How do you share your ideas in writing? Is it important to you to be seen as an expert in your field? What’s the best way to connect with your community and clients? Yesterday in my blog I shared why I write.
Today, I give you several ideas that get you on your way to becoming a better writer. Not only can these several ideas help make you a better writer, but also increase the chances people will read what you wrote. After all, if you’re reading this, chances are you want to be a writer that gets read. Here are four tips to help you get started as a blog writer.
Tip #1 – Write what you’re passionate about. Many beginning writers strive to write the great American novel or short story. The writing you do for a blog should help you reach out to your community. So many writers put such pressure on themselves, it’s no wonder they get writer’s block. When you first start writing you should consider writing about something for which you are passionate. It’s much easier to write when you love what you’re writing than trying to write the next business bestseller. Writing is like any skill you’re trying to develop, passion can help you move through the early stages.
Tip #2 – Know your audience. I’ve shared what I’m passionate about in my blogs over the years with others who have similar passions, such as leadership or nature photography. When people like it, they tell you. But how do you find out what your audience wants before your start writing? There are many ways to know more about your audience. I’ve always google my topics. I check out who might be writing about a similar topic and see what their readers share. You can look at books on Amazon to see what people are reading in your subject. I’ll expand on this idea in a future blog.
Tip #3 – Know your point of view. There may be many blogs on the same topic, but each author has their own point of view. For example, I started this blog for my clients and potential partners that serve others through their leadership roles. Now it seems that many people are now writing about servant leadership, but few tell you how to be a serving leader. This provides me an opportunity to share ideas on how to become a serving leader. Once I found my unique hook, I was also able to find good examples of serving leaders.
Tip #4 – Schedule your time so you write something every day. I can tell you some days it would have been easier for me to do almost anything else. I promised myself and the people around me I would keep writing. Five days a week, every week. I created a format to make it easier to write, one paragraph and one photo. Then I picked up several books on writing and it became less painful. If you want to be a good writer, it’s worth the investment to do it well.
As a business development executive and former headhunter, I couldn’t have imagined how different this was from selling my ideas to clients. This was a new way of sharing my ideas to a much larger audience. The writing helps me clarify my ideas before sharing them with many of my best clients.
I’m able to influence others to take action, but writing requires me to develop a more structured way of thinking. I’ve discovered my best blogs come from writing out my ideas on a yellow legal pad with a pen. I learned this writing secret from Wayne Dyer and it has allowed me to become much more effective at putting my blogs and stories together faster.
What do I get for all my hard work? Today, my blogs take less than an hour a day between me and my editors. Three to five thousand people read them every day. If I write a great blog, that number can surge to over 10,000 people first day online. Our community has expanded to over 120,000 readers between our blogs. So for me, it’s well worth it to write, every day, and share my ideas with more people than many of the books on the business best seller list!
Be here on Thursday, when Dennis Fischman shares how to Make Your New Hire the Hero of Your Story. See you then.