Sean P Durham

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What are the Benefits of Starting a Personal blog?

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If you want to develop empathy, write for others. If you want to be a good writer, learn to articulate.

What are the benefits of starting a personal blog? How can you grow through blogging?

Well, firstly, is to think about what you want to write. Then whittle that idea down to an angle. If you just write what you feel, you’ll end up writing a blog all about what you had for breakfast, and how your day went.

You need to figure out an angle that includes the reader, makes the reader connect with your world, and therefore care about your writing.

If you find a main topic to write about, and it resonates with people out there, you’ll build connections with those readers.

I’ve been blogging for years. It gives me a place to work on my writing, to improve, to experiment and find my style and an angle to speak from.

Blogging is firstly about writing, any money making ideas always have to take second place. Your ability to communicate in an effective and useful way, comes first.

Sit down and write a few notes about what your main interests in life are. Then you’ll start to see that you could turn one or two of those into a blogging subject. Those subjects could also offer good threads of thought that allow you to create variations on a theme.

Variety in how you treat a subject is important for your readers to stay engaged, and to keep you motivated as a writer.

Some bloggers don’t think too deeply about their subject, so they write repetitive pieces that really are just the same old post churned over and over again. They don’t last long.

You’re human, so are your readers; think of all the problems of life that you and all the unknown people out there share with you. Look at Maslow’s pyramid of hierarchies. The daily needs that people have in life. Use it to help you think more specifically about subjects to follow. This will create a resonating thread of thought for your blog posts.

If you don’t write about problems, your writing won’t contain an element of conflict and solution. Then, you’ll just write about how nice the coffee tastes, and that’s not really interesting to people who have pressing problems about their lives.

People want a story, so use story techniques to develop a blog post. Use anecdotes, scenes that create little stories of conflict and resolution. This keeps the reader alert and focused on what you are writing.

Often, readers on the internet are looking for solutions to their problems. Many people presume that money will solve that problem. That’s why so many writers write about how to make loads of money, and the readers are still left wondering about how to make money. Solve human problems, or at least try your best to help.

Better to write about how to be a better human, how to overcome daily problems of living; like, how to get your act together and become more capable at handling all the problems that face us each day.

When people read something uplifting, they tend to discover that they have more strength than they thought. Your writing may be the flare that lights up the darkness for them.

Growth through blogging is the development of your writing abilities. Those abilities are the skills you hone to communicate. There’s an obvious lack in communication skills these days.

Communication requires people to be empathetic with each other. You can’t understand another human being by reading statistics and using guess work. Get to know who you write for, and do your best to address their problems.

The internet has encouraged people to write quickly, and to write in a way that is easy to read; it has led to writers creating blocks of information that can be read rapidly, not thought about, and discarded quickly. Short pieces, short videos, abbreviated words that aren’t standardized — many people haven’t a clue what “I took my c2tvthsm” means. I know what it means, nobody else does.

Often the writer doesn’t think about the reader, which leads to meaningless dribble.

A good blog will come across as something comprehensive, well written, thoughtful, and worth the time of day to read. Without those qualities a blog will only be shallow and pointless for any reader.

You should look for a passionate topic that floats your boat, and be sure that there are other people out there who also love that topic. That’s the recipe for connecting.

Blogging is a good place to start and practise writing, communication, develop ideas, and expand on the problems of life and the world. It’s a place to gather a crowd and communicate in an intelligent way.

Not a lot of people know that.

A Camera Lens – Medium

How to Be a More Prolific Fiction Writer? When You Struggle to get the Words Out

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Firstly, stop thinking about being prolific. Every writer is a different personality. If you love to write stories, you will write lots of stories.

One day, you might stand back and be amazed at your own work.

My point here is that writing stories and novels is not about being a prolific writer. It’s about writing great, entertaining, enjoyable stories that reach into the hearts of all types of readers. You bring joy to others through writing, sometimes, you bring melancholia to a reader — and they are glad of it. It made them think deeply about life.

I think all writers struggle, especially when they know they have something to write about. The fear of letting the words fly over the keyboards, the results of trying to get the story out as you wanted it, is a hard thing to do.

