by Lior Levin

Every blogger, at some point in their writing career, gets a little stumped when it comes to finding something great to write about. In the beginning, ideas are flowing like crazy. But at some point, between wanting to be completely original and yet wanting to drive tons of traffic to the blog, many bloggers find themselves slowly but steadily running out of steam.

This is where content planning comes in. I admit that planning out every post for the next year seems incredibly difficult, but content planning doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to come up with all of the content at once. Instead, simply try to incorporate different types of posts. The ideas will come naturally when you start there.

Here is a list of 8 types of posts that will bring a nice mix of content to your blog and get ideas flowing again.

News Posts

Too many bloggers fail to embrace the significance of the news. While the news, by its very nature, is not evergreen, covering news from time to time is going to bring fresh, and predictable, traffic to the blog. Most bloggers forsake traditional reporting, leaving all of the opportunity to mainstream media. Take advantage of the fact that people are searching for articles related to current events – and also realize that these articles get retweeted and shared on social media sites rather frequently as well.

Event Posts

This is another type of post that’s fairly easy to write if you’re finding yourself nearing blogger’s block, or if you’re tired of writing the same things all the time. Blogging about events actually has more than one benefit. If the event requires ticket sales, it’s possible that you could generate affiliate income by directing your readers to purchase tickets, if an affiliate option is available. Events also bring both “before” and “after” traffic by people searching for information about it. Lastly, like the news, events are rarely covered by the mass majority of bloggers out there, so you will give yourself the advantage of offering something unique to your readership.

Pick of the Week Posts (Content Curation)

Whether it is a great photo, tweet, blog post, or comment left by a reader, singling out a group of favorite things will ensure that you have something to talk about. My personal favorite is re-capping the comments that have been left on a blog by readers. Remind people that your blog is a place to be social and to speak up. Highlighting photos weekly – perhaps ones that are especially bizarre, timely, or moving – also gives your blog some texture. These types of posts take very little time to write since they primarily involve content curation.

How to Posts

It is widely accepted notion by pro bloggers that how to posts are a critical type of post to add to your content plan. How to posts have the potential to do two things: (1) generate consistent traffic, and (2) increase blog authority. They are likely to be referenced in other user-generated content articles (blogs, Squidoo lenses, Hubpages, etc.), which both drives traffic and increases incoming links. And how to posts may be bookmarked both publicly and privately, creating repeat, loyal readership.

Focusing too much on how to posts could lead to blogger’s block, though, if you’re more focused on simply incorporating this type of post than you are on actually communicating something important. When considering what to write, think of the last time you needed to figure out how to do something. What was it? Write the process down and publish it on your blog. Instant content!

Controversial Posts

It’s probably fair to say that you don’t agree with everything that you read. If you are a regular blogger and blog reader, it might even be fair to say that daily, you find something you totally disagree with. Write about it – and link to the source. Don’t just spout your personal opinion about something which the reader has no frame of reference. Specifically talk about the fact that you read something that you don’t agree with. Include why, link to it, and for some flavor, pull a quote or two from the original source and put that into your post. See if you don’t inspire some heated discussion from your readers.

Introduction To/Subject Overview Posts

While it may seem boring, writing a post that introduces and/or explains a topic is easy and incredibly beneficial for increasing traffic and blog authority. From time to time, write a post that is simply an overview of a particular topic. Include links, images, pull quotes, and whatever else you can curate to give readers a very substantial and quality overview. More than likely, this type of post will not be a hot topic in social media circles, but if your blog already has great authority and page rank, you will find yourself generating a lot of traffic by people who are searching for information on that topic. You’ll also earn yourself links from writers who feel your post is the most reliable source of information on that topic.

Research Results Posts

When you’re finding yourself at a loss for something to write, turn to your favorite press release distributor, such as PR Newswire, PRWeb, or something similar. They are excellent places to come up with great ideas – especially those based on recent research. On your blog, publish your opinion – or ask your readers for their opinions – on research results that would be of interest to them.

