A Positive Letter from Hilary- Guest Post by Hilary Melton-Butcher
One of the things I love about being a blogger is meeting great people I would have never otherwise met. Such is the case with today's guest blogger. Hilary Melton-Butcher is a follower of this blog from across the Atlantic. It still amazes me that we can have casual conversations with people living anywhere in the world.
I approached Hilary to write a guest blog post here based on the comments I had been reading by her on my blog. That led me to visit her sites to learn more about her. In today's post, she will take you through the process she went through in developing her own blog. If you are apprehensive about blogging or if you want to gain perspective through another person's eyes, then you will want to read her fascinating journey at becoming a successful blogger.
A Positive Letter from Hilary-
by Hilary Melton-Butcher
In the autumn of 2008 I became part of a small group, mostly from the States, who were each going to start a blog, learn the strategy, set the blog up, start writing, get some tips and keywords strategies, start the traffic coming in - initially from the group comments, then branching out and commenting on other blogs, having that daily commitment and culture.
We needed a passion .. what are we blogging for, why are we doing it .. blogging is telling a story - and in fact perhaps that's where I fit - though at the beginning I had no idea. My first choice of blog was just was not me - so I pulled the plug .. it wasn't a subject I wished to pursue .. nor could I see where it would lead me.
In January 2009 I had the opportunity to join with the others in San Diego and learn some blog craft - writing, being creative, search engine optimisation strategy, tips and tricks, social media and by being part of a group to build a rapport from meeting everyone.
Over the Autumn and Christmas 2008 I mulled and mentally struggled for another name - a two word name - that would embody a passion and become (perhaps) a brand. I am a generalist by nature .... but having been looking after my stroked mother, who could still communicate at an intelligent level, I realised that the input which stimulated her was something I could turn into a series of blog posts.
I had been writing letters out to family and friends about my mother's situation and had had cards and letters back ... saying please don't stop these letters - they are so uplifting, so positive and so interesting - so from others' words was born Positive Letters.
Each member of the group posted and commented, and replied on each others' blogs - building the traffic; some of the bloggers fell away ... but once home I realised that my posts interested people - so I was on the right track; I also realised that I needed to go beyond the group and so started commenting on a few blogs that interested me.
We'd been guided re the etiquette, really common sense, we needed to build relationships with other bloggers by making salient comments to their posts, be loyal and in due time they would come across and comment and see what we were about.
Initially on each comment it was suggested we sign off with our name and our brand, so that that recognition would be there ... I still do it occasionally. I added Inspirational Stories to the name Positive Letters - because it was felt that positive letters, albeit is a good description, would not inspire people to actually visit the blog.
I was lucky - Daphne wrote a post entitled "Who is your Ideal Reader?" - a very good question for an aspiring blogger .. my reply about my mother triggered Daphne (as she couldn't contact me via email) to write a whole post to me "A Positive Letter for Hilary" - amazing .. I was stunned. I had only been blogging 3 months .. but I had made those connections.
From there .. I branched out, some of the original bloggers fell away, and my readership started to grow ... more importantly I continued to realise that my content interested people sufficiently for them to keep coming back and keep commenting - some extremely positively.
My life has been pretty stretched - my mother in the Nursing Centre but needing and wanting my visits every day or twice a day .. and my uncle needed my support after a fall, and relishing the input I was able to give him - particularly my visits and in between my letters - yes - a positive letter, exactly as it was intended, via the post: he was enthralled and couldn't wait for the next one!
So I have concentrated on the blog, without doing any marketing at all, other than building relationships with people whose blogs I enjoy or whose input I respect - Tony's - and realised that my blog is my asset base - all 250+ posts.
I have quite a lot of ideas for ways of developing the blog, but I need the emotional energy and time to build and develop these thoughts. This year my mother has been quite ill .. but now she is a little better and able to converse again .. so I will take things slowly.
My readership has grown - it is not enormous by any manner of means .. with 50+ followers - but the amazing thing (to me that is!) I'm getting a 33%+ ratio of commenters. My replies to comments are pertinent, and the comments I post on others' blogs I make relevant to their post (their blog and to them .. as the rapport between us grows). However there are one or two blogs I post on - where I don't expect to get a comment back ... but then suddenly .. Tony's "Hilary could you do a guest post for me on Getting Started?" question came via an unpublished comment!. Whooo - what an honour!
