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Posted: 12 Mar 2008 03:04 PM CDT

The following post on finding your blogging voice was submitted by Lance from Honey and Lance.

We all know that content is king, and we're also aware (sometimes painfully) that the vast majority of bloggers come from non-writing backgrounds. This means we come across a lot of bad writing. Grammar, structure, even spelling is the pits. Ever surf into a blog where you thought, "Gee, great idea, too bad I can't read this.” Then click away? Me too.

I'm not hating on bloggers…I love bloggers, and any medium that gets regular people writing and giving value is a great thing, even if the writing isn't so hot. The good news is, just by reading a resource or two and by pumping out content, it's pretty easy to improve the technical aspects of your writing. Grammar and structure isn't that hard, we have spell checkers to correct our misspellings, and thesaurus.com to improve our vocabulary.

So what's the best way to supercharge your writing and really take your content to the next level? The answer is developing a unique VOICE. Joel Falconer wrote a great post on voice here, and I want to expand on his ideas.

Voice is the distinct sound/feeling your words create in a reader's mind. Voice is what makes your writing unique. Voice can be changed, massaged, enhanced, and even manufactured. One of my favorite blogs is fakesteve.blogspot.com. Ever heard of it? Dan Lyons blogs as a caricature of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The voice comes across as acerbic, neurotic, arrogant, narcissistic, dripping with irony, and just plain hilarious.

Fake Steve is unique, and more importantly, his voice makes reading Apple news compelling and fun. In fact, it's more than compelling. It's addictive. Several hundred thousand fans visit each month, and Fake Steve’s voice is what brings them in.

So how do you find your voice and have it permeate your blog? Here is my 6 step method. These are pretty simple, but a few of them require a fair amount of work. Nothing new for a problogger.

image by platinum

1. Find 10 Blogs that have an interesting, unique voice.

If you're already a hardcore blogger, you probably have 10 blogs lined up. If not, start looking at blogrolls and find them. Fakesteve is a fine starting point. Problogger.net is written with a certain voice. Can you name the qualities? After that, go immediately to bloggies.com and check out any of the award nominees. Pay special attention to the Most Humorous and Best Writing categories. Read those blogs and soak in what makes them unique. You’ll find that ALL of the top authors have a distinct voice.

2. Brainstorm the qualities you want.

Get a piece of paper or fire up Word and just punch out qualities of your potential voice. Don't know what that voice is? Identify it, stat. If you've got a blog about technology, you might shoot for: brainy, geeky, clear, authoritative, dry. If you're writing about Premiership soccer, you might try: flippant, cheeky, cynical, zealous. Sometimes when I'm writing fiction, I like to give certain characters counter-intuitive voices, ie assign them qualities you wouldn't expect. Try writing your tech blog in the cheeky, cynical, zealous soccer voice. Now you're creating a unique and fun reader experience.

3. Experiment with your voice.

Once you have a couple of ideas, try writing a single post in those voices. The content will be the exact same, but the reader experience will be different. When experimenting, go over the top, and see what your stuff sounds like when you get really crazy. Try writing a post about soccer in a Hunter S. Thompson voice. Go nuts.

Once you do that, you've got a range to operate in, and you'll have a handle on where you can take it. I would even write 3-4 posts to get a feel as you move across different subjects, post structures, and word counts. On one of my blogs, I wrote 10 posts before settling on a voice, and then I went back and revised every post to make sure the voice was consistent.

4. Decide what voice is best for your Blog.

After you've experimented, you should have a pretty solid idea of what's going to work for your content and what you're comfortable with. The key here is sustainability. Whatever voice you settle on, you better be able to write in that voice every single day…forever! Make sure it's something you enjoy and feels natural. If you can’t do Fear and Loathing without struggling, that might not be the right voice for you.

5. Become a character, and get into that character's head.

On my dating advice blog, I write as Lance. Lance isn't the real name of the author, it's a pseudonym. When I write as Lance I actually imagine a fictional character, a guy with his own unique personality. That let's me assume his voice when I sit down to blog and the words flow from there. I’ll not only imagine what he sounds like, but I’ll imagine what he looks like, what he’s wearing, his haircut, even his mannerisms. That way, I have reference points to use, and I can answer the question, “how would Lance respond to this?”

Not only does this have functional value, but it’s a lot of fun get in character and write. Lance is a slice of my id, and it’s a cool release.

6. Read real books.

Are you reading books in your spare time? Real books? If you're not, and you're serious about being a professional blogger, get to Borders and pick some up. There’s an overwhelming amount of information on the Internet, but good literature is scarce. Reading feeds your head and informs your blogging. Reading will open you up to what’s out there and what’s possible with voice. I recommend starting with some classics. Try Hemingway. Try Delillo. Try Toni Morrison. Try Grace Carol Oates. Try Cormac McCarthy. All of these authors have will take you to school on voice.

