How Listening To The Voices In Your Head May Help Your Blog
How Listening To The Voices In Your Head May Help Your Blog
By Mark Sierra
The amount of feedback Garry and I received after my first post here was overwhelming, but he decided to let me write another one anyway. (It helps if you know his PayPal address. I’m just sayin’.) LOL
You probably didn’t know it, but you have some voices inside of you that have a desire to get out. Try giving them a pass to see what they can do for your blog.
Voice #1 – The Boss
How do you interact with people at work? The store? Or with your family? For me, at least, the way I interact with people in general is not much unlike the way I interact with readers of my blog. I think that’s important, and here’s why I think you might benefit from it.
Finding our voice is one of the biggest challenges we face as bloggers. After all, it’s what makes us resonate with others. For some, it comes natural; for others, it’s a gradual journey of discovery and adjustment. The voice most bloggers start out with, of course, is the one they use everyday, and well they should. However, making that transition from offline world to online world may be challenging to say the least. So using a different voice as a means of getting out of your shell or expressing yourself in a way your everyday life doesn’t lend itself to may be the remedy.
Voice #2 – The Social One
In the final analysis, it’s about using your talents to let your readers know you’re there, on your blog, writing for them.
For example, I can’t tell you how often I’ve dropped a blog based on the fact that they have ignored the comments I’ve left for them. Shame, too, because they sometimes have content worth reading. But just like a restaurant, if the service is bad, there are a ton of other choices to choose from where you can have good food AND good service.
Harsh? I don’t think so. It’s really no different than daily conversations you have with others. Wouldn’t you rather speak with someone who acknowledges your existence than someone who turns away when you ask them what time it is? Yeah, me neither.
Voice #3 – The Evil Twin
Now, let’s focus on using a different voice and how that may help you in your writing. Let’s say you’ve found something worth writing about, but gosh darnit, the words just aren’t coming to you. I happened upon just such a topic last month. The tool I was reviewing was worthy enough, but the words…well…were hard to come by.
Then I thought maybe if I wrote about it in a different way — a different voice — the words might flow a little better. And you know what? They did. I had fun with it by “preaching”, which enabled me to take what would have been a “hey-go-check-out-this-cool-tool” post to something with some meat on it.
Now, would changing voices like that work for you? Maybe and maybe not. Of course, it depends on your comfort level and how far out of character it would be for you. But even by making a slight adjustment, it could mean taking a post from “plain” to “wow”. Naturally, this approach should be used with caution. We don’t want to be scaring our readers now would we?
Once again, I must thank Garry “The Cutie” Conn (sorry buddy, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity in the spotlight). This has been a great experience for me and I hope for all of you as well. Feel free to drop by my little nook on the Net: MeAndMyDrum.
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12 comments
-Mark, Great post, just makes me think, first Garry convinces me to start blogging more and get out in the open, and now you want me to admit about the voices in my head. I am afraid of what might be next, lol.
I agree that finding the right voice or tone to use can be difficult. It also be challenging depending on what type of content you are writing. I like to read blogs and articles that don’t have a whiny sounding voice to them, and if they do thats not a problem if the post actually has some relevant information in it.
Great post Mark!
-Mike
Man… I thought I was the ONLY ONE off my meds!
Awesome post Mark!! Truly you are a skilled writer and speaker.
I too find it difficult when writing some posts to not sound as if I were some outsourced robot from the future, but instead a real live human being who is speaking from experience.
I think part of the problem is the mechanical nature in which we approach blogging. With all of the automation tools at our disposal we spew out post after post attempting to generate as many pages necessary to achieve some ideal number of impressions so those pennies add up to dollars.
It goes back to the whole quality vs quantity debate. I’m working on a 90/10 plan. 90% of my blogs are all about quantity, the other 10% quality.
In order to get that quantity up, at some point you end up having to discuss topics you’re not real knowledgeable in. This forces you to speak in a voice coming from some character within your brain that you’re not familiar with. So the posts don’t have that flow, or personal feel to them. You’re “acting.”
I’m sure this comes across to the readers as well.
It’s Sophie’s Choice. You have to decide if that particular blog is something you just want as many eyeballs to hit and then click on the links to generate sort of a steady moderate income and you don’t really care if they come back. Or if you’d rather build a community, a growing base of readers that participate in your discussions.
Once you choose, your voice becomes a bit easier to find.
Very well said. This blog is a great example of quality over quantity. I average around 35 posts per month on this blog. But everything published on the site comes from the heart and from my mind where I am experienced within the niche I speak to. Other sites of mine that are designed as a “connector” site deal with good quality posts, but they are written in a way that is geared towards making money either by PPC or AFF links.
Hey Mark,
LOL, I’m proud of you. Admitting that there are voices is the first step. LOL
Just joking. Actually, this is how I blog on a regular basis. Each of my blogs has a different tone, and each one is done via a different voice. It used to be a bad thing to admit that there were various voices in one’s head, but I don’t think this is the case. You should have seen me while I was writing my NaNo novel. Each one of my characters has a different voice, literally. I don’t know why, but my hubby is talking about having the walls redone with padding. LOl
Great post, as always, and all the voices in my head agree.
The good ol’ pink rubber padded room in the home! That is one way to cut the cost on mental health insurance premiums.
The voices in my head say ‘Give up your job and go live somewhere where you can live on your $100 per month blog income’
I am attempting to write in a more creative way. It is hard but as always the invaluable help from other bloggers is improving my efforts no end.
Cheers.
Forest,
Of the many blogs I visit where the author attempts at monetization, your blog really is done nicely. There might be one more thing you can do to test something out, but perhaps you already experimented with this in the past… However, I would try using a 300×250 rectangle and wrap your text around it on your post pages.
The small vertical one on your right side might not be performing as well as your leader board on the top and the 160×600 you have on the left.
I would replace the small one on the right and try experimenting a little by putting a small to medium sized rectangle in your post pages and have the content wrap around it.
If you decide to do that, let me know how it worked for you.
@David
Thanks! There’s no point in fighting the voices, my friend. Just give into them and it’ll all work out. LOL
@Owen
I agree that the type of content you’re writing about does have to be taken into consideration. For example, if a blog is about funerals, then it wouldn’t be a good idea to include humor. However, if it was about rocket science, though it’s pretty complicated stuff, I’m sure there’s a way to make it just that, complicated, or light-hearted, or a mixture of both. So another part of the equation is the personality and writing skills of the author in addition to the content.
@Mike
I’m glad you liked it!
@Garry
Hehe…thanks! Meds are nice, but it could be the reason I have voices in the first place. LOL
@Cary
Absolutely! I, too, am experiencing that same thing with my other niche blogs. For those, I don’t really care about the social aspect of them, so while I do try, it has more to do with just cranking out post after post like you said. However, I think we we continue that process, it will be come more second nature, thus allowing us to become more comfortable.
@Christine
When selecting the proper type of padding, I recommend going with durability over looks. It’ll save you installation costs for years to come.
@Forest
We’re all “works in progress”.
It is not the voices that really bother me, it is the fights they get into, and especially when they do not use their “inside voice”….
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