If you spend most of your time in the real world, you can be forgiven for never having heard of Ron Paul. But, if you spend any amount of time online and haven’t heard of him, you’ve probably been living in the virtual equivalent of a cave. You can’t go on digg, for example, without his name coming up, even in seemingly unrelated articles. Anyway, in case you didn’t know, Ron Paul is the Republican party’s long-shot candidate for President.

In spite of that, there are still some important lessons that bloggers can learn from Ron Paul.

Manage Your Content. Choose your own words carefully, and review the posts of any guest bloggers before you post them. You see, Ron Paul ran into a little trouble with some newsletters he used to publish. Seems some articles had some racist and other offensive content, leading some former supporters to drop him like a hot potato [language]. Did he approve of that content, or didn’t he? Whether he did or didn’t isn’t the point here; the point is that people won’t believe that you don’t approve of something if you allowed it to run in your own publication (i.e., your blog), especially if you didn’t run it with a disclaimer beforehand. So, make sure to check the posts of any guest bloggers you have. Or, at the very least, make it very clear who wrote the piece and perhaps too mention that the views expressed do not necessarily reflect your own.

You’ll notice that, when posting posts not written by him or Michael Kwan, top blogger John Chow will clearly state in the opening sentence or paragraph who the guest blogger was that authored the piece. That’s a good practice to adopt, and, as I mentioned previously, you might also want to make a brief disclaimer, especially if it’s any kind of opinionated content.

Ron Paul will be forever tainted by the content that he allowed be published under his name. Disclaimers should be made beforehand, as any afterward attempts, unless perhaps they are immediately afterwards, are often taken with a grain of salt. If you’ve worked hard to build a reputation in the blogosphere, don’t let it be destroyed by oversight of allowing a guest blogger to post something damaging.

Build an Audience. Ron Paul has maintained a base of fervent, sometimes wacky, supporters who follow him in his charge against the windmills. The lesson here is that, unlike an election where only the top guy wins, you can still be a big success in a small niche. You don’t have to be the top blogger in the blogosphere to be successful. Number two is just fine. You can be at the bottom of the list of the top bloggers and still be laughing all the way to the bank.

You don’t have to have the largest audience, though it would certainly behoove you to have an audience larger than your immediately family and friends. It will be difficult to monetize a blog when your only readers are your family, close friends and your cat that occasionally sleeps on your monitor.

Blogging is not a winner take all venture. Even if someone could seize 51% of the Internet audience, that still leaves 49% available. Even a smaller percentage thereof can be profitable. Ron Paul had support that barely made it into the double digits, but in some areas of the Internet, it’s easy to fall into the delusion that he actually has a shot at winning. If he couldn’t win New Hampshire, he’s certainly not going to win anywhere else. But, you’re not running for President (probably), so you don’t have to worry about winning any states over to your cause. Single digit viewership online can still be great. There are almost 300 million English speaking people online. If you got 1% of that, that’s 3 million readers! Would you consider that a bad thing?

Never Give Up. While men with more money, like Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards, have already quit the race, Ron Paul keeps on going and going like some kind of real life Energizer Bunny. At this point, and at pretty much every earlier point, he didn’t have a shot at winning. But, he keeps spreading his message, winning over new converts to his cause. Mind you, that message is now somewhat tainted by the issues mentioned before, but he has still managed to retain supporters and win over new converts. The lesson here is that, even if you screw up big time, keep on going! Even if you don’t have a shot at winning the big prize, the smaller prizes are still pretty good. Plus, people will respect your “never say die!” attitude.

So, there you go. Three things that you can learn from Ron Paul, even if you’ve never heard of him until now.

Popularity: 7% [?]

First up, before we take care of the Freaky Links, let me just mention that Peter enjoyed my article on “How to Make $1,000,000 Blogging.” He said that “It’s an awesome read and pretty funny through out the entire piece.” Well, that gets him a mention and a linkback. Thanks Peter!

Okay, now onto the Freaky Links!

