Do I Have the Capability to Do This?

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This blog is about some of the difficulty I have with public relations and it concerns a very important aspect of business, therefore, even though I've used some analogies that may seem off-topic, consider the context of what I am attempting to express here.

Even if I were able to clean up all the distractions and unfinished business to make way for a much more focused endeavour to personal success and the betterment of others' lives, would I be able to effectively run my business?

It's not that I can't procure sales, but proper human relations, as is well-known in this industry, is imperative. If I were to have an on-going business, I would certainly need help in this area. If' I'm not doing a very good job with this sort of thing on WA in the writing venues, it would only stand to reason I would not be able to carry on meaningful conversation with anyone outside.

This is the most deficit thing in my marketing. It is more important than making sales.

The reason I wrote this has to do with observations I have, for sometime now, taken note of. Now, yesterday, I was looking at earlier blogs that I had responded to. Some of my responses, as many know of me, are long and full of detail, however, these were also a bit off-topic, and not that I meant to be - it comes back to the being detailed about things. Think I'm bad?

Not a Bible lesson by any means, but I'm using a story from there to give an analogy. When Job was down and out, and had his friends come by to comfort him, they instead, engaged in confrontation. When none of this was satisfactory, a young person who was there with them waited until the old men finished, as it was the custom back then, to keep quiet and let the elders speak - and then he voiced his own opinions, rebuking Job and his company of friends.

That he is going to open his mouth and give his opinion was a dialog that takes up almost two chapters! Wow! This is just a preface to what he's actually going to say regarding the state of Job at this time! "I am going to open my mouth and speak" is longer than just about any pillar article I've written to date! The use of natural processes and from what mind his coming discourse has, and has not, paints the reason he's about to speak (as he is already doing!)

I guess much of ancient literature is just like that. Today those two chapters of dialog would be said in one, maybe two sentences! Consider the Atra-hasis and Gilgamesh Epic, repeating the same lines of thought, word for word, over and over again.

I deal very heavily with ancient literary works and maybe this is some of the reason why I discuss things the way I do. I have been reading this stuff since I was a teenager.

When I went back over those blogs, which belong to a well-respected, long standing member on here, I was dismayed when I realized what he was actually saying in his responses. Two of the replies, one for two different responses I had made on two of his blogs.

Something I had not seen before when I read his responses were probably due to the fact that I was probably in good spirits at the time, maybe a bit of overconfidence, and what I had written came across as arrogant, off the mark and very long. His responses were "politely sarcastic." When I read them yesterday, it prompted me to look at other responses he's made to my replies - none of which, besides those two, had any elements of discussion.

Folks say my writing is outstanding, and maybe so, in a certain light, but discussion doesn't prevail most of the time. One person told me he saw my writing as "pontificating." I had to look that up. No - I have no intention of "preaching" to anyone. The way I write is directly the outcome of the kind of personality I have. A LOT of my reading is not of modern origin. Some people ask me, "Why do you read books like that?" They tell me there are books in the same genre that are written in much more modern English. Well, I tell them, it's what I'm used to. I comprehend what I read, even if it's in Old English. When English looked more like German, well, that's a different story, but 17th and 18th century English is not foreign to me.

It does have its drawbacks. It is so ingrained in my personality that it comes back out in my writing, at least in part. I go over peoples' heads very often and am not attuned to modern culture as most are. Yet, I use modern technology.

I do get responses on here, and that is without a doubt, but rarely, if ever get responses from any of the high hitters on here, unless I actually address them directly. Finding those responses yesterday made my heart drop. It makes me consider whether or not online publishing is for me.

WA works and works well and I want to be very careful to note this. In all of my endeavours with online marketing it wasn't until I came here before I ever made a dime. For two and one-half years now, I've had an unbroken income, since the day it took off. My WA campaign is dormant, nearly dead and still making occasional sales off it. I have a Jaaxy campaign within that has never been completed and is half-written. It has made a number of Jaaxy sales for me.

Sales are not the problem, though it could most certainly be better - it's my ability to write and get engagement from my audience. It has been one of my worst on-going issues on WA since I began.

