About Marsha Stopa

Posts by Marsha Stopa:

Beginners/ Resources/ Writing

9 Essential Books That Will Transform Your Writing Forever

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9 Essential Books That Will Transform Your Writing Forever

Admit it.

You have several half-read writing books stacked up on your nightstand, several more squirreled away in a desk drawer and a dozen more on your Amazon wish list.

You scrutinize all the books that “customers also bought” looking for those one-of-a-kind books that will transform you into a great writer. You jump “inside the book” to read the table of contents and credits and page through the free preview.

Searching for the magic formula.

The formula that will erase the silent self-doubt. The nagging thought that you’re not quite good enough as a writer.

Books have an uncanny power to teach us, to transport us, to move us light years beyond our ordinary lives. If we could only find the right books, the tried-and-true books written by trusted masters. So we keep looking.

And once in a while you find a writing book that speaks to your heart and gets to the core of what you’re struggling with right now. It changes you. It changes your writing. It changes your life.

Because mastering the craft of writing depends upon your continuing education as a writer. It means you regularly upgrade and fine-tune your skills.
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Beginners/ Email/ Money/ Resources/ SEO/ Tools

63 Blogging Tools That Will Make You Insanely Productive

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63 Blogging Tools That Will Make You Insanely Productive

Let me guess.

You read the headline on this post and thought, “Cool!” Then a little voice in your head whispered something like, “Why do I need another post on all the cool tools I don’t have time to use?”

That is the key, isn’t it? Time. Having the time to set up, play with and truly put to work all the amazing tools that will rocket your blog into the heavens.

And having time to write. And time to follow other bloggers. And time to network on social media.

After your blog is set up, after that technical part is over, every new blogger is fundamentally the same. You’re full of excitement and plans. You have a bright, shiny new blog, bursting with potential and ideas.

And zero readers.

Time then becomes the key factor that separates new bloggers into three dramatically different kinds of bloggers. That’s why all the standard advice about the tools you need is confusing. Tools don’t make the blogger. Time does.

Because it’s how much time you can spend studying the top bloggers in your niche, improving your writing and cultivating relationships with readers and influencers that determines how fast your blog will grow. And how fast your blog grows determines the tools you need. More