Lady Gaga Taught Me These 4 Secrets To Building A Successful Brand

Lady Gaga is on fire … again. With her recent breakthrough performance in A Star Is Born, she is generating a lot of Oscar buzz. In the film, Gaga plays Ally alongside Bradley Cooper’s Jack — a couple whose personal relationship struggles as Ally’s professional life takes off. With many publications betting she will shine during award season, Gaga is hot.

But, this isn’t Gaga’s first rodeo. Having launched her singing career around 2007, she has been a chart-topping role model for thousands of fans, broken records, taken home countless awards and influenced the industry.

Yes, she is an international star. But, she is also an extremely savvy businesswoman — and I have learned everything from her when it comes to building my successful business, Archangel, which helps mission-driven entrepreneurs, and its annual conference, Archangel Summit.

It was around 2013 when I started following Gaga. I was watching the music industry – and it was in a decline. Yet, there were some artists who were killing it. Lady Gaga was one of them. While she had been around (and super successful for years), she was continuing to get stronger and stronger, despite the current landscape. At the time, I knew nothing about her, but I was intrigued by her success. What was so special about her? I began my quest to figure that out.

 

Secrets to Building a Successful Brand

 

Here is what I learned from Lady Gaga on what it takes to build a successful business – and what you can learn from her, too.

 

1. Get crystal clear on who you want to help.

It is so important to find the right customers for your company.

Like a lot of people, Lady Gaga is attracted to people who were like her. She has written countless times about being bullied in school and feeling like an outsider. It was these same people she went after when she decided to build her community (more on that in a bit).

For me, I needed my perfect avatar to target. I wanted to help entrepreneurs like me: those who are mission-driven and want to create an impact. To find these people, I met with anyone and everyone and started asking a million questions to get to the root issues and how I could be of help. I started to look for patterns to define my mission.

For you, focus on whom you want to help right off the bat. Take a stand. Look at your core values, what issues are important to you and your mission. This will help create cohesion and bonds among your core base. Look for those people who fit into that community. But also, just as importantly, do not try to please everyone. You can’t.

 

2. Build a tribe.

 

Next, you need to find these people — a lot of these people — and build your tribe.

When it came to building her community and ambassadors, Lady Gaga didn’t go for the traditional, top 40 pop audience. She went after the fringe — the people who were bullied, those who didn’t fit in, the outcasts — and made them her family. And then she branded her tribe — “Little Monsters” — which was so important.

Every year, for our Archangel Summit, we sell out, with more than 3,000 people attending. We are able to accomplish this by building our own tribe. When I launched the entire Archangel platform, I didn’t start off with a product, service, experience or event and try to sell people on that business model. Rather, I started off with a tribe and asked out how could I serve them.

By going down this path, it is much easier, in the end, for entrepreneurs to sell. After finding this passionate audience, you can figure out the most common challenges this tribe is facing and how you, as the founder, can be the most helpful.

 

3. Focus on being memorable.

 

Whatever you do, be remembered.

Usually, when artists perform, they do pretty much the same act in each city. It can be a bit, well, blah. But, Gaga customizes her shows to each specific audience — adding in personal touches to make each performance memorable. It is very micro level. So, people throw things on stage, and she interacts with them. I have seen her do it with a Canadian flag, which she danced with; a denim jacket she put over her dress; and a touching moment, when a concertgoer named Brittany tossed up a letter. Lady Gaga stopped the set, opened the letter, learned that the girl had just come out to her parents, who didn’t accept it, and asked Brittany on stage. She then sang directly to her. I am not rehashing this story for no reason; I am doing so because I remember every single moment of that concert.

In each instance, she made people feel special, like they belonged.

For us, I go crazy when it comes to the day of the Archangel Summit event. It isn’t just panels and keynotes, but also Cirque du Soleil-style performances. I do this to not only keep people energized, but because I haven’t seen it anywhere else.

Do the same for your own business. Do things that don’t scale — and they don’t have to be such a grand level as having trapeze artists swinging through your event. For instance, you can insert personalized videos into emails, thanking someone for her purchase. Or send a special thank-you card after your service. Whatever you choose, you just need to show people you care about them.

 

4. Keep the momentum.

 

There are only so many product launches you can have, events you can hold or online courses you can unveil. Between those big milestones, keep the community going.

Lady Gaga does it by creating a special, almost secretive culture. She and her Little Monsters greet each other with the “Monster Claw” sign and use words like “monster hugs” to show affection for each other. They have their own social media platform where they can interact all year round, and a strong Facebook page where Gaga often posts.

What I have done that can work for any founder is create a strong social media group. (Some people do this with Google, others with Facebook.) In it, we highlight stories of community members and the impact they’re creating, we co-create our events with the tribe (for instance, asking which speakers to have for future events) and we share strategies, to name a few ways we engage.

During the year, we also keep people engaged by continuing to educate them with webinars, email newsletters and smaller, more intimate events. These all help to continue to develop this community, so when our next major event occurs, it isn’t hard to sell out.

Culled from Entrepreneur

4 Reasons Why Blogs Are Crucial For Online Reputation Management And Repair

 

What are blogs, and why are they crucial for online reputation management?

Blogs generate good content that eventually pushes down negative links, build trust by showing industry expertise, and is a way to get visible online.

Here are some tips for excellent posts and four ways blogging is important for online reputation repair.

What to Write to Repair a Damaged Online Reputation

A blog is a place for brief, targeted articles online. Knowing what to write and where to post them are crucial details to get right for the repair process.

