This week’s review is of Lani Giesen’s post: A personal blog is art, at Blogging Personal.

Blogging Personal is about personal blogging, a subject many people still consider nothing more than an online diary, and consequently oftentimes scorn.  However, given that Technorati currently tracks in excess of 112 million blogs, many of which are personal, it is time someone addressed the issues and misconceptions associated with personal blogs, and Blogging Personal is doing it beautifully.

The content is well written and thought out, and the blog itself has an obvious and clear goal.  As the blog is still fairly young (launched January 2008) it is impressive; and it already has a decent following.  If you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favour and check it out.

I cannot fault the writing but for the occasional typo (spell check woman! ) and the post is so neatly divided into sections that it makes it a pleasure to read.  But I would recommend one thing; more care with the lead (or lede) - the introductory section of the story.

Why is a lead important?

The first paragraph or two should tell the story; who, what, where, when, why, and how.  This is important because if you don’t win the reader in the lead, they go away - you need to give them a reason to continue reading.

More importantly, in this case, where you need to entice more readers, you need to show them, in the lead, what they can expect.  Show, don’t tell, and Lani does this particularly well. 

Much like the term link bait, the idea of a lead is to hook the reader.

Writing the perfect lead

• Does the lead give your readers specific information, or is the language too general and vague?
• Is the lead too long?  Could you include some of the information later on?
• Why is this story different/better/more useful than any other out there?
• Go back and check your lead; don’t settle for “it’s good enough”
• Make every word serve a purpose
• Do you have the necessary information to back up everything you say in the lead?
• Always ask yourself: Would you continue reading?

The only change I would make with Lani’s post is to take the first paragraph and make it the second paragraph – reworded a tad to fit.

I wish you so many good things Lani!  Keep going, you’re doing great!

A Personal Blog is Art: Edited 

A personal blog is Art. And personal blogging is an artform.

Some people might have an immediate negative reaction to that statement: The idea “Art” has a lot of baggage. It might seem elitist, it might seem like hubris, it might even seem daunting, but for any of you struggling to make connections between some of the advice written for bloggers and the work (Yes, work!) you do, I think that you’ll come closer to something you can hold on to by considering yourself an artist. Or, at a minimum, an apprentice artist.

This is my answer to the question I posed: What is a personal blog? and I expect it comes as no surprise.

Reading through all the responses to my question, there were a number of common threads. One of the strongest was how indefinable a personal blog actually is, that it was unique to each individual, to each blog, subjective and without limitation. I agree.

I’d love to hear what anyone else has to say about Blogging Personal, or any ideas on how Lani could make it greater still.

Many thanks to Tricia and Lani for letting me take a look at their blogs; this experiment has been interesting and informative for me, and hopefully for you too!

 Photography: Margo Love

Turns out, writing is cool again. Those who would have laughed at touching a keyboard ten years ago, are now are busy typing away, rushing to get their next post out. 

If you have a business, and you don’t have a blog, you’re missing out.  There is no better way to get your name, brand, and product out to the world, and into search engine results - just make sure you blog well.

So, what does writing well have to do with search engines?  Plenty.  If you write well, others will link to your article.  When others link to your article, search engines take notice and point to you too.

But - don’t think for one moment that you need a degree in journalism to have a blog - you don’t.  Some of the best bloggers have no formal training in writing, yet they are successful because they have taken the time to brush up on basics - you can too.

So, how do you write well?

Use plain English. Of the nearly 700 words in Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, 505 are of one syllable, and 122 are words of two syllables

Use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to get around using a passive verb - “The Googlebot saw him” is strong; “he was seen by the Googlebot” is weak

Get rid of small qualifiers. They dilute your style and persuasiveness. You are not sort of tired, or a bit confused, or somewhat annoyed. Be confused! Be tired! Be annoyed!

Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual; it catches your eye before it catches your brain

Get comfortable using a dictionary and a thesaurus; it expands your mind, and shows you care about your readers - you didn’t just throw it all together

Use fewer words but make them count 

Get to know the most common errors in English

Edit, Edit, Edit. Once you have written your article, go away, have a coffee, come back, print it up, and read it out loud. When you stumble over a sentence, rewrite it, because if you stumble, others will too

And a final point from Brian Clark about headlines:

I absolutely love clever word play.  Puns, turns of phrases, neologisms, Spoonerisms, etc… I love them all.  I just don’t use them in headlines.

The benefits of writing well are many: more readers, increased links, higher rank on search engines, the power to influence, and revenue.

Pretty decent return for your investment, dontcha think?

For more information on writing well, familiarize yourself with On Writing Well, by William Zinnser and the writers’ bible, The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White.

An invitation

Much like Brian Clark did with his remixing headlines experiment, I thought I’d try an editing experiment.  If you have written a post that you think could have been written better, leave a link in the comments section below.  I’ll edit it for you and write up the reasons for the edits next week.

Dilemma

A dilemma is when you must must make a choice between two options, and both have nasty consequences.

For instance, in Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, James and the insects are inside a giant peach that is floating in the ocean.  Their dilemma is:
 
Do they eat the peach, and face death by drowning?

OR

Do they not eat the peach (keep it as a floating vessel), and face death by starvation?

Conundrum

A conundrum is a puzzling or difficult problem; almost everybody knows the most famous conundrum of all:

Which came first?  The chicken or the egg?
 
*Note:  ”dilemma” is often misspelt as “dilemna”

Copyright laws vary from country to country, but are generally put in place to protect the intellectual rights of authors of books, films, songs, websites, software, and songs.

Most countries follow the Berne Copyright Convention, which protects both published and unpublished work, and ensures copyrighted works are protected in foreign contracting countries.

The problem with the Berne Copyright Convention is the rigid rules. The need to intimately understand the law prohibit it from being useful in today’s digital age, where the user is now the producer.

In 2001, Professor Lawrence Lessig founded the Creative Commons as a way to bridge the gap between total control and anarchy in the copyright world.

A Creative Commons License is based on copyright and can apply to any work that is protected by copyright law. It gives you the ability to dictate how others may copy, adapt, or distribute your work.

For online writers, Creative Commons is the best place to start. The easy to navigate Web site helps you determine which license is best for you in a matter of minutes.

For an interesting read about the myths of copyright, check out Brad Templetons article: Ten big myths about copyright explained. (Yes, I know there are 11 points, but he liked the title too much to change it.)

A complete version of the US Copyright Law is available at the United States Copyright Office; the complete Australian Copyright Act 1968 (updated to Act No. 45 of 2005) is available from the Attorney-Generals Department, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 can be downloaded from the US Copyright Office.

Anna Quindlen in a recent Newsweek column, March 19, 2007 points to Ann Coulter’s recent anti-gay slur against John Edwards, and talks of how

The landscape of American discourse has grown lousy with agents provocateurs whose careers are built around delivering verbal depth charges, not information.

And she hits it on the head. So many people out there, desperate to be read, seen, heard–especially online.

The information age has offered journalists another place to write; and citizen journalists the opportunity to be published. But with so many fighting for the same audience, who will win?

Interestingly, both can. It’s just a matter of style and time. Those who work on it can succeed, those who don’t, wont.

Journalists need to embrace the new medium and fit it into their needs. They have the writing skills; it’s just a matter of opening their mind to the possibilities of the new technology, and understanding it on a base level.

Citizen journalists and bloggers also have a great shot at success. Most are already tech savvy, aware of the do’s and don’ts on the Web, now it’s a matter of polishing up their grammar skills and getting the words right.

Only then, when both groups develop a unique online style, get over the distrust they have for one another, and begin helping one another, will the original intent and true power of the Internet be seen.

Sharing useful and reliable information will also help the search engines do what they are meant to do: manage the worlds information more effectively. There will be no reason for them to run around madly, constantly changing algorithms to sort the good stuff from the crap.