If you don’t know what I am talking about, you are definitely MISSING OUT. Seriously.

But now that you know it, it’s OK…because now you can get in on it by reading this entire post.

Most folks who know anything about psychology are familiar with the fact that there are three major ways to motivate people.

The first two are flattery and inspiration. Both of them can be effectively used in your marketing and advertisement to increase response.

However, that’s not what we are talking about today.

It’s the third method, arguably the most interesting, intricate, and powerful of the three, that I want to bring to your attention.

GUILT.

Guilt via association or lack thereof, to be more precise.

Allow me to explain.

We all want to work with the best and learn from the best.

We also want to be associated with the best.

That’s precisely why you are reading every single word of this post…whether you know it or not.

It’s such a universal truth.

We all want to feel like we belong, like we are a part of the “A-list”. We want to know everything the leaders know and do what they do.

We also want to be associated with the best and be recognized for being associated with the best.

Why do you think so many people flock to celebrities? Why do you think celebrities have such huge entourages?

And why do you think the second you mention celebrity’s name at a party, there will always be someone who says “Oh yeah, I caught a glimpse of her/him on the street once?” Like that’s supposed to make us feel that they are just about related…

Instincts.

It’s almost like we are programmed to belong to anything that we perceive is better than what we are or what we have.

That’s precisely what made you read this post as well. Really.

From the very beginning, from the very title you instinctively wanted to read this article. Why?

Because, first I put a “guilt trip” on you, which caused you to begin reading the post.

Additionally, I removed you from the A-list or the perceived group of leaders, and you didn’t like it.

What is it that they know and you don’t?

You needed to find out.

So let’s go over exactly how I encouraged you to continue reading.

1.    I used READ THIS in the title. Even though it’s hidden at the end of the title and still appears to be subtle enough, it caught your wandering eye. Blatant command that’s even SHOUTING at you in all CAPS!

2.    “Every A-List Blogger Has READ THIS”. And you haven’t… What does it make you? NOT a part of the group. An outsider. They know something you don’t. Any appearance of your association with them was removed and somewhere deep inside you didn’t like it!

Pretty powerful, isn’t it?

So next time you write a sales letter or an ad, remember that association and guilt are two powerful factors that can seriously motivate your prospects to pay attention… IF you do it the right way.

After all, it did work on you.

In the years of interacting with myriad bloggers, I’ve often heard the sad lament of a blogger who can’t figure out what to write about. This is a baffling condition to me. Why would you want to be a blogger unless you were just bursting with thoughts, ideas, and snippets of info that you are dying to share with the entire universe?

To me, it’s like someone who says, “I am an inventor!” and then wracks their brain about what they can invent. Or someone who claims to be a musician and then tries to figure out what instrument they will learn.

If you can’t think of anything to blog about, maybe you’re not really a blogger! Or, at very least, maybe you’re trying to write in an area where you have too little interest and/or too little expertise.

Still, I’ll admit that even great writers do get writer’s block on occasion. So if you’re a real blogger, but have found yourself in a temporary rut, I’ve compiled a few ideas to help you remember all the great posts that are waiting to come out.

Within your blog niche, consider:

Innovations in Technology or Methods

What are new ideas? What are people trying? What is working? What isn’t? If you’re an MMO blogger, you might discuss your perception of the newest social media venture. Maybe you’ll note the pitfalls of a once-popular method.

Humorous Anecdotes

There’s nothing like an inside joke to foster a feeling of community. If you’ve seen something funny that only those in your niche will understand, share the laughter with your readers. My husband is an electrical engineer, so one of our favorite jokes compares the various kinds of engineers (electrical, mechanical, civil, etc.) in a way that addresses the inherent rivalry. I’m a singer (and an alto) and a favorite pieces is called “Alto’s Lament.” It’s full of all sorts of references that only a singer (and only a fellow non-melody singer) will understand.

Problems — Resolved or Not

Discussing common frustrations or difficulties within your topic is an easy way to get started. If you don’t have a solution, point out the ways you’ve tried to address the issue and why they haven’t worked. Ask for collaboration. If you have solved the problem, share your solution clearly and explicitly.

Admired or Important People

Who are the movers and the shakers in your niche? What have they done and what are they doing now? What can you learn from them? Analyzing the successes of others can be an valuable source of inspiration. Perhaps their examples can be applied to your own life or work.

Emotional Experiences

What issues and circumstances in your niche make you happy? angry? worried? optimistic? Share your feelings about the things that are coming up with your site visitors. Chances are, they are shared.

Once you’ve identified one of these things in your niche, all you have to do is share it. If it’s interesting to you, it will probably be interesting to someone else.

So far we have managed to create and make a success from our weekly word challenge.

What I would like to do now is create another fun and interactive community activity all our members can participate in.

See the word challenge is really limited to blog niches and if you’re not in that niche you’re sort of left out.

So I was hoping to get some feedback from our members on other ideas and suggestions on what we can do.

The activity should be a writing one and preferably something that can help us out. Either help us become better writers or simply more aware of our blogging activity’s and writing styles.

I’m open to all sorts of ideas and suggestions. So don’t’ be shy leave us a reply below and let us know your thoughts. This is a great opportunity to get our community involved with each other and to start building on our community relationships.

Blog Engage has so much to offer bloggers and by creating these community activities we help each other grow. We can become more mature in our writing styles, find new readers, build new friendships and much more.

