It’s a really great ministry. Each month they sponsor events for people in the complex and organize things like parties and dinners for those in the community. To let people know about the month’s activities, they must manually put out flyers at each of the 35+ buildings. For those who have lived in an apartment before, you can appreciate how much of a workout it would be to trek up and down 150 flights of stairs (so I volunteered to assist).

Along the way, I couldn’t help but draw several parallels to those who are successful in the world of blogging, and hopefully these few insights will help you in your business (and yes, this is an actual flight of stairs I climbed yesterday).

Don’t Retrace Your Steps

I’m always trying to find ways to maximize results and minimize the work involved. As I learned the lay of the land yesterday, I quickly came up with a path where I could minimize the actual number of steps I had to take to get to each door. By glancing over the layout of the buildings, I realized that if I followed more of a serpentine path I could hit all the doors in the quickest time, and subsequently get done with my section quicker.

Immediately I hit the ground running (walking) and set off to get started. It didn’t take me long to realize that this was by far the superior path to take. Instead of just going around the building, or hitting one hallway then just looking for the next one, it dawned on me that having a plan was critical to this important point of not retracing already tracked steps.

It works the same for blogging. Do you find that you spend 90% of your time thinking about design only to go back and change a theme once a “better” one comes along? Do you spend the better part of your energy dreaming about what your blog can become and not actually writing any content? Do reading forum posts, the latest “opportunity of the day” from the gurus, or any other number of things keep you from actually doing the menial and tedious things required to make money with a blog?

If you answered yes, than make today the day to change.

The basics to making money online are pretty straightforward.

Create value, answer questions, and do it in a way that engages a community and develops a relationship with your customers and readers. People buy from people and brands they know. If you’re the brand, make sure they know YOU.

There, you have it. Give me $1000 bucks for my “secret” if you want, but believe it or not, the actual “secret” to making money online is as simple as that phrase in one form or another. It’s how I approach every website I develop or purchase, and it’s a key point to actually making money. It’s not hard, we make it hard.

After I made a couple missteps yesterday and ended up having to go back and retrace steps I had already taken, I realized that we all do this in our online businesses. Once you find a nice theme, stick with it. People won’t care if it’s 2 or 3-column, they just want good content or answers to their questions. Once you’ve learned the basics to Wordpress, installed a theme/plugins, and done a few tweaks to make it more SEO friendly and to your liking, LEAVE IT ALONE. Start writing content and link building (the two most important factors to building a blog you can actually make money with). Don’t retrace your steps. Move forward.

There’s Actual People On The Other Side Of The Door (or Computer)

After hitting about 20 residences, my entrepreneur mind started kicking in…

‘If I owned this complex, I would have roughly X people paying me $X per month, and heck, everyone needs a place to live. Then, if I…”

I was taken aback by the sheer numbers. Every one of the 100 or so doors I visited was a REAL person paying REAL money to live in this complex. Furthermore, they spend money on groceries, going out to dinner/movies, telling their friends about this great deal they got on a new piece of furniture, and all these things that someone in some industry was making money from.

Immediately, I began to consider how each one of these people could become part of my business, a customer of MINE, someone I could be providing a service too and getting paid in return (after all, that’s the point of this whole thing anyway, getting revenue in return for a product or service you provide).

Now all this is well and fine, and I challenge each of you to always be thinking of ways to find new customers for your blog or website, but I used the heading I did for an even more important reason.

To GET these customers, someone working for that complex had to put out a sign, place a radio spot, or do any number of things to attract them to the sales office. Once there, a salesperson had to give them a tour, answer questions, follow up with them if necessary (still with no guarantee of getting anything in return). It’s all unpaid, pay it forward type work that is focused on getting the person signed up to become a tennant.

Your blog or website is the exact same. No one is going to pay you to buy that domain, get a hosting account, put a website together, write content, or answer customers questions. You do it because you have the end result in mind. You WANT to be home with your kids. You WANT to be able to work from home and make you own hours. You want, want, want. In order to get that desire in return, you have to do the prerequisites that DON’T give you anything back (just yet).

One of my favorite authors is C.S. Lewis, and in his book The Weight Of Glory, he said a line that can be easily adopted here:

The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable.

Isn’t that the truth? I love how simple and powerful that sentence is.

To GET customers, you must toil while the “conditions are still unfavorable.” To actually KEEP these people as your customers, you must remember they are real people on the other end of the computer and not just numbers in a tracking software. I’ll check my stats sometimes, see the number of visitors that came to one of my sites, and almost immediately they seem to be more binary code and numbers than actual people.

If you want to be successful online, you must remember and treat your customers/readers as the real people they are. People with fears, apprehensions, questions, opinions, judgements, all of it.

It’s your job to establish the relationship with them so they know you have their interest ahead of your own. They want to know you connect with them, their problem, or their need. Once you establish that dynamic, and mean it…you’re as good as gold. Don’t try to fake it though. People can just as easily see impersonations of the real thing. We all have that voice in the back of our head. Genuinely care about the needs and wants of your customers or readers, it’s the best business to build.

Knowledge is Power

Sir Francis Bacon certainly wasn’t thinking about a popular television show when he coined this popular phrase centuries ago, but Lost proves his assertion that knowledge is power, week in and week out. Since the first episode, knowledge or answers have bartered or paid for and even valued above personal safety. Sayid reverts to his skills of torture in an attempt to pry information out of the “other” they’ve captured (which we later find out is Ben). Two weeks ago, Kate moved one of Locke’s captives and allowed him to talk to Ben, in exchange for the knowledge of whether the people on the boat knew about her past. This week, Locke granted Ben his freedom (for being a leader he sure is held captive a lot) in exchange for, you guessed it, knowledge about the island and the people on the boat. And if those examples aren’t enough for you, just think about one of the reasons we keep coming back week after week… to learn the answers to the show’s countless puzzles.

People always ask what the secret to success in blogging is, and really it’s fairly simple. Readers have to believe they will receive something in exchange for their time spent reading your blog. In some instances such as humor related blogs, that something might be entertainment. However, more often than not, readers are looking for information, for understanding, for knowledge. The key to generating a loyal readership is convincing visitors to your blog, that you have the knowledge they’re looking for and that you’ll give it to them in the content of your blog. Whether you’re an expert in your field, a rising star, or just starting out, the principle is the same, knowledge is power, even in blogging.

Create Connections

Early in the plot line, the writers of Lost began creating small and sometimes seemingly insignificant connections between the characters. For example, in a flashback about Sun, we see Boone and Shannon in the background. As the show progresses, the connections become deeper and deeper. We find out that the man who swindled Sawyer’s mother and destroyed his family is in fact John Locke’s biological father. We discover that Desmond met both Jack and Charlie before they wound up on the island. And, perhaps the biggest surprise of all, we discover that Jack and Claire are siblings!

While the connections in Lost are used to further intertwine the characters and weave an even more complicated web between them, connections are also critical in blogging. Networking with other bloggers, no matter what the niche is crucial. Guest posting, cross promotion, reaching new audiences, they all depend on creating connections in the blogosphere. There will come a time in the life of every blog where the growth will begin to plateau. Eventually everyone in your circle of influence will have been exposed to your content and growth will begin to stagnate. The key to expanding even further, is to put yourself in front of new audiences.

