Dark, moody, mysterious and enigmatic, Donald Draper is the alpha male and a seductress in male form. He’s powerful, he’s charismatic and he sends everyone scurrying for cover when he gets pissed. Of course, it helps that he is portrayed as a creative genius, a glass of bourbon in one hand and a pack of cigarettes at arms length to keep him company. All he has to do is have his back turned to the camera and look out over the city, his city, and he captures the collective consciousness of a generation. Our generation. He is incredibly cool and magentic, and he is a writer just like you or I.

Peggy, Don, heck even Roger; they just sit around and wait for the perfect idea to hit them, but it is Donald Draper that convinces them to spend the big bucks on ad campaigns in the Emmy Award winning series. Millions fawn over his carefully constructed campaigns and consumer culture and his character spawns industries and helps them become a household name like no other. And all he needs is the power of words. Nothing less, nothing more. Now that is very cool. You think it, you write it, you get it out there, and it changes the world. There is no way that cannot be construed as cool.It seems so far away, just like the generation portrayed in Mad Men seems so far away, but it really isn’t. Let me pick out a few select quotes from the hit show and I’ll explain how they apply to blogging and even life just as much as they do to advertising.

“I’ll never get used to the fact that most of the time it looks like you’re doing nothing.” ~ Roger Sterling

A writer’s blessing and curse is that he can be just looking out the window and still working, or sitting at a pool side and still having the gears churning. It’s relaxing. It’s enjoyable. It’s all part of the workday. Sometimes, just doing nothing is the best thing you can do, for if you don’t it’ll make your creativity dry up. So just stop and think on occasion. If anyone asks what’s on your mind, just say you’re working. It’s true.

“Fear stimulates my imagination.” ~ Donald Draper

Fear is a terrific thing, whether you believe it or not. If you’re afraid or anxious, it means you will be on edge and churning out some of your best ideas if you just let it flow unfettered. If you’re afraid, you have a cause to work towards, a reason to act. How many entrepreneurial stories have you heard of where the individual in question was broke and had to make things work lest he starve? It’s not just good luck that saw them prevail. Put a gun to your head and see the upturn in results, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve when you will it to be so. I personally pledge to donate $100 each day to a political party I despise if I don’t hit my target of 1500 words a day. It’s a painful thought, but it works and it’s a powerful motivation. Find yours.

“A slogan’s nothing when you have a good idea.” ~ Peggy Olsen

The best of writers are a cornucopia of ideas. They will assiduously assimilate information at all time, listening, watching and reading away until they get that “Eureka!” moment. Finding the right idea is tricky, putting it across not so much for the skilled writer. Amateurs work the opposite way, writing the article and trying to stumble upon the idea while doing so. Take one idea, but make it a great one, and build your entire article around that one premise. Ideas are everything, and it takes care of everything else.

Bruce Lee was a one man, zero fat ass kicking machine like no other. That he was a film industry unto himself is a simple addendum to that one previous fact. He is arguably the single greatest martial artist of all time across any genre and his many teachings can be easily applied to the blogosphere just as it can be applied to delivering a swift sidekick to someone’s gut. Few know of Bruce Lee’s book, called “Tao of Jeet Kune Do”, but in it he reveals a lot of his philosophies when it comes to life and fighting. See if you can identify with any of them, for I’m sure you can apply those lessons to your blog as well.

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done. Instead, make the move and put your full effort behind it”

The Spanish sum it up beautifully with the concept of Carpe Diem. If you feel you have an opportunity, go for it by giving all of your best. If you come up with a fantastic idea for a post, don’t think about how you want to make it sound or look, just get it done. Sportspeople talk of this mental plane called ‘The Zone’ where they don’t think about their next move or shot, they just do it (that is not subliminal advertising for Nike). Just let fly, as if you’re Bruce Lee unfurling a karate chop. Do it now.

“You just wait. I’m going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world.”

For Lee, it was more about the will to win than getting the win itself. If you wanted to win something, that will remains constant and drives you on to bigger thing. No hurdle is too high, no pre-condition too tough and no exertion of effort too great. What matters is the goal itself, but it is the individual’s will that powers people on to that target and Bruce Lee realized this. Becoming a noted blogger is incredibly difficult and only a small number actually make their living from it. That’s how hard it can be. But the question is how badly you want to make a success of yourself. It has to be a fire within that drives you forwards, a sustained passion.

“The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”

Blogging can be some very draining work, so use your energy wisely. Channel it towards the essential while knocking off the unessential. There will be detractors and those that fire nasty vitriol your way. Ignore them; don’t let their hate weaken your own drive. Instead, focus on the positive. I receive lots of appreciative mails but none of them linger in my mind, only those two or three mails that were stinging in their criticism remained in my mind. I don’t do this anymore, and that is an example of paring away the unessential. Similarly, if you’ve hit a writers block, don’t feel frustrated. Replenish your creative energies, brainstorm, do whatever you need to come back rejuvenated and attack the essentials. Your energy is your biggest weapon; harness it wisely.