So like I said leave a comment below with your idea and if we get enough of them I can make it a vote to pick the new blog engage community activity.

Be sure to add me as a friend, bbrian017

Subscribe to my blog as well

Twitter, bbrian017

Thanks,

Brian

Seeing the weekly word challenge ended in a tie 33.3% for both options I thought what a better way to get more people active and to allow two different options. So this week not only do we have one word to pick from but two.

Also take note you still only have to submit one article. You don’t have to complete an article for each word.

Blog Maintenance

Blogging Tips

How do you submit your article?

Simply leave a reply in the article with your url or state your submission is in your comment luv.

Why participate

Because all articles submitted to the challenge will be promoted on by me here on our word challenge linking directly to your word challenge post. This also includes retweets from myself with over 1800 followers. Also other members will be joining us in conversations on your blog. This is a great way to find new readers and get comments.

Be sure to add me as a friend, bbrian017

Subscribe to my blog as well

Twitter, bbrian017

Thanks,

Brian

As we all know well enough blogging is never as easy as it seems. We have busy lives, obligations and other commitments that take up much of our available time. Finding ways to make blogging easier or more convenient is always in our list of things to do.

Personally since I’ve been blogging the one feature that has saved me the most time is called advances pre scheduling content. This allows you to write up to three of four days on content on your blog and setting the specific dates in which you want it to publish on.

So if you’re too busy during the week but find yourself with ample time on the weekend this suggestion is perfect for you. Simple write all your articles and instead of hitting publish you select the edit option and pick the date you want your articles to be published on.

Another great way to increase your productivity is to reduce the size of your post. Write smaller articles and you will find yourself becoming more productive and producing more and more readable materials for your visitors.

Be sure to add me as a friend, bbrian017

Subscribe to my blog as well

Add me on Twitter, bbrian017

Thanks,

Brian

What a crazy day it’s been. My hotmail account stopped sending and receiving e-mails from a few of my domain names. So in general I didn’t get any e-mails for the past 4 days. Have you have tried to catch up on over 400 e-mails that require some sort of action to be taken? Trust me it’s a ridiculous process and I don’t wish it upon my worst enemy. So I got a new e-mail address and starting setting up the alias to all my domains and I had to reset the old forwarding address to my new ones. Let’s say it was a wasted Friday and I hope to never experience it again. Lesson learned don’t use a free e-mail service when you have your own dedicated server LOL @ me.

Ok now we are here for a reason and it’s the end of our first Weekly Word Challenge. I was very happy to see our members participating and in total we got 6 submissions. What I would like to do is share them here with you for you to read, engage and comment with. Remember everyone is allowed participating in the word challenge you simply write an article about or regaridng the picked words and submit it to here via a comment reply. Just so you know our weekly word challenge was Marketing and Promotion. Sorry if I missed anyone somehow, simply reply with a comment and I will add you.

The weekly word challenge participants

Tycoon Blogger (Dan Keller)
Promote your blog – 10 easy ways to get the word out

Karl Foxley
The Really Sneaky CommentLuv Trick For Better Blog Marketing And Promotion!

Jeevanjacobjohn
Content Is King….Who is the Queen then ? Part 1 Promotion

Anne
My Best Blog-Only Marketing Tips

CorCor
How To Increase Blog Traffic With Effective Promotion And Marketing

bbrian017
How to Market your blog or website for success

Robert Bravery
20 Crazy ways to promote your blog.

Ileane
Podcasts on iTunes

Why participate

Because all article submitted to the challenge will be promoted on by me here on our social linking directly to your word challenge post. This also includes retweets from myself with over 1700 followers.

Next Weeks Word Challenge

Now it’s time for next weeks weekly word challenge. Over the weekend we will vote for the words in which we will be blogging about. This is always the most exciting for me seeing I like the element of surprise. I do however have some changes I will be making. last week I got some feedback regarding all the words being to similar. This made perfect sense to me so for this weeks word I’m selecting a wide range of topics. This weeks words are,

• Building Relationships

• Time Management

• Community Involvement

• Blog Commenting

• Blogging

Please vote for our words in the blogengage forums. (separate registration needed from mian site)

The challenge

I challenge all the members here in our community to write an article about or regaridng the weekly word which is Marketing and Promotion. The article doesn’t have to be of any special length simply write about the topics and submit your article to the blogengage site. I also ask that you post a comment including the website url to where your article has been published.

Be sure to add me as a friend, bbrian017

Subscribe to my blog as well

Twitter, bbrian017

Thanks,

Brian

This is our first official weekly word challenge and I must admit I’m pretty excited to see the response from out community. Anyone interested in participating don’t hesitate we would love to have you join the challenge. Join in the community fun it’s only the beginning of challenges.

How does it work?

The weekly word challenge s not meant to be a competition but rather a writing exercise. I and our members will pick 5 words to pick from. We will vote on these words as a community and the winning word will be our weekly word challenge.

Where do you vote?

Every Thursday or Friday (end of week) I will list 5 words in our blog forums and allow our member to vote on their favorites. The most voted for word will become our weekly word challenge. You can easily vote by visiting our Blog Engage Forum Topic. (requires separate registration)

This weeks words are as follows,

Marketing
Advertising
Promotion
Sales/Selling
Publicity

Be sure to add me as a friend, bbrian017

Twitter, bbrian017

Thanks,

Brian