Picture Courtesy: Charles Roberts/Online Transport Archive
The sad news that Sir Norman Wisdom has passed away at the ripe old age of 95 marks the end of an era. The days of the slapstick, knock-about, physical comedian are largely gone. Even the clowns in circuses these days rely more on visual gags than physical ones. No matter what you think about Sir Norman’s work, there is no argument that his humour was almost entirely physical. It was much less about any funny lines and much more about funny goings on.
In other words, he managed to be funny – for decades – without having to be clever with words or get some fantastic script written. All he had to do was smile, slip and slide over; oh how we laughed.
His work, though, demonstrates an important concept for anyone with a blog. Some comedians concentrate on writing funny lines, gags, stories, jokes – whatever you want to call them. Norman just concentrated on doing. Some bloggers concentrate on the words, they craft every last line. Others just get on and write stuff.
Successful bloggers are the active ones. Less successful bloggers are the ones who spend their time lovingly worrying about every last dot and comma. Now, it is true, of course, that quality writing will always win over less than brilliant prose. So you should always try to write your best, admittedly. But rather like Sir Norman Wisdom, whose actions shouted louder than his words, successful bloggers are the ones who also take action, concentrating less on the words, more on the “doing”.
When people see your blog is active, vibrant, alive – they like it. When they see it dormant, stale, hardly moving – they pass you by. In other words, the success of a blogger is determined by actions, with words only taking a second place. The more blog posts you write, the more articles you publish, the more content you produce the more you are seen as worth listening to. If you write less – no matter how brilliantly – in the online, short-attention-span world, you are a mere sideshow.
By regularly posting material you show you are active. Those actions are the hallmarks of success – not just the words you write. So, if you want a long life of success online, you need to take a tip from Sir Norman Wisdom: concentrate on the actions you take and less on the words.
