Banging My Gong - The Brand
Over the past few days I’ve spent a lot of time writing about myself and about my blog. I’m not entirely comfortable with this sort of introspection, to be honest with you. I feel that I am much to young to genuflect. Still, I think this has been a necessary exercise for me. I stated that this sort of thing was imperative for the blogosphere right now, and I believe that the best way to lead is by example. To that end, I’ve tried to articulate my vision and I’ve explored my voice. But where do I go now? How do I translate that into a brand?
I think branding flows, naturally, from vision and voice. My vision is to help other Internet writers get where they want to be. My voice works to accomplish my vision by sharing my own experiences with you, and interacting with you. The natural outcome of this is my brand. So, where do I start? I guess I should start by telling you my story.
My Early Writing Career
I grew up in a middle-class family in Linwood, Michigan. You probably haven’t heard of Linwood; we have one stoplight, two churches, six bars, and a post office. Oh, and a bait shop.
Linwood is just outside of Bay City. If you’re old enough, you might remember the Bay City Rollers, an English band in the early 1970s. The legend goes that the Bay City Rollers got their name by tossing a dart at a map of the U.S. The dart landed on Bay City, and the name stuck:
(How’s that for branding?)
If you haven’t heard of Bay City, you might have heard of Saginaw, which is another twenty miles or so to the South. You may remember the Simon and Garfunkel song, America, in which the duo sing the line, “It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw.” If you’re into old-time classic country music fan, its possible you know Lefty Frizell’s last #1 hit, “Saginaw, Michigan”:
(I can personally tell you, the Saginaw that Lefty sang about is vastly different from today’s Saginaw. Not better, not worse, just different. So much for that branding exercise.)
If you haven’t heard of Saginaw, I guess I can tell you that I was born an hour South of Saginaw in Flint, Michigan. You might remember Flint as the setting for Michael Moore’s Roger & Me. I’ll spare you my thoughts on Moore, other than to say he didn’t grow up on the rough streets of Flint, like he claims; he grew up in the white, upper-middle class suburb of Davison. Davison is where I lived until I was seven, when we moved to Linwood.
(Moore, regardless of whether you like him or not, knows how to brand himself.)
From an early age, I enjoyed writing. In the fifth grade, I won the school-wide creative writing contest with a poem I wrote. The poem is long gone, but as I recall it was something about writing music with words. I’ve often wondered if there is a copy of it somewhere in my folks’ basement, but I’ve never taken the time to check. When they are gone, I’m sure I’ll have the opportunity; I think it will be fitting in some ways. I can still see how proud Mom and Dad were of me on that day. I can see myself holding my poem up, surrounded by my folks.
In High School, my experiences weren’t as grand. I took a single creative writing course with a large fellow by the name of Larry who collected Coca-Cola paraphernalia. In retrospect, I think Larry was probably a great teacher. I just didn’t like him. Frankly, I didn’t pick up a pen with any serious ideas of being a writer for another decade. Besides, I developed other interests in High School. I decided that I would, after High School, go to Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana, and enter the ministerial training program.
I intended to be a Wesleyan preacher.
Come back tomorrow (or maybe Monday, what with the holiday and all) to find out what happens next to our intrepid hero.
Banging My Gong - The Voice
If you’re not sure why I’m banging a gong, read this call for action and this post about my vision first.
It has been well said that a writer’s voice is only truly heard through the ink and paper on which he writes. For the Internet writer, that voice is heard via the ones and zeroes inside his CPU, but the idea is the same: To really know what a writer is all about, you have to read his writing. If his voice isn’t unique, it will be drowned out in the comforting yet forgettable chorus of other writers.
So, what exactly is my writing voice? How do I use the medium of writing to effectively portray a unique personality and position? How is my writing different from others? How does my voice complement the Great Song of the Internet? Or is my voice too soft or too shrill, too blustery or too grating?
Simply put, my voice is me. In this blog, I write as if I were writing to a friend. In some ways, I do write to friends; I engage in discussions with many of my regular readers that are deeper and more significant than discussions I have with my “real-world” friends. But if I had to sum up my voice in a single word, it would be this: conversational.
I want to provoke conversation. I want to participate in conversation. I want to interact with my readers and with the whole blogosphere. Like I said yesterday, I want to share my failures as well as my triumphs. I want you to know me.
Why?
That’s a silly question, isn’t it? Who doesn’t want to know and be known? Who doesn’t, deep down, want to learn from other human beings, to help them when they need it, to share their experiences, to help shape their lives and be shaped by them. That’s what being human is all about. Apart from how we relate one to another, there isn’t much separating us from the rest of existence.
At any rate, I could add other words to describe my voice. I’d add words like honest, vulnerable, confident, experienced, articulate, helpful, generous, fun. These are all tones of conversation, little individual modes of my voice. These are the building blocks on which I build my writing. These tones complement my vision. In the same way, there are descriptive words I’d prefer to avoid, like staid, formulaic, monotonous, boring, didactic, academic. These tones work against my vision. I have used these voices at other times, like when I was in grad school or when I’m writing SEO content as a pen-for-hire. But not here. Not if I can help it, anyways.
Is all of this gong-banging a bit self-indulgent? Maybe. But, to some degree, that’s the point of this blog, isn’t it? Like I said yesterday: I want to share my journey as a writer with you. Maybe you like it, maybe you don’t. Maybe you can learn something from it, maybe not. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I get that. But it’s right here, regardless.
See what happens next. Read about what I see as my brand at The Writing Journey.
Banging My Gong - The Vision
Yesterday’s post and the ensuing discussion have had me thinking more and more about what it is that I am doing right here with my blog. When I pointed the finger at the Internet writing community, there were still three other fingers pointing right back at me. I knew this when I wrote it, and I knew that it would be something of a revolution for me personally, and for how I approach this site. I knew that I would have to set an example and follow my own advice.
I also knew that I intended to take you along with me on my journey of (re)discovery. After all, that’s what this blog is about, and always has been: My journey as an Internet writer, and how my journey can help others.
My vision for this blog is to help other Internet writers improve their craft and, in doing so, become more successful. I hope to do this by offering useful, practical and timely advice on areas such as grammar, style, voice, format, SEO and many other areas. From time to time, it means that I’ll dip into topics like article writing, blogging, marketing, and all sorts of side dishes. Ultimately, though, I want to share my experiences in these areas - my writing journey - with my readers. I want to talk about my successes, about my mistakes, and about my goals. I hope to inspire other writers with my successes, warn them of the dangers of my mistakes, and motivate them with my goals.
In short: This blog exists to help other Internet writers get from where they are to where they want to be. It is about the Writing Journey.
That is my vision. While the vision it isn’t unique in itself, the experiences that I bring to that vision make the final product plenty unique.
Tomorrow, I’m going to explore voice, and how I use voice on this blog in order to reinforce, promote, and accentuate my vision.
Read the next post about finding my writing voice here.
Bang Your Gong: A Call For Action From The Internet Writing Community
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.
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