It’s easy to whip up interest in topics that people like to read up on. Sports, technology, celebrities, people lap up such topics with relish. But what if your field is something a bit different from that? What if you write a blog with a great deal of passion and quality, but no one reads your topic because the topic is boring as hell, such as Archaeology or Cognitive Psychology? How do you get such blogs or blog posts noticed at all?

It was the summer of 2006 when a book hit the New York Times Bestseller list. The title was a bit odd, but it promised to entertain and be provocative while talking about Economics. I never quite liked Economics as a subject, mind you, but the reviews were astounding. They couldn’t stop raving about the book, and so I forked out the money for it and walked off, wondering if my money would have been better spent on a couple of lattes instead.

Those delicious, delicious lattes.

But from first page to last, I didn’t miss those lattes. And you know why? Freakonomics was a wild, wild ride with stories that tickled the mind and made me laugh and think at the same time. It was light-ish reading and it was intellectual all at once. I read about the Ku Klux Klan and promiscuity and sumo wrestlers and drug dealers and it was such engaging reading.

Why didn’t anyone teach Economics like this back when I was studying? Every story made me want to read more and more about Economics, and I was fully immersed in a subject I never liked before. And in a way, I realized what Freakonomics really was; it was a bible for transforming blog posts into something sexy no matter what the topic. The writing style was crisp, intuitive and at times counter-intuitive (like the story about day care centers and disincentives that backfired) but the book was never boring in the slightest.

And each of those stories was attractive because of the name ‘Freakonomics’. It’s kind of hard to miss a book with a name like that, and it’s even harder to not read at least a few pages of that book with a title like that. And then that what is it, you’re hooked on stories like that. That title was like a giant neon sign that just captured your attention one way or another, and you can learn a lot from the easy and engaging writings in Freakonomics when it comes to making your own blog posts.

Is simplicity is the soul of language, Hemingway was its personification. At a time when the who’s who of the writing world chose to embrace a more complex, artful style of writing Hemingway was the sole person to eschew all such obfuscation and write in a language that was simple and clear to understand. But how can Hemingway help your blog, or your business need? There are several lessons to be learnt from Ernest, and here are a handful of them.

Keep it short

Hemingway was minimalist before anyone deemed it fashionable. He looked down upon the complex writing style of others and cut out everything flowery and unnecessary. To Hemingway, it was all about penning short, powerful prose that caught the eye and captured the mind. Challenge yourself to write less and less about something until you can distil it its essence into nothing more than a sentence. Hemingway demonstrated this when challenged to tell a story in six words and he came up with “For sale: Baby shoes, never used.”

That in itself is a subtle, brilliant and sublime use of terse prose.

Use a crisp opening paragraph

Refer to the first paragraph of this post and note how it is short in length. Hemingway used to concentrate the power of his prose into a short burst right at the beginning. This acted as a prelude to the main course for Hemingway who would then continue to build on the simplicity of the storyline and wrap an entire plot and sub-contexts around it. But the key always was to use a crisp opening paragraph that got the reader on the same page as Hemingway.

Be passionate

Hemingway had a way of infusing vigor and passion into his prose. Sample this verse from ‘Old man and the Sea.’

“He was a very big Mako shark, built to swim as fast as the fastest fish in the sea and everything about him was beautiful except his jaws. His back was as blue as a sword fish’s and his belly was silver and his hide was smooth and handsome. He was built as a swordfish except for his huge jaws, which were tight shut now as he swam fast, just under the surface with his high dorsal fin knifing through the water without wavering.”

The focus and intention of Hemingway’s mind is unwavering and unambiguous and what shines through is his vision and passion for prose.

Stay positive

This is all a bit ironic as Hemingway himself had a blackness in him, but we are not talking about negativity versus positivity in a human sense. We merely refer to saying something positively versus saying something negatively. If your dentist were to tell you “this will be painless” what remains with you is the word pain, not painless. So use positive words, such as economical for inexpensive or stable instead of error-free.

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.

You own a blog, and you have writing for the blog since last few months or years. Some people even say they like it, but you can’t see any results. Not many people are visiting your blog, you hardly have comments on your posts, and links are very difficult to get.