The other advantage I've realised is .. that I'm telling various stories all the time - about life, getting you all to think differently, to look at our past in a different light - actually educating myself all the time .. but I'm also giving a running commentary, through the 'Dear Mr Postman' postscript at the end of each post as to how my mother is .. what's she's feeling & how she's reacting etc
This gives me another string to my bow - as I have experienced a great deal about the health service, health, patients and their relatives, strokes, hospitals, nursing centres etc etc and can turn that knowledge into another way to attract readers - or as has happened write another guest post on healing.
So completely inadvertently ... because I haven't been agitating about numbers, SEO, social media (I tried .. but simply couldn't cope - I know what to do from San Diego & watching and listening ever since), advertising of any sort, marketing in any direction .. I've just been consistently blogging about subjects that interest and attract people - for which I'm very grateful - but I seem to have a brand.
So in simple terms and point format I'd say:
Keep it simple ... get a feel
Choose your platform - Blogger or Wordpress or your own dot.com (or preferably your own dot.com even if you use Blogger as I do - I will be changing to Wordpress sometime)
Set the platform up - so that it does what you want, again keep it simple to start with - have a "profile" note, the "about" can wait for a while, I like "comment moderation on"- you can always change it later, try one or two of the tools - see what others use
Select your name - preferably two words .. that will act as keywords now or later on
Choose your niche - your passion, your business, or your area of expertise - you can see from my blog .. my niche is very different - in fact to be perfectly honest .. I'm not sure where it falls & when I come to do some marketing then I will need to drill down some more to find the appropriate focus.
Write 300 - 600 words for each post - every day (I am now posting only twice a week or so, while I have so much going on & as the blog is established .. and my posts have become longer - but contain a lot of information). Add a signature at the bottom of each post and the blog title
Find/choose some blogs to comment on - ones you enjoy and/or have relevance - write positive salient posts
Add a few blogs to your Reader - ensuring you know when to comment
Be patient, be consistent - you're building a community niche
Readers and commenters will come - as long as you have something of value
Watch what others do ... learn from their approach
Add a picture to your blog posts
Add a link within your blog post - for your picture or another article of interest
I put links in for videos .. because if you print off a post with a video in it - it comes up black - wasting ink!
Essentially write a blog post every day, comment every day on other blogs, publish and reply to comments that will come to your blog.
Blogging is story telling, a journal .. it is allowing us to market ourselves to the world... once we have a small core base of followers then we can progress outwards - develop a business idea, write a book, look at other net-based opportunities, or local off-line opportunities.
Work out your business strategy, or blogging strategy and work your blog as you would if you were opening a small store - you want your customers .. offer them what they want - be loyal, be polite, be thoughtful .. most things take time and they don't happen overnight.
Enjoy the process .. I am now loving it - and as someone commented recently "Hilary - you're writing these stories for others .. but you wouldn't stop now would you?" And that is so true - the idea started from the conversations I had with my Mother, the updates I sent out as letters to friends and families, the positive letter I sent to my Uncle .. but now I love what I write and the blog has a degree of success ...
I have much to learn about social media and marketing my ideas .. but my asset base is there and my genre is established ... so although each post takes quite a lot of work I am educating myself about all sorts of subjects all the time ... and it gives me something positive to work with - when I've had a difficult and challenging few years - and something to move forward with ...
Enjoy the process .. don't try and do too much or stress yourself out, it's better to do it properly .. either do it .. or don't.
Be positive .. go forward step by step .. none of us go from zero to hero overnight .. have fun as you move along .. enjoy the success as it comes .. from the positive comments, from watching your followers grow - but 'look before you leap' .. otherwise your castle will come crashing down ... and you'll be stressed out of sight and sound!
Enjoy, smile, be happy and live life .. see you out on the blogosphere .. and I would dearly love to see you over at my blog with some thoughts .. let me know what you think!
