I have been blogging for a little over a year now, I write and post a new blog every other day. Sometimes I suffer from a slight touch of writer’s block, however, not very often, I have found that if I follow these 7 ideas, I can consistently develop unique content. There are plenty of blogs written about “quality” content, just which defies description, I have yet to read a definition of “quality” content that doesn’t define it by saying it should be “quality” content. What quality content is to one person is completely useless to another, to me the phrase means nothing more than accurate spelling, good grammar, great punctuation, and a good flowing manner. My company is in the self-sufficiency niche, it’s an easy niche to write about as I can relate most life skills to it. My way of dealing with blogging is briefly summarized in the following 7 rules that I have found I follow mostly by instinct.

1) I write to one person, it is not possible to write interesting articles that are of interest to thousands of people while I do that my goal. Abraham Lincoln said it best with his statement: “You can please some people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.” So I’m not trying to, as an example, my last blog, posted this morning, was written about the eruption of the volcano in the Philippines, Mount Mayon. I spent time in the island country between 1970 and 1973, I was in the Navy and the ship I was stationed on called in the port of Subic Bay. This blog was written from the memory of a little boy, he was about 10 years old at the time, driving a water buffalo on the side of the road. He was naked, obviously very poor, I think he is 50 years old today. I do my best to empathize with the trials and tribulations of his life’s journey, compassion being a very real part of my writing. He is the most important part of that blog, there are thousands of people like him in the world, in my opinion, they will all relate to that blog, they are all on the Internet today, they are important. I make sure to answer every comment as soon as I can, it’s important too.

2) I pick a word to start with and build from there, I read everything, all day. In the course of that reading, there are many topics that interest a lot of people, each of those topics consists of words, sometimes thousands of words. Of those thousands of words, I will choose one, then I will do a mental word relationship exercise, many mornings lying in bed (in the zone of no, don’t get up, don’t stay in bed) I will think of all the words that I can relate to. that. All of those words are subject to being part of, or the main word in my keyword, or most likely my keyword phrase. Going through that thought process I also come up with ideas for other blogs, sometimes the blog I was intending to write takes a back seat due to coming up with ideas for blogs related to that word that I feel I should write first. . I never take more than one word forming an idea at a time, I am not a multitasker. A lot of my niche includes “homesteading” so if I had to pick the word “ice cream” it would allow me to blog a lot before I know how to do it. Evoking key phrases creates openings for other blogs. For example, with the key phrase “make homemade ice cream from scratch” you might start the blog series with a blog about building a pasture for your new dairy cow, that would be a blog. Some words are easier than others, weather disasters for example pretty much write themselves, others like salamander DNA would require a lot of research and study for me. Almost any word will do, it depends on your knowledge of the subject and your willingness to study it, which is the deciding factor. I found out that humans are interested in everything, if you question that, take another look at the search words you use to find anything on the web, chances are millions of websites will come up.

3) I don’t pay attention to word count, that’s not why I’m in it, I’m in it because I love to write, read and think about people and life in general. I’ve written a few blogs with 800 words, maybe one or two, I haven’t written less than I can remember. I’ve written many 2000+ word blogs however most are in the 1200-1800 word range but I’m not tuned into word count, I don’t pay attention to it until I’m done. By letting the amount of words dominate my writing, I do myself a disservice, if I write a mediocre blog and force the words I have found, I can make it horrible writing, likewise, it is possible to make a great blog. in a mediocre one in the same way. I have never found the opposite to be true. I write until I finish writing on the subject, forced words seem to be just that, forced. It’s a bit like playing music, (I play the guitar), if a piece of music is written in “C” scale and I end it with an “F” string, for example, it sounds unfinished and leaves the listener (or musician) wanting. . end with a chord or note of “C”. That’s what is meant by a performer telling band members to “take it home now.” As in this paragraph, when a topic is exhausted it’s time to move on to the next one, it has a natural ending if I write more I lose you.

4) I use my company’s “mission statement” to guide my blog, after all, I’m trying to encourage people to visit it. I’ve always believed in a mission statement, I won’t paste and copy it here because it’s irrelevant. The objectives of the company are established in a statement that is able to take me to the basics of why I started a business, it is what is important. It’s also a reminder of who I am, because after all, I wrote it with my interest and ideas about what I want to achieve with my work. If you don’t have a mission statement, maybe you should, just writing it brought a new perspective to the way I think about how I’m involved in my business.

5) Write for the people, not for the search engines, my main focus is always the people, after all, on the other side of what I am writing in the “notepad” there is a person who reads it, you are the important thing Aside from meeting the obscure requirements of major search engines, keywords, SEO, and original content, there’s not much else to do for the big boys, due diligence goes a long way. I never cut and paste anything, I don’t even use quotes, I use links if I want to reference an article. I make sure I have 3 sources before I write my blog unless I know everything on the subject, (boy, that’ll be the day), I made that mistake once and got called out for some false information, not funny. In my reading and research, I make sure the information I’m digesting is up to date, unless I’m writing a historical paper, which I frequently do, I check the dates of the article. Most of the time, if it’s more than a few months old, it’s history. I have to know the difference.

6) I don’t pay attention to making money, I have the attitude if I do due diligence and write well the money will come, it always has. I don’t want to come across as greedy, it’s easier than most people think. My personal belief is that if a person’s only interest in life is money, they’re doomed, check out Facebook, greed kicks in. be doing them inside. I have a grandson that I was working with to start a music blog, he wrote like two blogs and he asked me when he would start getting paid. (What you are thinking are my exact thoughts, holy cow.) I advertise very infrequently and when I do it’s maybe a product, I don’t like being the target of a constant sales pitch so I don’t sell anything. Many blogs do, I don’t read them. When I advertise I use a link, even then it must be a product that is directly related to the award I just wrote about. For example, if I just wrote an article on how to tie knots, I might add a link with the notation “This link is to buy 50 feet of handmade natural fiber rope.” With sales, I’m upfront and honest, when you click on that link you know that before you click on it you’re being encouraged to buy something.

7) I’m not a shock jock, I won’t write about politics, religion, abortion, gun rights, or get involved in local disputes, it’s just not my nature, there’s nothing I can solve in 120 words. tweet or a Facebook argument. I’m not trying to fix the world, I have a vote and I use it, that’s all.

This is a summary of how I blog, it’s working for me, maybe you’d like to try some of my ideas, I’m not sure how successful my approach is, it seems to be working, I’m gaining readers every week, it’s a slow process I’m in this for the long haul, i don’t plan on finishing my blog anytime soon, i’ve been writing since i was in elementary school.

I appreciate the time you took to read this,

Thank you, Jacques