Blog articles should be at least 500 words long but ideally about 1,000 words (a page or two). The topic should address a specific issue for readers or clients. For example, write about top business-related questions that often get asked, offing some of the best solutions. The idea is to generate good content that people legitimately find interesting and pertinent to them.

Include Keywords, Headings, Images

A blog should include keywords–phrases that are useful for searches, which are related to the topic–sprinkled throughout the article; headings help break the blog into easy to read sections; an image placed at the top, relating to the topic, gives a visual queue to the story; lastly, be sure to include your name or business name a few times, but avoid artificially “stuffing” unnecessarily.

Find the Right Place for the Right Blog

Post to well-trafficked platforms, such as LinkedIn or Facebook, to dedicated industry-specific blog sites such as Avvo.com for law, etc., or general sites, like Medium.com.

The best place, however, is to post an article on one’s own business or personal blog because this generates website traffic, in turn pushing up positive links.

Here’s four reasons why to write blog articles to help repair a damaged online reputation or build a positive one.

1. Blogs Push Down Negative Links

Blogs are powerful tools in the reputation repair process because they can push down negative links. Popular and well-written pieces eventually show up on the top of Google searches, suppress damaging articles posted by competitors, disgruntled ex-clients or employees with an axe to grind.

2. Builds Trust, Showing Industry Expertise

Building trust and showing that you are an expert in your field is another prime benefit of blogging. If someone conducts a Google search–which clients do–and there is little information, the business could be perceived as not being active, inexperienced or not tech savvy. Having a list of articles that address prospective clients’ concerns shows expertise, leading directly to increased sales.

3. Part of a Social Media Strategy

Blogging is, or should be, a vital part of a social media strategy. A great way to generate interest in social media feeds is to write good quality information. Writing a blog post and then sharing it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Crunchbase, etc., not only makes those posts more visible, but they also generate more traffic on those platforms.

4. Blogs Create Backlinks

Blogs are also powerful because they create backlinks–links that go back to your site–which Google finds very favorable and is a key part of its ranking formula. This too is a way to drive up positive articles, helping to push good ones to the top of Google searches, thereby suppressing negative pieces off the first or second page.

Bottom Line

Writing a blog should be an integral part of online reputation management and repair because it pushes down negative links, shows you as an expert, improves existing social media campaigns and helps your Google ranking. The key is constantly writing quality articles.

This article was first published on Recover Reputation

How To Build An Effective Marketing Pitch In 11 Steps

 

As a freelance business professional, you’re involved in every aspect of your company. This includes building an effective marketing pitch, for yourself and for your business.

So what is a marketing pitch? Simply defined, it’s a line of talk that is designed to persuade someone, such as a presentation to sell a product or service. But it can also be about selling yourself, to gain new clients or to promote your business.

As a freelancer, you’re often selling yourself and your business, so it’s important to know what is a marketing pitch and how to build one to benefit your business.

1. Start With Your Personal Marketing Pitch

As the “face” of your business, your personal marketing pitch is as important as a sales pitch for your services. Think of your personal pitch as an advertisement for you as the head of the company. Advertisements grab interest in one minute or less, so think about your personal value and how you can present that to prospective clients or even colleagues who can, in turn, recommend you to clients:

• Craft a confident statement about yourself and your value.
• Support the statement with relevant facts about your value (a summary of your education and experience, for instance).
• Include why you’re the best choice over anyone else (without degrading others).

Once you have your personal “commercial” crafted, memorize it and practice saying it. Imagine that you had to deliver a pitch in an elevator, with only 60 seconds to win over a prospective client. Your conviction is the biggest marketing tool for your personal pitch.

2. Customize Your Personal Pitch As Necessary

Once you’ve defined your personal “brand” or marketing pitch, be sure to adapt it as necessary, depending on your audience or the job you’re trying to attain.

Part of being effective with a marketing pitch lies in knowing the needs of your prospective clients, and ensuring you can meet those needs with the value you bring to the table. Consider these top tips from Bonsai as you move forward with your business.

3. Build A Marketing Pitch For Your Business

You’ve worked on your personal pitch, so what is a marketing pitch for your business? Basically telling a story that’s compelling enough that customers want to hire you. Through your pitch, you are introducing your services to an audience that knows nothing about your business, and trying to convince them that hiring you will provide benefits to them.

It’s important that you start with your list of services and how they bring value to customers. By spending some time considering the value your business can bring, you are crafting the beginning of your pitch.

As freelance blogger Linsey Knerl states, “There is no greater tool than your original proposal to a potential new client.” Spend time on it.

4. Customize The Business Pitch

If your business offers different services, your pitch is not a one-size-fits-all package. Each component of your business brings a different value proposition.

Now that you have the basics, you’re ready to develop customized marketing proposals for potential clients. Bonsai can also help with marketing pitch ideas and tools for developing specific freelance proposals.

‍5. Consider What’s Best For Your Client

When you get to developing specific marketing pitches for specific customers, remember to ask yourself the most important question: How can I help this client?

A pitch is not about you and your business. A marketing pitch must be focused on your customer. The best way to build your value proposition is by describing: “My company will help you, the client, with X service that will provide X benefits.”

It’s especially powerful to use the language of helping the customer, for instance, “I will help improve customer conversion rates with my blog writing.”

Another tool for building a pitch is by having a conversation with your prospective client, rather than talking to them about what they need. If you are able to build a relationship with a prospective client, you will be better able to demonstrate how your product or service offers a solution to their problem.

Imagine the wisdom gained having a dialogue with clients, when possible. This is a shift from the traditional images of pitches consisting of salespeople in plaid suits conducting a monologue to tell customers what they need.

