About Jon Morrow

Posts by Jon Morrow:

Mistakes/ Motivation/ Popular/ Standing out

20 Ways to Be Just Another Mediocre Blogger Nobody Gives a Crap About

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20 Ways to Be Just Another Mediocre Blogger Nobody Gives a Crap About

A troubling thought, isn’t it?

You’re slaving away at your blog, but you can’t help wondering if you have a shot in hell of getting anyone to read it.

What makes you any different from the millions of other bloggers hoping for attention?

You’re all doing the same stuff. Cranking out posts, messing around on Twitter and Facebook, leaving comments on popular blogs — you know, the usual.

But nobody gives a crap. Readers have seen it all before. You’re not offering anything new, so why should they hang around?

Good question. And the problem is, you don’t really have an answer.

Most of the time, you feel like you’re stumbling around in the dark. You can’t tell what’s working and what’s not. It feels like a big, never-ending guessing game.

Maybe you came here to find some answers. Maybe you’re hoping I’ll tell you what to do.

But I won’t.

Not because I don’t want to, but because sometimes you can’t understand what to do until you first understand what NOT to do. So, let’s start there.

Here’s a big, fat list of ways to be a mediocre blogger. How many are you guilty of?

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Content Marketing/ Mistakes

For All the Entrepreneurs Confused about How Content Marketing Actually Works

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For All the Entrepreneurs Confused about How Content Marketing Actually Works

Let’s start with a simple question…

How, exactly, does content marketing make money?

Because that’s the end goal, right?

You’re not hunched over your keyboard, racking your brain for attention-grabbing ideas because you enjoy it. You expect to get clients, sales, or some other tangible result for your business. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but sometime in the future, all that work you’re putting into creating and publishing content had better pay off.

Except… what if it won’t?

What if your entire understanding of the way content marketing works is wrong?

What if all the time you’ve invested into creating content was, in fact, a senseless waste of time, never possessing even the slightest chance of turning a profit?

It would be a tragedy, and yet I believe that’s precisely what’s happening. Not just to you, but to millions of entrepreneurs around the globe.

Is it because content marketing is just a fad? Or worse, an elaborate hoax?

No. On the contrary, I believe the hype is totally justified. If you execute the right content marketing strategy in the right market, the results are breathtaking.

But that rarely happens. There are lots of reasons why, and I might eventually write a short book explaining them all, but by far the biggest reason why most entrepreneurs get crappy results is they completely misunderstand what content marketing is about.

Here’s what I mean…
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Beginners/ Money

A Practical, No-Nonsense Guide to Earning Passive Income Online

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A Practical, No-Nonsense Guide to Earning Passive Income Online

It sounds so enticing, right?

Tinker around on the side, creating a few websites, and before you know it, you’re earning hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month, giving you the freedom to quit your job, travel the world, and live like a millionaire without anything tying you down.

It’s the dream lifestyle, and everywhere you turn online, someone is offering to sell you a course, showing you how to do it.

You have to wonder, though… is all this Internet stuff real, or is it just a scam?

And if it is real, why isn’t everyone doing it?

Today, I thought I would take a moment to answer those questions for you. Normally, we only talk about earning money online from a blogging perspective, but I thought it might be helpful to step back and address the topic of “passive income” in general.

The sad fact is, there’s a lot nobody tells you. I wouldn’t exactly call it a cover-up because I don’t think most “gurus” are deliberately hiding the truth about how it works, but I do think they have a vested interest in not giving you the whole story.

So, that’s what I’d like to give you. First, a few important details:
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Popular/ Writing

Stephen King’s 20 Tips for Becoming a Frighteningly Good Writer

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Stephen King’s 20 Tips for Becoming a Frighteningly Good Writer

Have you ever wished you could peer inside the mind of one of the greatest writers in the world and find out exactly what makes them tick?

Well… here’s your chance.

Stephen King has published 57 novels, all of them bestsellers. He has sold more than 350 million copies of his works. According to Forbes, he earns approximately $40 million per year, making him one of the richest writers in the world.

And now he’s going to tell you exactly how to become a frighteningly good writer.

Sort of.

In 2002, King temporarily abandoned writing horror novels, instead publishing On Writing, a little book chronicling his rise to fame and discussing exactly what he believes it takes to become a good writer. Since then, it’s become the most popular book about writing ever written, pulling in over 1000 reviews on Amazon and selling God only knows how many copies.

Here’s why:

The book is… magic.

I’ve read On Writing from cover to cover at least five times, and each time, I saw a noticeable improvement in my prose. For one, it teaches the fundamentals of the craft, which is something no writer should ignore, but it also sort of rubs off on you.

As you read through King’s life story, you can’t help but see that, to him, writing isn’t a chore. It’s an adventure through undiscovered worlds where no one knows what’ll happen next (not even him).

And it’s contagious.

You can’t read On Writing and not come away with a smile on your face. Where other writing books are focused on the mechanics of the written word, King shows you how to capture the joy of the craft. You’ll find yourself wanting to write, not because of fame or fortune, but because it’s fun, and there’s nothing else you would rather do.

Personally, it’s inspired me more than any other book I’ve ever read, and if I could recommend only one book to bloggers, On Writing would be it. But don’t take my word for it. Below, I’ve collected a monster list of my favorite quotes from the book, and I also wrote down some of my own thoughts on exactly how they apply to bloggers.

If you enjoy them, grab yourself a copy of On Writing over at Amazon (affiliate link). You won’t regret it.

Here are the quotes:
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Mistakes/ SEO/ Standing out

5 Myths of Traffic Generation That Seriously Need to Die

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5 Myths of Traffic Generation That Seriously Need to Die

Can I be straight up with you?

95% of the advice on the web about how to increase your website traffic is totally useless.

It’s outdated, overly simplified, or just plain wrong. Here’s how I know:

Over the last eight years, the sites I’ve built have received over 200 million page views. I’ve also worked with thousands of students in every imaginable niche, and I’ve seen firsthand what works and what doesn’t.

And lots of the advice out there… it just doesn’t work.

In particular, five myths really bother me. If you’re struggling to increase your traffic, chances are it’s because you’ve bought into one of these myths.

Let’s jump in…
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