A friend asked me for suggestions to help them get started with a regular practice of blogging. Here’s six.
Make it useful — if you are writing for yourself, then you can write what you like. But if it is for someone else, then make it valuable for them. With each post think, how might this, in a small way, help someone else.
Your view on the world — your readers love hearing how you see the world. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t read your work. What this means is that sharing your take on something, while not necessarily profound to you, is interesting to others and therefore a generous act (and useful — see previous point).
One point at a time — this gem I got from Seth Godin. You may have lots of points to make. But you can afford to take your time. You are probably way further ahead on your thought journey than your readers.
Metaphorically speaking — use metaphors to land your points more effectively than explaining.
Write a manifesto — write down what you stand for, how you see the world, what change you want to make. Whether you publish it or keep it private, your manifesto is something to keep coming back to for inspiration or encouragement.
Make a commitment — commit to writing regularly and tell your readers how often to hear from you. There is nothing like a copy deadline to help you find that you’ve got lots to write about.
I’ve been blogging now for over 18 years but one book got me doing it regularly, Seth Godin’s ‘The Practice — Shipping Creative Work’.