Fortunately, there are some good suggestions and ideas that you can glean from the blogs of other people. The most common start would be to just a small greeting or introduction. This probably one of the most popular ways of starting a blog. A simple “hi, this is my blog!” post is one of the most common you’ll see on the internet. It’s a no-nonsense way of kicking off a blog. But some bloggers may not want to start off their blogs in this manner. Fortunately, there are also “fancier” ways of starting a blog.

You can start a blog by introducing yourself. Since most blogs are personal in nature, giving a backgrounder on yourself will give your readers a fair idea of why you have a particular perspective about certain topics that you’ll eventually discuss in your blog. You don’t need an exhaustive biography, just touch on the important facts that will help readers get to know you more.

You can also decide to give the raison d’etre of your blog. Write about why you started it, and what motivated you to do so. Personally, I think this is the best way of starting a blog. It gives the readers the lay of the land, so to speak. They’ll already know beforehand what to expect from your blog, which could pull in more like-minded readers. For example, if you say that your blog will be about your perspective as non-US citizen on the Obama Administration’s policies, it will surely attract people who are looking to read about what your thoughts will be on future issues.

An ingenious way of starting a blog is picking out one of those memes that are all over the net. Try to find a meme that is related to the topic of your blog, this will be a great way of giving a bird’s eye view of your views and also what to expect in future blog posts.

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First, The author might want the public not to who he was. This might be because of the content or because of the time. There was a time when women had to use the name of a man just to publish their work. There are also male authors who use female names to mask who they are – for example when writ8ing Romance Literature.

There are of course other circumstances that fall under this league.

If it is a confession article or post that reveals what is happening in a company, within a group or inside a government agency then the reason the author remaining unknown is obvious: he does not want his cover blown or compromomise his safety. Although not a writer – the now famous Deep Throat of Woodward and Bernstein comes to mind.

The author might just want to keep his privacy.

Second, The author might want to distance himself from work. It could be different genres or it could be a test balloon when submitting works.

Third, Some do it as a precaution when they start to criticize or even attack an issue or even a person. There is a certain shield of protection when writing under a pseudonym. It emboldens the writer to write or say things he or she would normally write about. The repercussions are somewhat not felt.

But not anymore as can be seen in the case of Google, the model and the anonynmous blogger.

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I knew what the article would say before ever even clicking the link and of course, after checking it out, I was right.

I told him my thoughts on the article and he was a little taken back. He thought it was a good post about something that beginning users wouldn’t know.

My advice to him was to stir up controversy and stay away from the obvious. Everyone is fighting over the obvious ways of doing and saying things.

If the article had said that complex designs were leading to using too many div tags and that while tables were still not the answer, understanding the use of other xhtml elements could streamline code and build a better, more semantic site, then I would have been impressed.

When you are tackling a subject, you need to find your hook. You need to find something that will set you apart from everyone else. If they are all applauding a piece of software, go over it with a fine tooth comb, and point out its flaws. If they are all loving an application for one reason, then try to find a different reason why it is good.

Our jobs as writers is to teach, inspire, translate and open people’s eyes. If your post is nothing but a repeat, you loose the opportunity to captivate the people that stumble onto your site, and transform them into repeat visitors.

What steps do you take to stay away from the obvious? Let me know in the comments below.

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Also, after writing two posts today for someone else, I almost didn’t feel like writing on this blog. While I believe that is only because the topics of this blog and the blog I wrote on have fairly similar audiences, I still am reminded of why I have decided to change my career path yet again. I want to write, and I want to enjoy writing. I want to create something, and build something that I can be proud of and maybe even build equity in.

Working for other people can mean getting paid, but building equity can mean enjoying a lifestyle.

How do people work freelance full time? Am I missing some meaningful reward that my varied salary positions will never give me?

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Reporting

The reportage: The report: The News. Just simply saying what has happened. This could range from Aunt Mildred’s wedding to George or the Marriage of the Queen of Buggyland to the Prince of Salami. It could be anything as long as it happened. This usually falls under the five wise men of Rudyard Kipling’s five wise men name: (i) who, (ii) what, (iii) when, (iv) where, and (v) how?

