hey guys Jennifer LeClaire here senior editor of charisma magazine author of
about 25 books on various topics of Christian writing secular writing and
also very popular blogger you may have read some of my blogs that have gone
absolutely viral I have two columns that I write for charisma magazine I want to
teach you today had a blog right now you might have read my watchman on the wall
column where I dive into issues in society and comment on those issues that
are in the news or you may have read my columns in the plum line which is my
spiritual column my teaching column you probably read some of my stuff in
prophetic insight or even on elijahlist where I put out prophetic words and
prophetic videos I want to teach you how to blog right now you have a prophetic
voice you have a prophetic expression if you are interested in writing you need
to pick up a pen you need to grab a laptop you need to find something to
write on and you need to start writing blogging is a great way to get into the
writing realm as a matter of fact blogging can actually turn into a book
if you blog consistently if you blog regularly if you blog on the same topic
long enough when it comes time to write a book many times what I do is I go back
through my old blogs and I grab a pieces and parts that I can expound upon that I
can press into so you know I've learned some tricks of the trade I want to teach
you and this is really one little part of a broader writing prophetic bootcamp
that I'm going to be doing this summer so I want to give you a taste I want to
equip you I want to see an army of media people rise up photo of photographers
writers videographers artist everything with regard to prophetic expression
prophetic people are creative people and we need to take back the media mountain
so I want to share with you today just a few tips I've got 13 that I jotted down
quickly I don't think I can get through all 13 of these because I've got a
prayer call but I want to get through as many as I can so I'm probably going to
keep it short in my writing school my prophetic writers boot camp which is
called right now I will go deeper I will dive deeper into
all these things and more but I wanted to just get you started you know I
wanted to just help you start blog writing now now is the best time to
start well you know I I hear people say well I've got a book in me well you
probably do but you're never going to get the book out of you unless you start
writing I am here to help you praise God here's what we're going to do going to
go through these kind of quickly you've probably seen some of my articles I've
had articles go blogs go absolutely viral see 2 million shares which means
more than a million people read them you know it's a matter of establishing your
voice establishing your patterns your your your thrust find out what your
passion is let's talk about that here's the thing you got to be very first of
all if you don't have a blog set up set what up you can you can write for other
people's blogs if they'll let you but you need a central place where you can
put all of your writing you can go to wordpress.com you can get a blog theme
there pick something that's attractive pick something with colors that suits
your style pick something that you know it is modern don't pick something one of
those old blogs you know from like the 1990 early a 1990 era where it looks
like little digits on the page don't get one of those old-style things where it
looks like you know maybe the World Wide Web it was the first site on the World
Wide Web pick something attractive pick something that that suits your
personality that that goes with your theme something that you can be proud of
you can pick a free theme the next thing is before we start talking about the
writing part is go to GoDaddy go and get a name of your blog you know my website
is Jennifer LeClaire.org but I've also got 365 prophetic calm I've also got
awakening TV calm I've got a number of URLs get your name if you can comms are
the best but dot orgs are good if you're a non-profit go get your name right now
if you can if you can't get your name then think of some kind of brand think
of something that that sort of describes what you do you know we've got all kinds
of bloggers out there in the prophetic some you know a friend of mine is she
goes by lovesick scribe it's awesome that that's her sort of moniker that's
her that's her branding so if you can't get
your name then pick some kind of theme and give it some thought don't just
willy-nilly buy a URL and start marketing and branding that give your
branding some thought that's a whole nother deep topic I don't want to spend
too much time on that number three start writing no time like the present just
start don't wait till tomorrow don't wait till next week don't wait
till next month don't let that spirit of procrastination stop you from doing what
God has called you to do start writing now that's why my writing workshops are
called right now prophetic training boot camp for writers right now not tomorrow
not next week start writing there's never a better time than the present and
the longer you put it off the easier it is to put off the longer you put it off
the more time you're wasting where you could be putting together information