1. This past week, Rolando did a short series on the “Dangers of Blogging.” Today, I find a site that asks what you would like as your last meal. Your final meal. The last meal you would eat before you die. Freaky. If you do choose to answer on the site, beware of anyone offering you that meal at any point in the future. If your spouse offers you that meal, run. If your waiter suggests it, especially if it’s something not offered at the restaurant you’re in, run. Me, I think I’ll just abstain from answering the question.
2. Teach your brain to stretch time. You too can achieve time travel within your own lifetime…
3. How to cook a baby. From the same site that wants to know your request for your final meal. Soylent green is people!
4. Hold onto something. Chris Bloczynski linked to me, and I’m linking back to his post linking to me, which I think could cause the Internet to implode. That, naturally, reminds me of this, which I feel compelled to link to at every opportunity.

   Oh, and Robert Henru–the guy who robbed me of victory in Chris Bloczynski’s linking contest–linked back to me too. I guess he’s feeling guilty or something. Anyway, he enjoyed a quote that I have on my About page. So, at the risk of breaking the Internet, I’ll give him a linkback too.

5. Did you know that Playboy magazine is available in Braille? Guess who pays for that? That’s right. Your tax dollars at work. (In the U.S., anyway.)
6. If you like pulling pranks on your friends, and have a lot of time on your hands, you might want to try this light bulb prank. Better hurry before these bulbs are no longer available. They were banned, you know. And you wouldn’t want to do this with one of those dangerous CFLs!
7. Nasty parasites. Pete, you probably don’t want to look at these.
8. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. I mentioned this the other day, but it deserves another link. Make a Cylon jack o’lantern. You’ve only got 275 days left!
9. You can always tell it’s a slow news day when you can see something like this. I think I learned that in high school Physics, but that was many moons ago.
10. Brilliant 3D Illusion! It’s easy to figure it out, but you might have to watch it a second time to see what he’s really doing.
11. Of course, no one does it better than Penn & Teller.
12. Finally, not everyone is good with computers.

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You could get $10,000 for an exclusive photo of Britney Spears, plus many more dollars in residuals. This according to Francois Navarre of X17 in an article on CNN.com.

But, if you think this post is going to be about how to become a paparazzi, sorry, no.

Rather, read the article and see what you glean from it. Clearly, no publicity is bad publicity, especially for the cottage industry that sprouts up and around troubled celebrities.

It is a rather sad state of affairs that bad behavior and even behavior that possibly requires professional help becomes a public spectacle. Mind-enriching media will lagger in sales, but Britney Spears parties sans underwear, and millions of copies of that magazine will be sold. One must wonder if combining brain-boosting activities with baser interests might be a boon for society, but people have tried nude chess and that hasn’t apparently caught on, so that theory is blown.

At any rate, while we may reflect on this lamentable state of affairs, it is likely part of human nature that perhaps might require many generations before there is any hope that it might be changed and, even then, so long as there is a desire to reproduce, no doubt the baser things will still attract our attention.

Instead, how can we benefit from the baser desires of the masses, without exploiting the potentially mentally ill or just generally unbalanced personalities among us? Not all of us can be paparazzi, and, for many of us, it is not even a desirable profession, though many who may condemn the celebrity photographers will still buy the magazines in which their images are featured. Hard to claim the moral high road when you’ve already spent your quarter to see the amazing rubber woman at the circus.

What we can learn is that being like everyone else may be what politicians and schools and your peers may push you to be, but it is not going to get you very far. Society tries to grind you down to their level. If you’re even a little different, if you try to assert your own uniqueness, they’ll try to grind you down even more. Society is like a bully in that regard, picking on the people who are different. Oh, they won’t beat you up, but they’ll still take your lunch money. Not directly, mind you, but by robbing you of other opportunities to do better for yourself.

Want to be a rich and famous rock star?
You’ll never make it. Better just get a job at the factory.

Want to be a rich and famous movie star?
You’ll never make it. Better study accounting instead.

Want to be a rich and famous author?
You’ll never make it. Better just get a job at the local big box store.

Anytime you dream big, others will knock you down. Show any type of unique ability or talent, and they’ll belittle you.

What does this have to do with Britney Spears? Well, if you don’t give up, if you don’t let them grind you down, sooner or later people will be paying to read or see you behaving differently or badly. If you’re lucky, if you’re skillful, you can manipulate them instead of them manipulating you. Or exploiting you.