Your struggle to write is obviously the same as a person who is starting out as a marathon runner. They want to jump in and be great at long distance running in one weekend. It won’t work. But, you will learn something important, and that is that it all takes time to become good at what you do, the better you are through practice, the more confidence you have in your abilities. That’s when you’ll see that sitting down to write becomes more frequent and your work builds up to a substantial amount of stories, books, and articles.

Being prolific is a myth that publishing houses like to tag their favourite writers with, but to tell a great story is another thing.

The Creative Locus of Self-Control

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The self is an ambiguous idea. It’s difficult to put your finger on it, to define it as anything particular.

houses in a stormy landscape

That’s because what we call the self, is an emotional body that is always acting and reacting to the environment.

Self talk is often the way to define things.

The words we use to define the moment, to understand what we see and feel, are just that, words.

These words have a powerful effect on how we feel. The words are the symbols we use to recreate emotions.

The symbols, words, elicit feelings and emotions in ourselves which motivate us to act.

If you think about it, the emotions are what drive us. The words create a connection with certain emotions that we want to stand at the forefront of our minds. We know that if we can think about, and feel, the emotions of positive energy, clearly see our own plans for the present, and hear our own voice, then we will be successful in our actions.

A creative person is always trying to understand how to transcribe an emotion into a solid idea. To materialize thoughts into useful objects that others can enjoy.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out so simply. We spend a lot of time swiping at cloud formations that look like good ideas, and end up with nothing but wet hands.

Emotional impulses cause us to get up and out of bed in the morning when we remember that we have something important to do. Emotions drive us on when we are tired.

We carry out daily tasks by responding to habitual emotional patterns.

The words we use when we talk to ourselves are the symbols that create our lives. They are the igniters of the locus of control — the right emotions.

I define between emotions and feelings as two distinct things. Feelings are those sweeping statements of thought that cause a temporary rise in sensations. They come, and they go.

If you stand at the edge of a landscape and experience the view of the sky and the clouds, the wind and the rain, you will feel something powerful rise in you. A powerful feeling of ‘happy to be alive’. Or a feeling of great wonder at nature.

These feelings can be brushed aside as quickly as you get back to your real life, your everyday existence of work and relationships. It’s amazing how important the landscape seemed to you at that moment, but you knew that you can’t possess it, and own it. You can always go back and experience it.

The landscape is a quiet place, and your reaction to it is your own choice. You experience it, or you ignore it. There is nobody there to tell you how you should feel about it.

The most creative thought would be to build a windmill, and bake bread on a windy day.

When we have those quiet moments in life, the secret places where our own thoughts reflect our true selves, and our own needs are met with our own words, then we are living simply. We are listening to our own voice, and we find it easier to choose the right words that define the emotions we want to manifest in our minds.

The right emotions are the real us. That deeper person who is brave enough to take a thought, develop it into the creative process, making connections, then solidify it with materials. Writing, painting, music, dancing, making a film. The list of materials goes on, and on. We have enormous choices about how we manifest an idea.

Our battle in daily life can often seem daunting. The sound of our own voice becomes drowned out.

The voices of others, people expressing their own needs loudly, and the barrage of suggestions about how we should act, and how we should feel, and think, can overwhelm us. All these loud ideas vibrating in the air, and our little voices are muted by the desires of others.

Overcoming other people’s talk with your own voice seems to be a tiring experience. Just so that you can hear yourself clearly enough to create an emotional response. To turn an emotion into a useful idea.

Many people experience the “other people’s voices” thing like an echo chamber in the mind. As if there were a crowd of chatter memories going on inside their heads. How did they get there?

The creative personality is like the great landscape. It is grand, broad, and open to the winds and the rain, as much as it is open to the sunny days, and the warmth of life.

The chatter of voices in our minds is a taboo subject to openly talk about. It’s like talking about sexual preferences with your local vicar. Red faces, and, “well, I don’t really know what you’re on about, doesn’t happen to me”.

