I know a lot of you reading this are bloggers. Which means that, like me, you have your moments of pure frustration or even writer’s block. You might even be one of those bloggers who has started a new blog — promising yourself that you’ll keep up with it daily, or even weekly — at least a dozen times. But then you find yourself too busy watching Whale Wars, or maybe you’re grasping at straws for ideas and constantly coming up empty. Whatever it is, you know you want to master the art of blogging, but you’re just not there yet …
You need inspiration, and you need some tips on effective blogging. From time to time we’ll try to provide you with both of those. And, in truth, we’re trying to provide us with that too!
You might already know that I’m kind of obsessed with Daily Blog Tips, which I recommend subscribing to. The lovely folks over there recently published a guest blog by Ali Hale (author of The Bloggers Guide to Effective Writing), entitled “Finding Motivation During the Early Months of Your Blog.” Some of Hale’s tips include: waiting at least six months to build a serious following online; getting into a writing routine which includes working out how much time you can realistically commit (he suggests figuring in at least two hours a week to set aside for blogging, though I’d recommend more like five …); making sure you’re not bored with your writing, because then your reader will most certainly be; finding a new angle (this is something we consciously try to do with Our Hen House since there are so many vegan and advocacy blogs out there); and writing with your readers in mind.
I’d add the following to this list of tips that Hale suggests: be consistent with the frequency of your blogs (we blog once a day here at Our Hen House, which is a huge time commitment, but one we’ve decided to stick with no matter what, at least for the time being); keep your entries short and pithy, whenever possible; don’t get too self-absorbed (especially if you have an advocacy blog!) but do write from the first person and let your unique style come through; for the love of dog, edit and proofread (or find someone to do so for you, since too many typos or mistakes in a blog makes it pretty undesirable to read).
If you have any resources, tips, or inspiration to offer to your fellow bloggers who might be reading this post, please share in the comment section below.
Photo: Used with permission by the Creative Commons License.