In my nerd girl brain, I often wonder if superheroes sit around and discuss each other’s superpowers. Does Spiderman secretly want to take the Batmobile for a spin? Does Batman wish he could build his own Ironman suit? Does Ironman… wait Ironman thinks he is awesome in every way!
As a somewhat nascent blogger, I’ve spent the last year reading a lot of great blogs in my niche as well as out. I’ve observed some amazing powers that these bloggers possess. Their example has spurned me to develop these powers. Here are the 12 Most Potent Superpowers Bloggers Need to Succeed:
Blog your passion. If you aren’t interested in what you are writing about, how can you expect readers to be interested in it? Don’t pick a topic because google keywords says that it is highly searched, but you give zero cares about it. Your passion is what drives and will maintain you in your hero’s journey of blogging.
For established bloggers, sharing new bloggers awesome content in one of the best use of your superpowers. Blogging ultimately is about building community and supporting others in your niche. The people who are the biggest names in their field tend to be the most generous as well.
As a new blogger, developing relationships is a huge skill. It’s not about promoting your own posts, it is about conversing with others on Twitter, sharing content, reading and commenting thoughtfully on other people’s blogs. If you want to become the Superman of your niche – be generous!
Blogging is art. It requires creativity and a unique perspective on content. There are probably lots of other bloggers on your topic, but you have a different voice. Tell engaging stories that have a message that is related to your topic. Tie your topic to popular culture. If I can relate Duran Duran to public speaking, you can write a creative engaging post.
Wizardry is not exactly a super power, so cut me a bit of nerd slack here. When Hermione got the time turner to attend more classes at Hogwarts, I so wanted one of my own. There seems to never be enough time to blog, keep your editorial calendar up-to-date, converse on twitter, write guest blog posts, and maintain your site. If you had a time turner, you could do all of that simultaneously. Blogging teaches you better time management.
Hitting publish and setting your post free on the Internet can be nerve wracking. What if no one reads it? What if they think I’m stupid? What if, what if! You need to be bulletproof from your own thoughts that are stopping you from hitting publish. I’ve learned that some of my most successful posts are the ones I had the most doubt about publishing. Protect yourself from your own self-limiting beliefs and put your passion out there for the world to see.
A person may comment “This is the worst post I’ve ever read. You are so incredibly stupid!” This commenter is a troll and trolls suck. Does it mean your thoughts were right? No! It means that you need to put trolls on ice. Like Mr. Freeze, ice that troll out. Pay them no mind. Don’t even bother to respond. Don’t feed the trolls. They like the attention too much.
Reading the mind of your audience is an important blogging skill to have. In order to create great content, you need to understand the mind of your audience or the audience you are trying to attract. Know what needs, wants and challenges they have is paramount to content creation. Fortunately you don’t need ESP, you can always just ask, do a poll, analyze your comments.
For the record, I suck at proofreading my own writing. I’d love to have this superpower. It’s important to make sure your content is free from spelling and grammatical errors, but it is hard to proofread your own writing. I read my posts from the end to beginning and sometimes that helps.
There aren’t very many patient superheroes out there. Batman doesn’t like sitting around waiting for the Joker to do something. Growing an audience for your blog takes a lot of patience and time. Overnight sensations are rare to find. It will happen, but you need superpower #11 too.
Stick with you blog. It’s you sharing your passion. It doesn’t matter that your partner and your cat are the only ones reading it. Post regularly. Post often. With patience, time
Find inspiration for your blog everywhere. From other bloggers, popular culture, the news, your workplace (don’t get fired) but inspiration abounds. You just need to capture those ideas in a small notebook or an app like Evernote. Always be creating!
Blogging superpowers take time to build, grow and in some cases control. Think of Spiderman. He wasn’t able to control the web slinging, super strength and agility all in one day. Learning superpowers takes time. It’s all part of growing as a blogger and a writer.
Which superpower do you most wish you possessed? Which one are you trying to work on? Share your special power in the comments below.
Featured image courtesy of JD Hancock licensed via Creative Commons.
http://www.DrMichelleMazur.com
Speech Coach and Presentation Skills Trainer, Dr. Michelle Mazur, guides driven-to-succeed business professionals and independent business owners to ignite the smoldering fire within to speak up, speak out and make their impact — one compelling presentation at a time. Clients get noticed, promoted and paid more by overcoming their reluctance and learning to speak with authenticity and confidence, no matter how big or small their audience. To learn her proven approach to get ready for opportunity now — visit her website..
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Love this post! It is just what I needed today. Pulled out my cape, snapped on the wrist bands, and slid into some bright spandex to get my blog on for the week!
@JM_Grants Awesome! I'm glad I could inspire you. I actually wrote this post when I was in a bit of a blogging rut. I guess it goes back to the endurance super power. Have a great blogging week!
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Go all "shapeshifting" and embrace different content types. Mix up blog post styles (narrative, how-to, Q&A) as well as medium (photos, videos, podcasts). It will probably do well to keep the blogger captivated, so he/she stays consistent, as well as engage a broader audience based upon the medium that appeals to them the most.
I still hope to go back on some of my older blog posts and re-purpose them as videos with more current scenarios (like an NFL play from last weekend versus a year ago) to be relevant to the present day.
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@dbvickery Shapeshifting! What an awesome idea. I really want to experiment with different types of blogs. I also need to video blog more. As a speaker, vlogging is an excellent way to get the message out. Plus, it is sometimes easier to chat then to write!
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Great post. These are all excellent points to share for bloggers, starting with No. 1, passion. It's quite important to find something you are passionate about, rather than just creating a blog based on what you think is popular. Passion carries you through the early days when you aren't sure anyone is listening and the following days when more people are listening and you are casting about to find the time to post. You'll need passion if you want to have endurance. Absolutely.
@MonicaCarterTagore I couldn't agree more Monica. Trying to write about something you don't care about because you want to be popular or to get more traffic is a bad reason to start a blog. It is more important to blog what you love and not worry about traffic. If the blog is a good one, people will come.
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"X-ray proofreading specs" haha. I have trouble proof reading sometimes myself. I found grammarly.com to be very helpful with this.
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I love it! I'm very new to the scene, but it's great to find people to interact with. Thanks for the article!
@Kevin Kurbs You are so welcome. I started blogging almost a year ago. I remember well what it is like to start out. It's the support of the experienced bloggers that makes blogging a fun experience. I'd say reach out to bloggers you admire and say hi!
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Great post Michelle. I especially enjoyed this line "conversing with others on Twitter, sharing content, reading and commenting thoughtfully on other people’s blogs. If you want to become the Superman of your niche – be generous!" - I think conversations represent one of the strongest social gestures and is an important first step in building a community. You might want to take a look at Engagio (www.engag.io) for managing and discovering social conversations. It is a super productive tool for those active on the social web.
@abdallahalhakim Glad you enjoyed the article! Conversation and engagement is always something I am trying to strive to do better on. I share a lot of content, but we can always do better with engaging!
