5 Tips to Quickly Writing A Quality Post Part I
I started writing this post without any idea on how long it will end up being. The title certainly is not a good indicator of the length of the post, so I decided to break it up into two parts for easier digestion.
Quite often, bloggers struggle to write. Regardless of the niche, sooner or later, they will hit some sort of a writer’s block where they simply cannot get out of. Breaking out of that block is not the question as time as proven again and again that people do break out eventually. However, the importance lies in how quickly you break out of it and what quality of posts you write during your break out. It is easy to start writing low quality posts, but as much as your blog is an image of yourself, you certainly don’t want to take that route.
I find myself mostly struggling to find time to blog. Unlike many, I rarely (actually don’t recall once, but I will say rarely to be safe) find myself out of ideas to post about. Why? I go through these five steps to find ideas, and I go through these unconsciously. However, you can start by practicing them consciously and maybe these might melt into your daily schedule without you intending them to be. Then, voila! You overflow with ideas!
Read And Don’t Read Your Niche
Everyone nowadays will tell you this. Read blogs in your niche. I will say, “Read them, but don’t only read them.” This is because by reading other blogs related to your niche, you start to unconsciously develop a writing style that isn’t your own flavor, but one that imitates the blogs you are subscribed to. I always find new bloggers trying to imitate the bigger bloggers. If you read carefully into the bigger blogs, you will notice:
- they are talking in their own unique styles
- they have experience
- they have their unique sources of ideas
By imitating them, you are confined to only their share of knowledge and ideas. That limits your blog and it can only be, at the most, an “imitating” blog. You don’t want that happening.
To prevent that, you should read other blogs and writings. Newspapers, online news articles, and personal blogs are just a few to mention. Go for the global section that applies to everyone. The intention here is to read over multiple styles to start defining your own style. However, as the idea of this post is to give you ideas to talk about, I will also confidently state that by reading other subjects, you will also create an idea database in your mind. Some things will spark posts to write about and others won’t. In the long run though, you will be pulling stuff to implement into your posts from multiple sources here and there to create quality posts.
What’s Hot?
You may have brilliant ideas. However, if no one is interested in your ideas, although they may be brilliant, you are not going to get much recognition. So, you want to blog about topics that are on everyone’s minds. There are multiple ways to do this.
- Visit forums related to your niche. For example, since I’m talking about blogging in this post, I may visit super niche specific forums such as BloggersBB or relatively focused forums such as Digital Point’s Blogging section. Regardless of which ones you visit, you are bound to see people asking questions of all difficulty and interest.
- Carefully read the comments on your blog and others’ blogs. You will start to see that there are many commentators that ask questions that unfortunately, many bloggers nowadays do not take the time to respond to. This is your chance to jump on the idea and write about it.
- Follow people on Twitter. The microblogging scene has added a whole new dimension to this blogging game and it certainly is a pot filled with stuff to talk about. See what Twitter users in your field are talking about and try to join in on the conversation, both using Twitter and using your blog.
- Run a poll on your site to see what people want to know about. Sometimes, you have to ask your visitors what they want and serve it to them. If you don’t have big traffic, this may not be the most ideal option, but minimal traffic will still give you some results.
Three More Ways To Fish Ideas!
So, I guess I’m not that great of a planner, making this post initially go past a thousand words. Little doses of medicine are much better than chucking the entire thing down your throat, so I’ll let you guys munch on these thoughts for a while until I release the next three ways.
Categories: Blogging Tags: Blogging, posting, quality posts
There are 17 comments. Leave a comment!
¬ Jayce
#4752 January 7th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Follow other good blogger writing is a good way to start. And don’t stop learning.
Jayce´s last blog ..How to hack Facebook account profile
¬ Ruth - Web Career Girl
#4753 January 8th, 2010 at 12:45 am
Very good point about accidentally starting to imitate the blogs you get used to reading all the time. I can definitely see how this was happening. I was struggling myself, actually, so I’m really now making a conscious effort to let ‘me’ or at least ‘my way of thinking’ show through in my posts.
