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Do what you want. Self-publishing simply means you write a book and you figure out how to get it into the hands of other people. It might just be you sell it on your email list. Congrats! You're then a published author. In my post "How to Self Publish a Bestseller" I write about the details and the numbers.

This seems opposite of what I said above. But blogging is not such a bad idea. How come? Because it makes you write every day. And it also is fun to build friends and community around your blog. But if you want to blog, don't just register a domain name and start blogging. You won't get any traffic.

There's a thousand ways to build community and practice writing on the Internet. Blog is one of them but there are many others. My #1 suggestion: first practice on Quora (cc Marc Bodnick) If you go there, follow me and say "Hi!".

If you don't write every day, you won't know what your potential skill level is. You will be producing sub-par work. And in a world where 15 million books will be published this year, your book will have little chance to shine.

Do the math: if you just write 1,000 words a day that are publishable then you have a book every two months. 1,000 words a day is not easy. But it's not hard either.

No. You used to be able to make a living writing articles. Just a few years ago. In 2005 I made a good living writing about 3-4 articles a day for different publications while I was running my fund and before I started and sold Stockpickr. But those days are over. People just don't pay for content. And there are too many writers. It's a supply and demand thing.

ou have to write more than one book. And for most people, you have to write dozens of books.

You’ll catch clunky sentences, missing and repetitive words, and misspellings.

Make a list of your most common offenders. Then search for those words and see if you can take them out without altering your intended meaning.

Take a look at each sentence and see how many words you can cut out.

Check to make sure you put commas before direct address in dialog.

The most mutilated verbs are lay, sink, drag, swim, and shine.

Flowery verbs such as quizzed, extrapolated, exclaimed, and interjected, stick out. Instead, use said and asked, with an occasional replied or answered.

When sentences begin with “it was” and “there were,” readers are left wondering exactly what “it” is. These words are vague. “It was hot today” can easily be replaced with “the sun baked his shoulders,” which paints a clearer picture. Think: strong nouns and verbs.

Anne Rice

Regardless of what time I work (shift work), I wake up at least 3 hours prior and like clockwork, 1) I brush my teeth, 2) make breakfast, 3) sit down at my desk, 4) check emails, 5) check in on my social connections and finally 5) after stretching my legs for a moment, I write on cue for at least two hours.

ake note of the things you do consistently every day before and after work.

Create a space of time within your current daily rituals for writing every day. Make sure it’s at a time of day that works best for you.

I highly recommend creating a writing sanctuary for yourself, somewhere you only go to write, and therefore, your mind will associate being there with writing.

Make sure a clear connection exists between the opening of your post and the headline.

If a sentence, phrase or word is particularly important or significant, use bold or italics to add stress. But don’t overdo it.

Always be consistent with your terminology.

If a point is worth making, it’s worth making twice. Or even three times.

Only tell them what they need to know to follow your argument. Share the minimum you need to convey the desired message.

Clear examples help readers understand difficult concepts.

Concrete language describes something detectable by the senses. Something you can see, feel, hear, smell or taste. Abstract concepts are much harder to imagine.

When you provide specific detail in your writing, there’s less room for ambiguity. Your reader is far more likely to end up with the same idea in their head as you have in yours.

Clarity does not tolerate “might,” “may” or “possibly.” If you can’t say something with certainty, perhaps you shouldn’t be writing about it at all.

if you’re in the business of spreading ideas, you must make friends with bullets.

Bullets are a valuable tool, but you should never drop your reader into a list without first setting the scene.

make sure each point is recognizably related to the others.

If you were giving your reader a list of steps, you’d present them in the order they needed doing, right? Obviously. But if the items in your list aren’t steps, they often still have a natural order – even if you didn’t have one in mind when you wrote them.

always supply everything the reader needs to fully understand your points within the post itself.

You think you’re being generous but truthfully you’re being greedy. Greedy with your reader’s time, their attention, and their patience.

include a clear call-to-action. Tell your reader what you want them to do.

You’d just rather do anything in the world other than work on your writing project

Avoidance and procrastination: Sometimes we go out of our way to avoid a difficult writing challenge.

Eat well, exercise, and drink plenty of water. Schedule time for rest and relaxation. Don’t run yourself down.

A Few, Final Writing Tips for Combating Writer’s Block

if you have two projects going, you can rotate back and forth to maintain your interest in both.

Get advice from other writers. Often, they’ll see a solution where you see no way out.

Which are the most common mistakes you’d like to warn your readers for? And help them avoid? Sprinkle these mistakes — with advice on how to avoid them — over your tutorial, to keep readers captivated.

Your word choice has to be sharper and harder-hitting than the words you use when you talk because in writing you can’t scream, sing, or use wild gestures. Your words have to capture attention, express emotion, and get your message across.

To make your writing voice stronger and more dynamic: Choose sensory words like creepy, bland, or dazzling Pick emotional words like mesmerizing, mind-numbing, and captivating Religiously tighten your text; and tighten it more

There’s one more thing you shouldn’t forget: A good teacher or mentor inspires her students to implement her ideas. Consider what might stop your reader from following your advice … and take away that final obstacle. When you encourage your readers to overcome their doubts and take action, they’ll hang on to your lips to hear each word.

Metaphors help readers visualize an abstract concept by relating it to something concrete. They help people understand a new idea by relating it to something they know already.

Problems are like speed bumps — they slow your reader down. They start paying attention again, because everyone is keen to avoid glitches, hassle, and mistakes.

How Much Clutter Can You See?

What’s the Mood of Your Room Like?

Are Your Tools Good Ones?

Just imagine trying to write with a dried-up pen, where you have to keep stopping to go over too-faint words.

Are You Allowing Distractions In?

Writers still concentrate too much on the text and not enough on formatting and presentation. Making the content you create readable, portable and memorable is what will gain success.

The other thing that I think was important was commenting (with links) on other content.

I believe in 90-9-1 participation inequality. Comments are the area on a piece of content where the 9 (contributors) and the 1 (creators) are most frequently found. Those are the people I wanted to connect with because I had a better chance of them carrying my content to other places. And they did.

Social media is a key factor in SEO and Internet marketing for businesses and individuals. You rock at social media, sharing across multiple platforms and gaining reach. Social media can be intimidating and time consuming. What advice do you have for managing individual as well as business social accounts? Well you hit on the big issue; it’s time consuming and most people don’t want to invest that amount of time. So that’s the first thing. You can’t half-ass it and expect to do very well. One of the things I try to do is make my content on these platforms consistent, readable and memorable. On Twitter I decided to use a convention for the vast majority of my tweets. [Activity]: [Title] [URL] [Comment] [Hashtag]

Well, I’m seeing more and more evidence of what I describe happening and believe that Knowledge Graph Optimization (KGO) is going to be more and more important moving forward.