Crafting Your Blog Elixer

 

Welcome back to Dr. Strawn’s Lab. Put on your goggles and prepare for the flames of inspiration to engulf your every, waking dream. Mwa-hahaha!

(Lightning Flashes)

Blogging: Art or Science?

There’s a large school of thought that says a solid method and consistency leads to blogging success. On the other side of the party line there are those that claim you must have passion and that blogging comes from within and is a type of ephemeral art that can’t quite be nailed down. There are even some that are mad enough to claim that you must have both to be successful.

I am a member of that mad group. (I’m sure that surprises, no one.)

I feel that all great mad scientists have that perfect blend of passion and method that allows magic to happen, not the steaming cauldrons or beakers. I want to teach you how to be a blogging mad scientist and the perfect place to start is learning how to mix and craft your blogging elixer. The Clovers had Love Potion #9, Dr. Jekyll had the Hyde serum, Harry Potter had his Polyjuice Potion, and now you shall have your Blog Elixer!

Let the magic begin.

Crafting the Elixer

Step one in any great formula is knowing the ingredients. All great mad scientists have a notebook of some kind with all their formulas readily available. You can allow this post to be page one in your notebook or copy these down and create your own.

Elixer Ingredients

• 10 parts Subject Matter/Topic
• 1 part Links
• 5 parts Passion
• 5 parts Honesty
• 7 parts Personality
• 3 parts Interaction

Now that we’ve procured the ingredients, it’s time to pull out our tools and start crafting this elixer.

Step 1: The first thing you need to do is take your 5 parts Passion and mix it together with your 10 parts Subject Matter/Topic. Make sure you’re mixing thoroughly as you want to make sure by the end of step one you truly care about what you’re planning to write about. Nothing screams louder to a reader “Go away” than a writer who obviously cares nothing for the subject matter and is doing it either for a paycheck or out of stubborn habit. Your potion should be a dark red color at this point and filled with eager anticipation and excitement.

Step 2: Once your Passion and Subject Matter mixture has settled, add in your 5 parts Personality. This step must be done during the initial phases as the formula will congeal and become syrupy and boring if you do not. There are hundreds of blog potions out there and Personality is the key ingredient that will help your Elixer rise above something you could buy at Wal-Mart. Your 5 parts Personality need to be a true, undiluted version of yourself, as opposed to the many pseudo-Personality alternatives out there like trying to write like Seth Godin or attempting to use big words to seem smarter than you truly are. Bypass those store brand Personality substitues and pull directly from your home supply. By this point the dark red should have waves of your favorite color flowing through it and be showing activity like bubbling and steaming.

Step 3: Immediately after adding in the Personality, mix in your 5 parts Honesty and your 1 part Links. The Honesty will hopefully flow naturally from your undiluted Personality ingredient, but make sure to mix it in really well. This ingredient involves admitting mistakes and lack of knowledge, true data for case studies and proactively holding others accountable in your niche to being accurate and honest. Honesty is the ingredient that’s hardest to find for most bloggers because you have to truly dig down deep into your personal reserves and face some uncomfortable situations to retrieve it (kind of like Dragon Drool, but I won’t get into those perils here). Adding in the 1 part Links will help with internal and external SEO and since we want our blog to be found, add them in. Try to find related topics or external articles you can link to to give credibility and strength to your elixer. Once those ingredients have disseminated completely into the mix your Elixer should be bubbling quite a bit and should give off a light purple glow.

Step 4: The last ingredient to add now is the 3 parts Interaction. This should be an on-going process (like adding salt or basil to an ever-growing meal). You won’t add a lot of this ingredient in the beginning because it won’t be needed, but the longer you use the Elixer you’ve created, the more potential is has to become stagnant and crusty, which is where this freshening ingredient comes into play. By consistently adding Interaction to your mixture, you’ll keep it in the liquid form it needs to be successfully consistent. You may even find that Interaction gives your Elixer some life you weren’t expecting. It can be a scary ingredient, but a lot of times it makes all the difference.

Step 5: Share Elixer with everyone.

Conclusion

So, now you have your Elixer. All that’s left to do is put it to use and start sharing it around. This one won’t change you into another person (a la, Polyjuice Potion or Hyde Serum) and it won’t make you fall in love, but you’ll fall in love with the results.

Now, go forth, mad scientist apprentices and find ways to make magic in this world!

Thoughts?