Does that mean Britney is manipulating us all? It doesn’t look that way, but I could be wrong. I’m not going to make that call.*

But, what is true is that successful people manipulate the media all the time. Bad publicity? Bend it to your benefit. Good publicity? Exploit it. Any time that people are talking about you, there is potential to make money. Even accused murderers get marriage proposals!**

You have to know your own limits and abide by your own values. You don’t have to dangle your baby over a balcony or party in short skirts without your underwear to get attention. You just need to stand out, to be different from everyone else, from your competition. Bad behavior is not necessary; just behavior that is out of the ordinary. You could climb Mount Everest. You could wear an outlandish tie. Be you.

You could be known as the guy that wears a loud tie. People will talk about the guy with the wacky tie. And, assuming you’re competent at your job, that could help get the attention of your superiors too. Loud tie guy could go places, while the normal tie guys get overlooked.

Then again, you might have to compete with hyperactive personality guy, whom everyone loves because he gives exciting presentations. Loud tie guy can’t compete with hyperactive personality guy. On the other hand, hyperactive personality guy only does a quarterly report, but loud tie guy is there everyday, wearing a different wacky tie. But, while hyperactive personality guy and loud tie guy compete, the normal guys are still overlooked.

Build a brand identity around yourself, and that will help you be memorable. Instead of knocking you down, people will be clamoring to see what you’ll do or wear or say next.***

The trick is in not falling for your own hype, or in losing yourself or your own values in your efforts. For when you do that, even if the money is rolling in, you have lost. The bullies have won.

*In case you haven’t been able to tell, this post isn’t really about Britney Spears, so any speculation about her mental well-being is not relevant to the point of this post and not within any professional capacity of mine to make any kind of judgment thereof. Any opinions expressed are opinions only and not the result of any medical or professional analysis.

***There will almost always be at least some people trying to knock you down. Or holding onto your coattails trying to drag you down or lift themselves up. Or both.

Popularity: 7% [?]

I have a post I’ve been working on, but haven’t felt up to finishing it this evening. As has been my custom in the past when I was lacking for a post, I dig out an old poem to share.

I have lots of old books and there are lots of little treasures that frequently seem to be lost to us, replaced by the more popular names of the day. Poets long ago are forgotten and replaced with the lesser godlings of modern music, such as it is.

Frequently, though, these old poems reflect on death and other morbid curiosities, and finding something uplifting that is not depressing at the same time can be somewhat of a challenge. So, today’s selection is not one that is a lost treasure, but has more of a thoughtful grace that’s not such a downer.

LIGHT

The night has a thousand eyes,
   And the day but one,
Yet the light of the bright world dies
   With the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
   And the heart but one,
Yet the light of a whole life dies
   When its love is done.

Francis W. Bourdillon

Have a great day!

Popularity: 6% [?]

Yesterday’s post on “How to Make $1,000,000 Blogging” set some records for the most popular article in one day. It was Stumbled (thanks!) but had 64% more views than the typical Stumble brings to one of my articles. In addition, in terms of total views for the blog in a single day, yesterday set the record. It even outperformed my Viral Links stories!

The post also finished second place in terms of total readers for a specific post in one day. The record is held by “Google Slaps Bloggers… Yawn.”

Overall, it jumped to #14 in my most popular posts of all time. I think that’s pretty good to reach that point in a single day.

I can only guess, but I think the headline may have had something to do with the staggering increase in views over the average Stumble. This may validate Chris Bloczynski’s post on headline techniques.

Anyway, wow.

And, if you missed it, you can read it here.

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Announcing my new blog/site: dcr Writes dot Com.

How’s that for a snappy title?

As you can see, and as I mentioned earlier, I still have lots of work to do on the theme to get it where it looks good!

It probably will not be updated as frequently as this blog (but who knows!?) and when I post stories over there, I may make an announcement here. Or maybe figure out a way to stick something in the sidebar.

Since this blog is mainly motivation and blogging topics, not everyone here is going to be interested in my fiction, so I thought it might be a good idea to give it a home of its own.

Anyway, feel free to take a peek around at the new site. Won’t take long since there’s only two real pages.

Popularity: 5% [?]

I posted about a new project last week. Some of you have already seen the site under development.

