So far in the Blog Expert Series, we have looked at ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors.
By finding your niche market, locating gaps in industry sectors and establishing what you want to achieve, you are in an ideal position to begin blogging to make a profit and build up your customer base.
So…
Now you have your niche, you are ready to start writing?
This sounds like the easy part, and to many people it is.
However, a number of people contact me each week panicking about the best way to write blog articles.
What should they include?
What should be left out?
What style should they adopt for their blog, to reach a happy medium between being informative, and being too dry?
To the uninitiated, the blog writing process can be a minefield of uncertainty. It takes a few weeks to get in to the swing of writing, and find your own voice to join the rest in the blogosphere.
The following advice is designed to get you started in the blog writing process, leaving you confident and positive about your new role as a contributor to the World Wide Web…
Finding your voice
Working out exactly who you are, and who you want to portray yourself to be on your blog, are possibly the two largest considerations for you as a new blogger.
When you go out for a meal with your closest friends, the likelihood is you are entirely comfortable revealing your full personality, with all its quirks and eccentricities.
If you are in a business meeting, the chances are you choose to keep your personality a little more hidden, in favor of presenting a professional exterior.
As a blogger, you need to make a choice in terms of who you want to be, when you write online. This can largely depend upon the nature of your blog.
If you are writing to inform people about technical developments in the world of software, for example, then you may choose to adopt a third-person approach for your updates, which puts information before personality.
On the other hand, if you are blogging for pleasure, or to discuss the pitfalls of parenthood or the joys of dog ownership, you may find it much easier to show your personality to your readers.
Finding your place in the blogosphere
I have a friend who writes children’s books, and has two children of his own under ten years old. He is also a rebel, a bit of a hippy, and a strong social commentator.
He runs two blogs – one represents his job as an author, and is impeccable in tone, style and content.
On the other, which he writes under a pseudonym, he lets rip about the state of the world, complete with swear words, jokes and anecdotes.
In this way, he has discovered two voices, both of which are equally valid, and represent him completely.
Giving people insight in to your world
There is no denying that people like reading about other people’s lives, online. One of the most engaging aspects of the blog process is the way in which people are able to catch a glimpse of real lives and voices, uncensored and unchallenged.
Blogging is the first true vehicle to enable people to speak with honesty. We all like stepping in to another person’s perspective from time to time, reading alternate viewpoints and laughing at other people’s mishaps, adventures and experiences.
What’s your preferred writing style?
Choosing how you want to write online can also depend upon your personal writing style. If you favor a jokier, colloquial style, run with that.
No matter what your intentions are when you set out with your blog, your innate personality will begin to shine through if you blog on a regular basis.
Trust who you are, and what you want to achieve, and you will have no problem at all finding your ‘real’ voice online. When you find it, you’ll be able to pour out words on to the page without struggling to find things to say – after all, you have a busy mind, and all you need to do to succeed as a blogger is find engaging ways to share your thoughts with the online community.
In the next blog expert series we shall discuss how to keep passion alive!
Here’s the links to the previous Blog Expert Series posts:
Blog Expert Series: The Surprising Decision 77% Of Bloggers Get Wrong
Blog Expert Series: Be The Blog Every Blogger Envies
Blog Expert Series: Give Your Blog The X Factor
Blog Expert Series: Ridiculous or Outrageous?
Blog Expert Series: Get Your Readers Begging For More!
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Andrew is a website builder and helps small businesses with their on-line presence…so they can grow their customer list and increase sales. That’s it! That’s what we do each and every day.
Excellent points here Andrew. I think I’ve found my voice, but it’s always evolving as I evolve. When I started my first blog in 2008 (about hiking), I was tentative and careful. Now I mostly let it rip on my blogs, although I do pay attention to ensuring I maintain a high level of professionalism overall.
John,
It does take a little while to find your voice…as you say…as we evolve…get more confident and just try new things.
Andrew
It’s very hard for me to find my own writing style since every post is different. I find I write in a more persuasive voice when I’m writing a product review, and a more casual style when writing other posts. But there are times when I change my voice completely too.
Henway
It can be good to mix things up.
Andrew
My writing has improved over the course of time. What really helps is continuing to read other blogs and posting regularly. I do think that it’s ok to post less frequently and actually work on writing longer and higher quality posts.
Richard
I am going to try that tactic soon…writing longer posts – just to see what reaction I get.
Andrew
Nice one here Andrew! I think it wouldn’t be difficult to write articles distinctively if you really have the passion. I have read a blog about this that he manage to post over 270 within 8 months uniquely. He just 18 years old. Sounds interesting, right? I believe in him and he shares that his only armor is his PASSION for writing.