I know this blog is getting long, so the other thing of concern will be short:

Sometimes I don't know when my writing has not been well-received, as was the case above. It's not until much later that I realize this and it is a blow to the head. I might think I know what I'm talking about and it silently goes past people as arrogance and pontificating. Believe me, I don't think highly of myself, at least more than I ought and the last thing I would ever want thought of me is some idiot trying to be who he's not.

I think I did the right thing by removing my comments off those blogs, even though they've been there for a year to disgrace this person's work. Expressing myself and the topic I'm discussing has never been easy for me, and I do sometimes forget that I'm living in the 21st Century.

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Recent Comments

23

Hi, Danial well one this is certain - you can write very well!!!!
I am very poor at writing and writing blogs and it ain't easy but I try but that is all we can do is to try our best and if we love what we do then we will succeed even if it is not perfect

Of Course you can do this, Thousands of people have already.

You certainly can write good articles, there is an audience for just about any subject, I do enjoy your posts however it can be a bit heavy at times and not everyone will get the some of the terminology you use, I know I can go off on tangents if I am not careful and I am one of these people who need to see the point quickly otherwise I start getting distracted probably why I am a fan of bullet points that some up the important stuff quickly, we are all unique in our ways of expressing views, opinions etc

Daniel, as Krazykat said below, I don't have an issue with what you write. As a matter of fact your writing has forced me to lookup and learn new words from time to time. I also rarely read posts this long. But this one also struck a cord with me.

I believe from a website perspective you should write for your intended audience. If that audience understands and prefers your niche or environment, it does not make any difference what others think.

Ok, maybe if you want a wider audience you might need to modify it a little. But if you are writing from your heart that is going to come across.

Best wishes.

A wide, general audience needs language that doesn't exceed 7th grade levels tops. Forcing people to look up words is not in most people's agenda these days and I apologize.

I'm at as much of a deficit with words as I know them as anybody else, and have a pretty good command of written English, but sometimes, especially as I am aging, have as much difficulty trying to find simpler, more understood words to replace the ones I use.

There was a time when folks had a dictionary next to them and welcomed learning, but today, in a fast-moving world, vernacular (common) language is good enough. Even writing done back in the 50s people won't read these days because it usually contains "big" words that most people don't use anymore.

I am painfully aware of what you say about audiences. Many folks need to use the dictionary for words, but I often find myself having to use a thesaurus to find simpler words. It's probably this one thing more than anything else that keeps my conversions on the low side.

It is my job as a publisher to be able to accommodate the general audience and those who can do this are successful. I have not done a very good job and it remains just as much a challenge for me as it does those who try to read some of my articles. When it is said that a manuscript for a book should always be edited by others rather than self-edited for this very reason. I wrote in the thread of one of my blogs and long list of words I had used in a grammar textbook I had written, some of which were actually names of parts of speech no doubt! My textbook flopped miserably and was never published as it was deemed the thing had to be completely rewritten.

Hey Daniel. I have to say that I think you are interesting and knowledgeable and your writing (per se) is excellent. As Alexander says, you might just want to mix things up a bit :)

For some reason I lost the reply to Alexander's input. He has a very strong point about this and he's not the only one to suggest mixing up how I write. I really wish I had the ability to say things with just the right words - just like that Bible example above. It seems most people have the ability to put it out short and sweet. I look at Jay's (Magistudio's) website. Wow! He says things I try to say in one-tenth the length and, not only uses a two-sentence paragraphs and has it down in about 150 words for what I would have in 700 words, but gets conversions I could only dream of.

When I try this, I leave out important things and confuse my readers. Make no mistake about it - what Jay does comes extremely hard to me. I notice that this strategy is used by large corporations. It's definitely something to work for!

Good luck pushing forward :)

Hi Daniel, think your writing is very good, I see you have some angst about engagement. The platform here is changing like all aspects of the wider internet community. If you go back 6 months, the blogs here had a different flavour, trending today shorter blogs, some just images. These seem to be very popular.
I can relate to your sentiments, if you can not get engagement here then how do you do it out there. So the choice is join the party or if you are staying true to your values, just go long short in the blog stakes to mix it up a bit. Try different things. You are still writing which is good. Best wishes.
Alexander

I wrote a response to your reply last night. I don't know what happened to it, but it's not here, My thoughts will probably be very different than what they were last night about this.