Well, it’s gone now.

Don’t worry, though. I have just taken it now because I will be doing it a little differently. It may or may not even use WordPress! But, anyway, while I research that further, I will be setting up another blog.

Well, not so much a blog as a new website. But, it will use WordPress.

Confused?

Don’t be. WordPress can also be used as a general content management system (CMS). I may announce the new site later tonight, but there won’t be much on it just yet. But, you know how I like to give you teasers.

And, no Mike, I didn’t forget about getting stuff to you either…

Popularity: 5% [?]

Nina, a.k.a. SF Girl, tagged me with the “Seven Weird Things About Me” meme, which she caught from Mel. Pete already did his.

I’m going to do mine a little differently. Instead of doing all seven at once, I am going to do one a day. I will also tag one person a day. Today, I’m tagging Joanne. Nina also tagged her, which was just evil because she had to know I would be tagging Joanne as well.

Weird Thing About Me #1

When I look at a ruler, I usually have to count out the 1/8’s or 1/16’s, especially if they’re after the 1/2″ mark. On the other hand, at a glance and without counting the marks, I can typically tell the measurement in decimal inches, like 0.875″ for example. I’d have to count the marks to determine that it’s 7/8″, but I can tell at a glance that it’s 0.875″.

I’ve been doing typesetting and graphics work since, well, technically the 80’s, but really the early 90’s with Aldus PageMaker and Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. And, in measuring things to set them, I’d have to measure and then enter that in decimal inches in the computer. Over time, I just learned what the decimal inches were for the marks on the ruler, instead of the fraction.

Stay tuned tomorrow (most likely) for Weird Thing About Me #2!

Popularity: 7% [?]

Sometimes, taking photos of butterflies or, in this case, skippers, can be challenging.

You move slowly, cautiously so as not to frighten them away. With my camera, I also have to use manual focus. I have to get close, get the skipper in view, and adjust the lens until he is in sharp focus.

And, then by the time you push the button, he’s flown away!

This is part of a short sequence (3 shots) of photos that go together nicely. I think I’ll put them together as an animation sometime.

Popularity: 5% [?]

I’ll start off with the disclaimer that I cannot guarantee success, but I have developed a nearly foolproof plan to making $1,000,000 by blogging. And, I’ve put it together in seven easy steps, because, as you well know, people like reading steps and lists more than full-on articles.

Also, please note that I’m going to skip some of the basics. These steps assume that you already have started a blog and know how to blog and comment on other blogs and link and post photos and all that other good stuff. If you’re looking for information on that, you won’t find it in this post. Sorry.

I’m also going to skip the bits about writing about your passion and finding the appropriate motivation and all that nebulous psychobabble that the pros try to feed you. They’re just trying to distract you, trying to keep you down. Open your eyes, man! Or woman, as the case may be.

Okay, so let’s move right along and get into the steps.

1. Update Your Blog Regularly. You’ll even find that tip in John Chow’s eBook. You’ve got to keep your blog updated, so that readers will keep coming back for more. And, short, quickie, teaser posts about what you’re going to write about tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that aren’t going to cut it. No, you need good meaty content. Or good leafy content if you’re not a carnivore.
2. Have Good Content. As I said, you want meaty or leafy content. That means you write about actual stuff and you write for real people. And, hold back on the keyword stuffing. You might fool the search engines, but you won’t fool many real people. It’s too obvious. If you’re writing about making money with your blog and you’re targeting people that want to make money with their blog by making a money making blog with your own blog that makes money, real people, who are interested in making money with their blogs, are going to see right through that kind of money making blog nonsense. And, if those money making blog wannabes read through to the second sentence on how to make money with their blog on your money making blog post, you can consider yourself, and your make money with your blog blog, very lucky.
3. Monetize Your Blog. Now, some people will want to build traffic first then try to monetize the thing. No, no, no! Monetize it first, then go after traffic. You might only have half a dozen readers now, but if someone stumbles or diggs one of your posts, you could get, like, twice as many. And, you want to have some ads and stuff for them to buy when they do. Not that any of them ever do, but better to have something to sell and them not buy than to have nothing to sell and them still not want to buy. Am I right?

