Blogging for Writers

Michael Hyatt: 10 Blog Mistakes to Avoid

Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt has written over 1,000 blog posts and received more than 20,000 comments. Experience has taught him a few things about blogging. Read his post Do You Make These 10 Mistakes When You Blog? for a quick overview of improving your blog writing.

I'm quite guilty of #1, not posting often enough, an issue I'm working on resolving. Writing catchy headlines is also a challenge.

Check out his post, do a quick assessment of your writing and go get your blog on.

Copyblogger: Tips on Writing Paragraphs

How do you write a paragraph? Google gives you 17.6 million hits to sift through for the answer. I'll point you to one option. 

Jon Morrow, assistant editor of Copyblogger, wants you to write better paragraphs. A Guy named Kawasaki, a two-headed baby, an echo, a monotone and ramps can help. His post, The Art of the Paragraph explains, in artful paragraphs, of course. 

Addressing copywriters and online writers, his suggestions lean towards a shorter style of writing since online readers are generally looking for smaller bits of information. If you're an author in another medium, take note of that. Adjust your style to your audience. (I won't create a two-headed baby about online reading negatively affecting offline reading habits.)

Take a minute to read Jon's post then go get your blog on.  

BTW, there are also some thoughtful comments after his post and plenty of food for thought about writing at Copyblogger. 

Jobs for Bloggers

Find a blogging job at jobs.problogger.net.  You can subscribe to the site or follow @problogger on Twitter for updates. Darren Rowse at problogger.net  earns a living as a professional blogger and wants to help others do the same. 

Spend some time at problogger.net then go get your blog, and maybe a job, on.

Blogging with the Writing Process

"If you're finding writing difficult, it's because you're not taking the writing in stages, and are trying to edit when you should be planning or just writing." - Angela Booth

I'm working on applying this advice to help me keep up with my blog. Hello! It's the writing process planning, writing, and editing. I preached it to my middle school students and am teaching it to my kids. Sometimes it can be condensed into short amounts of time. Sometimes, as in ACT/SAT tests, it has to be condensed. Other times the process can be spread out. The process could either by days long process or it could be minutes or hours.

The bottom line is to get my brain operating in the process mode. As I exercise with the process, my writing muscles will develop. My goals is to get better at writing quickly and well, another example of how blogging can help writers develop.

Too often I try to do the whole process in one sitting. Sometimes I can do it, most time it takes too long. I practiced Angela's suggestions with this post - just jotted down phrases and things at first, then came back to it over a few days. As Angela said in her post, sometimes she doesn't know the point until she writes about it. Her entry is full of inspiring quotes, take a few minutes to read it then go get your blog on.

Online Resource: FabWebWriter.com

You may be a "traditional" writer looking to add another dimension to your writing life through the web. You may be a writer who only writes on the internet. Either way, spend some time visiting Angela Booth's Fabwebwriter.com where you'll find tips on writing, making money writing online and scores of links to other resources, including some of her other sites, like her writing blog.

Angela has been blogging since 2002 and has been writing successfully for over 30 years, so she has insight from online and offline writing. She readily shares helpful ideas on her various sites. She also offers some e-books for purchase, which is another way a writer can make money online. :)

Fabwebwriter.com has an amazing amount of content. It's a great place to spend some time learning, kind of like going to coffee with Angela and benefiting from her experience. You can also subscribe to her Fab Freelance Writing E-zine.

Now, go fill your tank with some good stuff from Fabwebwriter.com. Then go get your blog on.