Your voice is a critical component of your online success. Now if you’re lucky enough to have a voice like Morgan Freeman’s or Patrick Stewart’s, you’ll even make a rip-roaring success of yourself in the real world. But the blogosphere is made up entirely of words, puns and some poor innuendos and to cut through all of the clutter you need to have not just material that is unique but a storytelling and writing that is captivating and engaging.

Finding your voice, then, should be your first concern for without it you will never have a successful blog. Some writers and even advertisers refer to it as a ‘hook’; without it any new reader will not be reeled in by your text. This is why you often find people talking about great first lines in novels, such as:

“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.”

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen”

“The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new”

From passion, to despondency to a humor darker than a moonless night, each of these lines has something in it that compels you to read on. Capture this well enough and your readers will keep on coming back to you like they’re addicted to crack. So how do you capture your voice and distil it into your blogs? Forget voice as you normally know it; your voice might be like Mickey Mouse’s for all we know but no one can hear your voice, so you’re safe (for now). What you should focus on more is the voice readers feel they hear when they read through your work. What shines through should be distinctly you and distinct in itself. It’s a very abstract concept and hard to capture, but once done it’s the most powerful tool in a writer’s arsenal.

Forget about blogs and think about your favorite writers instead for a moment. There is always that one quality about them that is so appealing, ranging from such things as Hemingway’s simplicity or Ludlum’s picturesque thrills. It’s that inescapable beauty that you must look to capture. Here’s how you can go about doing likewise.

Be spontaneous

Your inner chi flows most freely when you pull out the plugs in the dam that holds your soul. Okay, maybe it doesn’t but it is fun to make stuff like that up from time to time. Be spontaneous and just give air to your inner writer without judgment. Give yourself a three minute timer and just write, don’t think about it. Review yourself after three minutes and you’ll be surprised how freely your mind can paint a picture when you cut loose your inhibitions. What comes across will be quirky, will be authentically you and in the process, you can discover your voice.

Write as you’d speak

This is the truest test of your writing voice; is that writing on a page really you speaking? If it isn’t, re-work it until it is truly representative of you. If that confuses you, just sit back and ponder what is essentially you, words and phrases you might use and so on. You’ll see a difference come across instantaneously.

No norms

From a young age, we are drilled in the classical styles of writing and told to write in a standard style that conforms to norms. Sometimes, however, it is better to just break free and be you. The point of writing is to communicate a message and to that extent you must follow the written code. But feel free to experiment and use literary license on other occasions. In other words, feel free to explore yourself if you feel it’ll improve the quality and clarity of your message.

Just be brave in whatever you do and be yourself, a bit of sincerity and yourself reflected in a piece of writing goes a long way in endearing yourself to a reader.

It is a question posed all too often by bloggers; how do you come up with a great headline that reels in your readers? And what works better generally, longer or shorter headlines? Of course, word play and the number of words you use definitely has a role to play but it’s not all a numbers game, so stop thinking of it in terms of subtracting or adding any words. There is no magic elixir or numerical formula by which you will be able to come up with a sublime headline that has everyone applauding your genius. The answer, surprisingly, is rather simple if you were to bear with me.

Coming up with a headline that works is very straightforward. Ask yourself this; how much would you read as a headline? Humans have an attention span that is at its peak only for a short period of time, and beyond that interest rapidly wanes away. Normally, in terms of reading a headline it extends to a few seconds. It shouldn’t drone on and it should be like a good potato chip; crisp and delicately to the point. Try this for size:

“The six mistakes ignorant investors make when it comes to approaching investment and what you can do to avoid it.”

Now while this headline sums up the spirit of the article perfectly it’s a bit long-winded to say the least. Perhaps you might have even lost your train of thought somewhere along the middle of it all! Brevity is the soul of knowledge, and that soul has been sold out and whored out several times over in the course of that headline. I doubt you can even remember what that headline was exactly at this point in time (don’t peek, we know you want to). That headline is a mish-mash of too much happening all at once. Peruse instead these great book titles:

“Don’t stand too close to a naked man”

“Where the Wild Things Are”

“By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept”

“Kinky Friedman’s Guide To Texas Etiquette, Or How To Get To Heaven Or Hell Without Going Through Dallas-Fort Worth”

You would have not noticed a certain succinctness with each of these titles and memorability to each of them. The last one is far longer than the rest, but still memorable. “But it’s long!” you say and you are correct, but it is the punctuation that saves it. Punctuation is in fact the difference between “Let’s eat, Grandpa!” and “Let’s eat Grandpa!” How to punctuate something is entirely up to you, but it can make a sentence much easier or much more sensible to read because of the mental pause it affords. Let that be a lesson to you.