   This is also a good time to mention that you’ll want to start out with ad services and affiliate programs that have a low payment threshold. Almost everyone recommends Google AdSense, but they don’t pay, as far as I remember, until the amount hits $100. And, starting out, if you’re like many bloggers, it’ll be 6-10 years before you’ve reached that amount. By that time, you’ll have run out of money for hosting your website or paying for your Internet access, and the cardboard box that you then call a home* won’t adequately protect your computer from the rain, so your blogging will be limited to sunny days when you can find a WiFi hotspot.

   Which brings us to the second point: Don’t quit your day job. Some of the pros will tell you you’ve got to take that leap of faith and commit to blogging full-time, that you’ll succeed simply because you cannot afford to fail! Like I said, they’re just trying to keep you down, man.

4. Build Traffic. This is where most people lose out. They spend hours on end writing posts, finding new money making schemes, but then they don’t have an audience. Instead of sitting around watching videos on YouTube while pretending you’re researching something to write about, you need to get out into the blogosphere and leave some worthwhile comments on other blogs, big and small. Heck, go find some blogs with embedded YouTube videos and comment on that. Takes care of two things at once, no? And, don’t make it obvious that you’re trying to promote your blog. You don’t need to post your URL and a lengthy paragraph explanation of why your blog is the greatest thing since stuffed olives, especially if your comment was nothing more than “I agree with you, dude!”

   At this point, it’s also important to stress that you should read the posts you comment on. Don’t just hop from blog to blog leaving comments indiscriminately. How embarrassing would it be if you’re one day doing an interview on live TV and the guy says, “So, you’re into pedophilia?” And, you’re like, “No!” And the guy is like, “Well, on this blog here, the author wrote that pedophilia should be legal, and you commented, ‘I agree with you, dude!’ And, it lists your blog URL along with an exposition on why your blog is the greatest thing since stuffed olives.”

5. Take the Check to the Bank and Cash It! This will be the fun part. At long last, you finally got your first $10 check (or $100 if you went ahead with Google and waited and waited and waited or got really lucky stumbling upon a profitable niche). Savor the moment, and then run down to the bank. Don’t speed! If you get a speeding ticket, that’s probably going to wipe out your earnings, then you’ll have to wait for the next check. But, anyway, assuming you made it to the bank at a lawful speed and arrived before closing time, which would probably be less of an issue if you had quit your day job since many banks seem to keep the same hours as the people they serve, making it difficult to get there other than on your lunch break and then only if it’s not too far a distance to make it there and back before your 40-minute hour lunch break is over. Anyway, present the check to the teller and cash it in. Ask for crisp, new $1 bills. You want to savor the moment. You might even want to frame your first blogging dollar, so make sure it’s a good one!
6. Buy Lottery Tickets. Now, take your cash and go buy some lottery tickets. Not the scratch-offs! You’re going for $1,000,000 here, remember? If you have to buy the tickets from a machine, this is where the new, crisp $1 bills come in handy, because those machines really don’t like bills that have been folded, torn, balled up and washed in someone’s jeans more than a couple times. Some of them don’t even like the ones that have a slight wrinkle or a folded over corner. They’re very picky and you don’t need the added stress. Now, you could just buy a bunch of tickets, but a better strategy would be to buy one or two tickets a week using the same numbers each time. That’ll improve your odds of winning. It also stretches out your blog money so that maybe you’ll have some more blog money in before you need to buy the next batch of tickets.
7. Repeat as Necessary. The odds are pretty good that you’re not going to win the lottery the first or second time around. You have to have patience and keep trying! Blogging is not a get rich quick scheme. You’ll never succeed if you give up too early. In the meantime, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing your blog dollars are helping your state’s education system not flounder even more than it already is.

So, there you have it: a nearly foolproof method of getting $1,000,000 by blogging. Your results may vary. As I said, I cannot make any guarantees here. Please consult a financial professional before acting upon any financial suggestions.

That said, if this post helps you make $1,000,000 blogging, or even a reasonable fraction thereof, I think it would be really nice of you to send me a 10% consulting fee. After all, I gave you a simple plan to follow, so I’ve made it really easy for you. I’ll even give you a linkback, which could help you get your second million even faster! That’s a pretty good deal, I think.

Seriously?

