Finding your blogging voice and 10 more articles

Now that you’ve written your first blog article, it’s time to get some content on your blog.  I’m sure you found the first article a bit challenging, but as you write more it will become easier.   Article writing ebbs and flows though, just like anything else you will do.  I’ve literally sat staring at the Add New Post window for 30 minutes before coming up with something to write about.  I’ve also written 50% of an article only to become frustrated, delete and start over.  On the flip side though, there have been times were I sat and literally pumped out 4 or 5 articles in just a couple of hours.  I refer to that as being “in the zone”, it doesn’t happen often, but it’s great when it does.

The point is to just keep writing.  Your first few articles are probably not going to be your highest quality.  As a matter of fact, in 6-12 months, you’ll say something like “uh, what was I thinking” when you go back and read some of your early work.  The great thing about a blog though is that you can always go back, edit and rework your articles as you learn more.  Frankly, this is something I’d encourage you to do.  Many people will find your blog through search engine traffic that points back to your older articles.  Keep them fresh.

Your blogging voice

One of the things I struggled most with was my online voice.  Your online voice is the way you sound or come across to your readers.  At first this is something you’ll really struggle with: Should I sound serious, funny, come across as an expert, or show that I’m learning? These are all questions you’ll ask yourself as you write.  There isn’t one good answer.  I offer two pieces of advice from my experience:

1. Be yourself - Many new bloggers try to sound different than they really are.  If you try to be something you are not, writing is exponentially more complicated and readers will see right through you.  I’ve found blog readers prefer that you be yourself, they prefer you to be real.  Some of my greatest growth and most popular articles where the one’s where I admitted to making am mistake.  Funny, when I wrote them, I thought everyone would leave.  Be true to your readers and they will be true to you.
2. Let your voice find you - Many blogging experts recommend that bloggers find their voice, I disagree.  Don’t work to find your voice, let your voice find you.  This is done easily by just writing.  The more you write, the more comfortable you come and the more you’ll learn about what works and what doesn’t.  As you do this, your voice will find you.  It will take a little time, but it will find you.

Challenge: Write 10 articles

My challenge for you at this point is to write 10 more articles.  Make them at least 500 words each and highly beneficial to your readers.  I would also encourage you to write and publish one each day.  If you can’t write and publish one daily, set yourself a schedule: every other, 1 a week, etc.  Being able to write and publish articles on a standard schedule is important to your success.  Papers come out daily and magazines monthly, blogs are really no different.  Your readers will want to know when to expect content and when it doesn’t come out, they’ll wonder why.

Why 10 articles?  No real magic there.  10 seems to be a good number to start getting search engines to notice your site along with a number of blogging social sites to take you seriously.  Want to more than 10?  No problem, the more content the better.  Just make sure it’s good content.  Less great content far outweighs more mediocre content. Plus once you get in the swing of writing 10 articles on a consistent basis, I’d encourage to keep writing at that same consistency.  A few months later and you’ll have a blog with 50 or more articles.  Something to be proud of and a blog that the search engines and new readers will take seriously.

Once you get the 10 articles written, drop a comment here or contact me and I’ll link out to you.

photo by: Cappellmeister