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once; I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

It’s true when they say practice makes perfect. Are you practicing your craft daily and with the sort of fervent passion martial arts experts do? No matter what anyone says, a blogger is a writer and words are to you what a shuriken is to a ninja; it is a potent weapon. The best bloggers always practice their writing skills, and some even across a variety of styles and voices. If you can’t do that, perfect that one voice that is you distilled into its very finest. This will not only smoothen your blogging, but also reduce the time you take to come up with posts and write them down.

No matter what you set your mind to, you can achieve it if you only fully commit yourself to it, and that is the spirit behind these principles and quotes of Bruce Lee. Even from beyond the grave, Lee is teaching all of us to kick ass and there is a timeless wisdom in his words that you should apply to your writings and blogs right away.

Is simplicity is the soul of language, Hemingway was its personification. At a time when the who’s who of the writing world chose to embrace a more complex, artful style of writing Hemingway was the sole person to eschew all such obfuscation and write in a language that was simple and clear to understand. But how can Hemingway help your blog, or your business need? There are several lessons to be learnt from Ernest, and here are a handful of them.

Keep it short

Hemingway was minimalist before anyone deemed it fashionable. He looked down upon the complex writing style of others and cut out everything flowery and unnecessary. To Hemingway, it was all about penning short, powerful prose that caught the eye and captured the mind. Challenge yourself to write less and less about something until you can distil it its essence into nothing more than a sentence. Hemingway demonstrated this when challenged to tell a story in six words and he came up with “For sale: Baby shoes, never used.”

That in itself is a subtle, brilliant and sublime use of terse prose.

Use a crisp opening paragraph

Refer to the first paragraph of this post and note how it is short in length. Hemingway used to concentrate the power of his prose into a short burst right at the beginning. This acted as a prelude to the main course for Hemingway who would then continue to build on the simplicity of the storyline and wrap an entire plot and sub-contexts around it. But the key always was to use a crisp opening paragraph that got the reader on the same page as Hemingway.

Be passionate

Hemingway had a way of infusing vigor and passion into his prose. Sample this verse from ‘Old man and the Sea.’

“He was a very big Mako shark, built to swim as fast as the fastest fish in the sea and everything about him was beautiful except his jaws. His back was as blue as a sword fish’s and his belly was silver and his hide was smooth and handsome. He was built as a swordfish except for his huge jaws, which were tight shut now as he swam fast, just under the surface with his high dorsal fin knifing through the water without wavering.”

The focus and intention of Hemingway’s mind is unwavering and unambiguous and what shines through is his vision and passion for prose.

Stay positive

This is all a bit ironic as Hemingway himself had a blackness in him, but we are not talking about negativity versus positivity in a human sense. We merely refer to saying something positively versus saying something negatively. If your dentist were to tell you “this will be painless” what remains with you is the word pain, not painless. So use positive words, such as economical for inexpensive or stable instead of error-free.

Many bloggers simply launch a blog and start scribbling their experience into it, and expect it to be a huge success. However, this is not how it works. If you want your blog to be a big success, you shouldn’t forget the most important element of your blog: your audience. The more subscribers you have, the more popular your blog is. In order to get more subscribers, you will have to do things they like. Here are few tips you must use to make your blog successful.

Give Your Opinion

Instead of writing very specific, informative article, give your opinion about it. People like to read blogs because they aren’t written by companies selling their products, but by an average individual with many things in common to them. Tell people what you think about the topic, and ask for suggestions.

Provide Resources

If your aim is to educate your readers as much as you can, provide useful resources in your post. Provide links to web pages that has more information on the topic. This will bring the visitor time and again on your blog to search for information and additional resources.

Write Less

If you can explain something in 400 words, don’t unnecessarily make it a 1,000 word article. People forget long post easily because they hardly read it. However, shorter points with proper sub-headings are more effective and attractive. Provide knowledge quickly at the speed of sound to your readers.

Write Attractive Headlines

If headlines are attractive, people will certainly look into the content of the post. However, this wouldn’t work if you don’t have relevant content inside. So, write a brilliant post, and use whatever you have to develop an attractive headline.

Have Convenient Format

Instead of letting people search for information from bunch of words and sentences, arrange them in proper manner. Don’t write essay-type posts, but posts with many headings, sub-headings, and bullet points, where finding relevant information would be easy.

Be Consistent

People subscribe to your blog because they like your writing style. If you are inconsistent in your style by providing information in random way, they will unsubscribe in seconds. Create your own style and be consistent.

Use Keywords

Jot down most-searched keywords in your niche and use them in all your posts. Put them in sub-headings, headings, headlines, and in the body. However, make sure it looks natural and don’t over use them.

Edit

Every time you edit the article, you improve its quality significantly. Before you click on ‘submit’, re-read your content and remove unnecessary information. Check for grammar and spelling mistakes.