6. Learn From Others

Don’t be afraid to look around and see what others have done that works, including your competition. If you’re not an expert on developing a pitch, do research on what others have done that has been successful. Utilize resources such as the Bonsai website and study successful marketing pitch templates.

Don’t just look at marketing pitches. There are also many resources for pitches that entice investors to commit to a start-up, for instance. While you may think this isn’t relevant, there are nuggets of wisdom in these resources that can help focus your thinking for your marketing pitch.

‍7. Customize For The Medium

This step is important, as there are multiple ways you can connect with customers.

If your cold-pitch will be conducted via email, it’s important to carefully craft each component of the email, from the subject line to the body of the email to any relevant attachments.

If the pitch will be conducted in person, there are a variety of ways to get your message across, from a short PowerPoint presentation to a simple conversation.

It’s important to do your research first, so you understand the customer’s business and can have a valuable conversation with the customer. It’s also important to consider the customer’s needs, which can be as simple as asking if they would like to see a presentation on your business.

Depending on your type of freelance business, Bonsai can offer some guidance, such as how to create a design portfolio.

8. Gather Proof Of Your Value

One of the best ways to demonstrate value is to show the potential client how you have helped others. You can do this in several ways:

• Add testimonials from satisfied customers. Ask for testimonials every time you complete a successful contract.
• Add legitimate research that shows how your service can benefit businesses.
• Use a case study of work you have done that was successful, starting with the customer’s problem through to your solution.
• Provide an added benefit with an offer for a free trial or a money-back guarantee.

Bonsai has plenty of other ideas for building your reputation as a freelancer.

‍9. Don’t Overdo It

Any type of pitch needs to be focused and to-the-point. It’s often more difficult to craft something short rather than something long. But it’s worth the extra time to build a short, focused pitch that doesn’t waste the time of the customer, or cause them to lose interest.

Be sure not to give too many choices to the customer. Instead, communicate results that your client will understand, in a way that’s quick and easy, with examples if possible.

Don’t add content just for the sake of making your pitch longer or trying to pad your business experience. If you haven’t been in business long, be honest with the client. Focus on what you can do, and how you can help them.

Also, remember that you don’t need to tell the client you’ve built a “pitch”; this will likely just raise the question, “What is a marketing pitch?” As far as your client knows, you’ve built solutions to help their business.

‍10. Check And Double-Check

Whether you’re crafting an email, building a PowerPoint presentation, drafting website material, designing an infographic, or whatever tools you’re using for your pitch, be sure to do grammar and spelling checks.

Consider asking someone to review your content. What makes sense to you make not make sense to others, and they may find mistakes that you’ve missed. You don’t want a simple typo to color your client’s perspective of you and your business.

11. Don’t Forget To Follow Up

Don’t be shy about contacting a prospective client after your initial contact. This can be via email or phone call, and can include questions such as: “Do you need any more information?” Don’t be overbearing and pester the client, but a simple follow-up in a few days is often overlooked and can spur the client to re-consider your business and eventually choose you to do the work.

Final Thoughts

By following these 11 steps, you’ve done the heavy lifting toward building an effective marketing pitch, for yourself and for your business. Now you’re ready to get going on finding work.

Breaking the Wall between Productivity and Creativity

 

Productivity and creativity in writing, sometimes seem to be two opposing forces that are impossible to be reconciled. The wall between the duo is the contrast between quantity and quality. While productivity likes tidiness - that is, a streamlined process to get the tasks done before the deadline - creativity thrives on chaos. You let your mind wander as you take time to explore new topics, perhaps you would stumble upon a new idea.

And here comes the battle! How to be productive without submerging creativity! As a writer, how do you sustain your consistency in terms of quantity, yet maintain the quality of your articles? It is obvious that creativity enriches, and helps the writer to stand out in an overcrowded market. Hence, the quality of your writings is primary to all other factors.

Are you itching to demolish the wall, increasing your productivity and expanding your creativity? Let’s go for a ride.

Identify the benefits of being creative

Is creativity valuable anymore? For budding writers and authors, it is easy to conclude that the way to expand one’s presence is by the number of articles or books published. Consequently, one drags oneself into scribbling shabby ideas and publishing poorly edited content. However, the fact remains that most readers or organisations value creativity and craft in content creation and production.

Ann Handley, a regular keynote speaker on content marketing, writes, “Metrics and measurement are important. But the art in marketing is just as important as the science!” In other words, the craft of your content is as important as the figures.

The best way to attract a loyal audience is to nurture our voice and to stand out. So, we need to be creative.

Set boundaries for your creativity

Setting boundaries for creativity means finding a spot between chasing productivity and welcoming creativity, order and chaos, strict planning and freewheeling, staying safe and exploring new territory.

Imagine how frustrating it is sitting before your computer system or with your pen and paper, and you are just blank. You searched and travelled through your mind, but it seems like you have been formatted. However, creativity benefits from such limitations.

Therefore, instead of looking for a random idea, limit your idea generation to a specific topic. When the mind is focused on a topic, ideas are generated sporadically. Meanwhile, your choice of topic should be what resonates with the needs of your clients or readers now. For instance, as a life coach, ask yourself: What’s the main aim of your clients? Perhaps, they want to find more balance in their lives and feel less stressed. So, how can you help them achieve that? It is amazing how ideas that seem erased begin to crowd the head and become the answers to questions.

By setting boundaries for your creativity, you save more time and reduce the stress of planning. This then improves your productivity.

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.” – Steve Jobs

Go down rabbit holes

While in a hurry to get things done, it is crucial to foster your curiosity to be detailed. Work flows easily when you allow serendipity to guide. Be adventurous in doing your tasks. You get more inspiration for writing when you follow your curiosity and read widely.

