8 reasons why no one reads your articles and what you can do about it.

No one disagrees that you need “good content” to grow a blog, but there’s plenty of disagreement on what “good content” actually means. Let’s start here: Good writing is simply not enough. There’s a clear correlation between strong writing and successful blogs, but there are plenty of counter-examples too. A threshold exists where writing is good enough, assuming you can nail a few other elements.

In 2004, psychologist and neuroscientist Ullrich Ecker ran a study on article headlines. Participants were asked to read either a fact- or opinion-based article and answer various questions about its content. Half of the participants received a version with a headline designed to slant their perception one way, and the other half received a version with a headline designed to slant it the other way. People’s perceptions of the subjects they were reading about were biased by the slant of the headline they were given—but that wasn’t the surprising part of the study.

Today's podcast and blog post features new blogger Bella from Mommy Has a Little Time. We chatted about a few issues that plague new and experienced bloggers alike, including this huge question of 'HOW do I produce unique and interesting content, when every topic under the sun has already been covered before?'

I’ve been blogging consistently for two years. Today I would like to share the three most important lessons I have learned in that time about creativity.

Repetition is an inevitable part of creation.

Blot is a blogging platform with no interface. It creates a special folder in your Dropbox and publishes files you put inside.

Why is standing out so dang hard to do? Because we're afraid.

I am a writer. On any given day, I write somewhere in the ballpark of 10,000 words — and the genres are all over the board. I have a journal for poetry and quick ideas that I keep with me at all times, in my backpack. I aim to write an answer on Quora every day. I write here on Inc Magazine five times a week. When time permits, I will microblog on Instagram. I have a number of book projects in the works. And I am the Founder and Editor in Chief of a ghostwriting + influence agency called Digital Press. I am not exaggerating when I say I spend close to eight hours per day writing. Just writing.

You have a choice. You can tell engaging stories online, or you can let your brand die. There’s no option C.

I get it. There’s never enough hours in the day. Juggling work, friends, family, exercise, time off, Stranger Things is tough.

In many, many sources I’ve seen advice along these lines: Don’t overthink, you don’t have to take longer than 1 hour to write a blog post. Just post it! Some advice givers will even say that it’s the norm today. One of the bloggers I follow claims to have written most of her blog posts within 1 hour and … on the phone.

 Facing the fear of criticism – and criticism itself – terrified me. You may be struggling terribly with your blog because you are held captive by this same terror, this same fear, and play small. I struggled horribly for many years online because I feared facing criticism, so I played small, stayed in my cyber cave, and failed.

Almost everyone wants to be a blogger these days and as much I am all for it, some tend to forget that it’s not just creating a website and letting it be, blogging is not a walk in the park but rather lots of hard work, patience and also trial and errors which open up doors to learning even more about the blogging world.

Are you the kind of blogger who works best under pressure? Or does an approaching deadline bring on a state of panic that kills your creativity? Deadlines can be useful (some people would never have finished high school without them), but you need them to work for you, not against you. Here's how to do it.

Content Over Clickbait.

Abby Lawson is a blogger and teacher extraordinaire at Just a Girl and Her Blog. In the podcast and blog post below, we dive into the art of balancing PASSIONATE writing/content with OPTIMIZED content (for marketing, SEO, Pinterest, etc)

Every artist can relate. Very few of us got into this business because we wanted to have to manage social media accounts or approve an advertising campaign. Writers became writers because they wanted to write. Actors want to act — not spend two weeks on a grueling press tour. The founder wants to be working on their product, not polishing blog posts for some content marketing side hustle.

From professional commenter to writer.

Warning: This is not for the faint at heart. However, this is how I write blog posts that get an average of 500+ shares and thousands of pageviews every time.