Creative people learn to be tough. They learn that although their personality is “open” to the world around them, they must protect themselves from too many sensations that invade the creative mind. It’s as if the kitchen door is always open, so wandering vagabonds invite themselves in.

The problem is that much of the mental chatter we deal with stems from the memory, not from the outside. It originated with well meant advice, or a comment from a close friend who thought they should mention something important.

To close down and refuse to think about ideas, would be to cut off the tree that bears the fruit. A creative person must live with an open mind. That’s their path to happiness.

A writer, an artist, any person who needs to use their mind to make powerful connections about what they see and feel, must learn that giving themselves the permission to create is a mental tool. That to allow themselves to take the risk of creating the connections that take the mind deeper into areas that others won’t tread, is an imperative emotional response to their daily activity.

A creative person must not block themselves with sensible, responsible thoughts about how they respond to an idea. They must stay sensitive, but stay tough.

The world and its rush to make, sell, profit — get money, and destroy everything in its path on the way through, promotes the flippant response of not caring about things.

The creative person who lives with the urge to investigate, to risk the rabbit hole and find out what’s down there in the dimly lit parts of life, risks making a mistake. Creative people will always put themselves in the limelight when they create something, then present it the world around them.

Naturally, we want to test, perfect, and mull over our ideas. But we must give ourselves permission to create, and to show our creations to the rest of the world. It’s the objective of the action.

It’s when we take a risk and show our work, whatever that may be, it’s then that we take control. We command our mental space, and dominate our part of the world with what we’ve created.

Whether you write stories, articles, paint or dance, make music, or are just starting out on your path to self discovery as a creative person, you must balance your sensitivity with toughness of mind. To be disciplined with yourself, to push towards the limits of living as an artist in the real world.

A creative person’s task is to show the world that it’s worth stopping and looking at the landscape.

My Medium Page for Articles and Stories by Sean P. Durham

How to Get into the Habit of Writing Everyday

The Heart of Writing Good Copy

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Fuel your Story Copywriting logo on black coffee cup

“Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.” — Howard Gossage

The Practice

Writing good copy and content is a hard thing. It takes time and study. Time to practice, time to read. There are some great books out there to help you with your writing chops.

If your bent is to be a great copywriter, then books like Joseph Sugarman’s , “The Adweek Copywriting Handbook”, is a gift. It’ll put you right about what copywriting is all about. It answers your questions.

If you want to write content that simply engages readers, then Joseph Sugarman’s book is full of eye-opening ideas about what makes readers keep reading till the end of your article.

Joseph Sugarman — The Book you Need

Joseph Sugarman’s book has an angle on all of your questions on what makes a good copywriter. He was such a great copywriter that he knew which questions his readers would be asking; those burning desires on how to be a great copywriter — all answered in his book.

A copywriter should always think about the reader and their questions. That’s how you give them what they’re looking for.

One of the answers is; you have to practice. Practice everyday like you mean it when you want to become a great copywriter.

Joseph Sugarman made a lot of money with copywriting. His message is that he worked hard on understanding the techniques of copywriting, and he practised like an Olympic athlete to achieve his goals, and turn his words into money.

If you want to learn how to use words to make money, buy his book and read it, use it, and don’t lose it. It’s a keeper.

Copywriting uses all the techniques found in most forms of good writing — except the business report — business reports are designed to send your manager to sleep.

Copywriting is about making your reader wake up and realize how important the topic is.

A fiction author can write a story and entertain her readers, but there won’t be many readers if she doesn’t work on the techniques of keeping the reader interested past the first page or two.

A copywriter must write a powerful headline to grab attention and lead the reader into the story — the first sentence of the first paragraph, then the second, until they’ve read the whole paragraph.

A fiction writer must do the same. This done by promising a solution to a stated problem. In storytelling, we must begin with a bang. Not an explosive device type bang, but an idea type bang that happens in the readers mind.

The reader must gasp a little at what you’ve written. That’s when they will want to read on. A fiction writer would love this response, a copywriter too.

The gasp, or sit up and pay attention effect of your first couple of lines, happens because you work on techniques of how to push a reader’s buttons.

