Mind Mapping: Turning Ideas Into Content
This is a guest post by Mario Mendoza.
Developing a consistent writing habit was my biggest obstacle. I had ideas scattered: my proof was notepads filled with article topics and potential project ideas that just had a title and nothing else. I had the missing pieces; I just lacked a way to channel my ideas into action.
I decided to give Mind Mapping a chance and see if it could help organize my music projects and website tasks. I was intrigued by the claims of the process: easier organization, remembering ideas, solving problems better and increasing productivity.
Mind Mapping
Mind Mapping is considered a form of “creative note taking” meant to map out your ideas similar to how your brain processes them. You start with a central topic or bubble and branch out accordingly to categories and sub-categories.
Your ideas all branch out from your center concept, keeping you focused on your mission. Some forms of mind mapping are plain while others include images and multi-colors. I chose to use a free version of Xmind.
I use Mind Mapping now as a way to jot down thoughts and create specific tasks for them. I was pitching: my ideas were in the windup position, but they lacked the follow thru.
I found myself speaking of plans in the first stage and not offering specific action to get the ball rolling and see if the idea was worth developing. Trying to balance my music projects and blogging tasks became more of a pain. I tried mind mapping on a sheet of paper and began to brainstorm.
Bloggers can relate to musicians. You can find yourself encountering inspirational moments and not writing them down, or assuming you will remember later. It can be a blog topic, hook, melody, lyrics or an idea. Trying to recall those can be painful, especially when you can’t remember where you were going with the original thought.
Now I follow one simple rule: Give detail to your inspiration.
10 Tips For Overcoming Critics To Build Your Business
This is a guest post by Frank Angelone, founder of Social Tech Zone.
The number one thing any new business or start up idea is going to face is critics. Critics are everywhere and are always going to voice their opinions. They don’t always necessarily have to be people in your industry, but can also be family members or friends as well.
What I want to leave you with is 10 tips that you should use and implement into your own business so that critics will not get the better of you.
9 Ways To Stand Out In A Crowded Blogging Niche
There are a lot of bloggers out there besides you. Many of them are talking about the same things you are. Yet, they have the same goals.
Have you ever felt like you just weren’t unique enough to really stand out?
How can you stand out from the crowd?
I thought I would just toss out some ideas on this off the top of my head:
- Be a pattern interrupt. I go into more detail about the pattern interrupt here, but it all comes down to being different than the rest of the people who talk about what you talk about. For example, Jordan from Not A Pro Blog talks about blogging like a lot of people (including me), but he comes in as a comedian. He epitomizes a pattern interrupt for this market. What can you do that’s different?
- Offer something different. When it comes to people who offer products, what can you offer which stands out from your competitors? For example, if everybody in your market does digital goods, perhaps offering something physical will make you stand out in a good way.
- Guest Post – A Lot. Guest posting is an AWESOME way to get yourself out of the crowd and onto the radar of others in your market. The key is to produce quality posts and to submit them to blogs with some kind of perceived authority in your market.
- Have a unique design. Having a high-quality design for your blog which backs up your personal brand is important. That personal brand (when executed correctly) is what makes you stand out in any market, but your blog’s design has to back it up. People need to arrive on your blog and know what you’re about in a few seconds.
- Say Something Different. Controversy is a pattern interrupt in its own right. So, if the majority say “left”, try saying “right”. If they say “up”, try showing why “down” is better. Routinely present another side of an issue.
- Be Consistent. Nothing kills your blog’s success more than posting very rarely. You’ve got to be consistent. Since most blogs out there are not consistent, you can stand out right there just by being more consistent.
- Start that mailing list. If you have no email list, or are running a feed-only list like that offered by Feedburner, you’re really dropping the ball. And here’s the deal… most of the bloggers out there are not collecting email addresses. That’s their mistake, but you don’t have to join them. In fact, by building a list, you have a resource you can leverage in product launches and even just to drive traffic to your own blog. Major way to stand out, because you’re building community outside of just your blog. Oh yeah, and I recommend no other tool for this except Aweber. Period.
- Add Personality. Some niches are filled with people who are, well, boring as snot. How can you add personality to an otherwise unexciting subject? Can you add humor? Can you change the viewpoint?
- Network with The “Big Wigs”. Who are the people who are considered the “A-list” for your particular niche? Well, start networking with them. Twitter is an even playground, so you can start there. Don’t hound them or be needy (that’s annoying), but just be a regular networker. Reply to their tweets. Interact. Then, you can take the relationship to email and see where that takes you.