Ruth – Web Career Girl´s last blog ..10 Ways to Measure Your Past and Future Success
¬ Walter
#4754 January 8th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
You have stated a very good advice about blogging. One of the most important characteristic of a successful blogger is his uniqueness, I have noticed this among top bloggers. It’s true that we must not limit our self to our niche, instead we should expand.
¬ Ricky
#4755 January 8th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
I still prefer to read the blog of other bloggers. It will help you to develop a new writing style. I was really bad at writing articles but later I started understanding how to write article effectively.
Ricky ´s last blog ..Windows 7 and Windows Vista Godmode:Basic Understanding
¬ Static
#4756 January 9th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Your absolutely right Ricky. When you are starting out, it is integral to see how others blog and you really do need to start by imitating a bit. However, I think in the long run and once you have experience, I think it might be beneficial to just note what your fellow bloggers are writing about. You should stay away from trying to imitate. That’s what I was trying to get at.
¬ Static
#4757 January 9th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Uniqueness is what makes you special and is the primary reason your visitors will visit your blog over someone else’s. Unfortunately though, I find that many bloggers aren’t creating a unique identity of themselves…
¬ Static
#4758 January 9th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Jayce, I agree with you that when you are starting out, it is important to know how other people are blogging to set benchmarks for yourself.
¬ Static
#4759 January 9th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Ruth, I completely agree with you! I guess that’s how us human beings are though. Unconsciously, we absorb all sorts of things and that includes the topics people discuss and the way they express their opinions/feelings whether it is through their voice or through words like us bloggers do. It is in a way, a little scary because as you said, you need to make a conscious effort to prevent yourself from falling too deep into others’ styles. Looking forward to lots of posts from the real you Ruth.
¬ Agent Deepak
#4760 January 10th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Nice tips. I have my own way of writing quality posts. But it always a good idea to look at other bloggers especially some new blogger with innovative ideas.
You should never stop learning.
Agent Deepak´s last blog ..Blog with a Sex Appeal
¬ Ajeet
#4761 January 11th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
I n field of blogging you have to read others blog.but don’t copy them write post in your style..
Ajeet´s last blog ..What is Facebook Bra colour status update?
¬ Static
#4762 January 12th, 2010 at 10:54 am
Thanks for coming by Deepak.
¬ Static
#4763 January 12th, 2010 at 10:55 am
Exactly Ajeet. Reading others broadens your knowledge and helps you out a lot, but you really do need to be careful at the same time because you can soak up literally everything–from content to style.
¬ Kwame
#4771 January 16th, 2010 at 8:43 am
Killer Tips you have there Static. I am looking forward to Part 2 of this. This one is a quality post since it’s not finished and interested people like me, will come back for the rest of it
. Thanks for sharing.
Kwame´s last blog ..10 Easy Tips To Help You To Be More Productive on Social Media and Networking Sites
¬ Tech Maish
#4772 January 16th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
All the tips are great. The key to success in blogging career is to read, read and read.
Tech Maish´s last blog ..20 Most Popular Ways to Promot Your Blog
¬ blinkky
#4775 January 16th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
You can have your own style to write and always learn new things to get better in writing =)
¬ Tech Maish
#4776 January 17th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
In our blogging career you should always read articles reflated to every niche. This is not a good decission to only read those articles which are related to our niche.
It will add more value to a post if we add examples, other then our niche.
Tech Maish´s last blog ..20 Most Popular Ways to Promot Your Blog
¬ Andy
#4791 February 18th, 2010 at 6:06 am
Hi All,
It’s a great post!
My question is somewhat different from the rest of posts. What are the prices of writting article of about 500-800 words ?
Sometimes i need contents for landing pages for my customers but i refuse them to write contents.
Thanks you all