tips to Keep Your Personal Brand Present

keeping your personal brand current

Is your personal brand present? Are people able to find you? When your brand is called are you there?

You are being Googled all of the time. Whether it is a potential employer, a new client, or even a random person you met at an event, your personal brand is being researched online. The stronger presence your brand has the faster you will be discovered. Start by clarifying for what you want to be known and create a communication plan to clearly, consistently, and constantly be present. Here are 6 tips you can apply immediately to ensure your personal brand is present.

1. Start your own blog

Ideally you should have your own blog as it becomes the ‘hub’ for your brand online. If your blog’s URL is your name, even better as it will be highly optimized on Google and people will find you. Keep in mind that once you have a blog you must maintain it, add regular content, and share it with others. If not it will get lost in the blogosphere and you will run the risk of being absent.

Related: How Blogging Will Boost Your Career [Video].

2. Share your thought-leadership

Without your own blog you can still keep your thought-leadership present by doing the following:

  • Search for blogs on Technorati in your area of expertise, add to your RSS feed, and make it a habit to comment on blog posts.
  • Use LinkedIn Answers to respond to questions.
  • Join groups on LinkedIn and add ideas to generate discussions.
  • Use Google+ Sparks as a drill-down tool for news and for keeping up on subjects you’re really into.

3. Join or start a ‘Meetup’

Meetup is online social networking portal that facilitates offline group meetings in various localities around the world. Meetup allows members to find and join groups unified by a common interest. Find a gap in thought-leadership in your vicinity and start your own Meetup. It is the perfect way to take your online brand and make it physically present in the real world!

4. Create a video presence

Video is an excellent way to ensure your brand is visually present. Ideally you want to create a video series to post on YouTube, Vimeo, Vidcaster and other sites, but a simple and great starting point is videoBIO’s DIY tool. Content is king and the DIY tool from videoBIO provides an easy to use dashboard and branded video page to easily create and post self-produced videos. I am currently hosting a 30-day Vlogathon in September where all contributors are using the videoBIO tool to record quick video posts to share their tips, strategies, and thought-leadership.

5. Communicate in ‘real-time’

Be active in social media. It is not necessary to communicate on every social media channel. In other words, don’t be present everywhere just to be present as in the end you will wind up spreading yourself too thin. Determine which ones work best for you. Make your life easier by joining Hootsuite or Hellotxt and use them as a central platform to spread your presence across all the channels with one a couple clicks.

6. Be a resource for others

Once you find other blogs to follow and comment on, take it a step further and contact the blog owner to ask about writing a guest post or being a featured expert.  Bloggers are always looking for good content.  Use this as an opportunity to be present across an already well-established blog community.

Do you have any other tips to make sure your personal brand is present when it is called upon? Please share below.

Peter Sterlacci

Peter Sterlacci is known as “Japan’s personal branding pioneer" and is one of 15 Master level Certified Personal Branding Strategists in the world. His company, BeYB, is introducing a leading global personal branding methodology to on-the-move careerists in Japan. Follow Peter on Twitter @PeterSterlacci

Filed Under: Networking, Personal Branding, Video Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How Blogging will Boost your Career [Video]

how blogging can help your career

What better way to beam out your personal brand than to start a blog? More and more people are setting up blogs and the trend is not going to wane. Some career experts argue a blog is a prerequisite for a successful career, I am not fully convinced of that but I would certainly recommend you look into it. Blogging is simple, quick and most often completely free. This post will give you the reasons why and ways how to get going.

Why should I blog?

Just like you should work on personal branding right now, a blog will set you up nicely for any eventualities in your career. This is your chance to tell the world what you do and how you do it.

You might already have online profiles on Linkedin and other platforms, you may be featured on your company’s website and think this is enough. That is a great start but what you haven’t got there is full control of your own digital footprint. By having your own blog, you decide exactly what goes up and how it looks. It is your corner of cyberspace and your blog is your castle.

Your blog will increase your online presence and will be how you get found on search engines like Google. Imagine how beneficial it would be when a recruiter or hiring manager runs a search on you and sees your blog which clearly demonstrates your knowledge in a particular field.

Another great reason to blog is that whatever topic you choose to write about, you’ll find that you soon become an expert in the field. You have to come up with new content and you will have do a fair amount of research. Whilst doing this you will read and learn more about your subject out of necessity. Your blog will basically force you to learn (and write) more and in the process this will aid your own personal development.

Furthermore, blogging will lead to opportunities that you could never conceive. As your blog is out on the web, you will become part of an online community of like minded people. This network can lead to all kinds of exciting new ventures for your career. I know people who have been ‘discovered’ from their hobby blog and landed good jobs thanks to their writing.

What to write about

You can write about anything but if you want more readers than your mom, you best pick a topic that is interesting to the reader. Think to yourself, what is the purpose of my blog? What will readers actually enjoy and what will help them solve problems in their daily life? You can write about your hobby or work for instance, something that you want to share information about. A good piece of advice is to write about something you know a lot about as you can then easily come up with new content.

What to name the blog

When you have decided what to write about, you’ll want to pick a name that corresponds nicely to your content, giving potential readers a nice little heads up. Lots of names are taken so you will have to use your imagination. You can also opt for naming it after yourself but this says very little about your blog unless you are famous and your name can pull the crowds.

Consistency

This can be the hard part. If you want people to come back to your blog, you’ll have to keep churning out valuable content. The key here is consistency, whether you write a post once a week or once a day, your readers should know what to expect and have a reason to return.

What technology to use

I am not going to get techie on you but I can recommend WordPress as an excellent blogging platform for anyone with some technical understanding. WordPress is a bit like Firefox or even an iPhone in that it has lots of add on applications and plugins, allowing you to change things round to your liking.

If you want the simplest form of a blog, go for Google’s Blogger application, which will have you up and writing in less than two minutes. There are a few limitations with Blogger but if you’re an absolute novice it’s the way forward.

These applications are both free by the way. You will also probably want to get your own domain, which will only cost you about $10 from domain registrars such as GoDaddy.

Achieving success

There is no magic formula, silver bullet or quick fix to making your blog a success. I am not a grand master of the craft myself and I can only say that hard work and consistency is what has paid off for me so far. I hope that you will consider starting a blog and you will find that there are numerous resources online to help you. If you already have a blog going and could do with some advice, have a look at my buddy and fellow Londoner Marko Saric’ excellent blog about blogging aptly named HowToMakeMyBlog. Here’s what he had to say at the most recent Social Media London meetup:

Good luck and see you in the blogosphere!

Related: 3 Smart Ways to Brand Yourself in the Job Search Process.

photo by: Ed Yourdon

Jorgen Sundberg

The original Undercover Recruiter, after 7 years in tech recruiting Jorgen now runs Link Humans, a social media marketing agency in London.

Filed Under: Career Management, Personal Branding Tagged With: , , ,