Entries from March 2008 ↓

Success as an Internet writer doesn’t come easy, and it doesn’t come cheap.  It requires dedication, self-discipline and a hell of a lot of good luck. 

Success as an Internet writer also requires that you have something to say, and that you can say it well.

At the time I am writing this article, the buzz among bloggers has to do with how so much blog content is seemingly regurgitated from one blog to the next.  Painfully, this is true in many cases.  Even many of the most successful Internet writers spend their time covering old ground, ground that could be rediscovered in seconds via Google.  While it isn’t plagiarized, it isn’t unique, either.

Yes, we need one another.  I get that.  We need to be able to dialogue, talk about the same ideas, and work together to find new and interesting ways to write.  We need to discuss the big ideas, like whether or not good writing still matters.  But, we need to step back.  We need to regroup.

It is time for Internet writers to get back to basics.  It is time to bang our own gongs for a while.

Think about the top blogs in your niche for a moment.  What distinguishes one from another, apart from the writer’s name?  Do each of those blogs have their own unique approach?  There was, certainly, a day when they were distinct.  Is it the case today?  What about your blog?  Is it distinct?  What makes your Internet writing different from anyone else’s?

You might not agree with me that this is a problem.  You might believe that the market for your niche is big enough that there is room for many writers all writing about the exact same things.  Maybe that’s true.  If it is, good for you.  Keep at it, and I wish you success.  In fact, you need to let me know which niche that is, because that’ll be my next foray.

If you agree, however, that this is a problem, the question remains:  What can be done about it? 

I suggest to you that there are three steps that Internet writers, whether they are new to the game or whether they are six-figure bloggers, ought to return to:

Get your own vision.  Figure out what it is that you are good at and passionate about.  Determine that you are going to be the  writer on the Internet for your niche.  Don’t get distracted by others; they have their own vision.  If your vision is social bookmarking, don’t get caught up giving grammar lessons.  If your vision is fiction writing advice, don’t write about article marketing.  Get ahead of the pack; explore new ideas, challenge the conventional wisdom, and get used to seeing yourself at the top, because that is where you are going to be.

Find your own voice.  Not only do many Internet writers write about the same things, they do it in the same way.  You’re not Men with Pens; don’t imitate their style.  You’re not Dooce, either.  Let her do her thing, you do yours.  Infuse your writing voice with every element inside your personality.  Give your writing your passion and your apathy, your anger and your love, your prudishness and your profanity, your sarcasm, your wit, your humor, your everything.  Give it a voice that is uniquely your own.

Establish your own brand.  You are the only one that is covering your niche in the way you are covering it.  Get the hell off of your blog for five minutes and tell people about it!  Post comments, write on message boards, send e-mails, write articles for submission sites.  Do all of the marketing you can do, but do it in such a way that you don’t just say, “hey, look at me!”  Instead, do it in such a way that you say “Check me out.  I’ve got the goods.  Here’s proof.  Now come and get the rest.”

If everyone who ever reads this post will do this, we all will be more successful.  The community as a whole will benefit.  Most importantly, our readers will benefit because we’ve broken new and exciting ground that is both interesting and energizing as we add value to the overall conversation.

Want to watch me walk the talk?  Read Banging My Gong - The Vision.

photo credit: Bahaish

It’s been a great week of blog posts.  I’m so excited about all of the friends I’ve made via Writing Journey in recent days.  Here are some of my favorite posts from my new friends and others: 

Skellie’s Trump Card Post Idea.   I figured starting with Skellie would be best, given Friday’s post on how wrong she was :) 

Debra’s Favorite Writing Quotations.  I especially enjoy the quote from G.K. Chesterton;  I’m a big fan.

Laura’s Do You Read Comments?.  Truly interesting thoughts here.  I agree with Laura, the conversation that goes on in the comments is often better than the original article!

Max’s StumbleUpon Traffic Tips And Tricks: Copy Content.  Max is hilarious.  I read his blog every morning to get me going for the day.  In the spirit of this post, let me copy some content that I wrote in comments on another post:

“Bad blogging: a blog
Always funny, never lame
I read it daily”

Tom’s  More Problems Associated With Being Self-Employed. Excellent advice for the Internet writer, or for anyone in small business.

Sharon’s How Panic Can Ruin Your Writing Career.  Sharon is great about maintaining an even keel when it comes to writing career advice.  It’s a drum she’s banged before, and one that needs to be banged more often.

Catherine’s There’s No Business Problem That Can’t Be Solved .  Cath (Everyone else calls her “Cath.”  I’m thinking of starting to call her “Cat” and see how she reacts.  What do you think?) offers terse and effective advice on four common business problems.  This is the first in what promises to be an interesting series.

