Best Practices for Blogging

How do I blog? What do I blog? I am a writer, and I love it, but I asked myself these questions before I started this blog. After much thought, and some research online, I’ve come up with some best practices that I think are practical, realistic, and completely doable for everyone! First, keep variety the name of the game! Find content from many different sources. Step out of that box and have fun with it. Even if the content you want to blog about isn’t the most exciting, find a video, picture, slide show, or something of the like, that makes it fun for you and the reader. Now, just sit down and write. Sure there are grammatical and spelling rules that should be followed as a whole, but just sit down and write. Write it out by hand first, if it’s easier and if you have the time, then transfer it over to typed form on your computer. If you’re not comfortable at first, be patient, it will become easier as you go. Next, write to who is reading your blog, not to yourself. If you wanted to communicate with yourself, you might as well just talk to yourself. Put yourself in the shoes of who you’re writing for. Write to what you’d want to hear and learn about if you were them. Now, let’s talk feedback. Criticism, critiquing, complaining, or complementing is all a fact of life. They are also going to occur whenever with no matter to whether you want it or not. That’s true in life, and it’s true in blogging. It’s actually a necessity in blogging. It tells you what you’re doing right, wrong, and how to improve. Some feedback may not feel as if it’s worth reading, some is very valuable, but read it all! It could be through that blatantly harsh critique of a particular post that you missed a point or fact that would have helped sway favor to the point you were trying to make, or to a $1000 sale your company was trying to finalize. From comments, good or bad, you can learn, but silence is a great teacher in the world of blogging as well. If that happens, learn what works and what doesn’t from previous posts and stick with that. How much do I write? Is there too much or too little? Sometimes readers just don’t have the time, or they just don’t want to, read a long post. Short, sweet and to the point is okay sometimes. A break from the pressure is good for you too. Now don’t go overboard and go short for an extended period of time. Your market readers may feel you don’t have time for them. Let your personality through! You have one, so let it show. Be yourself and be personable. This isn’t a computer just spitting out tag lines, bottom line numbers, and statistics that would make the most dedicated financial person take a nap. Business doesn’t have to be dry. Being professional doesn’t mean you can’t let your personality come through. I don’t mean go up and do your standup routine you perform at the comedy club on the weekends. Just be you. People want to like you. They want to trust you. How can they do that if you sound like a bad textbook? All in all, blogging shouldn’t feel like a chore. You can, and should be able to, enjoy it. Make your blog your own, even if it is for your company. You are an individual that is part of a whole at your company. Help to make your readers feel the same. Good luck and happy blogging!