Many people say my writing is fantastic but it converts poorly. Like you have said, The Internet of today is definitely much different than it was ten years ago. I guess it's because people don't want to read too much at one time from a computer monitor due to eyestrain.

This blog already is at the point where it doesn't win any awards for brevity, but at least. Yeah - I remember what I wrote in this regard that, before I know it I have 500-word replies in front of me and have to, in many cases spend time trying to pare them down.

This is definitely a recurring theme in my blogs on here because it is not helping.

On others' blogs I've had my replies removed, been called aside via PM for speaking just to be heard, trying to rank, being "preachy," racism, being over peoples' heads, showing off, spending all of my time on WA and not my campaigns, and on and on...

One of the things I'm afraid of when I write is that trying to be brief, I leave things out that cause ambiguity (things said that leave others guessing what is meant.) There's an instance of that right here on this thread! I think it better to be on the long side but have everything covered. In this regard, I don't have command of the language because it requires me more words to express myself that many others can naturally do in few words.

Believe me - it's a lot worse for me trying to talk in speech and very often I don't get to finish what I am trying to say and am considered "irrelevant." For some reason, that's the way my mind works. When I was young, I didn't learn to talk until I was almost Kindergarten-age and was part of a large family and lots of competition I could not keep up with. I took on radical ways to be heard by drawing pictures on the walls, which of course, didn't go over very well. I could never say all of what was on my mind and was often sussed before I could say what I had to say. This, I think, is one of the reasons why I elabourate on things in my writing.

Even though I understand why this is so, it is a challenge for me to mix things up like you say but I do try to do the short/long thing.

What Mijareze says is true, Daniel. We are all individuals, and should be free to be so.

You are right, and so is he. However, being different does come with a price. Freedom comes with a price. However way I violate social conventions, I'm still myself.

And that's who you must be. No-one can ever please everyone.

I think you will overcome your obstacles. I can tell simply because you are writing and baring your soul.
God bless you,
Edward Mijarez

I think my success is going to depend on it.. No, no long reply to you. Enough below. I'm needing to get some work done. But yes - it is because I put my heart in what I do. Thank you Edward.

Daniel...arrogant and pontificating? Really? Noooo!!!
You are a very interesting and thoughtful person! You have been sadly misunderstood.

Seldom do I read a lengthy post like this from top to bottom, but this one struck a cord and sparked my interest and my concern for you.
I understand and can relate. I just choose to stay quiet with my personal ideosyncrecies :-) I applaud you for not being afraid to speak even when you might be misunderstood!

You said, "It makes me consider whether or not online publishing is for me." Well, maybe your main audience is not always present on the WA platform, but you do indeed have the 'goods' to establish your online audience!
Speak to them from your heart, and do not let others' opinions bring you down.
Be an authority Daniel....We can't please everyone.

All the best to you!
Val



You are right Val about my audience. In my physical settings, away from WA, I commune mostly with others who are very familiar with the same sorts of things I am, much of which would go over heads on here.

However, the things of which I speak are not allowed to be written about on here and they are of great interest to me. Even at the levels I am with regard to what I know about antiquity, it is a very complex topic and I feel I have not yet earned the right to write about it, though I do in the form of research.

In lieu of my WA campaign, I need to drop most of what I've gotten started and begin developing a new campaign - one that does hit on a very controversial topic and takes an extreme amount of research. It is stuff that needs to be presented in layman's terms - another challenge for me for sure! It's not done right now. Either books on it are extremely scholarly or they are very old, both of which are out of reach to most peoples' reading comprehension.

As for idiosyncrasies, I'm not afraid to bring out the ones that do hinder my campaigns and business as they apply here. The only flack I get on this type of thing comes from folks who simply can't or don't want to understand others' idiosyncrasies, especially when they border on or are seated in personality issues or emotional intelligence levels.

What have I to hide? Really. What is there to hide? Only the insecure are afraid to disclose what might be causing hindrances.