How-To-Do-It

These articles range from how to prepare an omelet to how make your own nuclear bomb – a writer actually did several years ago and he was immediately hired by a government agency upon discovery of his thesis. Articles/posts such as these gives the reader step-by-step instructions on how to prepare and assemble/or cook a specific dish or object. Note that there will also be articles/posts that will fall under sub-form of How-To-Do-It – the advise piece or the question & answer piece.

The Narrative

A more detailed and personal account of an event in past and the present. A tad bit longer and more meandering a narrative not only gives you the facts of what has happened but it also gives you an inkling of the emotion of the moment as things happened – although more often it is a very personal account of what has happened.

The Confession

This type of article/post deals with revelations. Most oftem personal revelation of what one did or what one felt like doing during a given time. It could also be an article or post that leads one to the writer or blogger’s realization usually after something has happened our occurred.

Interviews

This type of post/article is a question and answer piece – usually but not limited to one person. It may focus on one aspect of a person’s life; a person’s career or only subject of interest.

Reviews

A critical discussion or commentary of a book, play, film, gadget, and service. As such you should have a book review; a review of a play; a film review; a review of a gadget and even a restaurant review. Does the reviewer think this bad or good? A good review will often tell why they think something is good or bad.

Argumentative:Opinion: the lead: the editorial

This type of article/post argues for or against an issue or a cause. This type of article is used to dissuade or encourage the reader. In some instances, ir can also be used to challenge the reader to action.

Analysis

An analysis, whether post or article, aims to provide the reader a thorough discussion of a subject. It starts with an introduction, a brief description of the topic, the issues involved; the pros and cons of an issue; A summary and a conclusion or a non-conclusion.

You will probably find that a number of non-fiction writing you have done will fall into one or two or three or even four of the types. There maybe even more.

And so my friend what do you write?

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Reading it now and also looking at the large expanse of the writers unniverse on the web I can say that Orwell did not touch on everything. Most if not all reasons he mentioned centered on non-monetary reasons for writing.

People write for a living. I do. I try to. I aspire to.

But there are other reasons for writing and Orwell, who was also a prolific writer and wrote as a means to earn income wrote that these were:

First, To record and to report things that happen.

Second, To point out to the reader an d to the world an object, animal, person, event, and phenomena of (i) beauty; (ii) interest; (iii) uniqueness.

Third, To move the reader to act to a certain way. Mark Anthony’s speech before the Romans who were looking at the body of the assassinated Caesar along with his assasins is a classic example of moving people. Even the use of honorable men was used so effectively that at the end of the speech. These honorable men were then veiewed as anything else but that.

Fourth, To satisfy an aesthetic sense of proportion. To see beauty in the written word. People who read aloud poems and stories would know this. The play and use of words to paint and give voice to our worlds is such an example.

Fifth, To satisy the ego: To satisfy us: A sense of pride and fulfillment when one finishes a work is a reward. Applause or acclaim for one’s work is a form of reward and a reason to write.

To sum it all up in a neat list George Orwell or Eric Blair wrote that he wrote because of the following reasons:

These reasons have been mentioned is what Orwell said were the reasons he wrote. Of course there are more reasons for writing.

What is yours?

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The Idea

The first part of posting is to come up with ideas. I sometimes find it necessary to just start writing down words related to my industry and working outwards from there. After coming up with a few different ideas, I bring certain main points together as a single post and I have a fully conceptualized idea.

It can also help to see what other people are writing about. Do you have an opinion? Look back and see what was interesting to people a year ago, two years ago. Have things changed or are they still the same? Some of my favourite posts by authors are the ones where they compare/contrast two different products or two different time periods.

The Questions

Everyone knows about who, what, where, when, why and how, and these questions are infinitely more important when getting ready to post on a blog. They are especially useful when you don’t know everything, and can come up with things you’ll want to research to include in the post.

