Quick Case Study: Ben Settle
The 12th edition in a series of posts that highlight one Expert Author who has achieved success by doing just one thing exceptionally well.
Ben Settle is a Direct Response Copywriter and author of “The Copywriting Grab Bag” and “Crackerjack Selling Secrets.” He uses EzineArticles to promote his daily newsletters and blog. He attributes his success in article writing and marketing to his ability to write every day. No matter what he has going on, Ben fits daily writing sessions into his schedule.
Depending on the topic he wants to cover and the direction he wants to go each day, Ben chooses whether to write email newsletters, blog posts or articles. Later, he sifts through what he has written and looks for any material that can be repurposed. If the information still has great value and warrants more exposure, he’ll rework the piece so it fits on multiple platforms.
Letting the Ideas Flow
To meet his own expectation of delivering new content every day, Ben keeps an open mind and is always looking for his next article idea. This keeps him prepared for his writing sessions. He says, “After you do enough writing, ideas flow to you at the weirdest time. What I do is put every idea (could be a headline, a theme or an entire draft) into its own text file in a folder on my hard drive. When I am ready to write, I call the folder up, scan the contents and pick something to run with.”
Having a constant stream of article ideas flowing helps Ben achieve his goal of writing every day. This effort also keeps him motivated enough to keep writing. He continues, “I think just knowing you’re putting out more content than your competition and staying in your market’s mind better is motivational.”
Gaining Expert Status
According to Ben, the characteristic that defines an expert in any field is the ability to always have something to add to the conversation. He says, “My philosophy is if you’re positioning yourself as an expert in something, and you don’t have something (anything, even something small) to say every day, then are you really the expert you claim to be?” The genuine personal interest Ben has in his niche comes through in the content he writes and expertise he provides. He strives to mix this expertise with a sense of humor to deliver content that is both information-rich and entertaining.
Here are 4 lessons from Ben that you can can put into practice today:
- Keep writing! – Consistently generating new content is a great way to develop writing skills and build your personal brand.
- The world craves information and entertainment – Articles can be content-rich and fun to read at the same time. Incorporating entertaining components into articles is a way to reach out to a new audience that may not have been interested otherwise.
- Look to multiple platforms for distribution – Increase your return on investment by publishing content on different platforms. If the information is relevant, an email newsletter or blog post can become a new article with some slight tweaks.
- Write down any idea that comes to you – Make a note of any ideas and put them all in the same place so they’re easy to find later. This could be in a notebook, a text file on your computer or on a mobile device.
Use all of these insights today and write your next set of original articles. Leave a comment to share how you keep up with writing regularly.
Edward Weiss may only use “hell” but not everyone finds the need to be so common.
September 10, 2010 at 1:25 AM[Reply]