Do you have some other ideas? I’d love for you to share them below.
Do You Have Any Blogging New Years Resolutions?
We have reached 2010. And if you’ve read my free report on ProBlogging in 2010, you know I’m pretty excited about it.
Most of us make some resolutions for the new year. I always do.
Have you made any blogging new years resolutions for 2010? If so, what are they?
What are your plans? Income goals? Traffic goals?
My plans are coming together and I’m hitting the ground running in January. I’m going to be working to vastly increase my brand in the blogging space this year. I’ve got some product launches planned. I’ve got plans to expand my reach beyond this blog (more on that when the time is right). I may be working with some others on some joint projects. I’ll likely be doing more guest posting and more webinars for my subscribers.
Now, your turn. Post your comment below.
How Can I Help You In 2010?
2009 was an exciting year.
2009 was my first full year blogging about blogging. 
I began this blog in 2008. Before that, there was nothing but a placeholder page here with goofy images of myself.
As my long-time readers know, I’ve been blogging since before this was even called blogging. However, I was a tech blogger. I managed to make my living at it fairly comfortably. Then, in 2008, a series of events led me to the idea of starting a second blog where I would talk about what I did for a living.
It has been SO rewarding. I really enjoy helping and interacting with others with the same goals as I have. I love helping bloggers realize their goals in this medium. So, this has been very rewarding for me on a personal basis.
And, yes, I’m not going to lie, it has been rewarding on a financial basis as well. This move has brought my online business in a different direction than it was and the effect on income has been a positive one. I may provide a final year-end income report later (it has been awhile since I’ve posted one), but I will say that I surpassed $200K in gross revenue in 2009, increasing my income about $60K over 2008.
I have big plans for 2010, and I want you to be involved with them. I’ll post some of my 2010 goals a little later, but overriding all of it is this….
YOU.
That’s right, because I wouldn’t succeed in anything if I was not providing value to you.
Money, traffic – all the things we like as bloggers – all of it comes from delivering a result to your customers (actual customers as well as blog readers).
Our job, as bloggers, is to take our market and provide them with results. And, even higher up the totem poll, to give them HAPPINESS.
That’s what all people are after. More happiness.
So, the question has to be asked…
HOW CAN I HELP YOU?
What would you like to see from me in the coming year which would really help you? How can I make you happy?
I hope this doesn’t seem like a corny question. I could have asked this in a private survey to my list (and maybe I will), but I figured just starting a public discussion would be interesting. And, hell, maybe some other probloggers out there who blog about blogging can learn from my audience. 
We’ll see.
So, the ball is in your court. Now is a time to put your order into David’s kitchen. Let me know what I can “”cook” for you this next year.
I look forward to helping you in 2010.
My System For Getting Things Done [Strategy for 2010]
What you’re about to read is part of a system which I present my students in a training video at the outset of the Blog Masters Club training program. There is more to it than this, but I thought this section of it might prove useful to everybody as we embark on a new year.
One of the things I make a point to do every year is sit down for serious, solid strategic planning for the coming year.
I take some time off. I reflect on what I have accomplished in the prior year. I then set forward my plans for the coming year.
The biggest thing that sets apart a successful entrepreneur from an unsuccessful one is that the successful entrepreneur knows how to make a plan, put it into action, and GET IT DONE. In other words, putting a list of hopes down on a piece of paper doesn’t turn any of those hopes into a reality. The job of an executive is to make planning turn into reality.
That is all he does.
It does start, however, with setting forth plans. With the plans in place, you set forth the action it will take to turn those plans into reality.
Let me let you into a system I find works for me…
Why New Years Resolutions Suck [For Some]
We all do it. We come to a new year with high hopes. We’re going to turn over a new year and take the world by storm – next year.
Then, the year goes by. Perhaps there was a momentary burst in activity in January. The obligatory visits to the gym. Maybe write a few more blog posts than usual. But then it settles back into the status quo.
Come December and – oh hum – life looks pretty much the same as it did last year. But, dammit, next year…. next year is going to ROCK! This time you mean it!
Sound familiar?
The First Problem – Timing
It is completely unnecessary to wait until the calendar year changes over to make changes and do productive things in your life. So, why wait?
Time is just a continuous stream of arbitrary nothingness. Seriously, time is really in the eye of the beholder. It is not a fixed quantity. And it keeps going. The fact that the calendar flips from December to January means nothing except for the significance we ourselves assign to it.
