Monday, April 7, 2008

Seth shares how to write like a blogger

In addition to being a youth pastor, one of my first passions is writing. Seth Godin has a great blog post that I thought was very interesting and a wonderful way of spicing up any writing. I was going to just quote part, but one of the geniuses of his blog posts is that they are so short and easy to read but hard to distill any more than they already are. Plus I hate having to jump to something when I'm trying to read a blog, so here's the whole thing. If you like it, you will want to check out his blog regularly. Great stuff.

Write like a blogger

You can improve your writing (your business writing, your ad writing, your thank you notes and your essays) if you start thinking like a blogger:

  1. Use headlines. I use them all the time now. Not just
    boring ones that announce your purpose (like the one on this post) but
    interesting or puzzling or engaging headlines. Headlines are perfect
    for engaging busy readers.
  2. Realize that people have choices. With 80 million other
    blogs to choose from, I know you could leave at any moment (see, there
    goes someone now). So that makes blog writing shorter and faster and
    more exciting.
  3. Drip, drip, drip. Bloggers don't have to say everything at once. We can add a new idea every day, piling on a thesis over time.
  4. It's okay if you leave. Bloggers aren't afraid to include links or distractions in their writing, because we know you'll come back if what we had to say was interesting.
  5. Interactivity is a great shortcut. Your readers care about
    someone's opinion even more than yours... their own. So reading your
    email or your comments or your trackbacks (your choice) makes it easy
    to stay relevant.
  6. Gimmicks aren't as useful as insight. If you're going to
    blog successfully for months or years, sooner or later you need to
    actually say something. Same goes for your writing.
  7. Don't be afraid of lists. People like lists.
  8. Show up. Not writing is not a useful way of expressing your ideas. Waiting for perfect is a lousy strategy.
  9. Say it. Don't hide, don't embellish.

What would happen if every single high school student had to have a
blog? Or every employee in your company? Or every one of your
customers?

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