On a more serious note, steps 1 through 4 are good as gold, although, again, no guarantees. And blogging is not going to be a get rich quick scheme. You’ll no doubt notice that a lot of blogs tend to pan out after a couple months. The bloggers get bored, the money isn’t coming in fast enough, and they just give up or move on to other things.

Things don’t come easy. It may seem like they come easy to other people, but it’s often because you hadn’t heard of those people when they were struggling like you may be. It can be difficult to visualize that someone living their dreams in a nice house with a good income was ever at the point where you might be at. And, even if you’re not struggling, but just looking to supplement your income or do something different than what you’re doing now, it can still be hard to follow the advice of those who have already been through it.

Bear in mind that, while the media may sensationalize successful online entrepreneurs, few if any became successful overnight. They had to work at it. They had to learn how to succeed, often by failing frequently. But, they didn’t give up. They kept trying new things until they hit upon the things that worked for them.

You’ll see a lot of these successful people sharing their tips. The truth is that there is no magic formula that anyone can give you that can guarantee anything you do will be successful. They can give you tips to avoid known failures, but you also have to consider that what didn’t work for them might work for you, especially if you are in a different market than they are in.

In some ways, school doesn’t really prepare us for failure. If you fail in school, you have to repeat the class until you pass. In reality, repeating the same thing over and over again is a recipe for failure. School is different. One plus one equals two (except in binary, but let’s keep things simple here and stick with base-10 math). If you think it equals something else, it makes sense for you to take the class again until you learn that one and one really do add up to two. Mind you, I am simplifying things to a large extent here, but I think you get the basic idea. But, in business, you may be doing math by the books, but if you’re working in base-10 and everyone else in your niche is working in base-16, you’ll get some things right, but a lot of what you’re doing will be wrong. Repeatedly adding 9 plus 9 and getting 18 isn’t going to do you any good when everyone else is adding 9 plus 9 and getting 12. You may even feel you’re on the right track when you add 10 and 10 and get 20, when you see they add 10 and 10 and get 20 too. But, unless you figure out what base everyone else is using, you can drive yourself batty doing things the same way over and over again and not getting consistent results.

In anything, there is a learning curve. A successful blogger may teach you the math, but they won’t know what base your market niche is working in. That’s where your own experience and some degree of trial and error is going to come in. Until you figure out the base for your niche, you can add numbers all you want but not do very well at all. And you’ll have the tendency to think you were given bad advice.

School and “reality” and other things wrap us in a box of sorts. I know, it’s cliché, but you really do have to think outside the box sometimes. Not everyone works in base-10 math! Most people probably barely even touched upon other math bases in school, and the majority of them have already forgotten anything other than base-10. Tell the average person that 1 plus 1 equals 10 and they’ll think you’re bonkers. (Yes, I did switch to binary for the moment.) Most people don’t realize that there is more than one way to do math.

If at first you don’t succeed, people will advise you to “Keep at it!” The truth is that, if what you’re doing isn’t working, you have to try other things. That doesn’t mean you should give up on blogging, as some are prone to do, but to try different things with it. If you’re not earning much money, maybe you need to try some different monetization methods. If you’re not building an audience, maybe you need to polish your writing skills, or write about something different. And so on.

That’s also why so many successful bloggers will advise you to write about something about which you are passionate. If you enjoy something, chances are you won’t give up on it as easily. You’ll keep at it. You’ll try different things. Mind you, you don’t have to write about something that really interests you in order to be successful, but given the option wouldn’t you rather write about something of interest than something that’s not?

People might look at certain niches because they’ve heard they’re more profitable, but, sooner or later, and probably sooner, if you’re just not that into it, you will get bored and want to move on. If you’re lucky, you’ll have built it up to the point where you might be able to sell it to someone else and make some money from it. But, probably not.

Are We at the End Yet?

So, there you have it. Again. If you want to be successful, first learn the basics. Second, figure out what base everyone in your niche is using, as it may not be the same as anywhere else.

As always,
Believe. Act. Achieve!

*Junior or senior year of high school, the group of people I ate lunch with voted me most likely to end up living in a cardboard box. Have I mentioned the importance of avoiding or at least ignoring negative people?

Popularity: 15% [?]