May | 14 | 2008

Creative Writing: How To Get Started

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing, Opinion In my last post, I talked about the role of creative writing in blog writing. We have a comment from one of our readers, Nancy, which I think warrants mention in this follow up post. She emphasizes the importance of achieving a balance between creative writing and informative writing. So as you try your hand at creative writing, try to bear in mind that balance that you have to achieve. So what do you need for creative writing? I would say your imagination and a conversational tone – nothing else. Put yourself in your reader’s ...

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May | 06 | 2008

Is Creative Writing Appropriate For Blogs?

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing, Opinion I came across an idea on Daily Blog Tips about creative writing for blogs. It reads: What does creative writing has to do with blogging? Well, for one thing all bloggers need to be able to write efficiently, and to be able to express and raise emotions from time to time. That is, they need to go beyond the mere facts once in a while (or more often than that depending on your niche). This raised the question “Is creative writing really needed for blogs?” in my mind. If we were to base everything on that snippet above, then ...

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May | 04 | 2008

Learning From Your Mistakes

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing Write, write, write. That’s what my previous post was all about. What I didn’t really emphasize in that post is the need for practice. Yes, I did mention that a bit but I believe that it warrants more detail. Think about it this way – you can write for hours every day, 7 days a week. Heck, you can even write 24 hours if you wish do to so. Yet how will it benefit you if you keep on writing in the same way you have always been writing? How will you benefit if you ...

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May | 01 | 2008

So You Want To Be A Better Writer?

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing, Opinion I would say that if you were really serious about your blogging, then you would give an unequivocal yes as an answer to the question. I know I want to be a better writer. That is why I was quite excited when I saw Brian Clark’s post title “10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer.” I could hardly contain myself as I waited for the page to load. To my surprise, this is what I saw: 1. Write. 2. Write more. 3. Write even more. 4. Write even more than that. 5. Write when you don’t want to. 6. Write when you do. 7. Write when you have something to say. 8. Write ...

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Apr | 30 | 2008

Are You A Fence Sitter?

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing, Opinion The Free Dictionary defines this expression as: fence sitter n. Informal One who takes a position of neutrality or indecision, as in a controversial matter. Take a look at some of your posts which feature particularly controversial topics. For example, when it comes to blogging practices, we have topics such as keyword density, black hat or grey hat SEO, and the like. For blogs that tackle many other topics, politics, religion, etc. could be controversial topics. In those posts, did you voice out a definite opinion on the issue at hand? Did you choose a side and defend it? ...

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Apr | 28 | 2008

Exploiting Clichés

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing, Opinion Who said that clichés are never good? Well really should avoid them most of the time. After all, I am sure that you can come up with something more original and something that would drive your point home – most of the time, that is. Yet what about those times when you simply cannot get those creative juices flowing? Will you settle for something less compelling rather than make use of a cliché? Personally, I would say no. I am not all that against clichés, really. There are clichés, and there are clichés. I ...

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Apr | 25 | 2008

Are You A Blogging Addict? (Part 3)

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing, Opinion So you obsess over your subscriber count (Oh no! I only have 89 subscribers! My target is 100!). And you can’t seem to stop checking your blog stats (It’s already been 45 minutes since I last checked. I should check again – a lot can happen in 45 minutes, you know!). What else can be indicators that you might – just might – be a blogging addict? How much time do you spend on social media sites? Digg, Stumble Upon, and the like. How often do you “push” your posts on these sites? Do you ...

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Apr | 18 | 2008

Are You A Blogging Addict?

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing, Opinion, Marketing and Search Optimization I didn’t really want to use the word “addict” as it may have some negative connotation to it. However, I couldn’t really find a more appropriate word for the idea that I want to convey – which is a strong desire to continuously work on one’s blog (and everything else that goes with it). There are concrete signs that one is addicted to blogging – they are not necessarily bad, mind you. Let’s take a look at some of them and see if we are addicted to blogging. Do you obsess over the number of your subscribers? The fact is ...

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Apr | 15 | 2008

The First Journalese-English Dictionary

Posted by Jimmy as Writing, Opinion I know, some people think that the words journalist and blogger should never be placed in the same sentence – unless they are being contrasted. Then again, I am not some people, and I do believe that these two groups of people do not have to be necessarily mutually exclusive. In any case, I ran across the first ever Journalese-English Dictionary online, something which aims to point out clichés that tend to be used by journalists. The idea of the author (Graeme) is to make writers aware of how tempting it is to use these words ...

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Apr | 12 | 2008

How To Word Sponsored Posts

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing, Opinion There are so many ways by which to earn money through blogging these days. As such, it is no wonder that so many people are joining the blogging bandwagon – why not, when you can earn dollars for almost no effort at all? Guru posted a couple of entries on How to Avoid Becoming an Ad Spam Blog and I think that we would all benefit from it. The entries made me think more on how a blogger should word his or her sponsored entries in such a way as to retain credibility in the eyes ...

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