For example, if you are doing an article about a car company you could easily add information about who designed their main cars? When did they perform the best? How well has the public received their cars? Why are they producing cars with bigger engines than another company? What do you see them dealing with over the next few years?

The Research

Don’t take too much time researching, or you can get bogged down in what others have said. For longer articles, you shouldn’t be spending more than an hour researching for a post. This can be one of the longest time sinks in creating an article. Don’t spend time writing the post as you research, or you can get sidetracked, and unable to create proper flow in your article.

For any niche you should be able to, over a period of time, pick out a few resources that are consistently useful for research, and that will save you massive amounts of time. Try not to stray from these main resources too often, unless you aren’t finding the answers you need. Too much variety, and you can land into information overload world, where nothing productive ever happens.

The Post

The amount of time you need to write an article always depends on its length, but now that you’ve come up with an idea, answered some questions, and completed your research, the words should flow from you. Don’t worry about what you are writing, as you can come back after you are done and edit. The hardest thing I ever learned was not to self edit as I was writing.

As paragraphs are written, your mind will come up with other things to say, and usually, if you are properly prepared, the article will flow together nicely.

You should easily be able to tell how long your article is going to be by this point, and don’t try to push it too far beyond that point, or you’ll find yourself adding useless filler. Brevity can be just as important as details, but with the attention span of most people dwindling, shorter is most likely better.

The Call to Action

After you have written, and edited the post, I always suggest going back and adding in a call to action. It might be a question at the end of the post, links to further reading, or just a simple request to have people comment. You are much more likely to have people act upon what they read, if you ask them to.

I enjoy asking people to comment. I want them to know that I’d love to see them participate if they have any thoughts on what I’ve written. Some bloggers put in affiliate links, strange questions, or a list of other articles they have written along the same lines. These can all be important to increasing the longevity of an article online.

The Pretty Additions

Now you are ready to add in links, images, proper text formatting of headings and whatnot. This doesn’t have to be perfect, but it will add some pizazz to your article. Don’t give it too much time. You can edit articles after they have been published, but no one can see the content until it is published. Far too many people play with formatting for so long that the information that they wanted to share becomes stale.

I take the time to set proper headings, bold certain lines of text, italicize what I think would work best, work on the coding for my lists, and insert block quotes at this point.

The Publishing and Promotion

Once everything else is complete, publish. Your articles don’t do you any good unpublished. Get them out into the world. Feel free to edit them after the fact, or to write whole new articles giving more details, or adding onto your original points.

Don’t forget to let the world know about what you’ve written. Don’t be shy. People are hungry for new content, new ideas, and new perspectives, so find a way to get your work to them. The best thing a writer can receive is constructive criticism on how to improve, so open yourself up to that.

Conclusion

If you are trying to merge all of these steps into one, you might find your articles taking forever to craft and it is fairly easy to see why. There are so many areas between crafting the idea and publishing that breaking it down is really the only way to remain consistent and efficient.

Post inspired by Tom Leroux, check out his blog Leroux.ca.

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One of my favorite shows is Jim Henson’s Story Teller. Each episode started with the old storyteller recounting an old European Fairy Tale to his dog and us – the audience. The Dog of course was a muppet and the storyteller well he was the actor John Hurt.  The series was a success because it brought to life a lot of the fairy tales and amazing stories.

Several tales were told and at one point the series came to storyteller’s story. And its tale was called A Story Short.

It goes like this…

The Storyteller and the Beggar tricked the cook into giving them food by telling him they could make the most wonderful soup from a stone. Needless to say the Cook was mad when realized he had been fooled by the Storyteller and the Beggar.

Taken before the King and his court the storytller retold what happened and the King and his court was so amused that they did not punish the Storyteller and the Beggar. Instead , much to the frustration of the Cook, they were each given a golden coin and set free – on the condition that the Storyteller would tell a story everyday for about a year. Each story would earn the Storyteller a golden coin. However, should the Storyteller fail to tell a story he would then be taken to the Cook’s kitchen and bee placed in a man-sized kettle of boiling oil – the Cook kept such a kettle for special occassions – parties and feasts not for executions, but the Cook was angry so he was just as willing to use it for torture and death for this occassion.