The beautiful thing is, often times, ideas, concepts, and tactics that seem very basic to you, might be groundbreaking news to the new audience. Many of my posts about SEO here were not all that advanced and probably wouldn’t have been seen as useful if I had written them on an SEO blog. However, since SEO is not the specialty of many of my readers, they find these posts incredibly useful. If you write a sports blog, take a crack at guest posting on a political blog about the recent steroid hearings on Capital Hill. If your blog covers TV shows, write a guest post for my Lessons on Blogging series. That’s probably plenty of examples but the point is, take the time and energy to create a few connections in the blogosphere. I promise, you’ll be glad you did.

Know Where You Came From

The use of flashbacks has become a signature of Lost. Through the first three seasons, each episode focused on the history or “back-story” of a single character. In between keeping track of events on the island, viewers are given quick glimpses into each character’s life before the island. These flashbacks help immensely in filling out the story line and educating viewers about the different characters. At times, they’ve even revealed surprising information that even the characters themselves don’t know. It’s through a flashback that we learn what crime Kate committed, we learn how Locke came to be in a wheel chair, and we learn how Desmond wound up on this particular hunk of rock in the middle of the ocean.

Without these flashbacks, character development would have been extremely difficult and one dimensional. Likewise, providing background information or a brief history of yourself and your blog is often crucial. If you proclaim to be an expert in your particular niche, but don’t provide any data or information to help back that story up, visitors will be limited to judging your blog by their own perceptions. Imagine if Problogger Darren Rowse never let you know how he came to be a professional blogger. Or better yet, imagine if John Chow never revealed the income he generates from his blog. In the anonymous online world, would you have any reason to believe their claims? Without proof or some history, claims made online are just as likely to be made up and fake.

On a personal level, disclosing more of your personality will also endear readers to you. While you don’t want to take this too far, allowing your readers to get to know you will convert visitors to your site into loyal followers. I can’t tell you how many times people have commented to me on my about page. The fact that I state that I’m not a dot com mogul or some type of guru, and don’t pretend to be, makes visitors more comfortable and makes me stand out among the crowd in the make money online niche.

Don’t get me wrong, I have work to do in this area as well. Several people have asked for me to provide a brief summary so they can catch up on my journey towards a full time income. And really, that’s exactly the type of thing I’m talking about. Laying just a little bit of foundation, you can give your blog a much more personal feel and allow readers and visitors a feeling of that much more connection and loyalty to your blog.

Know Where You’re Going

A huge reason Lost has been so successful is the incredible number of plot twists and turns. The show constantly keeps viewers guessing, and as we discussed yesterday, keeps them wanting more. However, the intricate plot and complicated story line could actually end up hurting the show if the writers weren’t careful. The creators have gone to painstaking lengths to weave a tangled web of fantasy and reality and if the writers mistakenly included a plot twist or occurrence that didn’t fit into that web, it would alienate many of it’s most serious fans. The mysterious nature of the show that has helped it become so successful, would in the end, only increase the level of fans’ disappointment if those mysteries aren’t solved and the loose ends tied up in a way that makes sense and stays true to the show

Towards that goal, JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof compiled what’s known as a series “bible” which reportedly outlines all the island’s many mysteries. Hopefully this will include explaining the smoke monster, the polar bears, the numbers, the magnetic fields, the others, etc etc. Basically, the book is meant to act as a road map and keep the series on course.

While I’m not suggesting you need a “bible” for your blog, it is important to know where you’re going. Most blogs are started with a goal in mind, to make money, attract readers, promote your work, pump up your public profile, whatever the case may be. Unfortunately, blogging is rarely a straight path from point A to goal B and at times it can be so convoluted and confusing that you feel… well lost.

Taking the time to create a plan for your blog and it’s success, or carving out a period of time to schedule a strategy session with yourself, is often all it takes to help make sure you know where you and your blog are headed. Included in these plans or strategy sessions should be things like how you’ll monetize your site (if that’s your goal), how you’ll promote it, and perhaps most importantly of all, your end-game. Do you plan on selling your blog, do you want it to become a self sustaining resource, do you want to leverage it into a book deal? The end game is critical and if it’s not executed well, it might jeopardize everything you’ve put into it up to this point.

Let’s just hope the writers of Lost know this as well.

Any Others?

Even though this was a two part post with 7 different lessons on blogging, Lost is an incredibly complex show and I’m more certain than ever that I’ve missed some other very good lessons that bloggers could learn from it. When (not if) you notice one that I’ve omitted, please share it in the comment section below.

If you’re one of the few people that haven’t seen the show, an international flight crash lands on a tropical island and miraculously most of passengers survive. The show then follows the survivors as they realize not only does the island contain several mysteries, but they’re also not alone. Think of it as a modern day Gilligan’s Island with a supernatural twist. Needless to say, the survivors aren’t video blogging their experience, and the computers on the island only seem to be there to cause problems for the inhabitants. So, what could the show possibly teach us about blogging? Believe it or not, I’ve found 7 lessons all bloggers should learn from the hit TV show, Lost.

Keep an Eye on the “Others”

Early on in the show, the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 dubbed the island’s inhabitants the “Others.” This certainly wasn’t a term of endearment, but you can hardly blame the survivors. The “Others” had kidnapped several survivors, stolen kids away from their parents, and nearly killed Charlie. In later seasons the “others” abduct Jack, Kate, and Sawyer and are pretty much a thorn in the survivors’ sides the entire time. Needless to say, the survivors are constantly on the lookout for these mysterious “others” and try to gain as much information about them as possible.

Hopefully your relationships with other bloggers in your niche are much less adversarial than the one between the survivors and the “Others” but that doesn’t mean you can’t still learn from their example. Whenever possible, examine what other bloggers, especially those having success, are doing and determine whether you could or should do something similar. Brian Clark of Copyblogger recently commented that “the people I see getting the most out of Copyblogger watch what we do as much as what we say.” While his remark was specifically about Copyblogger, the principle holds true for any other successful blog out there. Don’t just read their content, watch and dissect their actions, and use that knowledge to further your own blog’s success.

Make Lists

credit: Nina ScalettiOne of our first glimpses into the world of the “others” centers around the moment of the plane crash. People gather outside and immediately Ben orders Ethan and Goodwin to infiltrate the two groups of survivors and explains that he “wants lists in two days.” In another episode, the resilient Russian, Mikhail tells Kate that she’s “not on the list because [she's] flawed.” In the most recent episode we’re shown an argument between Ben and Juliet during which Ben makes the following statement “They’re on the list Juliet. Who are we to question who’s on the list and who’s not?” Basically, everything the “Others” do is guided by some mysterious list. There is a lot of debate as to what the list means, who’s on it, and who created it, but there’s no doubt that it is a central thread in the show’s mystery.