You have to have passion in the subject…otherwise it would be a hard long slog.
Andrew
I found that with more practice, I get better in my writing. I also read a lot to get ideas on what to write. I also outsource my article writing to my writers for my other niche blogs.
David
Outsourcing can be worthwhile – it can provide a different slant on writing type.
Andrew
I believe about practices make perfect saying.
It is absolutely true, especially in my case.
I am not a good writer, but since i always post in my blog, it has been improved.
Thanks for the post, Andrew.
Kimi,
My writing also has improved over time. Dread to think what some of my early posts now read like!
Andrew
Corinne,
Feedback is great – both positive and not so positive.
Either way it can help you improve / change things for the better.
Andrew
Writing will always reveal the personality of the writer no matter what style you choose to display on a page.
The fact is that new bloggers are influenced by other probloggers whom they try to imitate and by doing this they lose their own “voice”, just like a ventriloquist’s puppet you can hear the words but you know that it comes from the ventriloquist and not the puppet.
Also the tone of your writing it depends on what you are writing of, you can’t really write in a jovial tone about software like you can’t write about your personal adventures in a serious and distant way.
Anyway this things usually reveal themselves by practicing writing after choosing a topic that you like!
Alex,
I like what you say. It just takes a little while for some to realize that copying others just don’t work.
Andrew
I haven’t yet looking to monetizing my blog, as I prefer to keep it pretty informal. I like my blog being my space where people can go to be entertained and learn something. My niche I guess would be a fun loving, educated way of life instead of something more specific. Keep blogging!
Carlton
Your niche of being a fun loving, educated way of life instead of something more specific…doesn’t match your link of Arizona Mortgage Rates!!!
Andrew
I like your writing style. Everyone will find his niche, time will decide as long as he is willing to learn and to explore.
Viviana
Learning and exploring…2 great words that should be part of the bloggers make-up.
Andrew
this is a very important topic to talk about and opinions about it are various but these points are exact and well mentioned , Working out exactly who you are was my best part and getting a goal is absolutely required to make more knowledge and have experience based on real old skills !! 🙂
Rahul
I believe far too many people are not being themselves when it comes to being on-line. They are afraid or have fear.
Andrew
Hi Andrew
I write differently to when I started blogging a few months ago. Partly because I am gaining confidence in my chosen niche and also because now I have regular visitors to my site who are part of the blogging community that I am part of. Write more conversationally and interact more with my readers. Also, they make suggestions for posts they would like to see me write so that’s great too.
A lot is written on the net about how to write but I believe the best thing is to be myself. With good grammar, correct punctuation and short paragraphs to keep my readers engaged.
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia,
Once those technical issues were out of the way…you have excelled at blogging in such a short space of time.
A model blogger!
Andrew
I think the chief key to this subject is read others blog so that you will learn something new. I think a lot of blogger has a say in their chosen fields, thus it will give you idea what to right next. From there on, you can easily sew topic to talked about. Ans also, be open to changes as it is the constant thing in the world.
I love the fact you mention learning and change…crucial skills / tasks for success.
Andrew
It is instant of pleasure for me that I have found a complete guide line related to blogging matters. The last paragraph of this article has attracted me as it is related to self motivation and self recognition. I have found this thought unique in this article.
Thanks, Nawaz.
I like the motivational side of life as well.
Andrew
Hey Andrew,
I’m a regular follower of your blog expert series. I must say I’ve learned something from it. I’ve come back before to look at things to see if I’m following what you’re saying. I remember when I started, I was just all over the shop. I knew what I wanted to blog about, but I felt like had no plan on what to do and was frequently distracted.
Now I’ve a better idea what to do and I’ve found my own style of writing that I’m comfortable with.
Bryan,
That is great to hear and thanks for letting me know.
It does take a little while to find your own style.
Andrew
Sweet use of title keywords to dominate SERPs. I’ve been doing that myself for various series of articles. Really works.
Dave,
it does. The last one I did was on Link Building.
I like doing them – it can make it easier to come up with ideas.
Now figuring out the next series!
Andrew
Finding your voice is really a good thing to start with for newbies in the blogosphere. People could sometimes be confused on what to write or who they want to be, so finding out who they want to portray and who they want to be is a good foundation.
Linda,
To get to that stage…it can take a while.
Andrew
Precisely!This thing made me sick for it is where I earn money and generate most of my income. Just like other people do I aimed to provide for my family so basically it stressed me out on thinking how can I’ll be able to make more money and run the errand as it used to be.