If you buy a book to read for enjoyment you buy it because you were looking for a good story. A person who responds to copywriting does so because they have found what they were looking for.

When they start to read your work, they need reassurance they are in the right place, reading something that will give them a kick of entertainment, or help them make up their mind about buying something. People get tangled up in decision-making.

A copywriter will help the reader straighten out their thoughts on a subject and make a firm decision to buy.

A fiction writer will help them understand the heart of the story. The writer leads the reader with a game of softly-softly catchee-monkey. Gently beckoning the reader through each line.

Your copy writing should be aimed at the person who knows what they want, but they just can’t make their mind up whom to buy it from.

It’s the 20th century problem of 1st world people — too much choice.

Choice has become a big problem for shoppers. A supermarket can offer you a bag of flour to make cookies, but when you look at the shelf you are confronted by all the different types of flour. Each one claims to be the best type to make cookies and scones.

Copywriters show people that they have a problem and that the solution is in the next line of copy.

A content writer writes each line with hook that leads into the next line. Joseph Sugarman called this the “Slippery Slope”. Fiction writers call it making each word count. Cut the dross, show the action. They’ll keep reading.

The Heart of Writing Good Copywriting

Each day millions of people go online and look at products. If they aren’t searching for a product the search engines will make sure that they start thinking about buying something. The use of retargeting and “similar offers” is a powerful tool used by marketers.

Search for an answer to a problem, and soon you’ll be reading all types of solutions, then you’ll move over to the best solutions which will cost a couple of bucks — “you get what you pay for”, slides into your thoughts. Maybe buying a solution makes sense. It’s often the better choice.

You’ve convinced yourself that you purchased the right solution, and you’ll be happy with it — because within minutes you see it does the job.

The problem is a pain in the neck, the search is confusing, the solution is a purchase and relief from the pain-in-the-neck.

The buyer is full of conviction, then when you push the right buttons to trigger the emotions the reader will say “buy it.”

Emotions are stronger than the intellectual thoughts that weigh cons and pros. Emotions are motivation to do things, to take action.

The copywriter never allows the reader to drift while reading. You have to guide them through the pain-in-the-neck process by clarifying their problem. This helps your reader to straighten out those jumbled thoughts. You tell them that there is a solution and if they care to keep reading, they’ll discover that they can solve the problem pretty quickly.

You aren’t selling anything at this point. As a copywriter you put all your guile and coaching chops into this part of your copy. Clarify the problem for the reader. Making them ask the right questions.

You are working on keeping the reader’s attention — not closing a sale. That comes later.

Keeping the reader’s attention comes when they ask questions. You must answer the questions a little at a time — just enough to keep them reading till the end.

When the reader is convinced that they are in the right place by reading your copy, they will settle down and begin to feel good. Their emotions will begin to engage in the process of reading. The copy you write must tell a story that reflects their hopes for a solution.

A solution can be a nice holiday on some warm and relaxing island. An offer that educates the reader, gets them thinking about the best ways to improve themselves is a solution to their career problems.

This is where the power of fiction writing technique steps into the mix.

The reader is happy to keep reading, emotions are charged, and you now lead them into scenarios of what will happen if they actually possess the product.

Your copy has to be good enough to make them shift about in their seat, to feel the dreaminess of finishing an educational course, or how they will be totally recharged and ready for the city after their holiday, to feel it emotionally and physically.

You tell stories which involve their dreams and wishes.

People read things in stories and in your copywriting that make them jump, or stand up and do a circle in the room. Words make people move into action.

The story you tell must show them how they will feel when they own the product — not how it looks and feels — but how it will emotionally charge them, make their life easier, and why living without it will leave them wanting it all the more.

The greatest sales people in the world never try to sell to an unknown prospect. They know something about the prospect, the reader. The people they talk to have been qualified to the point that you know they are interested in a solution like yours.

Your product is what they are looking for, their knowledge is at the threshold of needing more confirmation that they are right. They need to be led into the emotional arena of buying. That’s a copywriter’s job.