While we, as bloggers, aren’t going to be abducting people, that doesn’t mean lists are any less important to us. You’ve often heard me use the term linkbait but for those of you unfamiliar with the word, it basically refers to anything designed to attract links to your site. Cartoons, controversial posts, tools, and even blog themes can be examples of linkbait but the tactic used most frequently is, you guessed it, a list. Just think about how many times you’ve seen headlines like Top 10 Ways, Top 10 Reasons Why, Top 100, 7 Tricks, 5 Hacks, etc, etc? Experts such as Seth Godin and Darren Rowse both suggest using lists when linkbaiting. Copyblogger has written several posts extolling the virtues of the list. The bottom line is that lists are all over the place in the online world and for good reason, they work. Whether you need help overcoming blogger’s block, breaking through in the social media scene, or simply want to make your content easier to digest, a list is often your best bet. Jacob would be so proud.

Leave Them Wanting More

Similar to the Sopranos, I was a little late boarding the Lost bandwagon. The show was half way into its second season when I discovered the show so to catch up, I purchased the first season on DVD. I was warned that I shouldn’t start watching it until I had pretty much an entire weekend free since once it got going, you couldn’t help yourself and would probably end up staying up all night or call off work just so you could watch the next episode. Luckily for me I was doing freelance SEO work at the time because, just like I was warned, I blew through the entire first season over the course of about two days. Since then, whenever I introduce someone to the show, I give them the exact same warning. Don’t start watching unless you have some serious free time on your hands, because you won’t be able to get enough. Once you run out of past episodes and catch up to the current season, you’ll be stuck like the rest of us waiting desperately for next week’s show.

The reason Lost had that effect on me, and just about every other person that watches it, is that they always leave you wanting more. So how do we, as bloggers, accomplish this? First and foremost, create content people enjoy. If people don’t enjoy what they see or read, they won’t be back. On the flip side, great content can almost single handedly create the “wanting more” effect in your readers. Take a look at the attention video game reviewer Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw (widely known for his Zero Punctuation game reviews) has garnered. Another great example would be perhaps my favorite author, Mil Millington. He leveraged his site Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About into a widely successful book deal (which has subsequently turned into at least two other books). Readers beg for more simply because both men have created fantastic content.

Obviously Lost has a great story line but they also utilize a few other techniques bloggers can adapt as well. The most alluring aspect of the show for me is the mystery and puzzle behind the show. A few bloggers have already seized on this technique, creating puzzles and leaving clues all across the web. Another technique is, of course, the preview. Every week we’re given a glimpse ahead to next week’s episode which almost always plays back into the mystery aspect as well. A critical bit of information or piece to the puzzle is dangled just out of reach. The same can be done on blogs with just a bit of planning. For example, if I ended this post by telling you that tomorrow I’ll have 4 more lessons that all bloggers should learn from Lost would you be back? I guess we’ll see…

Update: LOST: Lessons on Blogging Part Deux is now live.

Ignorance Isn’t Bliss

American Idol is in it’s 7th season and one thing has been bothering me ever since the show began. For the life of me, I can’t figure out how in the world these people’s friends and family let them get anywhere near this show. I mean it’s not like they’ve never heard the person sing before. The only thing I’ve come up with is that these people either think that their son, daughter, friend, whatever can actually sing, or they just can’t bring themselves to tell them otherwise. Either way, they’re really not doing them any favors because once that poor contestant gets in front of the judges they have to find out not only are they horrible singers, but their friends and family are either tone deaf or liars.

The same thing happens time and time again to bloggers. They are told that anyone can start a blog, they read stories about Darren Rowse and John Chow and their success and figure why not me? But the truth is, not everyone can be a successful blogger. There is one critical ability that every blogger must have if they’re going to be successful… they have to be able to write.

I’ve said time and time again that you don’t have to be the next Shakespeare and you don’t even have to spell correctly or anything like that. However, you absolutely MUST be able to communicate so that other people can understand the point you’re trying to get across. I’ve read blogs where every single post leaves me wondering whether the author had a point or just had too much to drink and found their way to the keyboard. I don’t like being a negative person but if a blogger can’t communicate, they’d probably be better off trying something else.

Don’t Try to Do Too Much

One of the biggest downfalls for Idol contestants is trying to do too much. They want to impress the judges so much that they pick a “huge song” as Randy puts it, and can’t pull it off. Even though they may actually be very good singers, they over reach and wind up sounding horrible. While the judges will sometimes reward contestants for taking risks and trying something new, more often than not it ends the singer’s quest to become the next American Idol.

Unfortunately, bloggers often make the exact same mistake. Obviously there aren’t three people sitting in front of us judging whether or not we can continue blogging, but your visitors are judging your content every time they read it. If you try to do too much, cover too many topics for example, you’ll end up as the old saying goes being a jack of all trades but a master of none. Rather than becoming an authority on one topic or in one niche, your content will be all over the place and you may come across as flaky.

I should emphasize that I’m not saying don’t take risks or that you always have to play it safe. However, if you’re constantly trying to do too much or be too many things to too many people, you’ll end up failing and possibly burning out along the way. If your blog is about sports, technology, cars, food, and flowers chances are you won’t see a lot of success. Even A-listers have to be careful on this front. Most of the criticism I’ve seen of John Chow’s incredibly successful site, is that he strays across all sorts of topics. While he can apparently get away with it, you’re not likely to. If readers don’t know what to expect and can’t see value in subscribing, they won’t come back.

Don’t Get “Pitchy”

The past couple of seasons judge Randy Jackson has stumbled onto a new favorite (and I’m fairly certain made up) phrase: pitchy. For example, a few weeks ago when a young lady sang fairly well, but sounded a bit like a turkey when she hit the higher notes, Randy said that she was too “pitchy”. Obviously the term isn’t something Idol contestants want to hear and very often it signals the end of their journey on the show.

Every time I hear that phrase (and it’s been happening a LOT this season), I can’t help but think how the same principle applies to blogging. Obviously blogging deals with written communication so you don’t have to worry about hitting the right notes or tones but you can still fall victim of being too “pitchy.” Many blogs, especially those trying to make money online, use affiliate marketing or sales to generate income for their site. However, if you come across like a used-car salesman, your message won’t be very well received. Sure you can recommend a product or service, but if every post seems like one of those late night infomercials, your blog won’t have readers for you to pitch products to for very long. Most people will trust an open and honest review or recommendation over the over-hyped and over-sold product push any day of the week. Not only will you end up referring more people, but you’ll also still have that little thing called credibility.

Capitalize on Failure

As it turns out, I’m not the only one that enjoys watching the spectacular failures that happen every week during the auditions. One of the worst was William Hung’s slaughter of the song “She Bangs.” While this was hardly a musical masterpiece to begin with, Hung managed to make it much, much worse. Surprisingly, even though he didn’t even come close to becoming the American Idol, Hung began getting requests to “perform” from people all over the country. The video was an internet sensation and eventually Hung landed a record deal to butcher other popular songs.

Imagine the success you’d have if every time you failed at something on your blog, you were able to spin it or capitalize on it to the extent William Hung did. Obviously you shouldn’t aim for failure but as we discussed in The Simpsons: Lessons on Blogging, plans are going to fail. It’s just that simple. But rather than being frustrated or giving up, figure out a way to leverage that failure.

