How to be a blogger

Blogging is not hard, in fact it’s very easy.

Here’s a few tips to get you started.

The most important thing about beginning a blog is “Have an idea”. This is particularly important for more journalistic blogs, or what Greg Treadwell might well call “bloggy journalism”.

For example: this blog post has one central idea – to encourage all you CityBeat contributors to write a first post of your own.

It can seem a little scary if you’ve never done it before, but it’s not that hard.

Once you have an idea, the second important ingredient is to establish a voice, or style. This might seem like way over the top and too advanced for a novice, but you’ll be surprised how easy it is to find an individual style. The trick is practice and consistency.

There’s also a safety net, which you might say is another little rule for starting-out bloggers: You don’t have to hit the publish button!

Experimentation is the best antidote to fear and in the dashboard area, you can play around with ideas and styles till you’re happy. Then and only then should you punch “publish”.

I’ve also cribbed this list from Mindy McAdam’s excellent blog,
Teaching Online Journalism. She has lifted it (with acknowledgment) from Craig Stolz.

Craig Stolz, formerly a journalist at The Washington Post, has been blogging for one year. On the occasion of his blog’s anniversary, he wrote this succinct list of lessons learned, which is rather brilliant:

1. A personal blog is as valuable to the writer as the reader.
2. Entry titles are as important as content. Titles should be dead-clear.
3. Don’t expect your best content to be rewarded. Accept that blog audiences are so unpredictable and that some of your most valuable gems will stay buried.
4. Stand on the roof in a thunderstorm holding up a rake. You never know when lightning will strike, but you can improve your odds. (Definitely go to Stolz’s post and read the further explanation of this one!)
5. Write short and use pictures.

So that’s really it. There’s plenty of advice in the blogosphere and many helpful people. You can also learn from each other, so don’t be afraid to ask questions.

I can’t stress enough, as a closer, that to improve your writing you have to do two things.

Read and Write.

Read other blogs. Read newspapers, read books, watch read movies, listen to the radio, talk to people. In other words keep learning.

Write every day, write for an audience, write short pieces to start, but don’t be afraid to go large.