The art of reading to become an amazing blogger

If you were born on a desert island, raised by a pack of wolves, would you make a good blogger?

No. You’d suck. Because the truth is our ideas ultimately spring from other people’s ideas.

Skellie writes:

“There are no new ideas. When we create, we dig into our well of knowledge and experience, grab a handfull of stuff, mash it up and recombine it in new ways. But the idea is still built out of other ideas that came before – ideas we’ve consumed.” [Bold emphasis mine]

Since reading really is the key to writing amazing content, are there strategies that can help us get the most from it?

Absolutely:

Read more than just blogs

For starters, make sure whatever you do you’re not only reading blogs. While that should be an important part of your strategy, just reading blogs results in stale blog posts. It’s well known ideas are bounced around the blogosphere like an echo chamber. Reading books and magazines stimulate ideas and angles that aren’t showing up on every other blog, which makes you stand out.

Also, don’t only read relevant non-fiction. Read novels. Read history. Read comedy. Reading widely will not only expand your mind but will help you construct sentences more clearly, more compellingly and more creatively.

Reread important books

What books you read multiple times depends somewhat on your niche.

However, all bloggers are copywriters, too. Seriously, you gotta get your copywriting game on to bring your blogging to new levels. For me, one book I’ve read more than once and will reread yet again is Joseph Sugarman’s The Adweek Copywriting Handbook.

And if you think rereading is only for rookies, think again. It’s actually the method of some of the most viciously successful content creators out there.

Take Sonia Simone for example, who’s a senior editor for Copyblogger and successful entrepreneur. She writes:

“When I had a commute, I used to listen to the same marketing CDs over and over again. They burned a neural pathway in my brain. The information became second nature, as automatic as changing the channel when Leno comes on.”

She also recommends rereading the classics which for her are, Robert Cialdini’s Influence, Seth Godin’s Permission Marketingand Eugene Schwartz’s Breakthrough Advertising, among others.

You bet your butt I’ll be picking these up.

In addition to rereading books on writing, do the same for insanely insightful books that pertain to your niche. Since I often write on personal development, I’m now reading Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins for the third time. It deeply resonates with me and is a source of constant inspiration for future posts.

Let’s face it: You probably won’t master the material in a book if you read it just once. But read it more than once and the book’s benefits will make a permanent home in your brain. You’ll be able to quote from it and use more of what’s in it with greater affect and regularity.

Be picky with blogs you read

I’m sorry, I don’t understand people having hundreds of blogs in their reader. What the hell’s the point? And if you think it’s necessary to be a successful blogger, think again.

Leo Babauta, one of the world’s most successful bloggers writes:

“Limit your feeds. Blog subscriptions, newsletters, other updates and news subscriptions and so on. Limit them to a handful of essentials, and let the rest go. The more you have, the more attention they require.” [Emphasis mine]

I currently have 35 blogs in my reader, many of those blogs update rarely, too. Just as with books, I recommend you follow varied blogs and not exclusively ones that pertain to your niche.

I also recommend you read a few blogs that are extremely successful. You’ll learn just as much by watching how they blog than by the very information they share.

Skellie writes:

“You might listen to the recommendations of blogging experts and practice blogging regularly, but do you actively study other blogs and bloggers that have achieved the kinds of goals you’ve set for yourself? This kind of learning is as practical as it gets: it deals in real-life action and examples rather than abstract lessons.”

Study the methods of successful blogs and see what you can apply to your own blog.

Stay consistent

Everything I explained above comes down to disciplined regiment. Read 30 minutes a day of books or magazines. If you could only choose between that and your RSS feed, I’d unhesitatingly recommend you make books and magazines priority. To ensure you read 30 minutes a day, you can set a timer.

Ideally, you’d read books and magazines and be a consistent blog reader too. But as mentioned earlier, subscribing to less blogs is wise. Find the bloggers that enhance your life most and spark the most ideas for your next post and stick with them.

By the way, did you notice all the quotes I included in this post that improved my arguments and made this piece more interesting to read? That’s attributed to my dedication to reading consistently a few blogs that I find most useful.

Amazing ideas and skillful writing spring from judicious reading. So make sure you’re doing plenty of it.

Bamboo Forest created an online timer that helps make bloggers ridiculously productive. He also writes for Pun Intended, a blog that’s hilarious and enlightened.Want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBlog? See more info here.

Image by Moriza.