The Small Business Website Guide was coming to a close and it was past time to come up with some ideas for the blog. I opened my laptop and tabbed to a few of my favorite blogging resources. I pulled out a blank page and grabbed my pencil.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

This was harder than I had anticipated.

That’s when I had a flashback to some of my favorite posts from all the blogs I ever read. Often those included real life people who were just like me – not famous (yet), just trying to figure things out and make a difference doing something they loved. It was always interesting to read how others tackled problems and know that I wasn’t alone.

That’s it! I thought to myself, I’ll start featuring readers of my blog.

Such was the birth of the Reader Highlight.

Enter: Loren Wade

Since I’d only just started blogging as a serious part of my business in the last few months, I didn’t have a huge pool to choose from – but lucky for me,  I already had the perfect reader in mind.

We had originally met in a great online community called Nerd Fitness.

Like most of the people in that community, he has big aspirations for his life and wants to learn how to get those things accomplished.

Loren found my blog and got in touch with me letting me know how much it was helping him as he was preparing to launch his own blog. I was thrilled! Someone was actually benefiting from the hours I was putting into writing all my content.

As soon as I decided to begin doing Reader Highlights, I shot him an email requesting an interview.

He accepted.

Who is Loren Wade?

I wrote up a list of interview questions for Loren and the first question I asked was to describe himself.

“My name is Loren Wade. I’ve spent most of my life being lazy and not making anything of myself. That’s where Zionic Life comes in. It’s a statement. It’s about being productive, getting things done, and getting a new grasp on life. I created it to log my lifehacks and other goodies I learned along my journey of becoming something more than simply living.

I’m many things. I strive to be a jack of all trades. I am 24, married, I love Jesus, music, playing music, gaming, fitness, and lifehacking.”

Loren

I definitely associate with the Jack of all Trades factor. I think a lot of the readers here might be able to relate, since as bloggers and small business owners we need to wear multiple (if not ALL of) the hats in our work.

Loren’s upcoming blog: Zionic Life

When Loren first told me that he was finding my articles useful, he also asked for some advice on starting his own blog. He sent me a well written elevator pitch and concept of what he wanted to accomplish.

I was impressed that he had such a clear picture of what he wanted. The tricky part was going to be finding a path to reach the goal.

“Zionic Life is about beginning with the end in mind and living our lives to the fullest.”

Loren

Shortly after divulging his ideas, he posted on Twitter a little disappointed because he had found another successful blog similar to his niche: Zen Habits.

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/lorenwade/status/97055782008389633"]

Loren didn’t let that keep him down for long. Especially with some encouragement.

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/annedorko/status/97062352435945472"]

Have you identified YOUR unique twist? What makes you stand out from the pack?

The inspiration behind Zionic Life

“I think the most direct influence was Steve Kamb and Nerd Fitness. The way he runs his blog, helps his fans, and what he’s accomplish really inspired me. I have many inspirations, but this one pushed me to start the blog.”

Loren

I think inspiration is one of the biggest keys. If you don’t have inspiration, motivation or drive for what you’re doing… well, your audience is going to be able to tell that.

Is there a story behing your business? Does your blog have an inspiration?

Getting Zionic Life started

“My first steps from there were brainstorming what exactly I wanted to help people with. I mean, that’s what the inspiration was. I was inspired to help others like Steve Kamb has.”

Loren

I wanted to get some insight behind the beginning of his blog. I asked Loren about the challenges he faced when he was getting set up.

“Hands down, the biggest challenge was the designing. I did a lot of it myself and it proved very difficult. I can’t afford anything super expensive or dropping hundreds on a designer. I just wanted something decent.”

Loren

Getting started isn’t just about design though, it’s about finding your goals and finding a way to make them successful. How was Loren finding and choosing his strategies?

“I took note how successful bloggers write and I just followed the pattern.”

