Years ago, when I was just starting to blog, I often found myself staring at the computer until I was cross-eyed, constantly struggling to write a new blog post. I felt like I was trying to write the next great american novel, and it didn’t matter how much pressure I put on myself, I kept getting lots of coal and very few diamonds.
I found myself forced to hardwire my mind into finding new ways to write. If I expected to continue as a real estate blogger, I knew I would need to be more consistent, but how? The most important thing I ever did for my blogging habits was to take a step back and critically assess the style in which I wrote. I decided to take that great american novel, set it on fire, and threw it off a cliff. I stopped putting the pressure on myself to write, and instead just DID IT.
Why was it so hard?
In the past, my writing method consisted of forcing myself to think of a blog topic, writing an outline and then writing the content. From there I proceeded to rework and edit my posts until all the life had been wrung out of them and they were both highly informative and completely boring. When I realized that blogging was hard because I was making it hard, writing blog posts and developing original content became worlds easier. I stopped trying to plan blog posts and instead just started writing. I adopted a stream of consciousness style of writing, getting the words out first and worrying about structure and flow later.
No more struggles
Nowadays It’s not unusual to sit down with a topic in mind and finding out afterwards that I wrote about something completely unrelated. I’m okay with that, and my readers are too. I still go back and edit to ensure that what I wrote makes sense to more than just myself, but the overall quality of my content has improved. Instead of struggling to write, I’ve been able to start scheduling my blog posts as much as a week in advance! I also find that I can write several posts that I decide not to publish at all. Instead I keep them saved, and go back to them from time to time to work into other posts or use as a springboard for new ideas.
The secret to writing well and writing consistently is to find a method that works for you. Some people seem to be naturally brilliant when it comes to blogging. I’m not one of those people, but that doesn’t mean I can’t churn out some great content myself. All I had to do was find a way to write that made sense for me personally.
Mary McKnight
April 30, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Seriously? This passes for advice? FYI – between this post and the one I read about how agents should hijack expired domains with Pagerank (totally valid advice LIKE 3 YEARS AGO, but CAN’T work today because of real time search), it’s clear you need to review your content better before publishing it.
Benn Rosales
May 1, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Hi Mary, just as an FYI, 66% of our audience has been blogging three months or less based on a recent 3rd party study, our reach is growing nearly 20% month over month. You’re a pro, and been teaching/doing this so long it’s second nature, but we still try to touch on basics. I hope this puts this post into context, and that even though technology moves on, and even though we’ve moved on, many are just beginning and even sometimes, old pros need a reminder that stream of consciousness writing is exactly that, and not done the way you would write a novel.
Best,
Drew Meyers
May 2, 2010 at 9:53 pm
The secret to writing a great blog post is….Be passionate. Give a sh*t.
If you don’t care about the topic you’re writing about, it’s going to be a crappy blog post regardless of how much time you spend on it. Just my 2 cents.