Is writing on your blog a pleasant and easy task for you? Or is it sometimes worse than getting a tooth pulled? If so, I'm thinking of you this week.

The tooth fairy turned into a wicked witch and sent me to the dentist's for two root canals over the weekend. I don't write well on pain meds and antibiotics. I forgot a friend's birthday party. And I'm barely getting my work done. Fortunately, two root canals in Mexico cost under $250, a far cry from US prices. But even so, it hurts!

Here's what's new: If you haven't downloaded Content Marketing with Blogs, do so now. I've added a bonus report 5 Questions for Writing Web Content that Gets Results. Here's what this free ebook provides:

• 4 reasons blogs fail
• Why good content isn't enough
• 4 keys to having a great blog
  
• 7 step formula for online marketing success
• The new shift in content marketing focus
• What's required for the 21st century

If you want your blog to work as the most powerful marketing tool on the planet, (which it is, or should be!), then you need to know a few things. This report is the latest information and summarizes it all into simple steps.

Don't struggle with your blog any more. Make your content marketing writing tasks easy. No more pain.

I spent the weekend doing research…well, not entirely, I played tennis, went to the movies, watched HBO and laughed a lot with my hubby. But work wise, I've been visiting a lot of blogs and sites lately, researching what makes for good content marketing and bad.

Newt Barrett does a terrific job of highlighting sites that get Content Marketing right as well as those who miss the boat over on his Content Marketing Today blog. I always learn better when I can see samples of what works and what doesn't work. I'm sure you do too.

However, I am a little stymied in my quest to find bad samples of content marketing on blogs. Why? It's not that there aren't bad sites and bad content on the Web. There's a lot of garbage. But mostly what I find is mediocrity.

Many bloggers are writing reasonable content. And they're probably getting some results. Most blog writers are just barely scraping the surface of what needs to be said. I believe most of you can do better than that.

Mediocrity Sucks

I hate mediocrity, because you can't really disagree with it or get excited, or anything. It's just a waste of my time to read the same old things. With mediocrity, you can't quite put your finger on it, but you know it stinks.

Okay, let me be frank. I think there are a lot of boring blogs that could be much better. People are regurgitating what others are saying. Sometimes they add their own perspectives, sometimes not. But mostly they're trying to post as much content as possible, without really saying anything new.

Boring, banal and bull–shitake, is what I'm really thinking. In fact, I know for sure that one professional is merely copying and pasting posts from other people (me!) and republishing them as her own. Besides being borderline illegal, and not very Kosher, it's boring. Been there, read that. Please don't bore me with old news.

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I was working with a new blogging client (let's call him Andy) yesterday who was stuck. Andy had written about 10 blog posts which he saved as drafts because was worried about key words.

Now there's a learning curve involved in writing for your blog, and there's no way around it. The only way to learn to write good blog posts is to write and publish blog posts. Saving them as drafts won't work.

You can practice your serve on a tennis court by yourself too. But until you serve the ball to someone on the other side of the net and keep score in a game, it really doesn't count.

Here's what I told Andy. When you sit down to your "compose a post" page, focus first on these steps:

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I absolutely hate using my writing blog to promote a sale, so I ask your indulgence just this one time. Don't throw tomatoes.

Actually, you may love me for this, especially if you want to get your business blog spiffed up AND get a valuable bonus program on Better Blog Writing.

Now that I think more about this, you'll have a chance to learn about the 10% nuances that make a blog get results or not. Because that's often the difference between a blog that works and one that doesn't…it's often just the little nuances.

One of the best programs I ever did with Denise Wakeman as The Blog Squad was our Better Business Blog Writing Program. Here's how you can get it for free…

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