bewarebadbloggers

What? How dare I call you a bad blogger? Well, that’s why you’re here, isn’t it? I mean, if you were a good blogger, why would you bother coming to a blog for bad bloggers (say that five times)?

But don’t worry. Because my goal is to make you better at blogging. And if you take a chance and follow my advice, I guarantee that you will become better.

Does this mean your blog will start oozing money in revenue? That you’ll suddenly be getting millions of hits a day? That you’ll be invited to Washington to testify before a congressional committee on Important Blogging?

Nope. It just means that people will be able to read your blog all the way through without vomiting, screaming or rolling their eyes. And some of them might even come back and read your next one as well.

From time to time I’ll give you a homework lesson to do, relating to some area of your blogging. If you don’t do the exercises, I won’t give you an “F” or take away your dessert, but if you do try some of them, you might find that they help you get in the groove and better understand the ideas I’ll be discussing.

And who am I to give you advice on writing a better blog? I’m a writing professional, a playwright and former owner of my own free lance writing business. And I’ve read hundreds of crappy blogs. In fact, the vast majority of blogs are poorly written. The ones that stand out, the ones you visit over and over, the ones that make money, are the exceptional few that are carefully and passionately written.

So that’s where your first homework lesson comes in. A blog’s content is only as good as the fire behind the writer’s interest. Write about stuff that doesn’t excite you, and you might as well not write at all, for your blog will be as boring as your topic. But deep down, you already know that.

So here’s what I want you to do:

Grab a sheet of paper, or better yet, find yourself a notebook devoted exclusively to your blogging work. Using a pencil, divide the piece of paper into two columns. In the left column, at the top of the page, write “I’m Passionate About…”, and in the right column, write “I’m Not Passionate About, But Feel Like I Should Be…”

Now fill out as many entries for each side as you can.  You may find that there’s a huge difference between what subjects really light your fire and what you think, as a blogger, should be the topics that do. Don’t censor yourself. You don’t want to write about a topic just because it’s the latest “cool” subject. You want to write about what stirs you. No really, you do. More on this next time.

So get busy and have fun. Feel free to post some of your thoughts. Buh-bye till next time.

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