There's a secret to writing a lot of compelling content . Every successful, prolific content writer knows this secret, and most other people ' well, they don't. And that's what contributes to the mystique around the magical wordsmithing powers that some writers seem to have. Well, no more. Today I'm going to share that secret with you. The secret to prolifically creating excellent content isn't inspiration or brilliance " it's found in structure, planning,

Most bloggers are after the same things. They want traffic to their blogs, comments on their posts, and sales of their products or services . These are all great goals, but they're really just symptoms of something else: having an engaged and responsive audience. You can't have a lot of consistent traffic, comments, or sales without a great audience " your traffic source will dry up sooner or later )AdWords, anyone?(, your commenters will stop commenting,

Good writers should get paid for their work. It's as simple as that. If this is what you want to do professionally , then you should be paid for it. A dirty little secret of this business is that many writers that earn a full-time income by putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, aren't any better than the writers who don't make a dime. It doesn't have to be this way. Let me be clear, you're not going to find any "get rich quick" ideas in this post.

Sure, you want comments. And subscribers, and shares, and likes. But you don't really care about any of these things. You want what they will eventually lead to ' Money . Yes, traffic is good, and so is reader engagement. But if you're reading this, chances are you're running a blog with the intention of marketing a business and making some money. Now, that could be a bit distressing, because most bloggers are broke .

Everybody's talking about it. Most of it is rumor, hearsay, and innuendo ' We idolize the exploits of the people that we look up to, and try to skirt the mention of our own experiences )and shortcomings(. No, I'm not talking about sex " I'm talking about split-testing . What does split-testing have to do with sex? Actually, quite a lot' Let me explain. Everybody says they're doing it ' Just like sex in high-school, split-testing is all the rage.

Sometimes you're just flat out of ideas. It's not a matter of talent " you've written great stuff in the past. But lately, when you go back to the well for a fresh idea, it's coming up dry. This happens to the best of us " even veterans who consistently produce quality content have their off days. Yet they continue to write. They may grumble about how hard it is to get going and create something solid, but they still do. Again, and again, and again.

Your blog is a business. I'm not saying that your blog should make money. If you're a Copyblogger reader, that's probably already something you're focusing on. I'm saying that your blog )independent of the other parts of your business( itself has all of the components of a business: You have an idea ' that's entrepreneurship . You write content ' that's the product . You build a list of subscribers and do some guest blogging ' that's marketing .