Don’t wait till you finish your first draft before searching for a quote you are curious about. Be wide in your reading. Taking on reading and writing challenges on different topics opens your eyes, gives you a fresh perspective, and might even boost your productivity.

You can also foster creativity by asking “Why” more often. Why do clients struggle with a specific problem? Why do they make certain mistakes? Walter Isaacson writes that Leonardo da Vinci—possibly the most creative person ever—embraced his inner child, and kept asking “Why?”

“He never outgrew the child’s need not just to admire the beauty of a blue sky but to ask why it is that colour.” – Walter Isaacson

Learn to switch between the creative desk and the productive desk.

Austin Kleon has two different desks to switch between his productive and creative mindset: An “analog” desk for creative work, and a digital desk for productivity. As he writes in his book “Steal Like an Artist,”

I have two desks in my office—one is “analog” and one is “digital.” The analog desk has nothing but markers, pens, pencils, paper, index cards, and newspapers. (…) This is where most of my work is born (…). The digital desk has my laptop, my monitor, my scanner, and my drawing tablet. This is where I edit and publish my work.

You should learn to switch between the productive and creative modes. When you sit down to work, ask yourself: What is the main objective of the next half hour? Do I need to write as much as possible of my first draft? (that’s a productive mode). Or do I have time to explore ideas before finalizing an outline? (that’s a creative mode).

Rabbit holes are only dangerous when you don’t limit your time. Know when you should be on the “analog” and when to move to the “digital.”

Launch into the deep

Each blog post or article you write should give you a tip on your next topic. Have you identified 10 Characteristics of a leader? Go deeper by picking each feature as a topic one after another. So, you have 11 articles already. Lovely!

Don’t be generic with your writings. The magic in writing appears when you learn to listen better, dig deeper into your topic, and force yourself to learn more.

Being creative doesn’t require a lot of extra time or extra work. You just need to allow for a limited dose of chaos in your process, to foster curiosity, to formulate questions and look for answers, to admit your ignorance, to be brave enough to explore unfamiliar territories.

Writing becomes more fun, you procrastinate less and boost your productivity.

7 Content Writing Tips Experts Swear By

 

Every day, more and more people discover the wonderful art form that is content writing. Whether you are just starting or are already an expert, it is always helpful to remember these 7 content writing tips. So, in no order, consider the following tips:

1. Writer, Know Thy Audience

To write content that appeals to the right audience, you must first of all know your audience. It is one of the most important of our 7 content writing tips. This saves a lot of time and energy as there is nothing worse than trying to sell the right product to the wrong person. When you know who your target audience is, this will help you tailor your content effectively. Knowing your audience involves more than simply knowing who they are, as a content writer, you should always put yourself in the mind of your readers. Ask yourself, “Why should anyone read my content?”

It’s like asking, “Why should anyone buy what I am selling? What’s in it for them?”

If you can’t give them a good enough answer, they’re on to the next product and you end up losing a potential client. Nobody wants to spend money on something that is of no benefit or relevance to them. This is the reason why successful content writers cannot do without proper qualitative research.

2. Research Like Your Life Depends On It (because it does)

As a content writer, in fact, as any kind of writer, you must recognize that you cannot pour out of an empty tank, it is the basic law of Nemo Dat Quod Non Habet. In other words, you cannot give what you do not have. This is why research is very important. And not just any kind of research, but research that results in an engaging content that is relevant and useful to your audience. A vital part of research as a content writer is sourcing for ideas on what to write. There are numerous online resources to help you with this.

Nobody wants to read content that is inaccurate or that they have no use for. Research is the foundation of good content. It validates your written work and if done in a targeted way, it will multiply: the traffic on your site, the number of clicks on your content, your social media shares and ultimately, your sales.

3. Go for Their Emotions!

It was Maya Angelou who once said; “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Her words ring true in the business of content writing. Business brands that have mastered the art of evoking an emotional response from people through their ads are usually the ones that rake in the highest sales and profits. We can all recall that one ad that made us feel; “Oh wow, I really need what they’re selling;” even though thinking about it deeply, we may realize that we probably didn’t. The advert connected with you, the audience, and that’s what made these products or services so attractive. Well written content should always achieve the same result.

4. Keep It Plain and Simple.

Readers don’t click websites because they want to read long-winded literature. By all means, keep your content simple and devoid of verbose terms and phraseology. Use simple words that get the message across as effectively as possible. This way, you avoid losing your audience before you have even had a chance to make a good impression.

5. SEO is Your Friend.

SEO, which means Search Engine Optimization, is a practice of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a webpage from search engines. It is a marketing strategy that improves your website’s presence and ranking on search engines like Google making you pop on the first page of search results. It increases your website or blog content’s visibility on the World Wide Web. Do you ever take note of the sites that come up on the second, third or tenth page of your Google search? No?

That’s right, you don’t…and neither does anyone else! People rarely go beyond the first page of search results. So, your goal should be to write content that guarantees you a premium spot.

6. Solve a Problem

People are forever searching for information on the internet. From self-development tips to money-making ideas, or random content just out of curiosity. Whatever their reasons, content is to them what formulas are to mathematicians and scientists. They help solve their problems or simply whet their appetites to surf the net even more. Good content should always aim to solve problems or meet a pressing need, it must also answer questions.

7. Always. Review Your Content

This is cannot be overemphasized. Nothing kills a write-up faster than poorly worded or punctuated content. Nobody wants to wade through an unsightly mire of writing filled with all manner of errors. Make sure to always proofread and review your content as many times as possible to ensure that it adheres to the rules of grammar, syntax, punctuation and spelling. Honestly, this is so important that some businesses hire the services of proofreaders and line editors who will painstakingly review their work just to ensure that no error is somewhere hidden in their content.