for your book you know blogging like I said it's a great foundational practice
for your book it's a great discipline it's a great way to continue to hone
your skills the more you do something the better you get at it they say that
it takes 10,000 hours of doing anything to become an expert I've been writing
for my lord I don't want to tell you how old I am and you'll probably figure it
out but well over two decades almost almost three decades I've been writing I
just start off writing books to start off writing newspaper articles for my
school paper actually term papers in school if you want to get really
technical about it but start writing now right now right now right now number
four write what you're passionate about if you're not passionate about what
you're writing you're not going to write it if you're not passionate about you
know that whatever topic you're writing on is going to come off in your writing
you're going to be dull you're going to be stale it's going to be very obvious
you don't care what you're writing about and no one's going to want to read it
it'll be like if a preacher didn't didn't care what they're preaching about
they were told you've got to preach on this and didn't resonate with them it
didn't sit well with their spirit they didn't have any revelation on it it'll
be dry be boring would be without the spirit we want to write in the spirit
you know dr. Steve green the publisher of charisma magazine he always says to
me you write in the spirit you know we can walk in the spirit we can preach in
the spirit we can prophesy in the sphere we better be prophesied in the spirit
but we can also write in the spirit but you first have to just get into the
groove of writing before you can even think about tapping into the spirit in
other words if you don't begin to write you ain't going to write in the spirit
you've got to write write write write write get into that discipline start
today blog right now write what you're passionate about write everyday be
consistent you know if you're give it if you're going to do it now I don't write
my blogs every day anymore I do write every day but I'm not writing a blog
every day dr. Steve green my publisher charisma he writes every day and he just
writes very short he writes to 300 words you know he's doing a series on momentum
now it's it's really awesome he's got a great book out coming out called love
leads you know that he you know he was writing blogs blogs blogs and some of
that helped feed his book I'm going to keep drilling that into you because your
blogs can feed your book and I know you've got a book in you I know you're
listening to me because you're interested in getting your word out
there getting the prophetic word of the Lord out there there's so much you can
do if you just stay disciplined right Dale here almost daily say 5 days a week
I write every day I'm writing something right daily keep it consistent
especially if you're writing for an audience your audience has to know that
you're going to write them once a month you cannot build an audience writing
once a month you can in a secular I mean print
magazine perhaps but in the internet world you need to blog with some
regularity at least once a week ok do it every day if you can but please don't do
it less than once a week you cannot build an audience if you do not write
consistently now number six make a point please I get people that submit stuff
for charisma magazine and dear God it's like 2,000 words and I can't even figure
out what they meant after they read it it's just ramble ramble ramble ramble
keep it concise if you're going to write a blog to 300 words is okay 500 words is
about the sweet spot 800 words is fine even a thousand but once you get beyond
that unless it's really rich and really deep nobody's going to want to read that
chop it up into two blogs and you've got double for your trouble praise God keep
make a point don't ramble number seven find evidence if you can if you're going
to say something back yourself up if you're going to write a spiritual
article use some scripts don't just give your opinion I hate to
tell you this and don't want to hurt your feelings but I would be remiss if I
didn't explain this to you most people don't really want your opinion okay
especially in the prophetic now if you're going to give your opinion give
up gifts scriptures I'm not against opinion I give my
opinion in in in in my watchman on the wall column but what I'm not really
doing I'm not really giving my opinion I'm giving the Lord's opinion and so in
order to do that you can't just say something you got to get scripture to
back it up bring scripture into your writing if you're a secular blog writer
you just try to maybe blog for your business you don't have to use Scripture
but you should use evidence if you're going to make a substantiate if you're
going to make a claim that says you know the retail industry is is going south
you need to substantiate that claim you can't just make a statement and not
prove what you're saying with a statistic with a scripture in the
spiritual world with some kind of anecdote of some kind of edited evidence
some kind of testimony you've got to give evidence don't just give opinions
only back yourself up show that hey this is why I think this is the signs it's