Recently Steven York from seopher.com wrote a guest post on JohnChow.com about how to write with confidence. The post caught the attention of several people, one of them being Problogger Darren Rowse who wrote a rebuttal post explaining why he thought Steven was wrong. Now, I’m guessing Steven hadn’t been hoping that an A list blogger would essentially call him out for that post. In many people’s minds that would have gone down as a pretty significant failure.

But, rather than sitting around lamenting his bad luck, Steven seized that situation as an opportunity and capitalized on his previous failure by sharing his lessons from the experience in a post which allowed him to not only explain where he was coming from and save face, but come out of the whole thing with some decent exposure. The Learn from My Mistakes series here is another great example. Sure these are mistakes I’ve made or failures I’ve experienced but they’ve become some of the more popular posts on this site and add to the “regular guy” image that this blog has developed.

What Else?

American Idol is one of the most watched shows on television and there are bound to be fans of the show amongst my readers. Even though it deals with singing and watching people’s dreams get demolished right before our eyes, I’ve just listed four significant lessons bloggers can learn from the hit reality show. However, as with every list I create, there’s no doubt in my mind that I’ve missed a few obvious examples. Please feel free to weigh in with your thoughts on the lessons I listed and suggestions for ones I missed in the comment section below.

Ok, so this isn’t really going to be the longest post of my life. For those of you that didn’t recognize it, that’s my blogging-related take off of the opening lines for the hit television show 24.

The fast paced show centers around the efforts of Los Angeles’ Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU) to stop terrorist plots and capture the parties responsible for them. Unless you’ve read other posts in this series you may not realize that in fact, the show also teaches several quality lessons on blogging. Believe it or not, here they are 24’s : Lessons on Blogging.

Be Determined

24’s driving force, perhaps more than any other show on television, is it’s main character. In this case, it’s the unstoppable, always moving, constantly shouting, Jack Bauer. No matter what happens, no matter what the terrorists or traitors try to throw at him, Jack always gets the job done. Whether he has to dislocate his shoulder to get out of a pair of handcuffs, or he has to use a few borderline interrogation tactics, the mission is always accomplished.

While Jack’s intensity might border on insanity, I think a lot of bloggers would benefit from having his determination. I’m not suggesting you stop sleeping, or start going around typing SHOOT HIM, SHOOT HIM! However, applying Bauer’s dogged determination would pay long term dividends to your blog. Determination causes you to push through the lull that follows your initial excitement about your new blog. Determination makes you grind out a post when you can’t seem to get your creative juices flowing. Determination is what keeps you working when it seems like your blog has plateaued. Determination is what separates successful blogs, from the millions of other flops.

Manage Your Time Well

One of the most interesting aspects of 24 is the fact that it’s presented in real time. Basically every minute of airtime is meant to represent a minute in the plot line. To pull off this unusual presentation, commercials are scheduled during breaks in the action or used to allow characters time to drive to their next location etc.

Further emphasizing the importance of time, a digital clock is displayed several times throughout each episode reminding viewers that precious time is ticking by.

Despite having only one day to fix the country’s crisis, Jack Bauer got more done in that one day than most people do in a lifetime. Sure some of that is because he doesn’t sleep, and some of that is because he has the ability to get from one side of LA to the other during the 6 minute commercial break. But you can’t deny that the man is GREAT at managing his time.

As bloggers, this is a skill that is critical to our success. Whether you’re a professional blogger, a part timer, or you blog as a hobby, chances are that you’ve found yourself wishing you had more time. More time to write, more time to spend with the family, more time off, whatever. The simple fact of the matter is that we are busy people.

Blogging, like everything else takes time. However, if you manage what time you do have, you’ll be creating more time for the other things you want or need to do. For example, I’ve found a great time for me to write is right after work just before dinner. My wife is usually busy preparing the food, so why not be productive in those few minutes while I wait? If you have a long drive to work, spend that time brainstorming topics and ideas for posts. There are thousands of resources out there to help you manage your time and they’ll all tell you their own way of doing it. Whichever method you use, learning to better manage your time will make you a much more effective blogger.

Keep Your Personal Life Private

A recurring theme throughout the 6 seasons of 24 has been Jack’s family being put at risk. In the inaugural season, Jack’s wife, Teri is kidnapped and killed by terrorists. In later seasons, his closest friends are routinely targeted for kidnapping or assassination. In fact, things get so bad that at the end of season 4, Jack fakes his own death to protect the people he most cares about. Once again in season 5, Jack’s family is put at risk when his daughter, Kim, narrowly survives a deadly Sentox nerve gas attack.

I would certainly hope that no blogger’s family would ever be put at risk of physical harm. However, in the digital age we live in, it is often startling how much personal information is available to anyone that cares to search for it. Earlier this year, popular blogger Kathy Sierra had to cancel public appearances and even stop blogging due to a series of death threats and harassment. While you might not mind dealing with the occasional troll, it can be a whole other matter when your friends or family are involved. By keeping your private life as private as possible, you can avoid the potential for those episodes that you do encounter, to directly affect your loved ones. While I haven’t always been good about this (even on this blog), I can tell you that the peace of mind will be well worth the extra effort.

Think Big Picture

Another recurring theme for the show is a moral dilemma characters face when confronted with the possibility of massive loss of life.

Invariably, the characters will be put in a position where they have to choose whether to save someone close to them (a friend or family member) or save the hundreds, thousands, or millions of people that could be killed if they save their loved one. During the past season, Jack is forced to shoot and kill fellow agent, Curtis Manning, to keep a former terrorist safe and keep the plan of action in tact. The dilemma is of course do you sacrifice one life to save hundreds even if that one is someone very near to your heart?

While the show tries to allow the viewer to decide this moral question on their own, the plot lines tend to emphasize the need to consider the bigger picture. While we as fans of the show might not want to sacrifice a favorite character, their deaths are accepted as being part of “the greater good.”

As I’ve said several times before, blogging usually isn’t a matter of life and death, but we often need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. It’s very easy to get bogged down in all the detailed tasks that make up blogging, whether it’s site design, content creation, monetization, etc. But, if you take the time to pull yourself out of the individual task and get your bearings in terms of the overall goal, you’ll be better equipped to focus your energy and effort where it will be the most productive.

If, for example, you spend so much time agonizing over the construction of one sentence in a post, that you end up not updating your blog for two weeks, that’s probably not going to be beneficial in the long run. Sure that sentence will be just the way you wanted it, but you’ll have lost any momentum you had built up in terms of readership and traffic. By keeping your eyes on the big picture, you’ll be much more efficient and you’ll see greater returns on your efforts.

Your Turn

With each show I’ve covered in this series, other people have come up with great lessons from the show that I completely missed. I’m quite certain that will once again be the case so if you’re a fan of the show feel free to leave more lessons in the comment section below. Or, if you’d like a free link from this site, write up the lesson as part of the Lessons on Blogging meme that I started last week. Just be sure to contact me and let me know where to find your post. And last but certainly not least, thanks to Tamar from Techipedia for suggesting this weeks’ show and the first lesson. I appreciate it!