You also want to ensure the proper flow and overall readability of your work so that not only do people read your content because they need to, but they also read it because they want to.

Well, there you go! This list is by no means exhaustive. If you can put these tips here to practice, sure enough, you will make your mark in the content writing world.

 

Good luck and happy writing!

5 Ways to Come Up with Great Story Ideas

 

Been racking your brain about great story ideas?

We all have a million excellent ideas for stories, but, without fail, they magically disappear the minute we sit down to write. It seems impossible, but it happens constantly. Hours are wasted staring at a blank page. And, no matter how many cups of coffee are in our systems, we still can’t find the energy to kick our muses into gear and develop story ideas.

Have no fear: I have five ways that will help pump up your creativity muscle and build story ideas that will keep you writing for hours on end. Here they are.

 

How to Build Great Story Ideas

 

1. Reinvent a scene from a book.

 

Take a very small, seemingly unimportant scene from one of your favourite books and consider what it’d be like if that were the opening scene to your novel. Change the characters of course, and add one or more unique elements to that scene. The key is to give you a starting point and then let your imagination run wild.

While there are many ways to stay inspired, this challenge really takes something that you love (an old book) and gives it new life.

 

2. Use junk mail as inspiration.

 

Take the next two pieces of spam mail you receive (either snail mail or e-mail) and use them to determine the profession of your protagonist and your protagonist’s love interest.

I get this type of mail all of the time, particularly from politicians, credit card companies and auto dealerships—and that’s just what’s delivered by the United States Postal Service! When I add in the junk sent to my e-mail inbox, I get “foreign ambassadors from Nigeria” looking for million-dollar loans and women begging me to click through to get “erotic” pictures of them. Any one of these jobs will lead to many fun and unusual situations—and will give you plenty of fodder to write about.

 

3. Invent a history for someone with whom you’ve lost touch.

 

We have all had friends in our lives from grade school, high school or college that we knew quite well back then, but haven’t seen much (if at all) since. In fact, most of their lives are a mystery to us. Pick one of those old friends and write about the life they’ve been leading ever since you lost touch.

What happened in his or her family life? What career path did he or she choose? Was he or she involved in something that led them to a life of crime? The possibilities are endless, which should drive you to be as creative as possible.

 

4. Eavesdrop on a conversation.

 

Just because you’re stuck in a bit of a funk when it comes to ideas doesn’t mean that other people are. Take your notepad or laptop out of the house, sit down somewhere and observe the scenery around you—and listen to any and every conversation within earshot. You can do this at a park, restaurant, coffee shop or, my personal favourite, a bar (people who have a few drinks in them tend to share the best stories). Remember, jot down all the stories you hear but be sure to give them a twist to make them your own.

 

5. Find a writing prompt and run with it.

 

Sometimes the best cure for writer’s block is to let someone else start your story for you. #

SOIPublishing has some great creative writing prompts. You can also search the web and find a number of other sites that offer them, and who knows, the idea you get from a writing prompt may be just the inspiration you need to spark your creativity and write a short story or novel that sells.

 

Have your own suggestions on how to beat writer’s block and get your creative juices flowing? Leave it in the comments section here. The more suggestions we have, the better the chances none of us will ever have to sit there staring blankly at a page again.

 

Credit: Writers Digest

6 Terrific Tips to Writing a Gripping Horror Story

 

This guide to how to write a horror story covers the basics - a basic understanding of the definition of horror and common elements of horror fiction gives a good foundation on what is needed to write a gripping horror story. These tips can be applied to evoke an intense feeling in your readers, even if you don’t exclusively write horror.

The word ‘horror’ means ‘an intense feeling of fear, shock or disgust’ (Oxford English Dictionary). The word comes from the Latin horrere, meaning ‘to tremble or shudder’.

5 common elements of the best horror stories

The best horror stories share at least five elements in common:

1. They explore ‘malevolent’ or ‘wicked’ characters, deeds or phenomena.
2. They arouse feelings of fear, shock or disgust as well as the sense of the uncanny – things are not what they seem. There is a heightened sense of the unknown and/or mysterious.
3. They are intense (as the dictionary definition reminds us). Horror books convey intense emotion, mood, tone and environments. Together, these produce the sense that everything is charged with ominous possibility.
4. They contain scary and/or shocking and scintillating plot twists and story reveals (unlike episodes of the cartoon Scooby Doo, in which the bad guys are typically conniving realtors dressed as paranormal beings – ghosts, werewolves). In horror the ghosts and werewolves are very, very real.
5. They immerse readers in the macabre. Horror tends to deal with morbid situations, from repetitive cycles of violence to death-related uncanny scenarios. Zombies march, vampires make you join their legion, or (in subtler scenarios) long-dead friends or relations pay unexpected visits.

How do you write a horror story or novel like Stephen King, Clive Barker or (looking further back in the genre’s history) Edgar Allan Poe? Start with these six tips:

1: Learn how to write horror using strong, pervasive tone

Tone and mood are two elements that contribute to how your story feels. Great tone and mood can have readers’ spines tingling before a single character has even spoken or made a terrible decision.

How you describe settings, character movement and actions creates an overarching tone. In horror writing, a dark or frightening tone is often pronounced. Take this example from Clive Barker’s The Thief of Always:

‘Half closing his eyes, he crossed to the window and fumbled to slam it, making sure that the latch was in place this time.

