How can my writing sparkle?
The web is about words. No matter how visual and audible it becomes, it continues to be about the words.Blogging is about writing. Many claim that content is king. If content is king, then the army that protects and defends the king is the written word. (Lorelle VanFossen)
It remains true that the web is certainly about words. Billions of the little critters. It is no longer a web but a very crowded maze.
- If you want your words to stand out then they have to be good.
- If you want your words to be good, then they must be readable.
- If you want your words to be readable then you have to take care and make sure they are the best you can write.
- If you want your words to be the best you can write you have put in the effort to make sure that they shine with a polish that is sparkling.
How do you make your words sparkle?
Over the last year or so I have been regularly posting articles about writing hints on this blog. In all there are now over 80 articles where I write about these writing hints (click here or go to the Contents or Categories on the sidebar). Reading these articles would be a good starting point. As you read through the hints, make a note or a list of those that you can put into practice over the coming days. As you work on these hints your writing should improve.
The quote at the top of this article was written by Lorelle VanFossen. In her article called Blogging is about writing Lorelle lists 30 ways of improving the writing on your blog. Many of these tips apply to general writing too. Many apply to novel and story writing, non-fiction, magazine articles and so on. The list she has written is worth printing out and sticking somewhere prominent where you can read through it often – and put the hints into practice.
Why commenting is good for bloggers
When you start out in blogging you write and write and write, day after day until suddenly, you have A COMMENT! Someone is actually reading what you have written on the internet. What a wonderful day. It makes you really happy a feel that all the writing has finally paid off.
Then you read someone else’s blog and you see that one post has had 143 comments! Reality hits like a thunderbolt. That one comment does not seem so great after all. Still, it was exciting, and it is the start of greater things. All bloggers start this way. First – nothing. Then a trickle of comments – then more nothing. Eventually they start to come in fairly regularly. We all like comments but bemoan the fact that we don’t get many.
The truth is, very few readers of blogs actually leave a comment. The percentage varies depending on who you are reading, but it is generally believed to be about or even less than one percent of readers actually leave a comment. I’ve not done an analysis of my own stats but as a ball park figure it seems about right.
How to get more comments on your blog:
There is one simple way of doing this. Go out and read other blogs – and leave a comment. Try to do this every day on a number of blogs. You may only have time for three or four comments a day. Fine. It’s a start, and others start to notice and start clicking the link back to your blog – and many of those leave a comment. You are starting to develop a community. They soon turn into loyal readers and away you go.
I also make it a policy to send a personal email to every person commenting for the first time, thanking them for their visit and comment and inviting them to return. This has proved very beneficial.
10 Reasons Why Commenting is Good for Bloggers
Chris Garrett has written a list of ten reasons why commenting is good for you and your blog. His list makes a lot of sense and is something we could all do.
Now over to you:
- You can really make my day and leave a comment OR
- You could help me by commenting on how you get more comments.
The potential of blogging
Have you ever considered the enormous potential of the internet and of blogging in particular? This relatively new form of publishing and communication is still very much in its infancy – it hasn’t even begun to realise its vast potential.
The Global Figures:
Here are the hard facts:
- Estimated world population: just below 6.6 billion (as of March 10th 2007)
- Estimated internet usage: 1.1 billion (or 16.9% penetration)
- Estimated number of blogs: 60 million (+/- depending on who you read)
The Global Picture of Blogging:
Now consider the number of blog sites. Of those 60 million or so the vast majority are simply “dead”. By that I mean, the person started off with enthusiasm and posted a few entries and then lost interest for whatever reason. Then consider the number of serious bloggers who have multiple sites; for example, I have three sites (plus one on Blogger I no longer contribute to – it’s dead). This must mean that there are far fewer active blogs than the 60 million often quoted and even fewer serious bloggers.
Let’s be conservative and say there are 10 million serious bloggers – those whose blogs are active, meaning they post at least once every month. (I suspect the figure is far less but humour me).
If there are ten million serious bloggers, only 0.15% of the world’s population fall into this category.
Now if you are blogging and you post more frequently, say once a week you are very much in the minority. In reality, very few are seriously into this new publishing trend, especially those who blog daily. The potential for growth is staggering.
The Global Potential:
Now consider the potential readership. The global penetration of the internet is only 1.1 billion or 16.9% of the current world population. Now, there will never be universal access to the internet, not in our lifetimes anyway. But even if the penetration is only 50% of the world’s population, the huge potential for growth in the next decade is exciting. The big growth areas are in Asia and Africa.
If the world penetration of the internet triples over the next decade that would give over 3 billion users world wide. What a staggering growth potential for those who have already established blogs and web sites.
Reference:
- Internet World Stats – World Internet Usage Statistics News and population stats.
The words writers choose
Words are powerful.
Words can persuade, encourage, horrify, incense, inflame, enrage, amuse, entertain, pacify, sadden, inform, offend or hurt. Hey – that’s quite a list – and to think that I didn’t use a thesaurus. Actually, there are probably several hundred more words I could have used, but you get the picture.
As writers we need to choose our words carefully. The wrongly chosen words can nullify – even destroy – the message we are trying to convey to the reader. Never hesitate to change the words you first thought of during the editing stage. Your writing will be more understandable, powerful and enduring for this attention to precision.
Confusing Words
Some words can be confusing. Some words can be misleading, or misunderstood. Some words have no meaning to some people. Three words that cause a great deal of confusion, puzzlement and downright blank stares from the general population are blog, blogger and blogging. Even my computer spell check does not like them!
When you say you write a blog, or are a blogger, or you spend your day blogging, most people think you are either demented or speaking another language – or both. The fact is, most people still have not heard of blogging.
A new approach
After reading an article by Chris Cree on his site Success Creeations I am going to change tack. Instead of trying to explain what a blog is, and getting blank looks, I am going to tell people that I write articles and stories for the internet. I will tell them that I’ve had over a thousand articles and stories published on my three web sites in the last twelve months, and I have had over forty thousand visitors so far this year. And I am getting a pay increase every month!
It is worth reading all of the article written by Chris – it’s called The Words We Choose to Use Make a Difference. Don’t forget to read the comments too as these add value to the article.
Time taken to blog
How much time does it take to blog?
That is a difficult question to answer. It depends. It depends on a lot of factors.
- Length of the article: some articles take only a few minutes to write; long, in-depth and complicated articles may take several hours.
- Topic: some topics take much time to plan, research and think about.
- Mood: sometimes the words just flow easily; at other times I struggle to get the words down.
- Distractions: too many distractions can disrupt the flow of words.
Minimum
I try to maintain a post per day minimum on my three blogs. That is demanding. That means I need to write at least three articles each day just to keep up the supply. On a good day when I’m feeling good and the words are flowing nicely and the ideas come easily I can turn out five to seven articles.
Maximum
In twelve months of consistent, concentrated blogging I’ve had about a dozen days where I’ve produced double figures; my best day was twenty articles. Keep in mind that almost ALL of my content is original. I may have small quotes from others but probably 98% of my posts are original in content. That takes time and effort.
How much time does it take to blog?
Ben answers this question on Instigator Blog. He says that to be a successful blogger you need to develop a new mindset. He takes his readers through five elements in developing such a mindset. Read them here.