I Will Dispense This Advice on Blogging

If I were to judge by the sheer number of articles published out there over the course of last few months around how you could improve your own blogging by following certain hints and tips, best practices, some other additional advice and what not, I’d venture to state that we may well be witnessing perhaps the third, or even fourth coming of blogs. I can’t remember anymore. The thing is vast majority of that advice about blogs keeps missing the whole point on what blogging is all about right from the start. So I thought for today I’ll take the liberty of dispensing this piece of advice on blogging itself: Ignore me, for your own good!

Blogging has always been a very personal online activity, your own online publishing platform where you share your thoughts and ideas about things that may potentially interest you that you would want to share across to start a conversation. Or perhaps jot down something that you would want to come back to over the course of time as you mature that idea further along. So whatever the format those blog posts may well have, as those blogging experts may well say, is eventually irrelevant. At least, to you, just as much as to me. See? Blogging is a very personal thing, an opportunity for you to develop and evolve your thoughts to wherever they would want to take you and, if anything, it’s the blog itself that, over time, will help you develop a certain blogging style and blogging voice that would make your blog and yourself unique.

That’s what makes blogging so special. Each and every single blog out there is unique on its own as it should be. The thing is that doesn’t seem to happen, because often enough you bump into multiple blogs that seem to be a copycat of one another by having the very same format, structure, trend of thought, visuals, writing style, and, most important of all, the same voice. It’s like a humongous online marketing machine regurgitating the very same kind of content, usually coming from the very same resources!, over and over again while throwing it in your face! How awful! Yikes!

Remember when, back in the day, people, most often, would come up with unique content and ideas being pushed through by their own blogging style and voices? I missed those days and very much so, because, as I am coming back to blogging more often, I’m currently in the process of re-building my blogroll by revisiting old blogs I used to follow religiously as well as bumping into new ones and they all seem to have adjusted to very similar formulas of what the ideal blog post should be like. And it makes me cringe, really. Whatever happened to the unique voice and blogging styles from people who were once passionate about a particular topic they could write on for months to no end with the true passion of wanting to learn more by starting and facilitating some really good conversations? Where did we go wrong?

I have been blogging myself since early 2002; first, in an internal blog behind my former employer’s firewall, and, secondly, since 2005, over here in this blog. With a total amount of 9,000+ blog posts I might be able to share some practical hints & tips and lots of know-how about some good practices on blogging. But I won’t. Oh, sorry to say this as well, but there aren’t any best practices on knowledge Web work, so you won’t be reading about any of them over here either, I am afraid! Yes, indeed, this may surprise you a little bit, but I’m going to spare you not writing another blog post listicle where you will just read the subheaders to skim through them quickly and move on to then, 15 minutes later, not being capable of remembering a single one-liner anymore. I’d only say this though, if I may; it’s a compliment, something I got told myself by a good friend of mine about 10 years ago when I was blogging multiple times per day and which I still treasure to bits to this day: ‘your blogging is like the real you. It is as if I am having a conversation with you right in that moment. It *is* you!’

The best blogging advice I could possibly offer to anyone out there who may be reading this blog post, and, please, take it with a pinch or two of salt, is that your blog should reflect who you really are in real life. It should be the authentic you, your own voice, your own blogging style, your own ability to tell some wonderful stories to others that entice the opportunity for conversations to flourish as an opportunity to learn about something new or reflect further along on something that’s been in your mind for a good while and that you would want to share openly out there with others. Anything else is a massively dull marketing machine exercise no-one ever wants to read anymore, nor will it be remembered for posterity, so if that’s how you would want to go about it, by all means do it. If not, please do something about it. Today. Change it. Don’t leave it for tomorrow, for tomorrow will never come, there will always be something getting in your way. 

I can imagine how at this point in time you may be wondering, anyway, about what are some good practices around blogging out there that might be able to help you develop your blogging voice and style while still being you, the real you. Well, I am not too sure what those good practices may well be, more than anything else, and pretty much like best practices, because what may work really well for others out there (some of the most popular bloggers, for instance) may well not work out for you. And vice versa. So I will tell you what has worked really nicely with me all along since I started blogging back in 2002: Write! Indeed, practice, practice, practice!

Writing is an art form that’s really tough to master, specially, in a blog, but, if anything, practice, write something everyday (even if just a few words!), exercise the muscles of the written word, so that both your hands and brain adjust accordingly to write more often about some of the thoughts you have been thinking about but were perhaps a bit reluctant to share them across in the first place. Oh, and write for yourself, too! That’s when you can really focus on the thoughts and ideas you would want to write about vs. figuring out what format or shape should your blog post have that your readers might enjoy. You can adjust, accordingly, to that over time. For now, focus on just writing for yourself, while the rest of the world observes… You may not be pleased with yourself and your writing, initially, but that’s part of the game. The moment you are, the moment your blogging journey will start! And the rest will follow, whatever that may well be …

Over time, as the real you comes out through your own various blog posts, you will realise you are building an audience, even if small, it will still matter, at least, to you, as it will be very self-empowering. It would help you channel through some of the different conversations while you manage to build community over the course of time on what you are truly passionate about and that you could write about for many many years to come! In this day and age of phoney marketing messages being outpoured through mindless blogs, it’s what keeps me on my toes around some of the most amazing blogging on the topics I do care about. That is why upon deciding I’d resume my blogging mojo, once again, I’d get to build a blogroll of unique, authentic voices I could learn from day in day out that have got something to say about the subject matters I care the most for. Of course, I will be sharing that blogroll with you all over the course of next few weeks as I get to fine tune it accordingly. Thus hang in there, please.

Having a presence online, eventually, is no longer enough, it’s never been enough. It’s all about having a meaningful presence and how you work your way to make it happen, to leave a legacy behind, to share your thoughts and ideas others can learn from just like you do yourself with other people’s vs. pretending to be who you are not. Please don’t. Take that mask off. Just be yourself with your own thoughts and share them along! It is what we all care for, eventually. The rest is just noise. Don’t add into it, if you care enough.

Blog now! Blog often! Starting writing about what tickles your brain today! And give us a shout! 

Let the conversations begin! Are you ready to blog?