The wind had started his lamp moving, and when he turned back the whole room seemed to be swinging around. One moment the fight was blazing in his eyes, the next it was flooding the opposite wall. But in between the blaze and the flood it lit the middle of his room, and standing there – shaking the rain off his hat – was a stranger.

He looked harmless enough. He was no more than six inches taller than Harvey, his frame scrawny, his skin distinctly yellowish in colour. He was wearing a fancy suit, a pair of spectacles and a lavish smile.’

The scene is suffused with a sense of the unsettling. Objects that should be stationary move. The room itself seems to move. The  viewpoint character is disoriented. A peculiar character seems to materialize out of nowhere.

Barker also creates an ominous tone through indirect means. ‘He looked harmless enough’ draws our attention to the possibility the man could in fact be harmful. The ‘scrawny’ frame and ‘yellowish’ skin both make the stranger unsettling and increase the sense of unfamiliarity.

Whether you are an aspiring horror author or not, work at creating consistent mood and tone. If you want to write a scary novel, focus on ways you can make actions and descriptions work together to establish an uneasy atmosphere.

2: Read widely in your genre

Whatever genre you write in, whether psychological or paranormal horror read as many books by respected authors in your genre as possible. Examples of celebrated horror authors include Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker, Bram Stoker, Neil Gaiman, Chuck Palahniuk, John Lindqvist and more.

As you read authors in your genre, make notes on what aspects of your genre the author excels in. Is it great, spooky settings? Copy out your favourite quotes that create an eerie sense of place and re-read when trying to make your own settings more vivid. Actively learning from great authors will improve your mastery of the horror genre.

3: Give wicked characters better, credible motivations

When you write a horror novel, it shouldn’t read as though a malevolent force is sitting at a bus stop, waiting to infiltrate your unsuspecting characters’ world ‘just because’. Give every malevolent character a strong, clear motivation. Revealing exactly what the motivation is can be part of the mystery that sustains your story and keeps readers guessing why unsettling things keep happening.

If there’s a malevolent force, being or stranger in your horror novel, make their motivation similar in magnitude to the character’s actions. Readers will scoff if a creepy doll goes on a murderous rampage in your novel simply because somebody took its batteries out.

4: Use the core elements of tragedy

This is excellent horror-writing advice from Chuck Wendig’s blog Terrible Minds. As Wendig puts it:

Horror is best when it’s about tragedy in its truest and most theatrical form: tragedy is born through character flaws, through bad choices, through grave missteps.

The horror genre uses the core elements of tragedy so nakedly that some of these have become clichés. ‘Don’t go in that house, idiot,’ you might shout at the screen while watching American Horror Story, because the character has the tragic flaw of being oblivious to personal danger. In horror stories, we get scared because, as readers, we see the signs foolhardy characters don’t.

At its heart, tragedy teaches some important lessons, for example:

• The destructive, rippling cause and effect acts of cruelty can set in motion (the frightening way the title character of Stephen King’s novel Carrie unleashes her powers due to bottling sustained psychological abuse is a good example)
• The value of seeing situations and scenarios from multiple perspectives (e.g. You could tell yourself, ‘That house is abandoned because the property market fell’. But also: ‘That house is abandoned because something terrible happened there (and keeps happening there) and people are afraid of it.’)
• The lesson that bravery means making a choice in full awareness of danger, whereas making choices in blissful unawareness of their potential consequences leaves people vulnerable

To write a credible horror novel, in other words, show that the horror-filled situation is dependent on a network of character choices, past or present. At its heart, horror fiction reminds us that cause and effect is real, even in the fantastical realm of storytelling.

5: Write scary novels by tapping into common human fears

If the point of horror writing (and horror elements in other genres such as paranormal romance) is to arouse fear, shock or disgust, think of the things people are most commonly afraid of.

Live Science places an interest choice at number one: The dentist. It’s true that you can feel powerless when you’re in the dentist’s chair. Couple this with the pain of certain dental procedures and it’s plain to see why a malevolent dentist is the stuff of horror nightmares.

Making readers scared creates tension and increases the pace of your story. Even so there should be a reason for making readers fearful. A terrifying situation should be central to the plot and should be driven by some or other cause (even if the reader can only guess, ultimately, what the precise cause is).

Here are some of the most common fears people have. As an exercise, list the reasons why we might find these things terrifying. Most relate to physical and/or mortal danger, but you can also draw on other common fears. Fears such as fear of humiliation, inadequacy or failure:
Most common fears – fodder for horror novel writing

• Fear of animals (dogs, snakes, sharks, mythical creatures such as the deep sea-dwelling kraken)
• Fear of flying (film producers combined the previous fear and this other common fear to make the spoof horror movie Snakes on a Plane)
• The dark – one of the most fundamental fears of the unfamiliar
• Perilous heights
• Other people and their often unknown desires or intentions
• Ugly or disorienting environments

Think of how common fears can be evoked in your horror fiction. Some are more often exploited in horror writing than others. A less precise fear (such as the fear of certain spaces) will let you tell the horror story you want with fewer specified must-haves.

6: Terror vs horror: Learn the difference

To learn how to write horror novels, it’s useful to understand the difference between horror and terror. Both have their place in horror writing.

‘Terror’ describes a state of feeling. Oxford Dictionaries simply define it as ‘extreme fear’. To ‘terrorise’, means to use extreme fear to intimidate others. Horror, however, also suggests elements of disgust and surprise or shock. Thus the word ‘horror’ describes not only extreme fear but also revulsion and a sense of surprise and the unexpected.

