Blog is a Four Letter Word

Blog is a Four Letter Word

Blog is a 4 letter word

Don’t get me wrong.  I love to write and this blog is a perfect outlet for that unbridled, undisciplined and often unsavory creative energy.  But… and here it comes… the big BUT… It’s so time-consuming and it’s nearly impossible to post regularly.

My time is precious and I make every effort to be responsible with the use of that non-recoverable resource.  I don’t want to waste readers lives either.  The last thing I want to hear is, “Noni has nothing important to say”

I spend hours (sometimes a full day) researching my topics (or rehashing the memory if I write about personal experience) often getting lost on numerous sites in the process.  Then time spent crafting the story,  I’m dyslexic so can’t type nearly as fast as I’d like.  Then comes the process of  searching for the perfect picture to illustrate my point and finally the actual steps posting and promoting the entry… Twitter, FB, websites, email etc.

All the while I wonder, who reading this?  Anyone out there…?  Hello….?

I interviewed a filmmaker who explained the phenomenon in his terms, “You spend months or years writing a screenplay then someone reads it in 2 hours and says, I liked it!”

Meanwhile you sweat bullets over each word (I actually wanted to say sweated, but there is no such word according to several dictionaries online.   Yes, I actually researched the word sweated) delete sections deemed redundant only to add new ones that seem less interesting.  And so on and so on…. And sometimes I decide to scrap the whole thing.  That’s a wasted day.

My heart goes out to writers, it’s a lonely job.

This morning I checked my blog stats  and I was horrified!  Since I had been out-of-town and unable to post for over a week my stats plummeted.  I even got a few messages from dedicated readers asking me if they had missed something.    Shit! (excuse my French) I’ll post something today.

Yes… Blog is a 4 letter word.  I’ve been reduced to cussing on my post.  I decided to spend some more time studying the blog stats to see what’s been popular lately.  Oddly enough a re-tweet of an old post had done very well.  Better than its initial offering in fact.  Why the increase in hits?  I had given it a new title.  I thought about what that post had meant and updated the headline accordingly.  It was the same story but folks were drawn to the new heading.

How did I choose today’s title?

I was thinking about my blog, feeling guilty since I hadn’t been living up to my self-inflicted pressure of posting at least twice per week… and saw a HUGE drop in readers… SHIT! There you have it… Blog is a 4 letter word.

A picture is worth a thousand words but a catchy headline speaks volumes.

I did a bit more research on titles and came up with some great ideas.  Here’s a few links that I found helpful:

1. How To Write A Mind Blowing Headline For Twitter – by Jeff Bullas
2. 102 Headline Formulas – Google Doc posted by Authority Blogger
3. How to Write a Clever Headline – Nick Usborne, ClickZ

I found a bunch more great sites and articles but, I don’t want to bore you anymore than necessary with endless support documentation.  The point I am making is that you are reading right now because the headline “BLOG IS A FOUR LETTER WORD” caught your interest.

Ever heard of the The Bare Naked Ladies?

It’s a band.  Do they have a burlesque show?  Nope!  They’re just a bunch of dudes singing and playing music.  People heard the name and were curious to hear what it was all about.  I bet guys even went to e concerts expecting to see voluptuous women strutting on stage.  What they got was four regular looking dudes.  The name worked its magic though and the band stuck around because their music is great.  A headline does the same thing.  It draws the reader to the page.  The writing has to be good enough to keep them there.