Infographic Posts

This is possibly the easiest way to eliminate blogger’s block. Infographics are created to be written about and shared. The nice thing about this type of post is that you don’t need to be the one to create the infographic. Instead, just share it. Grab the code, insert it into your blog post, and publish. If you want, you could add a paragraph or two summing up your opinion on the infographic, or you could write an overview for it. You could also include a poll from PollDaddy.com on the subject, giving your readers a way to interact with the content. If the infographic is good, you’re likely to get a lot of social media shares and links.

The DailyInfographic.com is a great source for infographics. The more timely your infographic, the more likely it will be that you will see a surge in traffic and shares from it.

Those 8 types of posts alone could keep you busy for awhile. What other types of posts inspire ideas for you?

This guest post is written by Lior Levin, a marketing consultant for a company that offers psd to xhtml conversion.

Photo credit: Michael Davie

One of the issues writers always struggle with is what to charge for their writing. Here’s how I advised a friend recently. She was contacted by someone asking her to guest post for a set fee and wanted to know how to respond to them, as the money didn’t seem huge but she wanted to build up the paid blogging side of her business.

Here was my initial advice on average rates for writing blog posts:

What you can charge for posts depends on your profile and their budget. Small blogs may only pay $15-20 a post, while corporate/big blogs may be anywhere upwards of $50.  So the fee offered (about $30) sits right in the middle. (I also know bloggers who don’t do posts for less than $100-$150 apiece for corporate clients. )

Then I suggested that another consideration should be the work involved in writing the post:

If it’s a topic you’re expert in and you can write without thinking about it too much, then that would be ok (just) for a short post (400-500 words). If you have to write a longer, more detailed post and provide images, upload it yourself and so on, then you could ask for a bit more if you think they want it badly enough.

I followed this up with thinking about how the job sat with her personal productivity:

One way I work out a rate is to think of my hourly rate and halve it because I can easily write two 500 word posts in an hour, if it’s a topic I know inside out. (Update: but most people would expect you to take an hour to write a post and more time for associated tasks, so keep this in mind as well.)

Finally, I provided a short script for a response that left room for a future price increase:

You could also respond positively to the offer and make it clear that you will do it for $30 as an introductory rate, but would want more if it turns into something regular.

I always believe in leaving room for negotiation.

New writers, would this work for you? Experienced writers, what other advice would you add?

Update: This guest blogging opportunity has now ended.

I’ve just landed a new gig – and it’s one that provides an opportunity for writers looking to raise their profile with guest blogging. I’m going to be managing Quips and Tips for Achieving Your Goals, part of the the successful Quips and Tips network, owned by Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen. I wrote  some posts for the blogs earlier in the year.

Why is this good news for you?

Because the site is open to guest writers. In fact, it’s more than just open – we really, really want you to share your tips with readers.

Why Guest Post on Quips and Tips for Achieving Your Goals?

From my own experience as a writer on some of the sites, I can tell you that you get a great author bio and your post gets tweeted out a couple of times to 7,500 Twitter followers (and that’s just Laurie’s account. Add my Twitter followers into the mix and it’s going to nearly 10,000 people on Twitter alone – that’s great exposure.

If you’re interested in taking up this offer, check out Laurie’s Perks and Procedures post and start writing. I’m looking forward to publishing your posts!

Ready for another blogging linkfest? Here’s a long list of posts I’ve bookmarked and shared in the last couple of months, along with a short excerpt from each:

Writing Business

• 5 Rarely Remembered Rules for Building Your Freelance Brand - Good brands command respect and establish a reputation. They establish your presence in the marketplace.
• Top 3 Symptoms Your Business Blog Reeks - Any size company can have a case of blogitis If you are phoning in your business blog, hang up on that practice.
• Features of the Freelance Economy - Government policy makers are devising all sorts of programs that will put people back to work.
• Building New Income Streams When Client Work is Slow - We’ve already looked at why freelance job boards aren’t the best places to find gigs and how you can make it easier for clients to find you through your writer platform. But what can you do in between client projects?
• How to Build a Writer Platform and Make Jobs Come to You - Our last post looked at reasons freelance writers should stop spending too much time trolling job boards looking for new gigs.
• 7 Signs That It’s Time to Simplify Your Freelancing Business - If your freelancing life has become too much for you, it may be time to simplify your life and your freelancing business as well. Do you think this is you?
• Back to basics: A 10-step freelance story workflow guide - Writers use various methods to stay on top of queries, stories in progress, rewrites, collections and the like.

