Learning how to build good posts.
My blog, LIFE-BUILT POEMS: Living Out Loud, has been coming along satisfactorily despite the fact that it is a side-gig that keeps getting side-tracked by other stuff.
My own jones with it is to make something of recognizable value, that is worthy of the time my users put into it. I do demand a lot of my readers, I suppose. I am not prone to doing little 5-minute swipes at a subject and calling it good.
The things I like to explore sometimes take more than five minutes to just explain, for one thing. Often they require mindsets that are so other than the regular everyday ones that I get all tangled up in it. I keep on trying, though.
My topics are not potato-chip snacks. Very often they are really meaty things that need folks to think on them and chew on them some. And that's my idea of a good post, I suppose.
(I guess I should mention that I'm not really good at small talk either.)
My latest project has been a thing I'm calling "com-posting." I chose a topic, then I collect different elements for that topic -- possible videos that might work, research which involves books and online articles of assorted types from as many as ten or fifteen sources, possible images that have their own "voice" and so on. I also go find a couple of poems I've written on the subject. If I don't have one, I make one up.
Each of these elements interact with the others as I wander through old memories and half-remembered stories that pertain to the topic I've chosen. I talk to other people about the topic and sometimes get new takes on it as well.
When I'm dizzy from all the voices and images in my head, I sleep on it. Usually, I wake up with some direction that I can take. Then I go.
Afterwards, I will save the stuff I haven't used in the current post as starter seeds for other posts. Often, they give me new things to explore.
The com-posting thing is starting to look like a pretty good system for what I'm doing, I think.
I'm trying to get to the point when I can speed up the process so that I am doing one post a week. That's probably the best I can hope for doing it this way.
I still haven't really worked seriously on monetizing my stuff yet. I keep exploring the different options (many of which make a lot of sense and have been used by many others to good effect) -- all of which seems to require that I stop writing and start selling.
I'm really good at selling. Maybe the problem is that I'm having too much fun getting good at writing still.
Oh, well...hope you're having good journeys your own selves.
Recent Comments
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Make use of your talent in poetry. Start creating your own daily thoughts written in poetry. Everyone is going to succeed if we take the right action and persevere each day.
You make me smile, Florentino. Writing and poetry-making are like breathing to me. You are right that perseverance furthers.
Eventually I will get the balance between the sheer joy of being able to communicate good ideas well and the mundanities of making sales so I can keep on doing it.
The benefits to me in doing this have been many already, thanks to all the good people here at WA. I can test-drive my thoughts here and get feedback that is pertinent and very insightful.
That is invaluable to me. It prepares me, I think, for a broader audience that is not as kind.
-- Netta
It looks like you are getting the hang of it, in your own time.
I have found that the more you write, the better it becomes and the easier it becomes.
I am sure you will find the right balance between writing and selling the more you work at it.
Best wishes and stay safe.
Gaz
Gaz, it is a truth, that. Finding the right balance between the writing and the selling is an issue for me. Still working on it.
Thanks for the pat on the back.
-- Netta
Netta, I have always enjoyed your posts, and as Vicki suggested an E- book of poetry would be great to have , and then you could even promote on Pinterest. I have noticed on my account ,books are doing very well due to the pandemic. They have always done well though.
Thanks for sharing,
Bill
Hi Netta
Perhaps you could write a book with your poetry and seel it on your site:))
You will do call to action posts when you are ready to seel something
All in good time and nobody knows you better than you.
You are enjoying yourself and that is the main thing
Keep moving forward and being awesome!
Vicki
Thanks, Vicki!
The goal is to get a bunch of books together out of this posting gig and I am also working on that as I go along, so I guess that is also progress.
-- Netta
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Saved for a monet when I could thoroughly immerse myself in your post. I love how you have described the exact process you have taken.
It has defintitely given me food for thought, as my 'research' (overstating it somewhat) is poor at best.
Thank you.
Hey, Twack! Thanks for stopping by.
I have to admit that I am a bit of a nazi-researcher. It always feels like somebody out there has thought all the thinks I am thinking already and I'm just trying to catch up!
My way is probably a bit counter-productive since it all has to roil around in there and I have to spend a bunch of time figuring out how to bring Heaven down to Earth so we can look at things in a way that's understandable and useful.
Sure is fun, though!
-- Netta
I have a similar approach, metaphorically speaking, mine is a large saucepan on mind's back burner, throw it all in and leave it to simmer for a while.
Hey! I recognize that one! It works too!
-- Netta