In today’s world, that is overly connected via texts and images, the one common tool that everyone with a passion for writing has, is a blog — blogs about fashion, automobiles, people, et al. So if you too love writing and run a blog, how do you ensure that your writing stands out from the rest? An article on Mashable quotes founder of Silktide, Oliver Emberton, who shares tips on running a blog.
The Quora user said, “In my first year of blogging, I was read over four million times, mostly through a cunning strategy I call ‘screwing everything up and learning’. Let me save you some time. Here are the five most surprising lessons I learned.” Here’s the gem he shared
The world owes you nothing: Face it. Nobody cares about you, and even less about your writing. Why would they, when they have the likes of George RR Matrin, JK Rowling and a million other established authors to choose from? Oliver then asks, “Tell me: (a) is your writing more deserving of attention and (b) how would anyone even know?”
While it might sound dispiriting, it isn’t meant to. Arm yourself with the truth and strategise accordingly.
Give people a reason to care : Gurgling babies, cats, pups — you are vying for a reader’s attention amongst a thousand other distractions. The founder of Silktide then advises to ask yourself three imperative questions:
Who am I writing for?
What can I do for them?
Why should they care?
Hook emotionally : We mean mostly in headlines, because that is where you either win or lose your reader. There are certain emotions that are unfailingly click baits. Oliver gives certain examples.
Scary and urgent —Terrorists will attack your town, tomorrow
Big names — A day in the life of Tony Stark
Self-interest — How to win your dream girl
Sex-appeal — The hottest babes in tennis
Trendsetting — The show everyone is talking about
Edit as much as you write : If there’s one underrated skill amongst writers, it is edition. Here’s where you can really show you skill in blending, rearranging, rewriting and rethinking. So how should you edit? Here’s a cheat-sheet.
Verbosity : Nothing’s worse than redundancy and excessive words.
Confusion : Nobody wants to read a blog and spend an entire day trying to demystify something that you wrote that, according to you, was intellectual. Keep it simple.
Predictability : Oliver says, if someone can guess your next sentence from the previous one, you have a delicious unicycling mongoose. Avoid cliche, add sparkle.
Build a platform : Write continuously —and keep making mistakes till you hit on the right formula to garner more followers. Yes, followers not readers. Oliver emphasises on being able to convert readers into followers.
To read the whole story, click here .