The Writing Dynamics Of A Blogger

Hello everyone.  I want to begin by reminding you that associated information can be found in other blogs on my blog network. You should probably read them all for the most complete relevant, applicable information and instructions concerning blogging and digital marketing. You will see an overlap on occasion in some of the Internet business information I discuss in my blogs. Alright, let’s discuss blogging from the planning and first write stage a bit more. And later I'll give you an outline for your blog site itself.  

I am an experienced professional writer trained in several writing disciplines. It may not show at times due to fatigue which can result in editing failures. My training is both self-taught, hands-on experience in different kinds of writing as a published writer and academic writing. Pepperdine University Malibu liberal arts (intellectual ability and writing), Kaplan University Business School and Internet Marketing (now Purdue University), National University project management and writing communications and advanced comprehension skills, I'll stop there. I want to point out that Pepperdine is a private Christian University located in Malibu California, and that I was there because it was in the neighborhood that I lived in at the time, it was not for religious reasons that I attended the school. It is known for its business school.

But when I embarked upon a career in blogging it wasn't as much about writing as it was about what I knew about the subjects I was writing about. Punctuation and grammar are always important regardless of the environment you're writing in, but paralanguage, inferences, tone, and delivery are different in blogging. I'm basically learning to not apply most of the stuff I used in school to blogging because it removes some of the personable things about me that people may enjoy picking up on during their read. Blogging is not an academic writing environment unless of course, you're writing academic blogs. In blogging, there's a whole different approach to writing than any other experience I've ever had. Experience just helps me pick up on it easier. In blogging the audience is not defined until you've settled upon what your blog is about, who would benefit from it most, and how you should talk to those individuals.

So you're audience may be hard to define for awhile during the research phase of your work. When you know who you're writing to your audience has already been defined for you. For example, if you are writing to a professor about arts and humanities you know that he or she will expect to see an academic or even white paper read, feel and appearance to the writing, along with information that responds to specific directions. But if I'm writing about arts and humanities in a blog environment, then that's it's own type of environment unique to the temperament of that particular audience type. You can deliver it to suit yourself.

There are two other things I'd like you and me to keep in mind: I need to know the demographics for the subject I'm writing about, the context they read and speak in, and I need to come across as likable, friendly, helpful, supportive, clever, wise, smart, and endlessly useful. The reason I phrase it as "come across as" is not because there's anything phony going on. It's because a person can be that person but doesn't bring that across with them in the bloggers' sphere due to a disconnect that occurs during the transition of thought to print. Our personality, how we express that in person and in writing are entirely different. Which usually comes as a surprise to people. If you don't mind being candid and transparent it's easier and faster to develop your writing voice.

  Be transparent and show your personality. 

I've not written in the first person except for my time as a songwriter and composer in the music business. And there is an iambic pentameter, voice inflection and a few other things you work with there. But in blogging it's all about letting your personality come across to people; and being honest and diplomatic, as well as transparent about who you are as a person. Show yourself, your whole self without any missing parts. Let them know who you are, why you've come to share your knowledge with them and why they can trust you for this information. More on that just ahead.

Most people don’t like writing. In fact, most people suck at it. After all writing and math are the two elements of man’s world that hold it together. So it's not easy. Few people ever come to realize that and see the correlation between writing and mathematics. They are also the two most failed required learning classes in schools if not tutored. In blogging, you don’t have to be an accomplished writer although it helps a great deal if you are. Your level of writing skills can determine what other incomes you can establish with writing. Good writers can establish multiple income streams with blogging being one of them. You’ve heard me say that one doesn’t need to be an accomplished writer to be a blogger and that still holds true. But, a lousy writer is not going to succeed in blogging as well as a better writer will. We have to face that reality. 

You are going to see what you write read by avid readers who know what to expect from a writer or have established a level of reading, write and comprehension they are most comfortable with and won’t compromise. Thank goodness most avid readers will compromise to some extent. But my advice is; don’t push it. Try and get your writing to a point where it’s acceptable, and palatable by the average reader. That will be your safe haven. Your average reader would be at the eight through the twelfth-grade level. Readability is determined based on the percentage of long words, short words, simple words and complex words within a paragraph comparatively.

Without blogging, you’ll have no SEO and nothing for your customers to relate to you with. You’ll get no inbound leads and there’ll be nothing to build social media leads with. What does that mean? It means blogs are necessary for any successful SEO program or conversion process short of e-commerce and in most cases there too. It also means that since blogs and SEO are the foundations the Internet is built upon, you need to learn both and address the average reading level because that's what you'll find on the Internet.  

The hardest part about blogging for most people is the frequency at which it must be done. I've touched on that before so I won't elaborate on it any farther here. Business blogging is not easy and that just happens to be the area my blogs are based in. Marketing is a business and a business is marketing. You have to be disciplined in your writing and in your business knowledge and methodologies. Sequencing is very important in business blogging. As you go along and gain more experience in your genre you'll eventually become an expert at what you write about. It is then you can simply sit down without doing research and write a good blog from the seat of your pants. 

"Before you start to write, have a clear understanding of your target audience. What do they want to know about? What will resonate with them? Consider what you know about your readers, their personas, and their interests while you're coming up with a topic for your blog post." (Rachel Sprung, Hubspot)

After you've decided upon a title for your blog overall you'll use that same process in naming the individual posts to your blog. I've discussed titling here in "Content Optimization".

Get and keep your readers attention in the first few lines of your post. Give them a powerful statistic, or a little-known fact about the subject of which they are about to read. You could even begin it with a famous quote or anecdote. You must grab and keep them there because if you don't they won't stay and finish your post. Once you have their attention explain what the post is about and why you're writing it. I like to include a little of that in the title of a post e.g., "The business of blogging has captured the imagination of many an entrepreneur". But I changed it, it wasn't specific enough for me. Try to use some action words in "your grabber" such as drive, run, action, captured etc. You might also want to explain what the post is intended to do for them and the intro is a good place to do that.

Alright so now you have your intro, you already know what you're going to write about and you have an outline of the information you'll be presenting so now it's time to start writing your draft. When your draft is done edit it for punctuation and grammar to the best of your abilities. If you're not good at that you might want to copy and paste your post into a word processor trust it to catch typos, grammatical errors or spelling errors. When you're done with that proofread it again and make any final adjustments to its formatting. Then find a nice relative image to add to your post so it does well in social media too. Images are important in social media posts.

Make sure your blog post is interesting, useful, dynamic and honest. The home page to your blog is the welcoming page for your guest. It is what's commonly called your "landing page". Your landing page needs to have an air of hospitality to it, a welcome, come in please sit. Here's why we're here kind of quality about it. Make sure it's easy to understand and easy to navigate. Your home page should reflect your blogs image, its brand.

Okay, here's an outline for your blog website make sure your blog is on a blog-friendly template that has:

• Link to an about page
• Link to a contact page or contact information
• Categories
• Sidebar
• Subscription options
• Social media icons

What's the image of your blog? Make sure the design of your blog reflects the image of your blog. You wouldn't want a blog about Navy Seals written in pastels with a pink background. As per Susan Gunelius another professional blogger, "Your about me page is an essential tool to establish who you are as a blogger which helps readers understand what your blog is about. It should reflect your experience and why you're the best person to blog about your subject matter. It should also have links to your other websites or blogs. Self-promotion is critical to your success as a blogger."

That's it for now,
Happy Blogging!