Doing it this way means that all you have to come up with are observations
about daily life in your town and write about them. It may not be riveting,
but the point is that it gives you a source of material that you have to shape
into something readable. This sort of blog may never get a large audience, but
the fact that it
is live adds a certain compulsion to write for it. If
you were just writing for yourself without publishing it, there would be a
greater chance of stopping through lack of motivation.
Write the way you
think
For some people this may seem like a really bad idea, but the idea is to
make your writing both unique and sustainable for you. If you try and copy
someone else's style, you will not know how to express yourself within that
style and you will end up as a very pale imitation of the writer you are
trying to emulate. That's not something many people will go out of their way
to read.
Always read before you post
I don't know how many times I have read a blog or article which has been
marred by misspelling or the author copying and pasting a phrase twice and not
editing the result properly. It is always possible to alter a post you have
made, even after you have posted, but with Wordpress you can preview the page
before actually publishing it. For some reason mistakes that you have not
noticed in the editing window show up when you see the post in context, so
always preview before posting and if you are as cautious as I am, read it
again after posting. You will also notice problems with readability that you
hadn't noticed before and can correct them to make the writing flow better.
Alter the size of the edit box
Finally a practical point. If you are using Wordpress, the default editor
size is quite small and it is difficult to keep the sweep of the post as you
have to scroll up and down to read it too much. Fortunately you can increase
the number of lines by going to you Wordpress control panel and clicking on
Options and then Writing and you can increase the size of the post box there.
I find 20 is a reasonable line number, but you should may your own mind up on
it.
Having a developed a style and become used to the discipline of blog
writing, there are a number of ways you can make your blog more search engine
friendly. This means that people can find it more easily, and I will cover
this in future articles.
Paul Wood has been involved with computers since before there was an
Internet, and has been involved as it has evolved and grown to where it
is today. The experience he has gained from this has been invaluable to
both his clients and those he has mentored. Although he now runs many
sites, his Internet Business Centre provides a focus for his continued
commitment to enabling others to make some sense of the sometimes
confusing wonder that is today's Internet.
http://www.internet-business-centre.co.uk and his personal site
http://www.livinginlymington.com is an example of what he has been
talking about in this article.
