My education background is in engineering so writing wasn't something that
came naturally to me. And yet, without a doubt, I am convinced that learning to
write effectively has been an important factor in helping me succeed
professionally. But learning to write well didn't come overnight. It took
years of writing to get decent at it. Let me save you some time and give
you some quickies on how to improve your writing which will in turn help make
your blog more effective.
1) Perfect is the enemy of good. This is a universal truth. I am a good
writer. I am, however, no where near great. My articles could be much better if
I spent more time crafting them. But as Joseph Stalin used to say, quantity has
a quality of its own and sadly it's true. It is better to have more articles
that are well written than fewer articles that are superbly written.
2) Topic is king. This goes along with #1. The topic matters more than
anything. Pick topics that you are interested in to begin with. For greater
popularity, make sure those topics are things others will be interested in. I
may be interested in finding out what that sickly sweet smell from my toe is but
I suspect others may not be so interested in that.
3) Writing Style: Paragraphs are your friend. #1 problem I've seen in
blogs are users who don't put spaces between paragraphs. Heck, really the #1
problem is people not having paragraphs at all. People need to be able to
read you article in bite-sized chunks. One big long block of text is not going
to be well received generally.
4) Read out-loud what you've written. This is my #1 problem. I generally just
crank out an article (or particularly a response) and don't read it before
hitting submit. The result can be incoherent or come across as rude. Written
communication is tricky and a few extra words can make the difference between a
well received article and one that comes across as just mean or grammatically
challenged.
5) Stick to the topic. Once you pick your topic, remember what it is
and stick to it. Don't go meandering off onto some tangent. Make a second
article about that.
6) Look up what you write about. If you've been here long enough, you know
that's my biggest pet peave. There are so many articles that get written here
that are essentially a collection of straw-man arguments or historical
revisionism. It can damage your credibility and turn off users. Writing articles
entitled "President Clinton <or Bush> is the worst President in our nation's
history" are generally unhelpful. Google is your friend. If your article
is trying to be persuasive, facts are very persuasive. A writer insisting that
their opinion is a fact is not persuasive.
7) Find places to link to your article. There are numerous places interested
in posting RSS feeds. Every blog on this site comes with a specific RSS feed for
them. Find places that syndicate RSS feeds and get your blog in there. JoeUser
has a lot of features built into help reward those who link to you as well as
getting the word out on what you write. Take advantage of it. One site I like is
called Blogstreet. But there are many
other sites out there that are interested in letting people know when a blog has
been updated.
I hope these suggestions will help you.