Friday, May 30th, 2008
I don’t want to waste a lot of your time so I’ll get right to the point. If you follow these tips you will be well on your way to writing a blog post that can easily become your best. There are only 5 steps and a two year old could do them. Isn’t your blog worth a little effort?
- Get to the point
- Tell your readers exactly what you are going to do immediately. Don’t mess around with wordy prose just stuff it in their face and tell them how things are.
- Follow through on what you tell them
- If you promise the moon you damn sure better show up with the moon. People don’t like to be jerked around or lied to. Deliver as promised.
- Make it interesting
- It’s not the subject that is interesting it is what you do with it. Make your blog article to be interesting by what you do with the information and how you present it.
- Spelling and grammar count (for something)
- The internet isn’t an English class, but you can’t expect to be taken seriously if your “best blog post ever” is riddled with basic spelling and grammar errors. Take a few seconds to proof-read what you’ve written BEFORE you publish it
- Be interested in what you write about
- No matter how much you might pretend people will know immediately when you’re writing about something that doesn’t interest you. Don’t bother trying to fool them. Write about something that interests you and don’t waste anyone’s time.
Posted in Blogging, Writing | 4 Comments »
Thursday, December 20th, 2007
Do you aspire to be a writer one day? I mean a
real writer. More than a writer even, but an author. You know what I’m talking about, right? Do you want to be
that guy? The household name who’s fame isn’t measured in television appearances or celebrity endorsements yet it’s a fame that will endure long after many others have burned themselves out.
Think in terms of John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath) and then consider Lauren Bacall (The Big Sleep). Now tell me, of those two who are you more likely to have heard of? Allow me, every kid by the time they are in 8th grade has read something by Steinbeck. Any bets to how many have watched anything with Bacall in it by the time they are in 8th grade? I’m willing to bet not many. That’s enduring fame. And with the help of several well known, dare I say famous authors, I’m going to help you do the same.
- Tip 1: Make your point (Stephen King)
- Stephen King admonishes us in his book “On Writing”
not to make our reader wait around while we drivel on and on with a back story. Get to what needs to be said and say it. You can always flesh it out with a backstory afterwards!
- Tip 2: Tell the damn story (Tom Clancy)
- In the January of 2001 issue of Writers Digest Clancy advised readers to be persistent and not get themselves caught up in committing art. Just tell the damn story you want told because no one else will.
- Tip 3: Designate time (Clive Barker)
- Horror darling Clive Barker advises to set aside a specific portion of time each day dedicated to writing. From my own personal experience that takes a real level of dedication. Especially when it comes to family and friends as they often times just don’t get it. By that I mean they see it as your free time and not “work” time and they expect you to be available to them during your writing time. So designate it and set it in stone that you write during that time and are NOT to be disturbed (except for emergencies of course)
- Tip 4: Stretch yourself(Me)
- Don’t be afraid to write outside of your comfort zone. If you write about making money with stock trading try writing something new. Like city gardening or whatever. Point is that you should endeavor to write about things which put you under pressure and make you “think on your feet”. I once heard you should spend 5% of your time writing in your comfort zone. The rest you should be stretching yourself. I try to take that advise to heart.
What about you? What kind of writing tips do you have for us?
Posted in Writing | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
“Sometimes they come back” Do you remember that infamous Stephen King short story from the Night Shift compilation? Well this article has nothing whatsoever to do with that story, but the title is fitting so I thought I would open with it. Anyhow onto what we’re here to discuss, breathing new life into old blog posts.
- Why you would want to resurrect old articles
- There are any number of reasons you might want to bring old articles into the forefront again. Some of them might include:
- The topic has become “newsworthy” to the major media and you’d like to capitalize
- You pushed the article before you had the “proper” audience to receive it well
- You’ve had an influx of new readers who will benefit from reading it
- It would rank well on a newly discovered social bookmarking site which would grow your audience
- It has begun generating discussion in your archives
- You’re in a slump and not producing much new content
As you can tell there is no shortage of reasons why you’d want to resuse your old articles.
- How to do it
- The best way I’ve found to get old articles off the ground a second time around is using social bookmarking sites. By that I mean submitting the articles to sites they haven’t been submitted too yet. Put it out there in front of fresh eyes. They’ll pass it along to their friends and family (if it is worth their while).
Another tactic I’ve used to good effect is to link the old article to my comments on other blogs. Instead of being taken to a front page the person is taken to a specific article. This alone will usually get a few eyes new eyes on the article. It’s really effective because you can target your audience. For instance on a blog talking about the stock market I might highlight an article I’ve written about floor trading. On the other hand on a blog about camping I can link it to an article about arctic expeditions. You get the idea.
- What to look out for
- Don’t just throw the article out there and hope people will come. At some point they will and you won’t like it. Unless you’ve taken time to put everything in order. Get into your favorite editor and give the article a through thrashing.
- Spelling and grammar - Yep these still matter. Double check that you’re original posting didn’t have these errors.
- Layout change - If your theme has changed since you original posted the article you might find things are “off” in the article. Take some time and fix them.
- Advertising - If you have advertising make sure it is up to date so you can capitalize on it
- Position - We all change out minds on things from time to time. Be sure the article accurately reflects your position.
Do you ever “resurrect” old articles in order to try and capitalize on them a second, third, or even fourth time around?
Posted in Blogging | 5 Comments »
