Words on a page

Daily life is full of distractions. And those distractions can get in the way of you writing a killer (or just good) blog post. Why not eliminate some of those distractions and do your blogging offline?

Step Away From the Keyboard

Blogging offline. That doesn’t seem to make much sense. Blogging is supposed to be done while connected to the Internet, isn’t it?

That’s the theory. The reality is a lot different. Think of all the distractions in your daily life: phones ringing, people asking for whatever, mail or courier deliveries, the lure of TV. Add email, sites like Twitter and Facebook, and instant messaging to that mix and you have a some great ways to not get work done.

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I get asked this question a lot. Some would-be bloggers I’ve spoken to harbour the idea that there is some magical number of words that a blog post should contain. You reach that word count and your posts are a wonder to see and to read.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. To be honest, I don’t think there is an optimal length to a blog post. As I’ve told people in the past, if you need 250 words to get your point across then write 250 words. If you need 1,000 words then write 1,000.

I never approach a blog post with a fixed word count in mind. When I have a topic in mind, I have a feel for whether it will be long or short. I try to write as much as I need to. My posts average about 500 words. I’ve written ones as short as 200 words, and one as long as 1,700 words. In case you’re wondering, this post weighs in at 212 words.

When writing a blog post (or anything else), remember this:

• Write tightly
• With a longer post, break it up with headings and, if necessary, use stock photos to enhance the post
• Make the post worth reading

Thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment.

Photo credit: ppdigital from morguefile.com

Although I’ve touched on the subject in the past, I’ve been meaning to write a longer post that discusses how start blogging and how to write posts. Not quite my complete guide to blogging, but a detailed look at how to get going and how to go about writing posts regularly.

But someone beat me to it.

I’m not disappointed by that, though. That someone is fellow technical communicator/tech comm blogger/tweep Sarah Maddox. Sarah’s written a pair of great posts on:

• Getting started as a blogger
• How to write a blog post

As I commented on Sarah’s second post, it’s interesting to see how another writer approaches blogging. There’s a lot of good advice in those posts, and some great pix of things made with chocolate!

And, in the shameless plug department, here’s a post that discusses how my business partner and I blog.

Photo credit: Timur Anikin from Photoxpress

I’ve been blogging for a number of years now — in this space, and in others. For the most part, those blogs exist to share information or to promote my business.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, I’ve finally managed to snag my first paid blogging gig. It’s with Pingdom and it lets me further embrace my inner geek. It’s been interesting so far. And the editor is easy to work with — he’s open to suggestions, and offers some really good suggestions himself.

As I mentioned in a previous post in this space, all I need to do now is better arrange and manage my time. I’ve got a lot less of it …

That’s a question I some ask myself. Well, the question actually is should I run a series on this blog? I’ve never come up with a satisfactory answer. Sometimes, I say yes and sometimes I say no.

I’ve run two series on my company’s blog and they seemed to have gone over very well — the posts are still getting a considerable number of hits over a year after they were posted. But in this space … I don’t know. Same goes for the articles that I write.

It’s not that I don’t have any ideas for series; I do. But I’m a bit wary of them. Why? I’ve read series which were more or less long-winded rehashes of the previous installments of those series. The ideas could have been encapsulated into one or two posts or articles; or the same number of shorter posts and articles. While I don’t think that will happen with me, you never know.

Still, I can see the allure of writing a series. With a blog, you have the opportunity to drive more traffic to your site. With articles, it’s a way of making a little more money and maybe laying the groundwork for a book. The same could be applied to a series of blog posts, too.

Themes, not series

Something that I find myself doing quite a bit is writing a number of posts or articles that follow a certain theme. They aren’t explicitly connected, but those pieces do cover different aspects of a topic. Often, I do that without realizing it.

Strangely enough, I’m more comfortable writing thematically similar posts and articles rather than working on a series. There’s less conscious thought involved, and I’m under no pressure to wrap up the series within a certain amount of time. On top of that, writing on a theme (with me, anyway) tends to develop organically. I’ll write one piece and then at sometime see a logical or interesting offshoot. I’m actually working on a couple of articles like that now, which were inspired by pieces that I’ve written over the last month or so.

What’s your take on writing a series, both as a writer and as a reader? Feel free to leave a comment.

Photo from http://sxc.hu