Comments

  1. Hey Keith,
    What a great focusing concept, hadn’t thought about content in this way, and generating it in the way you suggest sounds brilliant in its simplicity.
    Thanks for the tips — and, I’ll let you know if I have any comments after I take the new assessment about blogging.
    Thanks,
    Mark

    • Hi Mark,
      Thanks for your comments, send us links to a few of your posts or articles, we’d love to see them.
      And yes, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the Blogging Personality assessment, as well.
      Keith

  2. Great article! I find myself doing these things a lot. I started out helping people in forums a decade ago, and then two years ago started answering questions on a good question/answer site, which prefers good writing skills and quality sources for each answer. Once I started writing actual articles for them, and then for my current site, I found myself turning to questions on my old forums and on their site more and more often.

    I had tried doing a blog in 2004, and after about a month, felt burnt out on things to write about. It makes it so much easier when the inspiration is right there!

    • Hi Tracey,
      I find the forums are such great resources, often for the same reasons we make sure we are always taking on new coaching clients, no matter how big our biz gets – when working with a client, or answering questions in the forums, it keeps us in touch with what other people are grappling with.
      One thing I’ve noticed in the past with some of our high-performance coaching clients is that they can become a bit isolated in their “current universe,” and kind of forget everything they went through – or even stuff they knew when back they first got started. I made a commitment to always stay connected to the beginning of the process. . .

      Are you thinking of doing another blog? I hope so — let us know if the Blogging Personality assessment gives you any ideas…
      Thanks,
      Keith

  3. Keith…as you know this topic is near and dear to me 😉

    Two things have been working for me. 1. Writing every days. 2. Separating idea generating time from writing time.

    About a month ago, I realized that people I admire had made a commitment to writing every day. This notion always sounded impossible. I’ve written regularly, but not every day. But I figured if a friend could be celebrating her 1,000th (!) blog post, I could probably do better than I have been with my writing. So every day I write either a post for one of our sites, or a guest post. Interestingly, I’ve found that the more I write, the easier it is. (Today I wrote TWO guest posts.)

    The other reason it’s easier is that I’m not sitting around trying to think up WHAT to write. I do that the night before. After work, while making dinner, my husband and I chat about what I’m going to write the next day. I take notes. The next morning I look at my notes, sit down, and write it. I think that “percolating” on the ideas overnight really helps.

    • Susan,
      Two more guest posts, congrats…
      You make a brilliant distinction, thanks. (And – ahem – an idea for a post 🙂 )
      You reminded me of that classic book by Roger Von Oech, “A Whack on the Side of the Head.”
      He talks about how each of us has four roles in our creative process:
      Your Explorer searches for new information and resources
      Your Artist turns these resources into new ideas
      Your Judge evaluates the merits of an idea and decides what to do with it
      Your Warrior carries your idea into action
      The creative process breaks down when we use a role at the wrong time—or use one role exclusively.
      And so your process is perfectly aligned with those separate roles, no wonder you’re so prolific!
      Thanks for the insight.
      Keith

  4. I’ve always made the distinction between writing, editing, and formatting. These are 3 different tasks that should NOT be done at the same time in my opinion (e.g. don’t write and format a book at the same time). I’d never thought of idea generation being separate too, until recently.

    An after-work beverage doesn’t hurt either 😉

    • Susan,
      I’m pretty sure Van Oech left the beverage part out of his creativity equation, but I’ve found that a during-work beverage can also help 🙂
      Keith

  5. Keith,
    I just took the assessment, and it is so much more than I expected!
    I’m a little surprised by my results, but they make sense. I’m going to have to think about how I “appear” to the public when I start my new site and blog.
    And I like what Tracey said about forums. I honestly have not thought about going to forums other than when I needed an answer. But, come to think of it, I do have a few answers I can offer!
    Thank you for developing such a great tool — I look forward to whatever articles or reports you print about the different Blogging types.
    Iala!

    • Thanks for taking the assessment, Iala, and I’m happy you enjoyed it.
      Hope you find the results helpful.
      We’re planning workbooks for each section of results, so look for those in your email box.
      And a workshop as well.
      And, yes — visit those forums. You do have a great deal to offer!
      Keith

    • Wow Tracey, you’re a triple threat — a valuable commodity in this biz: someone who is technically savvy, who can also design (the two don’t always go together), and you write.
      Looking forward to seeing what you publish for yourself in the future.
      Keith

  6. I took the Blog Assessment and liked it but I could not read or print out the results for Sections 3, 4, and 5. On three it printed my score and the three scores I could have but no explanations. You might want to double check that as this looks like good stuff!

    Anne

    • Hi Anne,
      Thanks for telling us about this, that’s why we have trial launches! We’ll fix it.
      Jon should be able to send you the results, check your email box.
      Thanks again,
      Keith

  7. Hey Keith,
    I took the test and was in the neutral zone on most of them. Does this mean I am hedging myself too much. I definitely came out as casual, but after that I hit the neutral zone.

    I wish I could say a process has helped me. I still feel driven by inspirational spurts more than anything. Fortunately, I like to write!

    I will try these suggestions.

    And I am with Susan on the inspirational drink!

    Thanks.

    • Hi Sue,
      I don’t think that being ‘balanced’ necessarily means your hedging. The middle is a legitimate place to be and has its own characteristics, strengths, and challenges.

      This assessment is designed to help you think about where you are most comfortable. So if that is in the middle, then you should just make sure that you are not actually ‘putting on’ one of the extremes when you write. If you are balanced between cheerleader and curmudgeon, for example, then you should embrace that and not try to write like a cheerleader. This is probably the one most common pitfall of being in the middle. If you don’t have a strong natural preference driving your blog style and writing tone, you might think you have to ‘put on’ a style that isn’t really you. So, with this assessment, you can now embrace the middle and take some good elements from both extremes without feeling any nagging doubts that you should be more one way or the other.

      Finally, being in the middle on these scales doesn’t mean you won’t ever have really strong opinion. Taking a stand is always a good thing.

  8. Sue…glad it’s not just me 😉

    Assuming this is the same assessment, I came up kind of middle of the road too, except I’m formal and sincere. I think I probably sort of knew that, based on what people have told me about my writing over the years.

  9. Keith.
    I took the assessment and while I’m disappointed I don’t score higher as a “linebacker” 😉 I read Jon’s response below about scores in the neutral range, and that makes a lot of sense.
    This is a solid assessment, the results actually do help me frame how I would write as a blogger, and a new way to think about blogging – I’m not surprised at all the results, but I am very intrigued by your descriptions for each section. Very thought-provoking.
    Thanks for the tool.
    Mark

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