A long-time blog reader sent me a personal message that I thought I’d share with you.  He wrote:

I used to read your carlonhaas.com blog.  You used to blog once a week or so, then it’s almost like you disappeared.  But here you are at a new blog and I get e-mail updates from you every day.

I write a blog, so I was wondering how you went from blogging once a month to once a day?  What’s the secret?

Rick

Rick’s letter surprised me.  He was kind actually.  I blogged maybe once every two months.  But in fact some of the readers of the old blog have given me similar comments.  Some even unsubscribed from e-mail blog updates thinking I had turned into a spammer.  I guess that’s what happens when you go form one blog post every 2 months to 5 times a week.

And, honestly, when I started Don’t Step in the Poop, I planned on blogging once a week.

But now, I’m at 5-6 times a week with no intention of slowing down in the near future (heck, I have 5 posts already queued for next week!).  My secret?  Although I don’t believe in “the secret”, this is how I went from blogging once a month to every day.

Blog Angry

There is no better way to blog than to blog angry.  I’m serious. I used to avoid writing things that made me angry.  I thought I’d be perceived as too “negative”, especially for a personal development blog. I looked at other personal development blogs and saw how upbeat and “you can do it” they were.  I felt I needed to imitate them.

As much as the readers liked that blog, I felt there was no fire and no passion in that writing.

I started Don’t Step in the Poop after I had finally had enough.  I had been reading all these BS personal development books and was getting angrier and angrier.  Many were so full of pump-up material and so little on substance; I felt I had to do something.

I was a philosophy student trained in critical thinking.  I known how to use your critical thinking skills to discern truth from fiction, right from wrong.  But all these books I read focus on making you feel good. And sure you might feel good albeit temporarily.  These ideas I found not only disturbing but dangerous.  Heck, some people have been killed doing this stuff.

So, I started blogging angry.  And I went from one post every two months or so to 5-6 posts a week.  And I have no intention of taking my foot off the gas pedal.

Blogging angry is not the same as ranting

But by angry, I don’t mean ranting.  Ranting is selfish and not helpful.  People reading my blog have probably read my reviews.  Yes, I hated Who Moved My Cheese.  Yes, I hated Awaken the Giant Within.

But I’m not just sitting around ranting about how much I hate them.  You get the good, the bad, and the verdict.  Not just me telling you how much I hate something.

Angry Blogging Doesn’t Have to Sound Angry

You see, just because something makes you angry doesn’t mean a blog post has to sound angry.

It just has anger at its heart.

Anger can lead you to different directions.  For example, I was reading a book on creativity and was so disappointed with it, I thought to myself, “I know some children’s books that teach me more about creativity than that piece of trash.”  So, what did I do?  I reviewed a children’s book (that’ll appear as a guest post at theworldsstrongestlibrarian blog in mid-February–thanks, Josh.)

Anger and passion are two sides of the same coin.  If I said blog with passion, maybe some people would like it more than me saying “blog angry”.  But anger is SO much easier to find.  And it really is easy to control.

Anger is Like a Raging River that Needs a Bank

Anger, left unchecked, becomes a rant or worse.  So, it needs something to hold it.  In my case, I use logic and reason.  I use the human rational mind we were all born with.  A calmed mind is a beautiful thing because it can turn much of what is negative into something positive.

How do I use reason to turn anger into passion, frustration into humor, or madness into wit?

Actually, it’s kinda easy.  I call it: the editing process.

Blogging angry means you write fast.

Seriously!  If you’ve ever blogged angry, you know how fast it goes.  So, I use this simple process:

1. Write the post and queue it up
2. Wait one day
3. Re-read it
4. Make adjustments
5. Publish

If you read my review of “Who Moved my Cheese?” and thought it was a rant, let me tell you, I spent two days toning it down.  I really didn’t like that book.  I use this process as a way to balance.

So, you wanna become a more prolific blogger?  Blog angry…

…but wait a bit before you publish that bad boy.