Thank you Tony .. really grateful for this opportunity to write for your excellent blog with all its tips and tricks - you're such a generous blogger - another essential .. give it away = be generous.
Hilary Melton-Butcher Positive Letters Inspirational Stories
I approached Hilary to write a guest blog post here based on the comments I had been reading by her on my blog. That led me to visit her sites to learn more about her. In today's post, she will take you through the process she went through in developing her own blog. If you are apprehensive about blogging or if you want to gain perspective through another person's eyes, then you will want to read her fascinating journey at becoming a successful blogger.
A Positive Letter from Hilary- by Hilary Melton-Butcher
In the autumn of 2008 I became part of a small group, mostly from the States, who were each going to start a blog, learn the strategy, set the blog up, start writing, get some tips and keywords strategies, start the traffic coming in - initially from the group comments, then branching out and commenting on other blogs, having that daily commitment and culture.
We needed a passion .. what are we blogging for, why are we doing it .. blogging is telling a story - and in fact perhaps that's where I fit - though at the beginning I had no idea. My first choice of blog was just was not me - so I pulled the plug .. it wasn't a subject I wished to pursue .. nor could I see where it would lead me.
In January 2009 I had the opportunity to join with the others in San Diego and learn some blog craft - writing, being creative, search engine optimisation strategy, tips and tricks, social media and by being part of a group to build a rapport from meeting everyone.
Over the Autumn and Christmas 2008 I mulled and mentally struggled for another name - a two word name - that would embody a passion and become (perhaps) a brand. I am a generalist by nature .... but having been looking after my stroked mother, who could still communicate at an intelligent level, I realised that the input which stimulated her was something I could turn into a series of blog posts.
I had been writing letters out to family and friends about my mother's situation and had had cards and letters back ... saying please don't stop these letters - they are so uplifting, so positive and so interesting - so from others' words was born Positive Letters.
Each member of the group posted and commented, and replied on each others' blogs - building the traffic; some of the bloggers fell away ... but once home I realised that my posts interested people - so I was on the right track; I also realised that I needed to go beyond the group and so started commenting on a few blogs that interested me.
We'd been guided re the etiquette, really common sense, we needed to build relationships with other bloggers by making salient comments to their posts, be loyal and in due time they would come across and comment and see what we were about.
Initially on each comment it was suggested we sign off with our name and our brand, so that that recognition would be there ... I still do it occasionally. I added Inspirational Stories to the name Positive Letters - because it was felt that positive letters, albeit is a good description, would not inspire people to actually visit the blog.
I was lucky - Daphne wrote a post entitled "Who is your Ideal Reader?" - a very good question for an aspiring blogger .. my reply about my mother triggered Daphne (as she couldn't contact me via email) to write a whole post to me "A Positive Letter for Hilary" - amazing .. I was stunned. I had only been blogging 3 months .. but I had made those connections.
From there .. I branched out, some of the original bloggers fell away, and my readership started to grow ... more importantly I continued to realise that my content interested people sufficiently for them to keep coming back and keep commenting - some extremely positively.
My life has been pretty stretched - my mother in the Nursing Centre but needing and wanting my visits every day or twice a day .. and my uncle needed my support after a fall, and relishing the input I was able to give him - particularly my visits and in between my letters - yes - a positive letter, exactly as it was intended, via the post: he was enthralled and couldn't wait for the next one!
So I have concentrated on the blog, without doing any marketing at all, other than building relationships with people whose blogs I enjoy or whose input I respect - Tony's - and realised that my blog is my asset base - all 250+ posts.
I have quite a lot of ideas for ways of developing the blog, but I need the emotional energy and time to build and develop these thoughts. This year my mother has been quite ill .. but now she is a little better and able to converse again .. so I will take things slowly.
My readership has grown - it is not enormous by any manner of means .. with 50+ followers - but the amazing thing (to me that is!) I'm getting a 33%+ ratio of commenters. My replies to comments are pertinent, and the comments I post on others' blogs I make relevant to their post (their blog and to them .. as the rapport between us grows). However there are one or two blogs I post on - where I don't expect to get a comment back ... but then suddenly .. Tony's "Hilary could you do a guest post for me on Getting Started?" question came via an unpublished comment!. Whooo - what an honour!