If you're looking for shorter, more digestible pieces, I highly recommend anything in the Best American Series:

Best American Sport Writing
Best American Fiction
Best American Non-Fiction
Best American Essays

Any of these will introduce you to a ton of fresh voices and give you ideas for expanding your writing. After I go to the bookstore, I always feel jacked and ready to pump out killer content.

So there you go, 6 steps to create your own voice and take your blog content to the next level. By the way, what’s the #1 most subscribed blog on the planet? That’s right, it’s Engadget. A tech blog with a unique, witty voice that is fun to read.

Read more of Lance’s work at Honey and Lance

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How to Promote Your Blog through Networking

Posted: 12 Mar 2008 08:25 AM CDT

Blog-Promotio - Networking This week I’ve been suggesting five ways that I’d promote a new blog to new readers if i was starting out again.

Today I want to turn our attention to Networking as a great way to promote a blog.

If I were starting out in blogging today knowing what I now know I’d invest significant time each day into connecting with others online. The old adage of ‘it’s not what you know it’s who you know’ rings true in blogging.

By networking I mean doing all of those things that I regularly write about here at ProBlogger. Commenting on others blogs, answering comments that others leave on yours, emailing other bloggers when you write something that you think will interest them, making helpful suggestions to other bloggers, connecting with people via social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, emailing people to introduce yourself, linking up to others in your niche…. the list could go on… and on…. when it comes to ways to network but today I’d like to put forward a few more general suggestions.

A number of suggestions that I’d make in networking with bloggers:

Be generous - a lot of the networking that I see going on between bloggers is fairly much about ‘taking’ rather than ‘giving’. One way to make a real impression on another person is to be generous with them. Help their achieve their goals - highlight their best work - encourage them - go out of your way to work on their terms. While you do need to have good boundaries (otherwise people will abuse your generosity) I think a spirit of generosity is the right attitude to go into networking with.
Don’t Expect too much too quick - the most fruitful relationships that I’ve been a part of in blogging have emerged over time. Let the relationship grow naturally as you build trust and a mutual understanding of who the other person is and how you can work together.
Look for the B-listers - many so called ‘A-lister’ bloggers are approached all day long with requests to connect. While you might get lucky - I’ve found that approaching slightly less know blogs can have more chance of working out (and they can still drive a lot of traffic).
Prove Yourself First - if you’re brand new to your niche it could take time to make an impression. This isn’t necessarily because people are being cliquey - it’s often because they’re waiting to see if you’re going to stick with it and if you know what you’re talking about. There’s nothing more frustrating that networking with someone who disappears a couple of weeks later. Show you’re in it for the long haul and that your blog is making a contribution to the niche and you’ll find people more willing to connect.
Persist But Don’t Annoy - some bloggers will take a few emails or conversations before they’ll warm up to you. There’s a lot of noise around the blogosphere so don’t be offended if people don’t respond - try again in a little while - but don’t stalk them :-)
Look in Neighboring Niches - it is important with blog networking to interact with other bloggers in your own niche - however don’t close yourself to relationships with bloggers outside of your niche - particularly in those that neighbor yours. When you limit yourself just to other bloggers exactly like yours you will end up dealing mainly with people who could see you as a direct competitor. While some will be open to interacting with you I’ve found networking with people outside my niche can be fruitful. Another way to be strategic is to not look for networking opportunities just with other bloggers on your topic - but with bloggers who share a similar demographic of reader.
Ask Questions - one key that I’ve found to work in networking is to ask a lot of questions of those around you. Some bloggers go into networking with obvious agendas and goals but fail to listen to the other party. When you become a person who asks others about their goals and objectives, where you know what their strengths and weaknesses are and where you know their dreams you not only create a good impression on them but you’ll be in a great position to know where your situation aligns with another person’s - this is where networking becomes most effective.
Become a Go-To Person and a Connector - as you network with others don’t just focus upon you and the other person - but attempt to draw others into the relationships you have. I find that people are particularly grateful to me when I can’t help them but point them to someone else who can. This creates a good impression upon both of the parties that you connect which can lead them to come to you again with opportunities (ie you become the ‘go to’ person because they know you’ll either help them personally or point them to someone who can).
Have an Elevator Pitch - a lot has been written about business people being able to articulate what they do in a concise statement (having your elevator pitch). I think being able to do this is important with blog networking too. I get many emails every day from people wanting tow work together in some way and in many cases it’s a few minutes into an email that I even work out who they are and what they are on about. Develop a few key sentences that describe who you are, what you do and what you offer others. Another good elevator pitch is on what your blog is about. Having thought through these things will help others understand what you can bring to a relationship - but they will also help you understand that too.
Look for Points of Synergy - perhaps this says more about my personality type, but I’ve found the most profitable relationships to be ones where there was a ’spark’ or ‘energy’ around our interaction - particularly where there was some sort of synergy around goals and objectives but also some sort of a connection when it comes to personality. My style has always been to look for points of ‘energy’ or ’synergy’ and going with them. Perhaps someone else has a more technical description of this but it’s worked well for me.