Write Well
In this new world of casual emails, texts and tweets, many of us have enjoyed years since a college English or History professor critiqued our writing style. A blog post needs to be worthy of publication, even when it is self-published. The skill to organize one’s thoughts, construct sentences, organize concepts into paragraphs that flow from one into another and end with a bang rather than a pop comes with practice and is not easy. Do not publish your posts until you have honed the discipline of writing well. The proverb “what happens on the internet stays on the internet” holds very true here. You do not want to be remembered for poor writing. Read what you know are well-written posts. Find someone who will critique your writing properly. On the flip side, once you can write strong, well organized posts, you are ready to publish powerful, effective blog posts that will enhance your professional standing and your career.
Share Your Original Thoughts
Nothing exposes an empty suit more than a blogger who merely repeats what has already published by others countless times. If you have surfed the blogosphere for any amount of time, you have seen the recruiters who write the same articles about how to interview and the realtors who write how to prepare your home for a fast competitive sale. Such regurgitations which are fully appropriate in one-on-one meetings do not highlight one’s professional stature in a professional blog. Not everyone has original thoughts. Plenty of successful people perform admirably in their industry doing solely what they have learned from others. If you are one of these people, I congratulate your success. But I urge you not to put your name behind a work in which none of the content originated from you. But if you are able to stand on the shoulders of proverbial giants and say something even minutely original, you have the makings of a professional blog post. Often, your original thought will come with a story that will walk your readers toward your conclusion like a business school case study. Sometimes in order to protect the innocent you cannot share the stories, only what you have learned from these stories. Either way, before you begin blogging, ask yourself the tough question; do you have original thoughts worth sharing online?
Publish on a Schedule
Too many bloggers publish a flurry of posts and then either stop or wait months before posting again at chronically decreasing frequency. You not only need to write well and have original thoughts, but also must do so on a regular basis. My first blog was an anonymous parenting blog. I posted three times monthly for years. Then I slowed down to twice a month but as my children aged the number of original stories began to dry up. My final blog post on parenting discussed this shift and effectively ended the blog. But notice I published for years as I have done with this blog. At the outset, refrain from the temptation to crank out multiple posts. Instead, determine the frequency at which you can publish original content and stick with that schedule. It should be at least once every two months and should last for at least two years.
Keep the Format Consistent
Professional marketing organizations have a style sheet. In short, you need your own style sheet. Select your fonts, colors, text sizes and other formatting. Determine what length you would like your posts to be. Then have the discipline to stick with your plan. You can occasionally deviate. For example, I introduced the “Jumbo Tweet” into this blog to allow me to make an occasional short post but even then I had a format. Applying this discipline will make your blog look much more professional and will attract regular readers.
Stay Close to Just a Few Topics
Along with keeping your format generally consistent, you also want to keep your content generally consistent. My primary topic is software sales but I have branched out into career management, formal education and even this topic of blogging professionally. The idea is simple. If you have attracted someone with one post, that same person should be able to find other posts of interest in order to attract that individual to keep coming back, as well as to be an advocate of your blog posts.
Do Not Regress to Bragging or Venting
This is all too common in the blogosphere. Writers cross the thin grey line from the professional to the personal. And with that crossing such writers spew the accompanying toxic emotions. In another venue, the writer may have the right to such exclamations. But a professional blog must mirror the world of professional editorials. Once a critique descends to a criticism, credibility evaporates. The same holds true once celebration becomes excessive. It is better to err in the direction of neutral objectivity, than to open one’s self to appearing overly vested.
Include These Two Posts
The two most important posts of your blog are your first post and your last regular post. Your first post introduces your blog to tell your readers who you are, why you are blogging, what your plans are and what the reader can expect. Your last regular post effectively says goodbye but not farewell to your readers. It explains why you will no longer be posting regularly. The reason is normally always the same. You can no longer produce original content on a regular basis. And that is perfectly normal and perfectly acceptable.
It should come as no surprise then, that this will be the last regular post of The ComPreneur blog. After three years of monthly posts with original content, I am finding it increasingly difficult to post original content each month. And that is perfectly normal, perfectly acceptable and what I want to communicate clearly to my readers in this last regular post. New posts may follow but not on a regular basis. To my loyal readers, I wish you every success and hope you find many other blogs worth your time reading.
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