Horror writers share different ways to understand the difference between terror and horror:

For Stephen King, terror is a feeling the author tries to evoke in the reader before resorting to shock tactics such as surprising with the extreme or unpleasant:

‘I’ll try to terrify you first, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll horrify you, and if I can’t make it there, I’ll try to gross you out. I’m not proud.’

King’s quote suggests that if you can create terror in the reader before there’s even a gross-out moment or sickly reveal in your horror novel, you’re winning.

Culled from Now Novel

How to Write a Book Cover Blurb

 

In as much as book covers lure readers to your book, a professionally written and persuasive book cover blurb will grip your reader and persuade them to buy or download your book. In this article, you will learn how to write a book cover blurb that sells fast following these easy steps:

Your book blurb should entice and not summarize

While studying several book cover blurbs, I did a comparison between bestseller book blurbs and non-bestseller book blurbs, and discovered that unlike the book blurbs from bestseller books which entice readers; those from non-bestsellers only summarize the entire book.

Perhaps, another secret to becoming a best seller probably lies in how well your back cover blurb is crafted. After all, getting the label of a ‘bestseller’ lies in how fast your book sells.

Use a third person PoV when writing a book blurb

It doesn’t matter if the book is written from a first-person point of view, or even if it is your book, the blurb should always follow the industry standard which is third-person PoV.

Avoid the use of clichés in your book blurb

Except of course you have it in mind to keep changing your blurb often, for eBooks especially, you should avoid the use of clichés in your book blurbs. No matter how good the cliché seems, as long as it has been overused, they would only elicit an eye-roll rather than a total engagement. Your book blurb is another way of telling your audience what makes your book different from other authors, so why use a cliché?

Your blurb tone should not vary from your book’s tone.

When writing a book cover blurb, it is important to maintain a particular tone, as any form of discrepancy can make your book misleading. A jolly blurb will not fit in for an action-packed manuscript.

Start your book blurb with a hook sentence

Your book blurb should always start with a hook sentence, as this is one of the forces to grip your reader into reading the entire write up. In one of my articles, where I emphasized on “why hook sentences are important”, I mentioned that the first sentence in a piece can either arouse or kill the interest of a reader. This is also applicable to book blurbs; when the first sentence in your blurb fails to capture the interest of your reader, then you just lost him.

Keep your sentences short

Studies show that readers looking to pick up a book for their next read, spend a few minutes if not seconds scanning through book cover blurbs of titles that intrigue them. As such, writing a book blurb that will promote sales should use short captivating sentences. Rather than having a large chunk of words strung together in a sentence. Another trick is introducing a length variety for the sentences. That is, a long sentence should follow a short sentence and vice versa to intrigue your readers, as well as promote harmony in the reading.

Emphasize the purpose of the book in the book blurb

If you want to write a book blurb that sells fast, then you should state the essence of the book in the blurb.  Readers when trying to purchase a book, always have a reason in mind, which is what they also set out to look for on a bookshelf. If your book blurb emphasizes on the needs of your readers, then your book will be their choice of purchase.

Make your book blurb short

While you might have a lot in mind to put on the book blurb, you should note that time is very important. Your readers will not spend so much time reading a single blurb. Rather, they will likely scan through different book blurbs before settling for a particular book. Hence, it is advised you keep your book blurb short, let’s say 150 words. Better still, follow the Amazon guidelines on the book blurb.

Get feedback before publishing

When you have finally written that book blurb, you should give it out to at least two persons and get their honest opinions on their perception of the book blurb. Note what they love about it and what they feel is a turnoff and work on it.

Have more tips on how to write a book blurb that sells fast? Drop them in the comment box.

Chima Rachael J.

The 3 Hiring Mistakes Most Small Businesses Make

 

Each and every employee is an investment made by the company they work for, and for a business to succeed it has to make the most of its investments.

This is especially true of smaller companies and startups, which typically have fewer employees and limited investment income with which to try and net a profit. In these cases, every single dollar a company spends on finding and hiring an employee can affect its longer term success, making it crucial that they avoid making any major mistakes while hiring.

The problem is that running a small business is hard work – very hard work. This means that those involved are often short of time, and when time is short mistakes happen.

The good news is that this means that your competitors are probably making these mistakes whilst hiring too, and an opportunity is present for you to close your own loose ends and employee a better hire whilst wasting less time and money.

The Most Common Hiring Mistakes:

Having Zero Interview Plan

The single greatest mistake that small and new businesses make when hiring is failing to have any type of interview plan. Many businesses go into the interview with little idea of what they are going to do, other than perhaps a few interview questions scribbled on a piece of paper.

Interviews should be treated like a science. You’ve selected the individuals with the best resumes, and you’re bringing them in for a job interview. How do you choose who to select unless you have a carefully measured way of determining who is going to bring value, and who is not.

You do this by coming up with an interview plan. You find the most important questions to ask and make sure that you ask them to each candidate. You figure out what answers you’re looking for, and consider finding a way to score them objectively in order to ensure that you’re hiring the right people. You consider the amount you’re willing to pay, the factors that go into a great employee, and more.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be official, but there does need to be a plan in mind before you conduct your interview. If you wing each one of them, you risk asking some people more important questions than others, or not properly comparing those at the interview and letting your own natural biases kick in.

When it comes to recruitment, everything should be planned in some way, and although there is room for you to go off on some tangents (for example, if an applicant shares with you an interesting story), there should also be a methodology in place to make sure you’re hiring the right people.

Failing to Correctly Value Experience

This mistake goes two ways, and the best place to start is with an American baseball analogy. There are only 30 teams in all of major league baseball, each one employing a General Manager to run the entire team. When one general manager does a bad job (usually due to multiple seasons of hefty losses) that general manager is usually fired.