Writing Skills

• 7 Cs of Effective Web Writing–a Checklist for Freelance Writers - A relatively small percentage of these freelancers really understand their job and responsibilities. If truth be told, it may seem that anybody can write.
• Should You Do Ghostwriting? - Exactly what is ghostwriting? And, what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of doing this type of writing? Is it ethical? Are such jobs available?
• If English Isn’t Your First Language – An Open Letter To Writers - I only speak and read one language, and that’s American English. It’s my native language. I grew up with it. While I have a smattering of Spanish and a few words of French, I’m a typical American, with only one language.
• One Tool that Really Sharpens Your Writer’s – or Blogger’s – Voice - A writer’s voice – a blogger’s voice. All aspiring writers search for it. All authors define it, explain it, and scare the hell out of those who have yet to discover it. Over and over again. And we never get tired of talking about it.
• The 5 Steps To Actually Starting A Freelance Writing Career - If you want to be a freelance writer you’ve simply got to write. There’s just no getting around it. And you’ve got to write regularly.
• Finding a Mentor–A Freelancer’s Simple Success Secret - A mentor is a more experienced freelancer or other professional who you can turn to for guidance and who can answer your questions about freelancing.
• 5 ways to protect your work online - Anyone who shares their work online knows there’s a risk they’re taking… Despite those risks, there is something to be said for having an instant audience online.
• When Words Are Not Enough - Since I use words for a living I love the fact that they can be so powerful. But, my profession is also why it’s all too easy for me to get too caught up in the power of words–too easy for me to forget that words are sometimes not enough.

Marketing and Promotion

• 5 Ways to Build a Better Website - Your business website positions you as an authoritative and skilled freelancer in your field. It captures leads into an automated email service or customer relations management software.
• Freelance Marketing – Market Research and Planning - If you’re considering a change to grow your business, you should start there and narrow down your specialty area.
• Building Your Web Presence for Authors: Don’t Let Google Do Your Talking - I pulled out my iPhone and googled the business name and the city. What showed up as the site description? “Joomla! – the dynamic portal engine and content management system.” Wow. Whoever made their website didn’t bother to change that default description.

Getting Paid to Write/Getting Writing Gigs

• 8 Must Haves Before You Apply For A Freelance Writing Job - There are eight things you need to get in order before you can be sure you’re looking good and likely to land the freelance writing job you want.
• 8 Steps For Landing That Freelance Writing Job - For the better writing jobs there are tons of applicants which means your goal is really to get an email response.
• Numbers Are Our Friend–Writers and the Wild World of Metrics - The idea of numbers should not scare you. Numbers can be a writer’s best friend.
• How Long Does It Take PayPal to Transfer to Your Bank Account? - Setting up PayPal for your work at home jobs is smart. It’s an almost universal way to get paid online because most people already use it.
• Full-Time Income in Part-Time Hours? Sure Thing! - I was definitely intrigued by Gretchen Roberts’ new ebook, Full-time Income in Part-time Hours. Gretchen, a food and wine writer, has been freelancing since May, 2003.
• Search & Networking Tips For Finding Freelance Writing Jobs - As more and more people in the world become Internet savvy, the world of online freelancing gets more and more competitive. This can make it harder to find good paying gigs

Client Relations

• Insulate Yourself From Bad Freelance Clients - Here are three simple ways you can better insulate yourself from bad writing clients.
• 8 Tips About How To Respond When A Potential Writing Client Calls - You are sitting at your desk writing away and the phone rings and it’s someone who needs a writer. They’ve found out about your writing through your website or have one of your business cards or something. These calls are potentially pure gold.
• 10 Ways to Win Back a Former Client - Assuming you’ve done your work well, your former clients already know and trust you. They no longer need to be convinced that you’re a good freelancer. Unfortunately, clients don’t always come back to us with more projects.