I've seen a couple people with depression issues disclose these things of themselves on here and get driven out of WA by others who were mean-spirited. You know, a man is supposed to be hard, rigid and tough. Delicacy and signs of emotional issues that a man isn't supposed to have by cultural standards become targets for some shallow folks. I felt very badly for one member, "splashduck" who is one of the kindest, mild-mannered people you will ever meet, even has his own wildlife sanctuary around his home, but has mental illness. Disclosing these things a few times on here got him run off by others who have eventually disappeared themselves from the platform.

However, what I have found at WA is that almost all members that are seriously active on here, tend to be understanding and mature. There are exceptions of course.

The person whose blog I wrote on is loved, highly respected and very successful. His responses to those replies I left hold a lot of weight because this person is not known for shallowness by any means and what he says has weight to it. I know these responses on here are very long and I appreciate the help and being able to express what I feel.

I've had these issues for a long time and seek to understand what it is I do that turns people off more often than I think it should be. I know that the source of criticism must be assessed whether it be in the spirit of helping or in the spirit of dashing, and in this case, I think it's just one of honesty. Something I did irritated him and I find myself in this situation too often.

Thank you very much for your indepth response to my comment.
I am glad you have taken this opportunity to express what you feel.
I say this not only for your sake, but observing and participating in your process is very helpful to me as well.

In my small experience, but moreso from being a bystander, I have witnessed many a case where this platform has proven to be a lion's den. I also have learned that not all people (including high ranking, highly respected, successful ones) are not all they present themselves to be.

In the big picture, considering the purpose of being here, all of that shouldn't matter; however, to a sensitive, intelligent person, it does affect how one feels when faced with debilitating comments in response to one's efforts to be constructive and supportive.

I too find myself in situations like you are referring to.

Again, I say thank you very much for expressing all of this, and I assure you I will return to read it again.

I am eager to hear how you move forward with your campaign!

Thank you!

Wow Daniel. You seem very emotional at this point. Dare I say I get you. I always experience what you are experiencing and I know how frustrating it can be. Am a bit happy to know that am not alone and am not a "bad" person and there is someone I can connect with and they will understand. As for me I love psychology stuff and I read a lot about emotional intelligence and sometimes it helps. I know you try to explain to yourself why you are the way you are and that is why you explain it as reading ancient books problem. I don't read ancient stuff and am just like you. I can't explain it but maybe it is time we embraced who we are and make it work. Ancient stuff or no ancient stuff, that may just be who you are. Psychology or no psychology this may just be who I am. I guess we just have to find a way to make it work. Personally I think we can write a wonderful authoritative websites. I believe it.

To your success
Shamim

I don't know about emotionional, but I guess dismay would be an emotion correct?

At the time I wrote the replies I was perhaps in a "helping" mood, and by the tone of my writing in both of those places, probably having good days. You speak of emotion which is something maybe I do wrong - write with too much emotion. I don't know if that is what happened here, but I do know some people hate emotionalism when they see it in others. I've had people at times tell me this of myself.

Yes, I do get emotional Even though this is off target from what you've said, it brought up something to think about.

I read my writing a year later, under different circumstances and not only saw the sarcasm that I didn't see the days they were originally written, but upon thinking about the responses, could see that perhaps, he may have thought I was trying to "talk to be heard."

Another thing on both of these and others besides on the same person's blogs, was that every time, I was telling him how I appreciated the way he put out the content and so forth, and this, to me, might have come across to him as being idolized or patriotized by me. I know some people hate that.

I really don't know. The first thoughts that come to my mind is that I have been called down many times about using archaic language and big words. I put a LOT of time into creating a grammar guide for one of the members on here early on but it was rejected by his marketing research team and upon given the report on this, was shot down for several of the things mentioned above. This is why I mentioned the reading I do that I've exposed myself to for many, many years, and the fact that for a space of time in my life, I lived in isolation.

My foremost thought on this is I was perceived as being arrogant because upon reading them a year later, they do look like they would have been written by someone trying to show off. He did not elabourate and it is not my place to press those issues. I just asked him if he was annoyed and he laughed and said, "You are probably right." Well, that doesn't say much so I just went ahead and apologized and removed the comments.

Thanks for the input. A little gained in understanding how others take things and how I was gullible not to see this back when these were written.

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