Copywriters Don’t Drive Traffic, Marketers Do.

Copywriters write great words that clarify problems, they convince readers that they are in the right place.

Copywriters talk to qualified prospects who are at the dithering point in buying. That’s why the reader finds your work — they were looking for a positive piece of writing all about their needs.

They want somebody to tell them that their idea of a solution is right under their nose. It’s close to the end of the copy, it’s the call to action piece that you crafted so well, the reader knows it makes total sense to click through and purchase the product. You, the copywriter, drive sales — not traffic.

Close the sale, Call the Reader into Action

Good copywriting is fun to read. It can cause people think, comment, and to talk about what they’ve read. But if it doesn’t make them stand up and pull out their credit card it is useless.

People often don’t buy things they want because the salesperson or copywriter fails to ask them to buy. The lost customer wanders away from the copy looking for more confirmation. Still wanting it, but back in question mode.

They should have bought the product if they read the copy till the end.

Closing a sale is a simple thing — but it scares the salesperson. So many writers convince themsleves that their copy is so good, it’ll be a natural progression for the reader to click through and buy the product. That never happens. Readers need the confirmation that it’s okay to buy now.

They need you to guide their thoughts and feelings right up to the sound of a ringing cash register, then wave them bye out the door.

When asking for the sale good copywriters use all the tropes of a thriller writer.

To keep a reader on the edge of her seat, a good thriller offers the feeling of running out of time, if the protagonist can’t get to the otherside of the city by midnight, then the hostages will be blown to kingdom come.

In copywriting, an offer with a time limit will put people under positive pressure. If you sign-up now, you will receive a free book that sells for 12.99. After midnight on 24th of september, the offer will end — that’s tonight.

The book offer can be anything of value to the reader. No free kittens with each purchase , please — that won’t work. It’s stronger when the free offer has an obvious connection to the main product. The reader gets the freebie, and buys the product.

The same buttons are pushed when supplies are limited. Some industries have built a fortune on convincing readers and customers that what they sell, is rare.

Rarity increases social standing. Some people like to keep up with the Jones’ next door. Others get their kicks from owning something that the Jones’ can’t afford, or get their hands on.

Diamonds, top of the range cars, specialist equipment, designer clothes are all sold on the basis of rarity.

Rarity can mean that the seller will only work for serious customers. People who are prepared to pay a higher price and wait for the handmade product to be specially delivered by an elite corps of postal workers.

The idea of an item being rare also indictaes that it’s top quality product. You can’t tell a customer that their Samsung mobile is rare, handmade and that only one hundred pieces exist in the world. It has to be something special, desired, and only available to people with fat wallets.

You can use the device of reminding the reader that the price will be going up. If they don’t let their emotions take over and buy now, then they’ll regret it; come the morning they’ll still want it, but pay extra.

A thriller writer will put the main character into a desperate situation — time was short, but suddenly, it’s even shorter. The character has to make it to the hostages and save them, otherwise in the morning…

Recently, price hikes have become common. Platforms that offered free access for years are now giving time limits on free access, they will have to pay in future; but if they sign up to the full membership now, they’ll get in early enough to enjoy a full membership benefits, at slashed price later.

Gains and Losses

Remind your reader that there is a loss by not buying the product now. Reminding them of the benefits of really owning the product will reignite motivation — emotional feelings are behind every purchase.

Or go the positive route and reiterate the main benefits that they gain when buying today. If you can offer a guarantee, use it. Statistics show that a guarantee is high motivator, maybe a clincher in many purchases.

If a customer knows they can stop monthly payments anytime they please, their own logic tells them that they have nothing to lose, nothing to fear, and they should go for it — sign up and pay the first month. All that logic was emotions — people often confuse there own opinion with logical thinking. Opinions are emotional points of view.

Copywriting is tool. The tool must be mastered to be useful, that takes practice. The Adweek Copywriting Handbook is one of many books on the subject, buy it and start copywriting, it’s root source that has inspired and helped many writers turn their writing chops from weak to strong, from unprofitable to a fulltime income and more.

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