In this edition of our Lessons on Blogging series, we take a look at M*A*S*H, a show that accomplished all three of the amazing feats described above. With 11 seasons and 251 episodes of material to choose from, it could have proved difficult sorting through it all. Luckily for me there’s an episode on almost 24/7 so I took one for the team and did a few hours of research (I’m working dear, honest!) as a refresher. So without further ado, may I preset to you, MASH: Lessons on Blogging.

Anticipate Needs

One of the most beloved characters on the long running show was Corporal Radar O’Reilly. The squirrelly spectacled kid from Iowa earned his moniker from his uncanny ability to predict what was going to happen next. Whether it was an incoming chopper with wounded or something Colonel Potter needed ordered, Radar was a step ahead of everyone else. Countless times he’d be completing a task before anyone else even knew it needed to be done. It was a great ability to have, especially for the company clerk who was in charge of ordering supplies for the entire unit. Radar’s uncanny ability made him practically indispensable to everyone in the 4077th especially the Colonels.

In blogging, the ability to anticipate will put you one step ahead of the game. Whether it’s being an early adopter of a new technology, or it’s being out in front of an emerging trend, accurate anticipation is not only useful, it’s also profitable. This can also take the form of so called “predictive seo.” The concept is pretty simple, you publish content about a subject or topic before others do, then, when the search traffic picks up, you’re sitting at the top of the search results and get the bulk of the traffic.

It can also be applied to products or services. If a new product, service, or event begins to create a widespread need, anticipating that need, and more importantly how to fill it, will allow you to get a jump on the competition. For example, Apple anticipated the growing need for a mobile digital music player and thus the iPod was born. Microsoft didn’t, and by the time the Zune was released, it was already too late. Anticipation, can establish you as an early expert and be profitable for years to come.

Dress the Part

One word: Klinger. Coporal Maxwell Q Klinger wanted nothing to do with the Korean War. Unfortunatly, he’d been drafted and there was nothing he could do about it. Well, almost nothing. Klinger and just about every other draftee knew that there were certain criteria that could get them their one way ticket out of Korea. In hopes of returning to his native Ohio, he settled on earning a section 8 psychiatric discharge. Of course, Klinger wasn’t actually crazy. So, he decided to wear womens clothing, especially whenever a general or the occasional psychiatrist happened to visit the unit. He was literally, “dressing” the part, in hopes of going home.

While I’m not suggesting that acting like you’re insane will make you a better blogger, we certainly can learn from Korea’s favorite cross-dresser. If your goal for your blog is to become an authority on your topic, then everything about your blog should reflect authority. If your goal is to sell something, make sure your site appeals to prospective buyers or clients. Could you imagine buying an ebook on cooking from a site that looks like it was designed in the dark ages? Would you give much weight or credence to a web design blog if the theme was ugly, difficult to use, and broken in three different places? Of course not. The point is, in blogging you absolutely must “dress the part.”

Remember Your Roots

Throughout the show, characters’ origins or roots are mentioned and discussed frequently. Klinger for example is from Toledo, Ohio, a fact which he mentions as often as possible. Colonel Henry Blake often sports his orange “I” sweater in support of his native Illinois. “Hawkeye” Pierce was from Crabapple Cove, Maine, and Colonel Potter makes frequent mention of his home in Missouri. One of the most famous symbols of the show was the wooden sign post with arrows and corresponding mileage pointing towards 4077th members’ hometowns. In the historic finale, “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen”, each character takes down the arrow pointing towards home before leaving. The message was clear, throughout all the difficulties and struggles they had encountered during the war, they had all held on to their own piece of home.

While few bloggers have to worry about struggling to hold on to memories of their hometowns, the lesson is just the same. Remember your origins, your roots, where you came from. No matter how much success you begin to have, or how much attention your site receives, don’t forget what brought you there. The instant you do, you’ll begin to drift away from it and before long, you’ll look back and realize your site is no longer what it used to be and the success that you had been enjoying, is slipping away as quickly as it came. That’s not to say that you can’t try new things or even take your blog in a new direction. However, make sure you stay true to the core features that make your blog great, or you’ll end up alienating all the loyal readers that caused your success.

Keep Your Sense of Humor

“Well, boys, it would be hard to call what we’ve been through fun, but I’m sure glad we went through it together. You boys always managed to give me a good laugh, right when I needed it most. Never forget the time you dropped Winchester’s drawers in the O.R. ‘Course I had to pretend I was mad at you but, inside… I was laughin’ to beat all Hell.” - Colonel Potter

The most enduring theme of the entire 11 year series was the fact that despite, or more accurately because of, the trauma and tragedy around them, the members of the 4077th kept their sense of humor. The doctors would be in the middle of a serious surgery but would still crack jokes and hit on nurses. The pranks and practical jokes pulled in the unit were the backbone of the show and as noted by several different characters, helped keep everyone sane. Even the somber and overly serious Frank Burns joined in on the action once in a while. Granted, it was usually at his expense but the point remains, humor was the life line of every doctor, nurse, clerk, and clergyman in that unit.

I wouldn’t dare insinuate that blogging is anywhere near as serious or horrific as war. It’s not, but the lesson still applies. In the online world, it can be easy to get frustrated, upset, or angry. Whether it’s a particularly annoying troll commenting on your blog, or you don’t see the results you want, or another blogger flames your site, a little humor can go a long way to diffuse the situation or at least keep you from overreacting.

There are enough heavy and serious things in life, blogging doesn’t have to be one of them. Many people don’t realize how much your emotions are reflected in your writing but it’s true. If your burned out or angry chances are your readers will feel it. Keeping your sense of humor and a bit of perspective will make your entire experience that much more enjoyable for you and your readers.

Your Turn

M*A*S*H ran for 11 years, despite a setting of the Korean war which was 8 years shorter. It’s just about to enter it’s 25th year of syndication and it still holds the record for the most watched episode in American history. Now I don’t know about you, but I’d love for my blog to be that remarkable, that durable, and that successful. As is the case with almost any show I cover, I’m absolutely certain I’ve left out some very important lessons that bloggers should learn from it. Feel free to continue the list and the discussion in the comments below.

ALL CHARACTERS AND EVENTS IN THIS SHOW POST — EVEN THOSE BASED ON REAL PEOPLE — ARE ENTIRELY FICTIONAL. ALL CELEBRITY VOICES ARE IMPERSONATED…. POORLY. THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM POST CONTAINS COARSE LANGUAGE AND DUE TO ITS CONTENT SHOULD NOT BE VIEWED READ BY ANYONE.

 
Now that you’ve been warned, I proudly present you, South Park: Lessons on Blogging!

All Press is Good

If you learn one thing from South Park it should be that there really is no such thing as bad press. Throughout the shows 11 seasons, they’ve offended and been boycotted by several very diverse groups. In the early days many conservative parenting groups protested the show’s vulgar content and claimed it should be taken off the air. In response the episode “It Hits the Fan” uses the word “shit” 162 times while a counter at the bottom of the screen counts the number of uses throughout the show. More recently, the creators made enemies of many Muslim groups with their portrayal of Muhammad as well as their take on the Danish cartoon issue. Civil rights groups were incensed by the episode “With Apologies to Jesse Jackson” that used the “n word” a whopping 42 times!