A year nearly passed: It was the last day for the Storyteller to tell his story but alas he had ran out of stories – there were no stories in him. And from his mindseye he could imagine the Cook and his man-sized kettle bubbling with oil.

The Storyteller walked, hopped and bumped about. Trying to get a story out but there was none. Suddenly a knock was heard it was theBeggar.

It was his Old Friend theBeggar and he came on the day of all days to gamble. The Storyteller who was out of stories obliged theBeggar.

But he lost

And he lost

And he lost

Till all of his Gold coins brlonged to theBeggar

TheBeggar then told him to try again and try to recover his lossed by betting his wife. The wife agreed. The Storyteller reluctanly agreed.

But he lost

The Storyteller who had no stories to tell, who last all his money and who recentlty loss his wife was despondent. But theBeggar yold him why not bet himself so he can recover all his belongings – especially his wife whom he treasured so much.

But he lost

TheBeggar then turned the Storyteller into a hare and placed him into his bag.

Then theBeggar went to see the Cook, who was busy boiling the oil. As theBeggar went inside the kitchen he tranformed the Storyteller into a flea. And theBeggar also began his prank on the Cook. The Cook was left with less an ear, less a few fingers from the prank.

Naturally, theBeggar was taken to court where he played a prank on the King. Making his heir disappear.

But pranks are pranks. And within a few moments – as fast as three swishes of a lambs tail or even a dragon if it is more appropriate – everything was restored. The King’s son soon appeared, A wiser and more humble Cook was restored all his body parts, and the Storyteller ceased to become a flea and returned as a man.

And before the King and his Court the Storyteller told the everyone the day the stories ran out and his adventures thereafter.

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One option that is increasingly becoming popular today is to hire an SEO copywriting service. There are many entities offering this service – you only have to take your pick among them. There are some advantages to taking on the services of an external company to help you with your writing. Perhaps the main one is that you can rest assured that you will have fresh and high quality content to publish on a regular basis. You have to bear in mind that these services employ professional copywriters who are highly experienced in writing copy for the Web. This means that you do not even have to worry about the relevance of your content (for your human audience) and that you can also rest assured that the search engines will be happy.

Hiring an SEO copywriting service need not be a difficult task even with all the choices out there. Just make sure that you dig a little deeper into the reputation of the company and the ask to see samples of actual work that they have done. The best news yet – you can avail of these services at very affordable prices!

If you are struggling with your writing, take the time to consider getting some help.

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Words/Phrases

The Bible begins with In the Beginning. Some Fairy Tale begin with Once Upon a Time and ends with And They Lived Happily Ever After. There are words and phrases in any language that can be used to: (i) Point out things; (ii) To compare; (iii) Begin and end; (iv) and a a number of other things

Punctuation

A period or a full stop tells the reader when a sentence stop. A punctuation can also tell the reader when a set of words pauses and then continues. It can also tell the reader when things get exciting or quiet.

Bullets/lists

When you enumerate or list things.Bullets if all items on the list are of equal importance. And numbered if there is a sort of ranking. Then again its a matter of style and what is important is that a list focuses the readers attention to a set of fact, information or knowledge.

It can also be used to signal that should be taken when one wants to achieve something. In this instance a numbered list is more effective because it means that it is a step-by-step process.

Quotes

Sometimes things are best said from the source. A quote is a powerful tool. It adds credibility to the story. A quote can build up your story: A quote from President Barak Obama carries more weight than a Chef at a five star restaurant, unless of course the topic is about restaurants.

Bold/Italics/Underline

The format of the word or phrases in an essay, article and even post can if one wants to bring out the word or phrase within the essay. Standing out has its advantages. A term that needs to be defined can be formated to stand out. It could be the name of an author, title of the book, name of a place, and many other things you would want to get notice.

Figures/Images/Vidoes/Audio

Content is king but presentation is Queen. An article or post has to have some value added feature that will help further explain or make interestomg. And sound, image and moving images can do that.

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