Blogging Advice

You may have heard of the the 5 Ws and the 1 H. This is a set of six questions that journalists over the years have answered to make sure their news stories have the complete information. Each of the six questions is a just one word.

1. Who?
2. What?
3. Where?
4. Why?
5. When?
6. How?

As a blogger I’ve found that these six words are used very often by internet searchers. Many of my posts that have a lot of search traffic include these keywords in the title.

Also, these words don’t seem to pull up in keyword research tools so the competition for them is not very strong.

These words are used often because many people are searching the internet for answers. If you want to receive more search traffic, try writing posts with these words in the title and answer common questions in your industry.

For example, if you have an online golf store, you can publish posts like:

• Who is Tiger Woods?
• What to Do to Cure the Slice in Your Golf Swing
• Where to Go to Find Cheap Golf Tickets
• Why Golf is a Great Sport for Retirees
• When is the Best Time to Play Golf?
• How to Prepare Yourself Physically to Play Golf

I finally created an about page for one of my blogs. It’s a task that I always seem to forget. I was creating a post introducing myself on a forum when I realized that I had not done the same on my blog.

Since blogs are personal in nature, you can be more personal on your blog’s about page than your main site’s about page. Your main site’s about page might be more about your products/services whereas your blog’s about page should be about you.

Here are some things to consider including in your blog’s about page:

• How you got into your industry
• What topics you write about on your blog
• Interesting stories about yourself
• What inspires you
• What you like and dislike about your industry
• A photo of yourself
• Links to your favorite blog posts (including your own posts)

Don’t Play It Safe

About pages are not the place to “play it safe”. Don’t use formal corporate speech. Instead, be informal and write like you talk. Don’t be afraid to talk about your biases since everybody has them and you’ll come across more personal. You can’t please everyone but talking about your biases will get you a loyal audience that believes like you do.

Also, don’t worry about the making your about page too long. Actually, in my experience, great about pages can be pretty long – like over 1000 words. If you write something that long, separate your page in sections and headings. This will make your page easier to read. Also, summarize the whole about page in the first couple paragraphs so your readers can have the condensed version too.

Every couple months, update your about page if needed.

Finally, here is a good example of an about page.

The EzineArticles blog has a great post about a method of “writing” multiple blog posts in a short amount of time. I put “writing” in quotes because you don’t actually write anything.

Instead, you use your voice. Basically, you record yourself and pretend that you’re giving a seminar to a live audience. Next, you take your recording and send it to a transcription service. After they send you the transcription, you separate and edit the text into multiple blog posts and publish it online.

The reason this method works so well is because most of us speak faster than we can write. Also, it forces us to split up the writing and editing process. Too often bloggers get bogged down with editing while writing the first draft. It’s much more time efficient to write a crappy first draft and then edit it.

The post states that you can expect to pay the transcription services about $60-$100 USD/per hour of audio. However, I’ve had good results using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk for less than $20/hour.

Voice recognition software is also an option. I bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking software and use it to create my longer posts (500+ words). I would use it for my shorter posts but I think I’ve gained enough blogging experience to create a short post quickly without having to use audio.

Have you ever come up with a blog post idea when the farthest thing from your mind at the moment was blogging?

If you haven’t started blogging, you’ll find that once you start, you’ll get ideas when you least expect them.

You could be in a restaurant hanging out with friends when you randomly think of a post topic your blog audience would enjoy. Or you could be driving around town doing some errands when inspiration strikes. For some business bloggers, they get their best ideas while exercising. For me, the moments right after I wake up seem to be when my subconscious works in overdrive and gives me multiple blog post ideas.

The subconscious is a weird animal. It likes to give us good ideas at the weirdest moments. It’s almost like if you’re not focusing on blogging, you get the best ideas.

Ever heard of writer’s block? I’ll often turn on my laptop and prepare to write, but my mind is blank. I can’t think of anything to write. However, just a couple minutes ago while watching TV or reading a magazine, I had some good ideas. It’s too bad I can’t remember any of them.

Take Advantage of Those Moments of Inspiration

To prevent the above event from happening, I started carrying 3×5 index cards and a pen with me wherever I go. Whenever I unexpectedly get an idea, I immediately write it down so I don’t forget it. While driving, I bring a small voice recorder because it’s hard (and unsafe) to write while driving.

You don’t have to be low tech like me. Use your favorite PDA if you have one. PDAs make great idea capturing tools.

This idea capturing process has helped me overcome writer’s block. By the time I sit down to write my next blog post, I already have some ideas to work with.

By harnessing my fickle yet creative subconscious, blogging has been much easier for me. I think this is because much of the difficultly in blogging is coming up with enough blog post topics.

Over to You

How do you capture your ideas? When does your subconscious give you ideas unexpectedly?