So what effect did all of these controversies, protests, and boycotts have on the show? Naturally they made it even more popular. Using myself as an example, I had never even heard of the show until it was brought up in my Christian school as an evil show that needed to be pulled from the air. Of course the first thing my friends and I did that afternoon after school was watch as many episodes as we could get our hands on.

Bloggers, the lesson for you in this should be obvious, there is no such thing as bad press. Whether you are being praised for your work, or it’s being harshly criticized or even boycotted, the simple fact of the matter is that you’re getting exposure. Even if you offend or piss off 75% of the people out there, chances are you’ll have just created a loyal following of the remaining 25% and isn’t a loyal following what we as bloggers are all striving for?

Ask Questions

Some of my favorite scenes from the entire show are when the boys ask Chef questions. That’s largely due tothe fact that Chef is just an awesome character, but the questions (which were almost always about sex) and answers were priceless. In one of the episodes from the first season, An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig, the kids are trying to genetically engineer a cross between Kyle’s pet elephant (which is too big to keep as a pet) and Cartman’s pot-bellied pig. They ask Chef’s advice and he explains that they just need the two to make “sweet love” to each other, and that it would probably help to get them drunk as well. In the South Park movie, Stan asks Chef’s advice about how to get his crush, Wendy, to like him.

Stan: Chef, how do you make a woman like you more than any other guy?
Chef: Oh, that’s easy! You just gotta find the clitoris!
Stan: Huh?
Chef: Whoops!!
Stan: What does that mean? Find the clitoris?
Chef: Uh….uh…forget I said anything!!

The lesson here for bloggers is again, pretty simple. Ask questions. I’ve said time and again that one of the most amazing things about blogging is the ability to interact with so many different people. If you have questions about any aspect of blogging, all you need to do is ask a question. Chances are there is a blogger out there covering the topic you have questions about that would be more than willing to answer your question. Want to know where to find good resources on writing a sales letter? Drop Brian from CopyBlogger.com a comment or email and ask him! Want to know what plugin I use to rotate my 125×125 banner ads? The point is, there is a wealth of knowledge out there in the form of other bloggers and many of them are more than willing to answer your questions if you just take the step of asking. I’ve always been a big proponent of working smarter, not harder and being willing to ask questions and learn from other people’s experience plays a major role in working smarter. Just ask!

Keep It Simple

Another strength of South Park is something that many people early on actually thought would hurt the show. For anyone that hasn’t seen the show, the characters are drawn with just a few shapes and the animation is almost flip-book in nature. In fact, the pilot episode was created using construction paper cutouts rather than traditional animation!

However, rather than being a weakness or a hindrance to the show, the simplistic animation has actually become a HUGE strength. The simplicity allows the episodes to be produced at a much quicker pace than any other show on television. The typical episode takes less than a week to produce and when you compare that to the 6 month time frame for a single episode of The Simpsons, the advantages become a bit clearer. Not only is the show cheaper to make, but they are also able to include references to current events without worrying about the material being too dated.

One of the first examples of this was the “Quintuplets 2000,” in which the Elian Gonzalez situation was openly mocked, and included an appearance by Janet Reno dressed as the Easter Bunny and carrying a gun. In a later episode, Saddam Hussein is depicted as remotely controlling the Canadian Prime Minister from his spider hole hideout. The scene is obviously a parody of the Wizard of Oz and was pretty funny on its own. The fact that the creators were able to include a direct reference to an event (the capture of Saddam) that happened only 3 days prior to the airing made the scene simply remarkable.

So what is the lesson for bloggers? Keep things simple. The reason posts like Top 10 lists, or 3 Reasons Why, or 5 Steps To.. are so popular is because they are simple. They’re usually quick and easy to read and are easily scanable. Now obviously I’m not saying you should only post lists or that you can’t write long posts. However, you should break up your content into easily consumed, “bite-sized” pieces. If your post gets a bit lengthy make sure you use headlines, images, and line breaks to cut up the content. If it goes too long, consider expanding on each section a bit more and turning it into a series.

The way you format your content isn’t the only place simplicity is needed. Could you imagine trying to learn something like Calculus by reading a blog post? I’m guessing not many of use would stick around to try and comprehend the massive amounts of information that would have to be crammed into that single post. By keeping the concepts and ideas of your post simple, you’ll again allow for much easier consumption by your readers.

To be continued…

I actually came up with a few more but the post was getting a bit long. So, I decided to take my own advice and break it into at least two pieces. However, I’d love to hear from other South Park fans on any other lessons bloggers should learn from watching the show. Who knows, I might end up using your idea in the next installment (with a link as thanks of course) so speak up, in the comments below!

Plans Will Fail

Part of the reason I like Homer so much is because no matter what happens, he always thinks his next idea is a great one. Naturally almost none of them work out as he had planned. Homer once decided he would gain enough weight to become disabled which would allow him to work from home (and wear mu-mu’s). Of course, gaining that much weight had some seriously adverse effects that Homer hadn’t considered and he ended up having the have liposuction. In another episode Bart and Homer happen upon a wrecked sugar truck. Homer decides to take the sugar home to sell as his own brand. The plan begins to fall apart when Marge points out he lost more money by not going in to work that day than he made selling his second hand sugar. But when the sugar started attracting valuable bees and scientist hoping to buy said bees, it looked like Homer might have stumbled into a windfall of cash. In typical Simpson style though, the plan is foiled at the last minute when it begins to rain, washing away the sugar, the bees, and Homer’s potential cash as well.

The first lesson of blogging that we get from this hilarious animated family is that not all of your plans are going to work like you expect them to. Hopefully your plans will be more thought out than Homer’s harebrained schemes but no matter how much planning and preparation you put in, things just don’t always work out like we think they should. As I mentioned in House: Lessons on Blogging you can’t be afraid to be wrong or in this case fail. As long as you’re willing to keep trying and keep plugging away, eventually you’ll find success. If you need more convincing, consider that Shoemoney, one of the most successful internet marketers around, recently wrote about the 10 worst ideas he had to make money online. If Shoe makes that many mistakes, you can bet not all of your plans will work out quite like you’d hoped… even if you’re not quite as dumb as Homer J. Simpson.

Get the Community Involved

Part of what has made The Simpsons such a successful show is the incredible cast of characters the writers have to pull from. Obviously this is one of the benefits of having an animated cast, but the point remains, the ancillary characters are a huge asset to the show. Characters such as Milhouse, Sideshow Bob, Groundskeeper Willy, Otto, etc make the show what it is. Could you imagine the Simpsons without Ned Flanders? Could you picture Springfield Elementary without Principal Skinner? While the Simpson family is undoubtedly the star of the show, I don’t think the show would still be running if they hadn’t gotten the community characters involved.

Similarly, no blog will be successful without the support of the community surrounding it. I’m sure some of you are saying that you run a blog, not a community site like a forum or a social network. Well I’ve got news for you, whether you realize it or not, a blog is a community, and your readers, subscribers, commentators, and contributors are all part of it. If you don’t believe this, try running your blog for a while without these people. You won’t make any referrals, you won’t get any advertising, you won’t get any comments or links. Without your community, you’re just talking to yourself.