Monika’s Use The Pareto Principle To Sack Annoying Clients.  Clients aren’t supposed to be sacked, right?  Wrong.  The reason you work for yourself is so that you can pick and choose which jerks you want to work with.  Monika tells you how to get rid of the ones you don’t.

Thomas’ How Much Do You Really Want To Succeed?  Greatly motivating post about the impact desire has on your success.

Good form, everyone!

On a bit of  a side note, I’m amazed that the page with the most hits at Writing Journey continues to by my 8 Most Common Internet Writing Mistakes.  I’ve had close to 10,000 stumbles on it now, which is a huge number for me.  I’m guessing that article is the sort of thing Yaro talks about when he talks about pillar content.

I ought not do it.

That familiar, normally-small voice inside me is screaming, “DON’T DO THIS.  YOU’LL JUST PISS HER OFF.”

But I can’t help it.

I’m gonna do it.

Actually, as you can see from the title, I already have done it.

I gotta disagree with one of my favorite Blog Gurus, Skellie.

 *ducks*

Whew.  That was a close one.  just barely missed my head. 

That was Angie.  No, not the one in the picture.  That’s Lilly.  Angie is the on that just threw my cell phone across the room.  See, she’s a big Skellie fan. 

Looks like this post is going to cost me a new cell phone.  And a little bit of drywall, too.  I’d better try to make it a good one.

Anyways, Skellie had a post a couple of days back about how great writing doesn’t matter on the Internet.  While I get where she is going with it, and while I understand the logic of the argument and even agree with some of the sentiment, I wholeheartedly disagree with her conclusions.

How can this be?  How can Skellie be wrong about something so big?  Her argument is near-flawless, as it usually is.  However, this time I think Skellie missed a couple of important details: 

• Bad or average writing can so detract from the content that it becomes unusable. 
• Bad or average writing can turn a certain portion of the market of readers away.
• Great writing engenders trust and admiration which lead to brand loyalty.
• Great writing adds value to the conversation and to the writer’s own bottom line.

A good percentage of any blog reading population is made up of writers and bloggers.  Many of these folks will not only avoid a blog with bad or average writing, but will also fail to recommend that blog to their readers.  In many cases, those readers don’t even identify why they don’t like a given blog;  they just know that they don’t like it.

The occasional grammatical error or stylistic mistake is acceptable and fully compatible with good writing.  Bad writing, which is riddled with poor grammar, incorrect punctuation, misspellings and illogical structure is a pain to read, to skim, or even to try to sift through.  Average writing is somewhere in between.  Its not riddled with bad stuff, but there is enough that it is noticeable and even distracting.

Skellie suggests that some of the most successful bloggers are average writers.  At the end of the day, though, folks like Skellie and Brian Clark and Darren Rowse are not just average writers; they are amazingly good writers.  Their writing is top-notch, which is at least partially responsible for their success as bloggers.  Would all of their blog writing pass a print publication edit?  No.  Brian’s maybe, but he makes his errors sometimes, too.  Could they all write successfully for print if they wanted to?  Absolutely.  These folks are just. that. good.

I get that Skellie wants to encourage bloggers who may be discouraged by their mistakes.  I agree with that sentiment.  But, I don’t tell my daughter “an F in Math isn’t so bad, honey.  Most kids aren’t math experts,” and send her on her merry way.  Instead I’ll say, “Its a bummer you’re doing so badly in Math.  How can I help you to master the material?”  The same holds true for Internet writing.  I won’t tell you it’s OK if its not OK, but I might offer to lend a hand.  To be fair, Skellie has offered that hand over and over and over again.

So, what do you think?  Is Skellie right?  Are you as likely to read a bad- or average-written blog as you are to read a well-written blog?  Are you more likely to subscribe or come back to a well-written blog?  If you blog, would you recommend a bad or average blog to your readers?

Not all writers are created equal.  Some are luckier than others; some are more talented.  But success as a writer is, very often, built on habits of success rather than luck or talent.  Here are some of the most common habits of successful writers:

1. Successful writers write whether not they feel like it.  They don’t sit around waiting to be inspired.  Successful writers have a schedule which they start at the same time every day, just as if they were going to a job. 

2. Successful writers observe constantly.  They make a point of knowing what is going on around them.  They gathering that data and utilize it in their writing.  Successful writers seek out inspiration, knowledge and experience.

3. Successful writers use deadlines to help motivate them to work.  They make commitments that force them to keep the writing going, and they hand off their finished products to their clients on time.  

4. Successful writers write in a controlled environment.  They use the same tools from day to day, whether it is the same style of pen and notepad or whether it is the same word processing program.  While they might venture out from their familiar locations from time to time in order to garner inspiration, they always return to their own writing space. 