The other advantage I've realised is .. that I'm telling various stories all the time - about life, getting you all to think differently, to look at our past in a different light - actually educating myself all the time .. but I'm also giving a running commentary, through the 'Dear Mr Postman' postscript at the end of each post as to how my mother is .. what's she's feeling & how she's reacting etc
This gives me another string to my bow - as I have experienced a great deal about the health service, health, patients and their relatives, strokes, hospitals, nursing centres etc etc and can turn that knowledge into another way to attract readers - or as has happened write another guest post on healing.
So completely inadvertently ... because I haven't been agitating about numbers, SEO, social media (I tried .. but simply couldn't cope - I know what to do from San Diego & watching and listening ever since), advertising of any sort, marketing in any direction .. I've just been consistently blogging about subjects that interest and attract people - for which I'm very grateful - but I seem to have a brand.
So in simple terms and point format I'd say:
Keep it simple ... get a feel
Choose your platform - Blogger or Wordpress or your own dot.com (or preferably your own dot.com even if you use Blogger as I do - I will be changing to Wordpress sometime)
Set the platform up - so that it does what you want, again keep it simple to start with - have a "profile" note, the "about" can wait for a while, I like "comment moderation on"- you can always change it later, try one or two of the tools - see what others use
Select your name - preferably two words .. that will act as keywords now or later on
Choose your niche - your passion, your business, or your area of expertise - you can see from my blog .. my niche is very different - in fact to be perfectly honest .. I'm not sure where it falls & when I come to do some marketing then I will need to drill down some more to find the appropriate focus.
Write 300 - 600 words for each post - every day (I am now posting only twice a week or so, while I have so much going on & as the blog is established .. and my posts have become longer - but contain a lot of information). Add a signature at the bottom of each post and the blog title
Find/choose some blogs to comment on - ones you enjoy and/or have relevance - write positive salient posts
Add a few blogs to your Reader - ensuring you know when to comment
Be patient, be consistent - you're building a community niche
Readers and commenters will come - as long as you have something of value
Watch what others do ... learn from their approach
Add a picture to your blog posts
Add a link within your blog post - for your picture or another article of interest
I put links in for videos .. because if you print off a post with a video in it - it comes up black - wasting ink!
Essentially write a blog post every day, comment every day on other blogs, publish and reply to comments that will come to your blog.
Blogging is story telling, a journal .. it is allowing us to market ourselves to the world... once we have a small core base of followers then we can progress outwards - develop a business idea, write a book, look at other net-based opportunities, or local off-line opportunities.
Work out your business strategy, or blogging strategy and work your blog as you would if you were opening a small store - you want your customers .. offer them what they want - be loyal, be polite, be thoughtful .. most things take time and they don't happen overnight.
Enjoy the process .. I am now loving it - and as someone commented recently "Hilary - you're writing these stories for others .. but you wouldn't stop now would you?" And that is so true - the idea started from the conversations I had with my Mother, the updates I sent out as letters to friends and families, the positive letter I sent to my Uncle .. but now I love what I write and the blog has a degree of success ...
I have much to learn about social media and marketing my ideas .. but my asset base is there and my genre is established ... so although each post takes quite a lot of work I am educating myself about all sorts of subjects all the time ... and it gives me something positive to work with - when I've had a difficult and challenging few years - and something to move forward with ...
Enjoy the process .. don't try and do too much or stress yourself out, it's better to do it properly .. either do it .. or don't.
Be positive .. go forward step by step .. none of us go from zero to hero overnight .. have fun as you move along .. enjoy the success as it comes .. from the positive comments, from watching your followers grow - but 'look before you leap' .. otherwise your castle will come crashing down ... and you'll be stressed out of sight and sound!
Enjoy, smile, be happy and live life .. see you out on the blogosphere .. and I would dearly love to see you over at my blog with some thoughts .. let me know what you think!
Thank you Tony .. really grateful for this opportunity to write for your excellent blog with all its tips and tricks - you're such a generous blogger - another essential .. give it away = be generous.
Hilary Melton-Butcher Positive Letters Inspirational Stories
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