SecondIron's Blog

Sharpening Iron to Live Second

You Inspire Others by Your Art

Steve Pressfield  in The War of Art said it best “The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.” No truer words have been said and yet many don’t even know they do it. We spend hours laboring to master our craft. To fine tune it so it will be perfect. Then we release it into the wild for public view and it lands like a wet sock. All our work we feel was for nothing. Stay true to yourself. Those words you write. The lines you draw. Whatever your craft, your art may be. Others notice. They are watching you and you inspire them. Sure you may not get the accolades and comments or traffic you were hoping for. The key is you did not let fear stop you, you punched it in the face, you created art. We live our lives hoping to make a big splash, yet we sometimes miss the ripple. The waves we create by our actions makes all the difference in others. Many people are ready to quit, throw in the towel. A kind word, a shared struggle, an example of sticking it out, that is all they need to hold on. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” ~ JQA Click To Tweet So as you labor late at night or early in the morning honing your art while others sleep. The hours may be long, […]

Small Fish in a Big Pond …

Ever feel like a small fish in a big pond? Many think it is better to be the big fish right? As a blogger we all feel like small fish that are trying to get noticed. We blog regularly, we share our hearts in our words. Yet not even a nibble in the vast sea of bloggers. And we read others blogs to see what it is that they are doing different. Checking our stats, commenting on others. Hoping that one day our small voices in this chaotic world might be heard. Writing is not as self-serving as it seems. We write from our wounds in hopes that you might heal. Sharing our experiences and leaving it all on the page. If we touch one life and make it a little better. All the sleepless nights and caffeine highs are worth the cost. A small fish in a big pond can be just as influential as a big fish in a small pond. It is all a matter of how we use our influence to impact lives of our readers. Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. ~ Benjamin Franklin Click To Tweet Knowing that you have read my words, and that you keep coming back. This gives me the strength to continue to share. We all have a story, a voice so to speak. I share mine so that you can read, share and repeat. No matter how big or small the pond or lake may be. We may all be […]

10 Blogger Tips To Get Noticed

10 Blogger Tips To Get Noticed. As a blogger we all have our own ways of doing the same things. Ultimately our goal is to have our voices heard. Some will do it with headlines, others with extreme SEO while others base it on their content alone. No matter what you write if it is engaging and interesting people will read it, otherwise … well. There are a few basic guidelines that if you follow them at least to some extent you might get noticed. Choose your topic – it really does not matter what the topic, as long as you choose one. Many bloggers take a shotgun approach and try to cover everything and in turn cover nothing. Whatever the topic stick with it, which is why you are being read in the first place. Nothing worse than a headline about leadership that spills into a story about your dog and peanut butter cookies. There are at least three posts in that one sentence if not more. Short and sweet – very blogger that has anything to say will start with nothing and in minutes have a book. Keep your blog posts short. The experts say anywhere from 500 to 1000 words with the happy medium around 700. Anymore and well you probably won’t get read. Break it up if you have to, make it bite size nuggets of great content. Edit your work – one of the biggest detractors is someone who cannot spell. Grammar and punctuation is not as important, but at least […]