5. Successful writers stick to their particular niche.  They know how to write for a specific type of reader, and they do it very well.  Successful writers are fluent in their topic.  They are aware of the meta-talk and the most current discussions and trends surrounding their topic. 

6. Successful writers work slowly.  1,500 words a day is about average for a successful writer.  Successful writers don’t need to produce huge volumes of writing, instead choosing to produce less writing of greater value.

7. Successful writers make a plan for the writing.  They know where they are going to go before they start writing.  Most utilize outlining techniques.  Successful writers also keep that plan flexible, changing it as needed.

8. Successful writers re-read what they’ve written frequently, and use re-reading as an important part of the writing process.  They also revise as they are writing.  They proofread their writing at least once, if not twice, when they’re done.  Successful writers train themselves to be editors.

9. Successful writers practice small business sense.  They know how to read a contract, how to negotiate their rates, and how to market their writing.

10. Successful writers don’t always like to write.  Just like anyone else, they have been known to procrastinate, be frustrated with their profession, and get discouraged.  On average, though, successful writers are satisfied and happy with their work and their careers.

Not every successful writer practices every one of these habits.  I can’t say that I am always good, for example, about re-reading or being observant.  But fostering these habits has improved my writing as well as my bottom line, and fostering these habits can do the same for you.

So,which of these habits do you have down pat?  Which do you need to develop?  Are there others that you would add to the mix?

photo credit: swirlspice

What is good Internet writing?  As you know, I believe that content is still King when it comes to Internet writing.  The key to good content is, ultimately, good writing.  But what do we mean when we talk about “good Internet writing?”  Good  Internet writing, regardless of whether it is blogging, article writing or web content writing, has specific characteristics:

Good Internet writing is clear

photo credit: FernandoSanchez

Good Internet writing should not leave the reader confused, guessing at the writer’s meaning or continually rereading phrases or paragraphs.  This doesn’t mean that good Internet writing is simple; in fact, quite the opposite is often true.  What it does mean is that the Internet writer uses specific tools and strategies, some of which are obvious and some of which are more subtle, to make sure that the reader understands what has been written.

Good Internet writing is coherent

photo credit: JoelBischoff
Good Internet writing is clearly organized, planned and connected.  Everything in a good blog post, article or web page is connected with patterns and transitional phrases.  Everything in the particular piece of Internet writing helps to develop the writer’s central idea.  While some forms of Internet writing, such as blogging, tend to lend themselves to side quests and distractions, good Internet writing always brings it back around to one main point.
 

Good Internet writing is economical

 photo credit: thingermejig

Good Internet writing doesn’t waste the reader’s time.  Good Internet writing gets rid of excess words, is terse and is uncluttered.  Good Internet writing is trimmed of repetitious phrases, extraneous adjectives and anything else that does not enhance the main idea.  This is true in all of writing, but is especially true when it comes to Internet writing.  Web surfers tend to have short attention spans, and good Internet writing is long enough to cover the topic but short enough to maintain the reader’s interest. 

Good Internet writing is grammatically acceptable

photo credit: yogger_flame

If the Internet has one fault when it comes to writing, is the informality with which most people approach their writing.  If you don’t believe me, just look at the last dozen or so e-mails in your inbox.  How many of those e-mails use the traditional elements of a letter, such as using a colon instead of a comma after the greeting in a business letter.  Still, while the rules may be more lax on the Internet, good Internet writing will still be grammatically accurate enough so as not to distract from the writing itself.  While few Internet writers have mastered all the hundreds of rules governing English use, having an acceptable mastery of English language is requisite to effective Internet writing.

Good Internet writing is authentic

photo credit: ATIS547

Good Internet writing provides the reader with the ability to interact with the writer by way of the writing.  Good Internet writing does not appear to be canned or cobbled together by some formula.  Good Internet writing has an authentic voice which projects itself as genuine and knowledgeable.

Good Internet writing is significant

Good Internet writing speaks to a felt need.  It makes a point or solves a problem.  Something in the writing should be engaging, persuasive, enlightening, or surprising.  Good Internet writing benefits the reader by providing the reader with information that is useful, and by doing it in a way that the reader can understand.  Internet writing has value.  That is why blogs make money.  That is why article directories pay for performance. That is why webmasters higher Internet writers.  Good Internet writing has this value because it contributes to the body of knowledge and to the ongoing discourse on the topic.

photo credit: svanes

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If you look at the top blogs or the top web sites in a given niche, you will find these characteristics.  If you look at the highest rated articles on Helium.com or other article directories, you will find these characteristics as well.  While good Internet writing alone won’t magically produce web site or blog traffic, bad Internet writing will surely prevent readers from returning.