Loren

Imitating success is a great idea, so long as you’re not just taking cookie cutter templates without considering whether they’re fitting your purpose. However, if you can find a way that others’ success can apply to your goals, don’t hesitate to try their strategies.

“A blogger makes friends with other bloggers to be successful, this is what I have learned from Corbett Barr.”

Loren

Marketing strategies for Zionic Life

When I asked Loren about his ideas, I discovered he really has his head in the right place. He’s more concerned right now with building up good content that is worth sharing than getting himself a lot of readers.

Sure, he’s gotten started with SEO and has started spreading the word to his friends (both online and off), but he wants to make sure he’s got something to actually show people.

“I plan on [finding] ways to gain more audience in the future, but right now… it’s just writing more content to be found.”

Loren

Putting quality and value first is never a bad plan.

What about you – are you more concerned with your visitor count or are you focusing on producing something that’s going to be needed?

Keep on keeping on!

It’s all great when things are going well – staying motivated about something exciting is easy.

But what happens when you’re down in the dumps and things are getting harder than you thought?

“[When I am feeling frustrated I just remember the fact that] I can make a difference.”

Loren

Zionic Life is still pretty new. It still has a long way to go and needs to grow from just ideas in Loren’s head, to a full blown implementation of those ideas.

“My blog is barely up and running now. I only have a couple posts so far, but the future is good.  I have a lot of great ideas planned for it.”

Loren

When you have an idea, do you make it happen the way that Loren is taking action on his inspiration? Do you put yourself out there to discover whether you’re going to sink or swim?

What speaks to you?

What is Loren dealing with that you relate to? Do you have any words of encouragement or advice?

Leave your feedback in the comments!

It's time to take a leap of faith and overcome your fear of writing content.

During the conversation around The Small Business Website Guide for Business Owners, it was pointed out to me that it can be scary to post things online that will be representing your company forever.

I want to help alleviate that fear here and now with some simple steps to writing content that you won’t regret – and what to do if something slips through the cracks.

Be professional!

Being professional may seem like the first obvious step, but a lot of people overlook simple things like double-checking basic grammar and spelling. Run your content through a spell check. See if you can have a friend read through your content before you hit publish.

Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good.

Even if your content isn’t 100% perfect, don’t let that stop you from publishing. If you have an important message to share, share it. People remember the way that you made them feel, not the exact words that you said.

Keep things open ended.

If you’re writing something based on your opinion or a personal belief, be sure to represent that in your message. Let people know that this is not the end all, say all. This is the way that you feel about something, so keep the conversation open for discussion. People don’t want to hear you talk from their pedestal, but they will respect you for having an opinion as long as you can respect theirs.

Everything is permanent, nothing is forever.

For all technical purposes, your content is going to be online permanently. That feels terrifying to the business owner just trying to step out into the world of the internet.

Nothing is forever. If you make a mistake, you can make it right. If you are putting in the effort to write professionally, that will show – even if you’re not so great at it to begin with. If you’re sharing a message that you’re passionate about and not preaching from on high, that will show too.

The fact that you fear making a mistake shows that you’re in the right mindset. You want to do this right.

It’s a learning process.

You’re going to mess up – and that’s okay.

If you go back and read through the earliest posts of even the best bloggers today, you may be surprised at the number of mistakes they made. The important part is that they realized it’s a learn-as-you-go type of job and they allowed themselves to make those mistakes.

You need to allow yourself the opportunity to screw things up a little bit, and as long as you’re paying attention, you’ll learn what was a mistake and what wasn’t. Start slowly and let yourself build momentum on your successes.

Have faith in yourself.

There are so many people that I’ve talked to that simply lacked the faith that they were capable of doing things themselves. Things that are new can be scary, and that fear of learning something new drives us away from things that actually aren’t that horrible.

Have faith in yourself that you can learn to do this. Cut yourself some slack.

Stop waiting!

Get out there and publish something new! Share your fears and how you overcame them in the comments.