pointing me in this direction okay number eight don't be a copycat don't
just copy everything everybody else does find something original and bless God
please whatever you do don't play your eyes somebody else's writing that is the
fastest way to get blackballed you don't want to plagiarize it doesn't mean you
cannot find inspiration okay you can find inspiration in the writing of
others I do I find inspiration in books that I read but the Lord gives me my own
unique take my own unique spin my own unique revelation and I've got my own
voice you know Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new Under the Sun so it's not
like you're going to find something nobody else ever wrote about that just
doesn't work that way you know people have written tons on the prophetic I've
written tons of book on the prophetic tons of different books that people have
written on prayer you know I wrote a book on faith and they told me you know
brother Hagin he already wrote everything there is to write on faith
you know don't write that on faith you this wasting your time nobody's going to
read it don't take don't let people tell you that God will give you a voice a
unique way to present something you know 10 preachers could preach on faith
I could get something different from each one of them otherwise why would we
keep listening to messages I mean the Bible we've all read it so we can keep
reading it right because there's new perspective there's new wind there's new
anointings there's new sort of expressions that you can you can release
you've got a unique voice am I going to talk about developing your voice because
I did one one the video on that already but we'll talk about that in depth in my
writing launch prophetic bootcamp now but don't be a copycat don't plagiarize
I had a colleague in the secular world and she works for a real estate magazine
and they flat-out fired her she got busted plagiarizing you will damage your
credibility don't do it it's not worth it number nine scan the headlines on
Google News if you want to be relevant like for example my watchman on the wall
column but let's take dr. Michael Brown a friend of mine a father in the face
love that man oh god he's commenting on cultural issues on things in the news
and he taught me so much about doing that with grace and I came out of the
gate as a very young prophetic person you know kind of on the hard side I was
hard hard hard and Steve Hill taught me to Steve Hill the late Steve Hill called
me one day and says you know that was a great article you wrote the body of
Christ needs a good spanking every once in a while and it's true you can be hard
sometimes but if you're hard hard hard hard hard all the time
you're going to come out just preaching to the choir and a lot of people who
need to hear what you're going to say are not going to want to hear because
you're harsh you're hard you've got a season you're writing with grace you've
got to be able to reach people who maybe disagree with you and persuade them you
know there's several purposes in writing one is to entertain what is to educate
what is to perform and one is to persuade and so my watchman on the wall
come I'm trying to persuade I'm trying to sound the alarm I'm trying to give
prayer points to current events you know when the bombing with it when the when
the terror attack recently rather happened in France I was trying to get
some other book done riding my head off and also I see this headline BAM I got a
prophetic word Lord begins to speak with me about France and the Destiny on
France is it inconvenient yeah because I've got deadlines over here and I've
got projects over here and I've got phone calls over here but I have a
responsibility as a watchman on the wall as
prophetic person to to to look at the news and if the Lord speaks to me
something I need to release it so scan the headlines go to news Google calm you
can go and get news on every single industry Health Science World News US
News and you just see the biggest headlines of the day if the Lord speaks
something to you get it out stop everything you're doing and get it out
get a blog out right away find that find the current events ask the Lord pray for
a prophetic perspective number 10 I'm going to go through these quickly
because I've got to get on a prayer call a pick a good headline dear God please
don't give me a two-word headline sometimes those work pick something with
passion pick something that's going to elicit some emotion in somebody pick
something with action verbs not passive verbs you know go read my headlines on
the plum line on Watchmen on the wall on charisma go to my website Jennifer
LeClaire.org read my headlines you know they're not all perfect some of them
could be better than that then they are probably but you know one thing I do
well is I write good headlines things that want to make people read it now
don't write a headline that doesn't deliver on what you have in your article
don't use clickbait don't write something shocking and then your article
has nothing to do with that that makes you lose credibility but writing ahead
spend time working on your headline mull over it pray over why because if they
don't like the headline they're never even going to read the article and
that's a whole other thing as well share your message number 11 on social media
