As I reached my 300th blog post on this site last week, I was thinking that perhaps I could write something about being a blogger. I thought that I could give some advice, so that one could know a little bit more about the craft.
Below are some specific things that you should consider if you're thinking about becoming a blogger yourself. Even though the advice is pretty basic, it's still useful when it comes to blogging and being productive as a writer.
1) Choose a topic that you know of and that you're interested in.
When you start blogging, you should choose a topic that you know a lot about and that you're interested in. Whether we're talking about fashion, music, food, television, movies, sports or something else, it's good to know what you're talking about.
After all, the better you know your stuff as a blogger, the more your writings will be based on facts and reality. This way you won't run out of things to say that easily and people have a reason to visit your blog more often.
After all, the better you know your stuff as a blogger, the more your writings will be based on facts and reality. This way you won't run out of things to say that easily and people have a reason to visit your blog more often.
In my case, as a tv spec writer, since I knew quite a bit about the craft and since I was also interested in sharing my thoughts, I thought that coming up with a blog would make sense and would be the way to go as a writer.
2) Have a consistent writing routine and publish regularly.
When it comes to writing and publishing stuff, the best way to get things done is to have a steady writing routine. By having a solid writing routine, you'll find it easier to write and publishing articles becomes a second nature for you.
At the same time, you shouldn't write so often that you'll get burned out. There's no reason to write so often that you'll get so stressed and so tired of the whole process that you'll simply give up and stop posting stuff.
In my case, when I started writing this blog, at first I tried to write every single day. Not surprisingly, it didn't take more than a couple of weeks before I got so tired that I went for like a two month break from publishing anything.
3) Pay attention to the quality of your articles.
As a writer, you should make sure that you always value quality over quantity. You should understand that quality comes first and that there's no value in publishing stuff when you don't have anything meaningful to say.
Instead of forcing yourself to publish something that has little to no value, you should understand that less is usually more. You should spend enough time writing and rewriting your posts, so that they would be worth publishing.
In my case, over the last four years or so, I've been writing one article per week (4 every month). This way I don't have to rush things and I have enough time to make sure that my articles are readable, informative and entertaining.
4) Try to be as truthful and fair as possible.
It's important that as a writer you're always honest and that you don't worry too much about what others might think of you. Your advice and critique should be truthful, even though you might be stepping on other people's toes sometimes.
At the same time, there's really no point in being negative just for the sake of being negative. There's no value in being too cynical, so you should find ways to be constructive in your criticism, as long as it's only possible.
In my case, I try to make sure that I don't write about television shows and movies that much. I try not to critique and review them that often, because I know that in most cases I wouldn't have much, if anything good to say about them.
5) Be respectful towards others.
Finally, when it comes to interacting with others and receiving feedback, pretty much everyone is going to get negative feedback from time to time. There's really no way around this and you just have to be able to deal with this fact.
So when you get negative feedback, don't let yourself get too worked up over other people's comments. As long as it's only possible, try to reason with the commenters and try to explain where you're coming from as a writer.
In the end, the truth is that when it's all said and done, you should treat people with respect. You should treat them with respect, because the more friendly and the more helpful you are towards others, the better things are going to be for everyone.
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