Blogging

• 5 Popular WordPress Plugins You Need to Ditch Now! - We all want to speed up our blogs and one of the easiest ways to do that is by removing WordPress Plugins that impact load speed, and provide little value for our readers.
• Is Impartiality in Media or Blogging Even Possible? - Every time I read a post bemoaning the idea that copywriters and bloggers deserve to be compensated for their time because journalism should be impartial, I wonder whether people truly believe that the major media does not primarily benefit the wealthy who control it.
• How Do QR Codes Work and What Do You Need? - Before we put the cart before the horse, we should know what we need to make these square soundbites work.

Inspiration

• Why Success Should Not be Measured in Money - Some complain about those whose English is not perfect and many bloggers delete their comments and do not publish their posts.
• Ready to Give Up? 50 Things You SHOULD Give Up… Starting Today.  – 2. Give up comparing yourself to others. – The only person you are competing against is yourself. 3. Give up dwelling on the past or worrying too much about the future. – Right now is the only moment guaranteed to you.
• Why Can’t a Freelancer Be a Millionaire? - There’s a big difference between earning six figures and hitting that seventh figure, but is it enough of a difference to keep freelancers out?
• 3 Things Freelance Writing Has Allowed Me To Do - Being a freelance writer can be a considerably varied career. If you’re a banker, you work in finance. If you’re an IT executive, you work in IT. If you’re a doctor, you work in medicine. If you’re a freelance writer, however, you get to sample numerous different careers
• So You Think You Can ePublish?- Self-publishing is EXPLODING and there are more opportunities than ever before.

Featured

To end the round-up, I’d like to draw your attention to two more posts, one which I’ve written (Why I’m Betting on Kindle for Self Publishing) and one where I was featured (She loves to write: An interview with Sharon Hurley Hall.)

Happy reading! (Image:  jjpacres)

It’s no secret that I’ve been a long time advocate of promoting yourself through your writing. In other words, you should use some of those writing chops for you and not just for your clients. When I started blogging, I advocated article marketing as a promotional strategy, and while that still has its place, an even better way to showcase your writing talent is by guest blogging. I’ve been doing a lot more of it for two reasons.

1. Guest Blogging is Fun

I am interested in all kinds of things and sometimes I want to write about more than just writing or promotion or blogging. Sometimes I want to release my inner geek in my writing or explore an aspect of parenting. Or try to write about something I’m familiar with for a new audience. Guest blogging allows me to do that. Some of my recent guest posts and articles include:

• Getting Paid to Write – It’s More Than Just Writing
• Five Ways To Go Green In Everyday Life
• How to Plan A Green Vacation
• Twylah – Fan Pages For Your Twitter Stream
• How to Use Speech Recognition Software – 5 Tips for Writers
• 5 Things About Managing Money I Learned From My Mom

As you can see, I’ve written about a few topics I wouldn’t normally cover here.

2. Guest Blogging Enhances My Professional Reputation

I’m a professional writer and blogger. When my clients see my byline attached to posts on well respected blogs, that makes me look good. (And that’s part of the reason I put in my best effort to anything I write. Whether I get paid or not, I still have professional standards and the only person I hurt if I don’t live up to them is myself.) What’s more, there’s a bit of a numbers game, too. When I first got online, I got very excited the first time I did a vanity search in Google and got 100+ results; now those results are in the tens of thousands. If you’re hiring someone, won’t the person who seems to be everywhere at least make you take a second look? So even when I post good quality posts on sites that are still up and coming, I’m still getting some benefit.

3. More Guest Blogging Benefits

And there’s more. The more places I blog, the more I connect with other bloggers – and I have met some wonderful people through blogging. I love connecting with like minded people and get a lot of intellectual satisfaction and mental stimulation from the process (which is a boon for any writer.) Past experience also shows that just as I recommend the people I connect with to others who need professional writing, blogging and social media services, they also recommend me, so everybody wins.