Blogging should, even at the worst of times, be about having a bit of fun with words. I’m not saying you should be a wordsmith or someone spinning a web of words no one can unravel. Far from it, it’s more about just going back to basics and having fun or being playful. Think of it this way; when you were a kid you only did stuff you enjoyed. Why did all of that change? The message is still the same, to try and enjoy yourself because you’d be surprised to see just how much your writing will improve once you start to experiment with throwing in a little bit of joy in there.

Some will look at it as being frivolous and unnecessary, but some will relish the change in tone. Just as it is in the real world, you can’t please everyone all of the time but you can most certainly at least make sure that you are having a good time while you’re at it. This idea struck me while I was peering in at a class full of kindergarten kids busy with some art classes creating what I would at best (or worst) call modern art. Most of those kids were less busy trying to create a work of perfection and more intent on just having a whale of a time and slathering the walls (and occasionally the paper in front of them) with all sorts of colors while doodling all kinds of unrecognizable shapes.

Amazingly, even at such a tender age, some of them displayed a remarkable capacity for intricacy and quality in their work and looking back I realize that those were the ones that were having the most fun while they were at it. Over time, as I observed this intrepid bunch of kids more and more, I noticed subtle variations and distinct improvements in the way these kids used a brush or even their fingers to paint an image and the more they tried something new, the more evolved their art became over time.

And then it struck with the force of a thousand Elephants stampeding through the Savannah; how is it any different for blogging?

As you pick up and drop styles of writing and experiment, you will stumble upon some that stick and work for you while there will be those you discard and this is true for you and your readers. Your personal experiments could range from satirical styling to sardonic ranting to even using a third person writing style. There are no rules other than those that you impose on yourself, but there is one overriding rule; it has to be impactful for you and your readers, otherwise where’s the fun in trying something new?

Everyone wants to be a successful blogger but not all can do it quite well. It took a lot of hard work to reach the stage where I am now and here I am sharing some of my secrets with you. The list is really long and this article would never end if I start to write them all. I am writing about the ones that I think are most useful. Follow them all and you will surely become a great blogger. Remember that success doesn’t come overnight; it takes a lot of hard work and perseverance.

1. Write a lot

   This is really important because when you write over a period of time, you get to know all the mistakes that you have done in the past. Your writing too gets better after a period of time. You should also put plenty of posts in your blog as you will get more juice from the search engines. If there is plenty of content pouring in, readers will visit your blog more frequently to read your write ups.

2. Be concise

   

   This is acknowledged by all successful bloggers. People visit your blog simply because they wish to learn something new. No one reads blogs just for the blabber or fluff. Practice writing over a period of time and develop a skill where in you catch people’s attention with the first line itself. The reader should be left begging for more.

3. Be analytical

   Study the readers and know what they want to read online. Your articles should give what the readers want. I spent lots of time on the Internet studying where people came from, what search terms, what search engines, what sites, etc. I even studied about where the people come from. See what kind of articles people are looking for and write accordingly. Headlines must be really attractive because it is the first thing that the reader notices. It should make the person go through the entire article. Then just tailor the content to suit the research that you have done. Don’t forget to put appropriate images for the posts.

4. Be consistent and focused

   The mantra here is first choose a topic and then stick to it. You should write consistently on the subject that you have chosen. I have observed this amongst big bloggers. They do write off line articles occasionally but eventually it relates to the overall theme. This is a bit hard to achieve but it is not impossible.

5. Plan ahead

   Successful bloggers first make a master plan and then stick to it. They are open to constructive criticism or feedback but they always have a vision in their mind. Stick to the plans and don’t get derailed.