Conversely, if you manage to properly leverage and involve your user base, tasks like social media, word of mouth marketing, and affiliate marketing are made that much easier. Active community members become advocates for your site and are MUCH more likely to purchase products on your recommendation, link to your site, or share your content. You might also end up getting guest posts, or even regular contributors from your member base. In one case I had a subscriber email me and ask if they could help guest blog when I was busy or out of town. That person ended up being a great writer and took over a large portion of the content creation. Best of all, they did it all for free, just because they enjoyed my site. So, while you might not have as diverse a cast of characters as Apu, Selma & Patty, Krusty, and the rest of the Springfield gang, you absolutely have an asset that can and should be leveraged for your blog’s success.

Attention to Detail

Another signature of the show through the years has been the incredible number of “easter eggs,” subtle social references, and cameos which give the show depth. No matter how many times you’ve seen an episode, chances are you’ll notice something new each time you watch it.

While often subtle, things like what Bart writes on the chalkboard in the intro, or parody characters (Drederick Tatum a convict boxer with a high voice ala Mike Tyson, etc), have inspired entire websites and even books. Quick references like Homer shooting the Winter brothers in a Treehouse of Horror episode after mistaking them for zombies (the Winters were albinos) are often not caught in the first watching and they provide repeat viewers something new and exciting.

While I’m not suggesting you fill your content with easter eggs or call backs like The Simpsons episodes, the attention to detail that illustrates would serve any blog well. I’m not just talking about fairly obvious details such as spelling mistakes, formatting, and accurate information. Taking the extra time to find a few extra resources to include at the end of a post, or providing definitions for words and phrases someone new to the field might not be familiar with will add that extra layer of depth to your site. These activities will not only give your site a more polished and professional feel, they’ll also allow your blog to appeal to a broader range of people with different levels of knowledge and ability. One of the things that I believe will ultimately make this blog a very useful resource is the fact that by the time I’m done I’ll have content for anyone whether they’ve just decided to try blogging, or they are trying to make more money blogging, or they are an expert looking for new inspiration. Obviously not every blog will have a format that lends itself to this, but there will always be ways to add extra value to your site and I’d wager every blog (including this one) could improve in this area.

Brand your Content

Over the years the characters on The Simpsons have had several catch phrases and most of them found their way into the general public’s vocabulary. Phrases such as Eat my shorts! (Bart), Doh! (Homer), Eeexcellent (Mr. Burns), Ha Ha! (Nelson), and my personal favorite Mmmm Beer…(Homer) have all become catch phrases and a large percentage of the public associate the phrases with the characters and the show as a whole. T-shirts, bumper stickers, and all sorts of other memorabilia have been created using these memorable words (or in some cases sylables). In fact, it’s so wide spread that you can’t say Doh! in a group of 2o something men without at least one of them busting out their best impression of Homer.

So what does that have to do with blogging? One word: branding. What the creators of The Simpsons have done is created an incredibly strong brand. Whole generations associate certain phrases with the show and will even imitate the characters. That’s the kind of marketing that no amount of money can buy. While it’s not necessarily easy, the same can be done with your blog. Need proof? When I hear the phrase flagship content I immediately think of Chris Garrett. When I read about copy writing I think Copyblogger.com. When I hear “make money online” I think of John Chow or Shoemoney.

The point is, these bloggers have created their own brands through their content. Chris Garrett’s example is a great one in that the concept he discusses isn’t all that unique. But, by calling it “flagship content” rather than pillar content or cornerstone content, he’s created a phrase and idea that most people in the blogosphere now associate with him.

Another example, although admittedly on a much smaller and not nearly as successful (yet) scale, would be these Lessons on Blogging posts. I’m willing to bet someone before me compared blogging to a popular TV show. However, a couple of weeks ago when Christine from Movie Snobs read this post on Copyblogger about TV teaching writing techniques, she immediately thought of me and this site. That’s the kind of branding that we as bloggers should be striving for. When people begin to associate your blog with ideas and concepts, you’ll start to benefit from the same type of valuable marketing that has made The Simpsons the longest running American sitcom in history.

With a show that’s been running as long as The Simpsons has (19 years), there’s bound to be more than just four lessons we as bloggers can learn. Please feel free to share some of the likely many lessons I’ve missed, in the comments below!

Question Everything

In the first couple of seasons this lesson probably would have titled “Everybody Lies” but this year the writers have stopped pounding that point home and it’s morphed into the “Question Everything” you see now. However it’s phrased, we see the lesson in every episode. Whether it’s a patient lying about having an affair or using drugs, or it’s a life long deformity that’s actually a symptom of the underlying illness, House and his team have to question everything to find the cure.

Now obviously we as bloggers are not dealing with life and death issues and I certainly wouldn’t recommend you send someone to break into people’s homes the way House does, however, the lesson most definitely applies to blogging. Whether you’re brand new to the game or you’re a seasoned pro, you should be constantly questioning aspects of your blogging. Just because this affiliate program performs ok for you, are there better ones out there? Can you format your posts differently to improve readability? Are there other methods of monetization you haven’t thought of before? Would moving your subscribe button convert more visitors into subscribers? Basically, in blogging there should be no “sacred cows.” Just because your or someone else has always done something that way, doesn’t mean there aren’t better ways to do it. If you’re willing to keep your mind open and question any and every premise or strategy, you’ll constantly improve your blog’s performance.

Brainstorm

Some of my favorite scenes in the show are the interactions between House and his team. Everyone gathers around a board with the list of symptoms and they try and come up with diseases or explanations that fit all the symptoms. Usually House lets his team do most of the talking and brainstorming, jumping in only to mock bad ideas and at the end to hand out the orders. Even when House has one of his “Ah hah!” moments, he’s almost always talking with someone else. Something Cuddy or Wilson says invariably triggers an idea for House and just like that, the case is solved.

This lesson illustrates what I view as one of the few weaknesses of blogging. When it’s just you and your computer it can be really difficult to keep your thought process from settling on one idea or one way of thinking. A lot of times I find I need someone else to help derail my train of thought before I can be creative and productive again and brainstorming is exactly that. Get together with a couple of other people (preferably in person but via chat or something similar if necessary) and bounce ideas off them. Post ideas, monetization methods, strategies, just talk about your blog and where it’s headed. Even if the people you’re brainstorming with don’t provide solid ideas, they’ll likely inspire a new idea that you hadn’t considered before and that’s exactly what you’re after.

Be Wrong

A lot of people think House is some sort of infallible genius that’s never wrong. In reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Granted, he almost always figures out what’s wrong with the patient and cures them, but there have been a whole series of failures leading up to that point. In a recent episode House was recruited by the CIA to help cure an agent they believed had been poisoned. Rather than accepting the notion that the man had been poisoned (question everything right?), House decided his illness was in fact due to alcoholism. Unfortunately, House was wrong. Someone had actually poisoned the agent. While most of us would view being wrong as a bad thing, being proven wrong allowed House to eliminate one possible cause and hone in on what was actually making the patient sick.