build your social media following just put it on your your Facebook page put it
on your Twitter use the right hashtags use good photos number 12
measure your traffic you know get some google analytics on your WordPress
there's plugins for that you get a techie guy to do that for you really
cheap if you don't know how find somebody to help you see how many shares
something is getting see how many visitors something's getting something
you get only a few shares that have a lot of visitors sometimes if you don't
have a lot of shares doesn't mean that you're not getting a lot of traffic
because sometimes certain things people won't share them you know maybe they
don't want anybody know they read that you know maybe it's kind of personal
maybe it's about pride or anger they don't want anybody know they read they
don't share but they read it so look at your stats look at your Google Analytics
on the back end what what took off and then asked the
Lord why did that resonate and give people what they want if you wrote
something and it's super popular right more like that do a part to do a part
three you know give a you a unique perspective measure your traffic and
number thirteen build your mailing list build your mailing list for many years I
send out one email a week with my article of the week in the mailing list
now sometimes I do more sometimes I I do less sometimes I you know I'm looking
for someone if you can send my emails for me let me know because I need help
I'm super super busy but the point is is that you need you need to build your
social media you need to build your email list because you build your
Twitter your Facebook because these are the things that drive traffic to your
website people may forget to go to your blog but if you have a newsletter if you
have a a social media page that you're growing you can shoot that out to them
it's a reminder and you can build a loyal following I have thousands and
thousands and thousands and thousands of people on my charisma email list on my
email list maybe you want to get on my email list go to Jennifer LeClaire.org
sign up you could see what I'm doing you might be able to get some tips just by
looking at what I do put praise God I want to pray for you
but I want to remind you you have a prophetic voice and if the or prophetic
expression is writing you need to get some training you need to tap into some
skills you need to learn how to write in the spirit you need to have to learn how
to write you know prophetically you know in these days I don't want to read
another stale boring dry article written by some religious spirit I'm sorry don't
mean to offend you of course a lot of things you probably double-cast down
okay I'm going into prophetic mode now let me switch back to writer mode we've
switched the hat okay so you need to be trained you need to be skilled there's a
skill there's an art and there's a prophetic side to writing we can be as
prophetic as all get-out if you don't have the skill you're not going to get
published you can have all the skill in the world if you have the Spirit of God
you're not going to get published so that was my timer
I have to go let me pray for you I want you to go to tinyurl.com slash writing
launch the link is up there on the Facebook live tiny URL comm slash
writing launch again tiny URL com slash writing lunch go there
for these classes I've got a limited number of people that can put in at the
early bird price I'm doing these last few a sort of educational Facebook lives
to try to bring awareness to what I'm doing because you might be the one that
needs to fill that seat you might be the one that has the next viral blog you
might be the one that has the met the next a big book contract I want to teach
you the mechanics of writing I want to teach you more than anything because
you're going to get the mechanics you can get that from a lot of places but
what I want to teach you that many people an art or can't or don't teach is
that prophetic side tapping into the Spirit in your writing praise God
go to tie the URL calm slash riding launched share this with your friends I
want to pray for you father I thank you in the name of Jesus that you are good
your mercies are good forever god I thank you that you urge those who have a
writing gift to begin to write every day give them a grace give them an anointing
move them by your spirit help them retain and and understand that the
revelations that you're giving them and help them to express it in a way that
glorifies you and equips and activates and imparts things to people that read
it thank you for listening to this I'm going to do a couple more of these
before the school starts in June it's going to be live here in South Florida
but also online you can watch these videos on demand when it's good for you
it's going to be eight hours a day three times one a month one in June one in
July one in August why because I want you to take everything you'll learn one
month put it to practice get out there use what I've taught you and then it
absorbs some more praise God tinyurl.com slash riding launch I've got to go I
love you guys I'll be back with you soon if you didn't see my word this morning
on the mega go back earlier scroll my Facebook page go to find out the mega
word for me love you guys bless you see you soon