Do you guest blog? If you do, and want to publish posts on writing, then check out our guest posting guidelines and send me your ideas.

Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Raise your hands if you need a blogging mentor! I believe in learning something new whenever I can, so when Annabel Candy announced her new Successful Blogging site and a shiny new ebook, also titled Successful Blogging in 12 Simple Steps (disclosure), I immediately stuck my hand up for a review copy.  After all, even if you’ve been blogging for years, there’s always a chance that you’ve missed something.

Successful Blogging Contents and Summary

Successful Blogging is a 64-page, 12-step guide to blogging covering (the summaries are mine):

1. Topic & Goals – How to come up with a topic and sub-topics for your blog, with questions and worksheets to help you focus.

2. Branding – Brainstorming your brand, describing it and securing it.

3. Planning a blog – Design brief and content organization – pre-planning to save time later.

4. Blog set up – A quick tour of the main WordPress functions so you can get up and running fast.

5. Writing static content – How to brainstorm and write about pages and other static pages on your site.

6. Writing blog posts – Types of blog posts and headlines.

7. Writing for the web – Web writing, formatting and editing to make your blog posts great.

8. Reality check and adding value – Checking that everything you’ve done so far works; adding pillar content.

9. Blogging and other social media – A brief guide to getting started with Twitter and Facebook.

10. Online networking – Exactly what it says on the tin – starting out with networking online.

11. SEO, stats and rating progress – The behind the scenes stuff that can make or break your blog.

12. Guest posting – How to find and land guest posting opportunities.

There’s also a bonus chapter on motivation.

How The Book Works

Each chapter is clearly laid out and covers a couple of pages. The chapter content includes a thinking point, a hot tip (as in ‘here’s a way to make this work quickly’, an action point and a checklist to help you go over the content and apply it to your own blog. This is all based on Annabel’s actual experience of growing a blog from nothing to a well respected and often visited blog in its niche. She knows what she’s talking about, but takes the time to explain it in bite sized chunks so her readers will too. That’s why this is a great guide for someone completely new to blogging. There’s no chance that you will be overwhelmed.

SEO – Where Should It Be?

There’s just one area where I disagree with Annabel – and that’s where she places the chapter on SEO. Personally, I’d think about SEO right at the start, when choosing a domain name and before I write any content. That might be hindsight talking, though. When I started my first blog almost six years ago, I didn’t think about SEO till I’d already been blogging for months. And, to tell the truth, if you’re an experienced blogger, you can just dip into the SEO chapter when you think it’s right to do so.

Benefits For Experienced Bloggers

Notice how I mentioned experienced bloggers? That’s because I think we can gain something from this blog too. I don’t know about anyone else, but when I started my first blog (the blog that eventually became Get Paid to Write Online), I didn’t know enough about blogging to approach it in a systematic way. I know a lot more now, but it will be interesting to use Annabel’s lists to check my progress when I start my next blog.

Finally, all bloggers can benefit from Annabel’s tips on using guest blogging to promote their blogs and the extensive list of tools and resources at the end. To add to the value, there’s a great list of tools and resources at the end.

Grab A Copy of Successful Blogging

This  ebook self study course on blogging is available in three options:

• Ebook and bonus chapter for $29
• Ebook, audiobook recording, bonus chapter and case studies for $39
• Ebook, audiobook recording, bonus chapter, case studies and two hour personal consultation for $499

Check it out for yourself!

As most of you know, I’m an avid reader of pretty much anything I can get my hands on. That’s why I’m always happy to review new books/ebooks that come my way. Of course, I don’t always get around to publishing the reviews quickly, but I’m working on it. Here are a couple of books I liked that crossed my desk recently.

The Smart Business Guide to Winning New Work

The Smart Business Guide to Winning New Work (aff) by Pawel Grabowski offers some great tips for beginners taking their first steps into self-employment. Small business owners and freelancers are the main target market.