House is certainly not the only example of this lesson. Oscar Wilde was quoted as saying “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” Similarly, Thomas Edison once said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” While neither of those men ever had a blog, the lesson is one that would serve bloggers very well to learn. Be daring enough to state your opinion on a subject. Be confident enough to try out a new idea or strategy. Of course you won’t always be right and your ideas won’t always work as planned but there are valuable lessons to be learned from failure. Not only that but if you never try new ideas, you will always miss the ones that would have been successful.

Well there you have it, three BIG lessons we can learn about blogging from watching one of the greatest shows on TV, House. Just remember, you’ll probably want to make sure you’re as good as House before you start acting too much like him. At least if you’d like to still have some readers. As always, if you disagree with me or want to add other lessons on that I didn’t cover, please feel free to in the comments below.

As a fan of Ben’s posts about TV’s lessons on blogging (and a subscriber to the Blogging Experiment RSS feed), I suggested in the comments for The Office: Lessons on Blogging that Ben tackle the series “Prison Break” next. His previous entries on “Heroes” and “The Sopranos” were entertaining and offered a different angle on blogging-about-blogging. Unfortunately Ben doesn’t watch “Prison Break” and since I have a slight obsession with the show, I offered to take a shot at the post myself.

Careful Planning is Necessary

The first season of “Prison Break” was about former-engineer turned prison-inmate Michael Scofield and his elaborate plan to break his innocent brother out of jail. Scofield is an extremely smart man, and he knew that getting thrown in prison with the purpose of breaking out wasn’t going to be as simple as holding up a liquor store. He researched criminal charges and punishments to plan out what crime would get him placed in the same prison as his brother. The bank robbery he attempted while firing his weapon into the air landed him in Fox River State Penitentiary with his brother. In the planning stages, he acquired the blueprints to the prison and designed an elaborate tattoo with the blueprints hidden in the artwork. Every intricate detail in his full upper body tattoo was a clue to their escape. Street names, names of tools he would need, even a guide to the weak points in a wall were all hidden in the devils and religious images in his tattoo. Rather than jumping into what could be the most dangerous task of his life blindly, his every move was carefully planned out and backed up with research.

Just like Michael planned to break out of prison, you should be making plans for your blog. The blogging world is such an instant gratification kind of place that a lot of bloggers forget to make future plans for their blog. A blog strategy can be extremely useful for those times when you’re hit with writer’s block or a nasty cold. It can also help you capitalize on search trends by being prepared for major holidays and events. As a movie blogger, I plan out my calendar with the major awards shows, plus big movie-related holidays – horror for Halloween, romantic comedies for Valentine’s Day, and Christmas favorites for December. Preparing posts in advance and planning out a blogging calendar can make your writing time more productive and your blog more successful.

Be Ready to Think on the Fly

In addition to being prepared and doing his research, Michael has had to be able to think on his feet. More often than not his escape plans have gone terribly awry. Even worse, his plans are usually ripped to shreds leaving him just moments to create a new plan or risk being discovered by the guards. His plan in Season One had the inmates escaping with the help of a broken pipe in the infirmary, but they had to start from scratch when they discover on the night of their escape that the broken pipe had been replaced. This season Michael planned to escape from his new prison at 3:13pm – the precise time the sun hit the guard tower, temporarily blocking the guards’ view of the prison wall. After creating a diversion (a challenge for a fight to the death between himself and Whistler, the inmate he’s escaping with), Michael climbed out a window and down a rope ladder. Of course the clouds rolled in at the precise moment the potential escapees desperately needed the sunlight and they had to cancel the plans, climb back up the rope ladder, and think of a good reason why the two of them shouldn’t be fighting to the death in front of all the other inmates.

While your blog decisions won’t lead to a fight to the death (at least, I hope not), you will have times when you’ll have to react quickly. While a blogging calendar can help you be prepared for the future, you also have to be nimble enough to write about issues and events that are happening right now. Jumping on top of an event or news item in your niche can drive some serious search traffic to your blog. When we live-blogged an event surrounding the viral marketing for the upcoming Batman movie The Dark Knight, we had an influx of visitors who were searching for the answers to the internet scavenger hunt. If the event is big enough, the traffic can linger. That post has been one of our top ten posts for three months. One way to truly capitalize on these situations is to have a link to your RSS feed at the end of every post, or at least prominently featured on your blog’s home page. New visitors can turn into subscribers with just one click.

Network with a Purpose

Scofield knew he had to connect with the right people in order for his escape plan to work. He had to trust his cell mate Sucre in order to escape through a hole behind the toilet. He needed to get close to prison physician Dr. Tancredi to have access to the infirmary window that was closest to the escape route. Finally he had to convince the warden to trust him so that he would have an opportunity to launch the escape. He also had to avoid or carefully manage the people who could make trouble for him – Abruzzi the mafia man, T-Bag the untrustworthy sex offender (as if that’s not an understatement), and Haywire the schizophrenic. Throughout the seasons the people who Michael could trust and the people he had to be careful around changed considerably, but the concept remains the same. When Michael interacted with people in prison, he had a specific purpose for the relationship. Whether that purpose was friendship and teamwork or careful avoidance depended on what would best benefit his escape plan.

The same holds true for the blog world. You comment on other blogs, email other bloggers in your niche, and participate in social networking sites, but do you ever think about why you do these things? You should have a purpose for every blog interaction you conduct. Your comments on other blogs should not only add value to the conversation, but they should be a tiny representation of you and your blog. You have a chance to say something – not just leave a comment, but truly say something – every time you comment on other blogs. Don’t waste it and become one of those people to avoid – no one likes an abusive commenter or a fellow blogger that simply copies others’ content. Similarly, when connecting with other bloggers directly, don’t waste their time. If Michael Scofield had wasted John Abruzzi’s time, he might have lost his life instead of just his pinky toe. You need to bring something to the relationship, not just further your own agenda. For tips on networking with other bloggers, check out ProBlogger Darren Rowse’s series of posts on blogging relationships and Ben’s posts on striking up a conversation and not wasting your networking time.

Nothing is Impossible

After watching three seasons of “Prison Break,” you’ll know that you can plan a jail escape through a series of elaborate tattoos; you can fake the murder of the vice president’s brother; and you’ll know it’s possible to have a show called “Prison Break” continue after the characters have already broken out of prison, escaped from the United States, and been thrown back into prison in Panama. Like “Heroes,” “Prison Break” seems to be the most interesting when it’s at its most unbelievable points. Impossible escapes become possible with just a metal screw, some tattoos, and a little help from new friends.

The same goes for your blog. Nothing is impossible. It sounds cheesy and self-help-like to say, but there really is nothing you can’t accomplish if you work at it. Ben is a perfect example – he set out to earn a full-time income in 365 days of blogging. Last month he made almost $600 with 245 days left. You have to work on your blogging before anything will happen, but things will happen. You don’t need an elaborate tattoo and you certainly don’t have to rob a bank, but you do have to write – a lot. Write until you think you can’t write anymore, and then leave some comments on another blog. And then write some more.

I’d like to thank the Blogging Experiment readers for sharing in my “Prison Break” obsession, and I’d like to thank Ben for the opportunity to write a guest post for one of my favorite blog post series. If you enjoyed this post, come share my other obsessions (like Kate Beckinsale, movie soundtracks, and casting rumors) over at MovieSnobs.net.