With that in mind, why wait? If you want to accomplish things in life, for God sakes, don’t put it off until “next year”. Start now!
The Second Problem – Ourselves
When we make resolutions, it is just more shiznit on top of a pile of last year’s shiznit.
* Yes, “Shiznit” is a word. Snoop Dogg said so.
In other words, you made goals for yourself. Some of those goals may have failed, but they are still your goals. Here you come with a new year and more goals. Those new goals don’t overwrite the old goals. They just pile on. Yet, we know that those old goals failed. The new goals will probably fail too, right?
You know what we say about people who commit the same mistakes over and over again and expect different results, right?
That’s right – they’re crazy.
So, why do so many people do this every year?
Obviously, hoping isn’t enough. Something has to change.
In order to get something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.
Most people are apathetic about New Years Resolutions because of their past failures. And for those people, new years resolutions kinda suck.
My viewpoint is that the answer to that is to change something. Do something you’ve never done. As Nike says, “Just Do It.”
The only person who can REALLY deny you something is yourself. Think about that for a moment. If somebody tells you you can’t do something, what power do they REALLY have? If you really think about it, you’ll find they have no power at all. The only power they have over you is that power you’ve GIVEN them.
So, don’t get reasonable. Take your power back. Do something different than you’ve ever done in order to get different results in 2010.
Next year, resolutions won’t suck. They’ll mean something.
Tomorrow, I’m going to share with you a practical strategy for goal accomplishment. This is something I want to share with you as we wrap up 2009 and head into a new year. So, I’ll see you tomorrow, right here on the blog.
Problogging in 2010 And Beyond
Today, I have launched a brand new report. After all, I couldn’t let the new year go by without doing something interesting.
It is called….
Pro Blogging in 2010 And Beyond
The report is completely free.
In this report, I talk about some of the trends which have led up to 2010 and why I’m excited about 2010 as a blogger. I also talk about this whole FTC thing and why it is actually a huge gift to the blogosphere.
I hope you enjoy the report. Grab it here.
Using Google Voice To Give Your Blog A Phone Number
I am a self-proclaimed Google whore. I use many of their free services and there is rarely a time when I don’t have at least one of my browser tabs open to a Google property.
This last week, I was reminded of Google Voice. I was reading the revised edition of the 4-Hour Work Week and he mentioned Grand Central. Since that was written, Grand Central has been terminated and it is now Google Voice.
Essentially, you can get a phone number for free from Google. Here is why I dig the service so much:
Beyond Blogging – A Review
Last night (at midnight) my friends Nathan Hangen and Mike CJ launched their new book, Beyond Blogging.
Now, I’ve seen several ebooks that are full of interviews. In fact, most of the time, the author didn’t do much of the actual writing – they just copy/pasted what the interviewee said and called it a book.
Beyond Blogging is not that kind of book. The book does have tons of input from a lot of big names in blogging:
- Chris Brogan
- Gary Vaynerchuk
- Chris Guillebeau
- David Risley (yeah, funnily enough)
- Penelope Trunk
- Chris Garrett
- Darren Rowse
- Pete Cashmore (from Mashable)
- Jonathan Fields
- Shama Kabani
- Michael Dunlop (from IncomeDiary.com)
- Steve Pavlina
- iJustine
- Brian Clark (of Copyblogger fame)
- John Chow
But, Nathan and Mike went over and above. They took the interviews and digested each of them into actionable advice. This is no copy/paste job – this book is the real deal. Each interview has a biography as well as the author’s analysis of what makes these personalities successful as bloggers.
After all the profiles and analysis, the last section of this book brings it all together into the common elements of all of them. What made these bloggers successful? What did they do right? What did they do at the beginning?
When I began really taking my blogging seriously, I read and studied others who were successful at it. It only makes sense, right? Beyond Blogging brings many years of combined blogging experience and success into one content-packed read which is sure to give any blogger several “aha moments”. In fact, the only way you won’t learn something from this book is not to read it.
On a personal basis, it is an honor to have my name on the list with these other fine bloggers. I’m glad I could help. But, more importantly, this is a fine book.
I recommend it to you wholeheartedly.
Nathan and Mike… fine work, my friends.
I'm David Risley. I've been making my living as a blogger for over a decade. Blogging is my business and how I support my family. With this blog, I'm just gettin' REAL and telling you how this business works. 