The 50 page ebook is divided into several sections, answering key questions about how to market yourself in order to win new work. Issues covered include:

• What is sales?
• The three traits of a successful salesman
• The 3 characteristics of a good prospect
• Where do you find prospects

I found this book an easy read which will give those starting out plenty of ideas for selling themselves and their services. However, this is not a get rich quick book. Pawel warns readers both at the beginning and the end of the book that putting these lessons into practice in order to achieve success will take hard work – and I like that lesson best of all!

Update: The Smart Business Guide to Winning New Work will be on sale at a 30% discount on April 1, 2011 ONLY!

Guest Blogging Guide

I got this book when I signed up for Pro membership of MyBlogGuest. This is a site which automates guest posting – not in a bad way, but by providing a one stop shop for guest bloggers and those seeking guest posts to get together.  This 35 page ebook provides tips on guest blogging. It covers:

• What is guest blogging?
• Benefits of guest blogging
• What guest blogging is NOT
• How to find great guest posting opportunities
• How to approach the blog owner
• Guest blogging best practices

For me, the most useful section was a search tip in the section on finding guest posting opportunities about using wildcards to help you identify the opportunities. It’s not that I didn’t know about wildcards – I do, I do! – but Ann’s examples showed me how I could improve my searches not just for blogging opportunities but for writing work.

Those were the non-fiction books that made the most impression on me recently. What have you been reading that you’d like to share?

by Jered Slusher

Jered promised to review the headlines on this blog as part of his launch of the Blog Headline Action Guide. This post is the result. Enjoy!

Wish you could wake up in the morning and see your year-old blog post is still being passed around virally? Imagine what that would do for your traffic stats.

For Sharon Hurley Hall of Get Paid to Write Online, this wish is a reality. One post by a guest blogger on March 1, 2010 has received:

• 27 Comments
• 89 Facebook Likes
• Over 2,200 Twitter Tweets

And on top of all that, the post is ranked 2^nd in Google for its key phrase.

The post?

10 Most Common Writing Mistakes by Tom Walker

This blog post is a case study in how an irresistible headline can drive massive amounts of traffic.

There are three fundamental reasons why this headline works so well:

1. The headline is targeted to Get Paid to Write Online readers.

When people visit this blog, they’re looking for ways to make money online through writing. One of the most common fears of beginning writers is the fear of rejection. It’s hard to invest lots of time into writing if there is no promise of publication. This headline plays to that fear of rejection by promising to reveal 10 common mistakes that will kill your chances of getting published.

The headline also promises that the post will be in an easy to scan list format. Readers love to share posts that are easy to scan.

2. The headline clearly lays out the subject matter.

There’s no guess work involved with this headline. We know we’re going to learn about common writing mistakes. Let’s say Tom wrote the post and used the headline “10 Common Mistakes Writers Make.” At first glance, it may look like this headline works well as a substitute. However, this headline is not as specific, as the mistakes that writers make could be anything: time management, researching markets, etc.

The headline “10 Most Common Writing Mistakes” is more specific and in-tune with what the post is about. As writers we have to be careful to make sure our posts accurately reflect what we’re writing about. Readers love to share posts that have headlines that clearly explain the subject matter that’s covered.

3. The headline makes every word count.

It’s not an accident that the post ranks #2 on Google for “10 Most Common Writing Mistakes.” Every word in this headline counts. Readers are sharing the link to the post using the headline, and the headline is something that readers would genuinely search for.

Besides being good for SEO, people are more likely to share posts that have clear, concise headlines. The post explains the subject matter in 5 words. That’s brief! When we use brevity, the headline tends to pack a punch that grabs the reader’s attention.

The big picture to this post’s success:

Tom Walker delivers on his promise of giving us the 10 most common writing mistakes. His writing is engaging, and it covers some of the most devastating mistakes that writers make. All these mistakes cost writers their reputation, publication, and ultimately, their ability to make more money.

Because his headline is irresistible, and his content delivers on his promise, people want to share the post.

The result? More exposure for Get Paid to Write Online.