Some teams find up-and-coming stars to lead their organisation, and although sometimes those teams fail, other times they are wildly successful. Many of the most successful baseball organisations hired General Managers without any previous GM experience and reaped the rewards.

But other teams are a lot more “old school” and risk adverse. They refuse to hire any general manager unless they have previous GM experience.

Experience can be a good thing. But remember that there are only 30 teams in baseball, and at any given time, 25 to 28 general managers are employed for multiple years. That means you’re limited to hiring the 2 or so general managers that are out of work, both of whom were likely already let go because they failed to bring turn their teams into winning organisations. With this “Experience Only” mindset, you’re potentially limited to hiring someone with a history of losing.

This is the fatal flaw in overvaluing experience. Your next great employee may be someone that has limited experience but significant aptitude. If you focus too heavily on experience (either by requiring a considerable list of “qualifications” in your job description or hiring the person most experienced without considering other factors), you may be overlooking or turning off someone that could have been a better contributor.

On the other side of this, however, is the recent trend of business owners to hire those without experience at all, hoping to find people that are “cheaper” and just as productive. Many individuals with excellent experience are being ignored in favour of saving a few thousand dollars a year on an unproven individual. While there is significant value to be found in those that may not have traditional experience, there is also nothing quite like good experience that relates directly to your company.

Assuming Hiring Stops After the Job Offer

Finally, a very common mistake with small business owners is assuming that recruitment stops with the job offer. It doesn’t.

An employee’s productivity is 50% ability and 50% factors that occur after they have been hired. Employees need to be properly on-boarded, with excellent training (including not only their tasks, but also where to go to ask for office supplies, how to find files in folders on the network, etc.), programs in place to improve job satisfaction, and even smaller issues like opportunities for growth, objective job performance evaluation methods, and more.

You can hire the best employee available, but with poor training, no access to resources, and little in your office to ensure job satisfaction, that employee is going to struggle. Recruitment doesn’t stop after the job offer has been made, and no matter the size of your business you should be committed to making sure that employee adapts properly.

Avoid Costly Hiring Mistakes

Small businesses can’t afford to waste money on a bad hire. Always keep in mind the above hiring mistakes, and the tips that you’ll need to consider in order to avoid them in the future.

Culled from Recruit Shop

How to Build a Social Media Community: Content and Collaboration

 

I like to be on the cutting edge when it comes to utilizing social media and content. With the social landscape changing so often, we have to constantly be students of it, striving to find individuals whose content stands out from the crowd - to learn from and emulate.

Being "more interested than interesting" means that I take the opportunity to learn from the top social media influencers, allowing me to duplicate their social media fundamentals to improve my online presence.

I often consult my team members about the content that they enjoy most on social media. This is how I came across Eliot Robinson, the young entrepreneur and operator behind the @dunk account with more than 2 million followers on Instagram. Robinson has built a massive community based on his unique brand of basketball content. His community-building talent even caught the attention of superstar entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, who asked Robinson to help expand his social media profiles, resulting in more than a million new followers across Vaynerchuk’s platforms.

I was eager to learn more about what makes the @dunk community special. So, I phoned Robinson to get his input on my two keys for creating an engaged social media following: content and collaboration.

Content is still king

Today’s best social media strategists focus on aggregating content on their platforms. They elevate their own brands through collaborations with others, leveraging their content, while also minimizing operating and production costs. And the better your reputation for social media excellence becomes, the more users you'll find who are willing to work together for little-to-no compensation. This technique allows you to aggregate valuable content on your social media platforms and avoid content creation processes that waste time and money.

According to Robinson, incorporating humour and putting your own personal spin on the content of others adds personality to your posts and allows for personal expression, which pulls in your audience. You must find a frequency, a combination of truth and awareness that resonates with others. This is key for any public figure, and especially true on social media.

Be sure to bring an energy of creativity when it comes to your content. As Robinson advises, “Post things the viewers want to see, rather than satisfying your own preferences."

Originality and emotion build better relationships

One important facet of social media success is maintaining strong relationships with viewers, readers and listeners. That's why I make a point of replying to almost everyone who interacts with my content, whether it's on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or YouTube.

Experts in this field, like Robinson, advocate building long-lasting relationships with your audience by consistently posting content that is 100 percent your own. Original content gives followers insight into your life (and mind), which aids in developing a stronger connection.

 

Emotion is another tool heavily utilized by many social media strategists. The best social media pages use emotional pulls to develop connections between themselves and their audience. In my content, I do my best to address and solve common problems that my followers experience, such as being told “no” or experiencing the emotion of embarrassment. This provides value that they might not get elsewhere.

These days, there's a vast amount of focus on negativity. But, if you add components like humour, excitement or hope to your content, you'll generate a stronger attraction to your community.

The role of partnerships

Social media professionals like Robinson are able to create and maintain partnerships with other talented content creators by leveraging their internet popularity and success. Robinson also cites a need to have the first rights to the content of others, however, as original content is much easier to monetize.

This strategy of combining lots of valuable and unique content gives users the ability to stand out and flourish as a one-of-a-kind social media account. For this reason, I leverage my own brand to connect with icons in the sports, business and inspiration fields, in order to collaborate on new content.

One of my best recent social media collab opportunities came from working with the @motivation_mondays Instagram account. I did an interview on Instagram Live, along with the curator of the account, and answered questions about inspiration and motivation from the account’s followers. Not only did I help to create some great original content for @motivation_mondays, but I captured content to share on my own page and gained many new followers in the process.

This mutually beneficial exchange is the essence of a community. Both giving value and gaining value is what collaboration is all about!

David Meltzer