You’ve got some great ideas for a blog, creative insights, technological know-how, fascinating gossip. There might be tens of thousands of people out there waiting to hear what you have to say. Then you say it with bad spelling, poor grammar, and a staid and boring writing style. Those potential readers get two paragraphs in and give up, off to look for more engaging content elsewhere. If only you’d been able to write competently those could have been long term readers, could have spread the word about your blog, perhaps ended up as clients or driven new business to you.
Content Is King, But Clarity Of Content Rules
I read a great article at Writing Journal, ‘Don’t Blog If You Suck At Writing: How Copyblogger Got It Wrong’. It took to task the advice posted in Copyblogger that it doesn’t matter if you can’t write, you can still be a successful blogger. I completely agree with the piece, and I think that telling people that it doesn’t matter if they can’t write will do nothing to improve the standard of blogging.
It doesn’t matter how insightful you are if I can’t follow your argument. In fact a bad point made well is probably going to be more interesting and persuasive than a good point made badly. Look at last year’s Presidential debates. I’m a Republican supporter, I agreed more with John McCain’s arguments than Barack Obama’s. But McCain was unclear, didn’t answer questions well, and while I disagreed with Obama’s arguments I was fully aware that he was winning the debate and winning over the undecided. As much of that was because of how he said things, not what he said. A recent post at Spocko’s Brain explained that ‘How You Say It Matters’ with the spoken word … and it matters just as much when written.
Clarifying In Type
Some people are gifted public speakers and debaters, others don’t have that natural talent. The same applies to the written word. I don’t like Stephen King novels because while I think he has a great imagination, I think he’s got a terrible and chaotic writing style. These are all skills that can be learned, however. Learning to clarify yourself in type is probably easier than to do so while speaking, because you have more time to reconsider, edit and read back your work before publication.
Spend time honing your talents. Have you worked hard to make your blog site look as attractive as possible, reflective of you and your personality? Then why wouldn’t you put the same amount of work into ensuring that the content on that site is going to be of a similar high standard. Practice writing well, don’t just assume and accept that the subject matter is going to interest people. You need to engage them to get to the subject matter. It doesn’t matter what that subject matter is. Clearly explained, well written content is just as relevant for a technical blog as it is for the latest celebrity gossip.
Practice Makes Perfect
Look, I’m not saying that you have to be a great … or even good … writer to be able to start blogging. What I’m saying is that your writing is probably the most important part of the ‘art’ of blogging, so you should always be working to try and improve. It’s amazing how much better people can get when they practice and take some care with what they’re doing.
There are lots of articles out there on how to be a better writer, but here’s some very brief advice:
- Use a spellchecker.
- Use a dictionary.
- Follow the rules of grammar.
- When you’ve finished your article, don’t post it immediately. Save it and then reread it a little later. Then edit it.
- Keep your language simple.
- Get someone you trust to read over your content, see if they understand your points.
- Practice other methods of writing, not just blog posts.
It’s not difficult to improve your writing, you just need to be aware of that need to improve. The benefits are worthwhile though – more engaging articles, a wider audience for your insights, probably wider syndication. Good writing doesn’t guarantee popularity, but it’s one of the best ways of improving your blog’s credibility to new and existing readers.