Blog Tips: Perfect Your Craft, Love Your Craft!

Who says only the successful and the experts can give tips? On the contrary, those who failed so many times in different ways have a lot more to share. As they say, you can learn so much from the experiences of others, whether the result of such experiences was good or not so. To put it in another perspective, it's 'seeing through someone else's eyes,' or 'putting yourself in their shoes' but of course, you always have the option to learn it the hard way. I share the belief that it's always best to do things 'your way,'   although it wouldn't hurt to pay attention, be a good listener and take some good advice.

Here are some blogging tips, take it or simply read it.

1. Read a lot of Blogs by Other Bloggers - It's simple! To be a good writer, one must learn to appreciate a good read. Notice how you like some blogs even though you do not agree with the author's thoughts on a particular subject. It's actually the writing style that you are appreciating... the 'thing' which captivated you as a reader, the factor that made you relish the composition up to the last word and punctuation mark, so strongly did it affect you that you want to leave a blog comment to let your thoughts be known or share the article's link to your G+ circles, FB friends and Twitter followers. It could be the blogger's humor or even the angst of it all, whatever it is, you surely enjoyed reading, so much that you even followed the blog. In developing your own style of blogging, you must first and foremost identify yourself as a reader, this way you will know how to connect with your audience as a writer because you are one of them, you understand them.

2. Your Blog Purpose -  Knowing your purpose for blogging will keep you motivated and inspired. A writer would always be in need of a reader, otherwise you are not one. To blog for your own entertainment and pleasure are good causes, to blog for monetary gain is also a good reason. However, you must always take into consideration the readers, you must respect them. Give them correct and factual information, true narration of events, or even your harsh-but-honest opinions on issues, but do not mislead, trick or cheat the readers to achieve your purposes. Also, quotations, references and sources used in your blogs must be properly acknowledged if not linked, lest you be accused of plagiarism or content stealing.

3. Choose Your Topics - You can't have it all and you can never please everyone but you can choose an interesting topic. Write about something that you are also interested in and knowledgeable about or if not, do a thorough research about your topic. Remember, intelligent readers can easily spot an 'uninformed' blogger on the first few lines and bounce out immediately in a split second!

4. Write Good Titles - Think of a title for your blog that would be a good teaser and most likely to be searched. The blog title should of course be related to the article you wrote, not just intended to draw traffic to your site or you may risk annoying your readers bad enough for them to leave nasty comments.

5. Set Your Own Pace and Targets - The advent of internet self-publishing generally changed all print publishing rules. Whereas before, a writer is assigned a 'beat' or topic to write about, or even the persons to interview, now you can blog about anything under the sun and interview anyone willing. Whereas before, your article must pass scrutiny of the copy editors and the approval of your editor-in-chief prior to publishing, now you may just tick Publish without even proofreading your work and you're on! Whereas before you must meet the deadline to beat the press time, now you may procrastinate even if it takes forever. There are great advantages of self-publishing your work but so as not to stray too long and faraway in what many call as a 'Blogger's Block,' you must set your number of blogs to write and publish for each month. No need to push so hard, just be consistent, diligent and disciplined.  

6. Enjoy blogging and find others who share the same passion - The Blogosphere should not be a lonely place, link with other like-minded bloggers and connect with them at other Social Networks like Google Plus and be amazed to find a good support group who will encourage and influence you to write more quality blogs. This blog was created in response to a blogging challenge posted by Jenson Taylor at Google Plus entitled "Blogger Tips Blogging Challenge." The deadline for submission of single entry is until April 8, 2012. To join, please check the Blog Challenge Rules HERE. The prize? Good promo, tons of fun and bragging rights!

7. Perfect Your Craft, Love Your Craft - Write, Read. Re-write, Re-read. Ask questions, search for answers, take advice, always be updated. Draw inspiration from whatever source. BUT never click 'PUBLISH' if you are not yet satisfied with your work, you must be both your worst critic and your best fan. When you finally click the 'ORANGE' button, re-read your published blog. Isn't it disheartening to still find some errors, sometimes? So you re-edit and polish your work some more. Don't fret, you're doing perfectly well, perfecting your craft! Be sure however to know when you've given an article enough justice so you can move on to your next 'item of affection.'

To Vote Please visit JT's Blog 

by Clicking the image I LOVE BLOGS!