by: AskPat 526 Episode Transcript
Pat Flynn: Hey what's up everybody? Weird pause, right? Thanks for joining me today, appreciate you checking in. This is Episode 526 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Alright, here's today's question from Rickey.
Rickey: Hey, Pat. My name is Rickey Rodriguez. I'm really interested in starting my own blog. But I seem to be stuck with the idea of what word documenting processor or program do I use? I use a Mac, but I also have a PC. I prefer Mac, but it seems that Pages is a little cumbersome. Would you suggest, or maybe let me rephrase, what do you use? How do you form your blogs? In what format? Period. Do you use Pages or do you use Microsoft Word? Also, what computer? Are you a PC guy or a Mac guy? Thanks, Pat. I really appreciate it, and I look forward to your answer. Thank you.
Pat Flynn: Hey, what's up Rickey. Thank you so much for the question today. I remember when I first started blogging, I actually used the WordPress editor. You know when you sign on to WordPress, and you start a new post or a page? That's what I would use to edit my posts. I quickly found out that that was a poor decision, because oftentimes my computer would crash or for whatever reason it just wouldn't save, and I would lose my work. That was always very depressing. I then learned that I could use other third party programs, and then export those things or copy and paste them into that blog post to make it very easy, and to make sure I save things and also keep a copy on my hard drive and all that stuff. So, there's a lot of ones I've used in the past. The ones that I use now are . . . Well, let me just give you the timeline.
So, I did try Pages for a while, because that's what I was familiar with. I'm a Mac person. I was initially a PC person, anti-Mac, until I met my wife, and now I'm a Mac because of her. I'm very thankful because I use Mac for everything now. That's that story. That answers that question.
But in terms of what I use to start blog posts, I was very familiar with Pages with Mac at the time I started blogging, so that's what I used. That's what I was familiar with. I also found it was too cumbersome for what I needed it to do. Then I got involved with some other third party texts to WordPress programs that don't even exist anymore. Then I used Byword. B-Y-W-O-R-D. And that works out really well. I believe there's a version for Mac. I don't know about PC. You can find some other ones that are available that specifically export to WordPress or allow you to edit on another system, or on the Cloud. The cool thing about those is it edits on the Cloud, so you're able to save on the go and access it from anywhere or any device. Beyond that, there's a lot of them that I enjoy that are distraction-free. That's why I liked Byword. I used Byword for over a year, again that's B-Y-W-O-R-D. If you are a Mac user, you can download it from the app store on your desktop. There's also a mobile version which I've never used to write a blog post, but I've checked on other older posts or drafts of posts in the past in the mobile app version of Byword.
But anyway, that worked out really well. The reason I loved it was because it was distraction-free, meaning when you open up Byword, it get rid of everything else on the screen. It's just a full screen with a cursor and that's it. All you have to focus on is whatever it is that you're writing, and that's it. It's very minimal. You can also do some other cool stuff with it in terms of rich text or plain text. You could use different coding to make bold symbols. I don't even know what that's called. I don't do that.
That's what I used for awhile, and then I moved over to Google Docs. I use Google Drive and the Docs within Google Drive to manage all my blog posts. The reason I love this is because my entire team has access to it. The way it works now is I do it in a very methodical, systematic kind of way that works with everybody's workflow. We plan way ahead of time, about two or three months ahead of time, in terms of what most of the content, the blog content will be and also the podcasts and SPIT TV. We plan that far ahead for each of those things. We do that because then it gives us an opportunity to develop them in a quick, easy way, or the quickest easiest way, and not ever scramble with what to write, which was my problem for awhile. I would be great at writing content on the go, and then over time with all the other kinds of content that I was posting, podcast episodes, and SPI TV, and other videos and whatnot, the blog kind of went away for a while because it was just hard to come up with stuff.
So, we plan way ahead of time, and what happens is when it's time for me to write, which is every Monday. Every Monday I go in to CoSchedule, which is a calendar that my team has access to. Through that calendar, all of the topics are already there for each of the posts. Within each of the posts, there are tasks. One of those tasks is for me to write and to have the post written, a draft of it written by a certain day. Then, the editor goes in later, because I have an editor now, which is pretty cool. I haven't had that until the last six months. So it's been great. She's been making sure that the grammar and the spelling is correct. People would comment on that every once in awhile. I feel at this point, I could turn it up to the next level, by hiring somebody like that.
Anyway, what I do is I go into CoSchedule, and then I go into the task for that particular post, and then I go into a Google Doc that somebody on my team has created for that particular piece of work. I go into that, and that opens up Google Docs, automatically, she links to it directly. It's already titled. There's even already some thoughts and lines of text from there from my team telling me what they think I could include in the post to make it even better. I don't go in there, and I never come across a blank page anymore. I have my team go in and have already thought through a little bit of what that post is. I do write obviously, most of it, or all of it, but I just have that as a starting point, so that's great. In terms of tools, I use Google Docs.
I love that now, because A, the whole team has access to it, B, it's in the Cloud so I can access it myself and update it and make changes on any device that I'm on and C, it's just really easy to organize. All the folders and whatnot are there, and it just makes it very easy. That's what I use now, and that's what I would recommend whether you're writing ebooks . . . I wrote my book, Will It Fly?, which is coming out February 1st, check it out, WillItFlyBook.com. I wrote that using Google Docs. I actually tried using Scrivener for that which is kind of industry standard nowadays for writing an ebook, although I also know some people that write blog posts in Scrivener. There's also Evernote, which is good too, which is great for Cloud-based organizational documentation. You can check that out too.
I think the big underlying thing here is just you've got to try new things until you figure the one out that works for you, Rickey. And if you feel that Pages is too cumbersome, then don't use it. There's a lot of other options out there, and I've given you a few. Byword, Google Docs, Evernote, Scrivener if you're going to be writing ebooks. Check them out and see what works for you. Rickey, I wish you the best of luck on your blogging journey, and any books and other written content that you come out with in the future. To help you out and to give you some inspiration, we're going to send you an AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show. I want to thank you for asking it. For those of you who are listening, if you have a question that you'd like potentially featured on the show, just head on over to AskPat.com, you can ask right there on that page.
And I also want to thank all of you again who have been very supportive of me and my upcoming book, Will It Fly? How to Test Your Next Business Idea So You Don't Waste Your Time and Money. If you haven't checked it out already, go to WillItFlyBook.com if you are listening to this. The week that this particular episode comes out, it'll be available on February 1, 2016. If you're listening to this in the future, go and and get it. Check it out. I know you're going to love it. My test group has been really enjoying it, and I know you will too. WillItFlyBook.com.
As always, I like to end with a quote. Today's quote is from Victor Hugo. He says, “Be like the bird who, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing she hath wings.”
That was deep. Cheers, take care, and I'll see you in the next episode of AskPat. Bye.