You have less than 100 subscribers, 30 among them are your friends and family.

And you keep wondering what’s wrong…

Do you think you need to wait for few more months for traffic snowball to set rolling, or do you simply believe your content sucks?

There isn’t really a way to determine, as junk for you can be a treasure for another.

So what do you do? How do you determine what’s wrong with your blog? Does your content really suck? I don’t know. There aren’t any rules, but there are signs. If your blog has any of these, it’s time to improve the quality of your content.

1.    Grade Your Content

If you are asked to rate the content of your blog on the scale of 1 to 10, what would be your answer?
6? 7? or 8? may be even 9?

That’s the mistake here. You always appreciate your writing, and so does your mother. You cannot, however, practically grade your content. Either you grab their attention quickly or you make them doze off. That’s it. Nothing in between.

2.    Are Your Posts Like Journal Entries?

Previously, most people updated their blogs daily, scribbling down about their everyday’s life. Things are, however, different today. It’s more of an online magazine now. Readers want polished content. If you blog sounds like ‘Dear Diary’, you need to work on it immediately. Today, no one is interested in your life.

3.    How Many Comments Do You Receive?

One of the best ways to find real value of your content is to count your comments. If you receive many comments on each blog post, people are genuinely interested in your content. However, if you have thousands of subscribers, yet not many comment on your post, you content is simply not interesting. In short, it sucks.

4.    How Much time Do You Spend Writing Each Post?

Do you spend less than an hour preparing for and writing a blog post? Yes, it’s possible to write a great post even in 10 minutes. However, this doesn’t happen very often. It’s important to spend some time researching, writing, editing, and proof reading your post. I know few bloggers spend 7-8 hours per post. Even if they don’t, it’s important for you to spend atleast a couple of hours on each post.

5.    Have You Ever Received a Fan Mail?

If your blog is really good, readers will go out of your way and inform you how much they like your blog. No, I am not talking about sweet little tweets that you keep getting. I am talking about 3 page long emails people send to thank you for your blog.

If you are a beginner, you wouldn’t get too many of such mails, but you will get some. If you haven’t received any such mails, you content isn’t good enough.

6.    How Many Hate Mails Have You Received?

If your content is good, there will be a small group of people who hate your blog. They will keep sending you emails on how bad your writing is, how rude you are, and how untrue your blog is. Don’t bother about them if you receive such blogs. They are never happy with anything. But if you don’t receive such blogs, you are probably not heading into the right direction.

7.    You Keep Waiting to Publish Your Best Ideas

Many beginners have good ideas, but they don’t want to share it with their readers. They want to save of for the future, when they convert it into a membership site or publish an e-book. You think you will publish once your blog is popular. But unless you don’t write good content and share good ideas with your readers, how do you expect it to get popular?

8.    Do You Write Everything that Comes to Your Mind?

If yes, nothing frustrates your reader more than this. You write down whatever you think about the topic. However, they are seeking for information that works, and not what you think about it. The moment you stop caring about them, they disappear. There are many others on the web that offers good content and precise information.

9.    How Can you Make a Difference?

Here is a small test for you: how would your blog help readers? A year from now, what difference would you like to see in your readers? No, you cannot answer ‘entertainment, and a sense of gratification’. It should be something like ‘they have lost 10 pounds’ or ‘they have 12,000 subscribers now’

10.    Do You Think You Deserve More?

At times, do you feel that your content is underestimated? You are providing so much information for free, yet people fail to recognize your importance? The answer is as simple as this: If you do something useful, you will get the desired attention.

I would be happy to tell you that developing great content is simple. I would love to tell you that there are many shortcuts to blogging riches. I would love to tell you that you don’t need any brain to become a successful blogger. But I would better be honest than tell you all these things.

Writing good content is hard, and you have to slog like an animal to achieve success. If you  are ready to do it, you will have it all.

Are Your Ready for a New Start? Forget about what you wrote in the past. Promise yourself to generate remarkable content every day. Only then you would become a successful blogger.