How to Write Blog Headlines to Increase Traffic and Subscribers

I would like to help you create irresistible headlines for your blog so that you can see more traffic, get more subscribers, free up your time, have better content, and make more money.

I’ve just released the Blog Headline Action Guide and Toolkit so you can create attention getting headlines, just like the “10 Most Common Writing Mistakes” headline that works so well for this blog.

For a limited time, I’m also offering you the opportunity to work 1-on-1 with me to create a blog headline strategy that works for you.

For more information on how to reserve your spot, check out: Blog Headline Action Guide and Toolkit (aff)

If you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook, by now you will know that I’ve landed a gig writing occasionally for the Quips and Tips blog network.  This writing gig was a gift to myself and although it’s a paid blogging gig, the reasons I wanted to do it had very little to do with the money. What I like about this gig is:

• Although I can write for the well-known writing blog, I can also write for the goals blog, the money and love blog or most of the others in the network. It’s nice to have a choice.
• I can choose when I write. There’s no pressure to deliver a set number of posts in a certain time. That means when my client work is lighter I can write more, and when I’ve got a heavy workload, I can write less. That alone makes it a dream writing gig.
• I get links to my sites, resources and profiles from a respected group of sites – lots of SEO juice there.
• I can use the knowledge I’ve built up of different subjects. All though all of you know that I write about writing, did you know that when I started freelancing, I wrote a heck of a lot about financial stuff? Credit cards, mortgages, loans, insurance, estate planning – I’ve written about all of those, sometimes exhaustively. That’s why my first post is on funeral planning, but I plan to write about more fun stuff in the future.
• It’s fun – I get to choose my topics which means there’s finally a home for some of the random things that occur to me. I can turn these into articles in the Money and Love topic (which I think has a lot of scope). And if they’re not right for that one, they might suit another blog in the network.

As you can see, I’m getting a lot out of this writing gig and of course, I plan to give a lot back. Fair’s fair!

Have you ever taken a writing gig for reasons other than the pay? How did that work out?

When I got the email asking me to take a look at the Blog Headline Action Guide and Toolkit (aff) (by Jered Slusher and Jean Sarauer), I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. In some ways, you could say the information it contains is common sense, but if you are starting your blog and want to draw your readers in, this is a good resource. It’s also pretty useful for bloggers who are feeling out of ideas and creative spark.

What’s Inside

Here’s the first part of the table of contents:

• Why Strong Headlines Increase Traffic, Subscribers, and Sales
• The Essentials of Irresistible Headlines
• 9 Simple Steps to Writing a Great Headline
• How to Evaluate & Transform Your Headlines

The first section of the book takes you through all the places where your blog headline will be seen, from search engines to status updates and more. It explains why it’s essential to use your headlines to draw readers’ and sharers’ attention when there is so much competition.

In part two, the authors highlight some headline writing techniques, citing examples from a wide range of blogs. There’s also a box at the end with the takeaways from those two sections. Part three gives you a 9-step headline writing process, making key points about identifying your reader, making them interested and checking that you’re not making any unsubstantiated claims. Part four picks apart some headlines, using a ‘hot or not’ formula, providing some additional lessons on which headlines work and why.

Taking Action on Blog Headlines

As usual with books of this type, I find the toolkit section most useful. It includes worksheets to allow you to put all the principles in the book into practice:

• Headline Writing Tip Sheet
• The Headline Checklist…
• 9-Step How to Write a Headline
• 5-Step Headline Transformation…

and, best of all:

• 175 Sure-Fire Headline  Formulas

Is It Useful?

I think the value that this book brings is collecting information about headline writing in one handy place. It also gives good guidance for people that struggle with headline writing. Is it worth the $27 price tag? That’s really your call. At the moment, that price includes monthly headline training updates and a 1-on-1 email consultation, so it looks like a good deal to me. If you’re still unsure, perhaps this interview with Jered will help you decide. As for me, I plan to use the Blog Headline action Guide the next time I’m feeling short of headline writing inspiration.

Coming soon: Jered Slusher reviews the headlines on Get Paid to Write Online and assesses why one headline in particular works well.