The first of the guest posts comes from Pearl of Fresh-Perspectives. She comes to us from New Jersey, holds several degrees in various subjects, and currently is employed in the Human Resources field. Many thanks to Pearl for sharing some great tips on effective writing for blogs!

Fresh-Perspectives blogging for Fresh-Blogger. How cool it can get!! Thank you Ray for letting me talk to your readers for a few minutes.

When I sat down to come up with a topic to write for freshblogger, I had no clear vision how I was going to proceed. After a lot of hard thinking about what I have learned in my short blogging life, the one and only thing that continues to stand out is the diversity of writing styles I have come across.

In the last few weeks, I have read tons of blogs and articles on a myriad of subjects, from announcing the birth of their babies to advice on how to make money on the web. One of things I noticed most is that every single post reveals something different about the author’s personality, something hidden about them that is not written in the post per se. We make a lot of opinions based on what the blogger is trying to convey and how he/she is saying it.

Sometimes when I look at the comments, it becomes even more interesting because everyone who reads the post has a different viewpoint about that same subject. Sometimes the original intent of the post gets dragged in a completely different direction just because we all have different ways of looking at the same thing. So the burden of how the actual meaning of the post is conveyed to the readers lies on the author of the post.

I am going to talk a bit about how to write content that is readable and conveys the right meaning of your post. Since we want the readers to spend some time on our blog and try to understand what we are trying to share with them, it becomes our responsibility as bloggers to give them better content, so they will want to come back to read us again.

If you are writing mainly for your family and friends and writing a personal diary or a journal just to keep them abreast of your daily schedules etc., it is okay to be a bit careless with your style, but if your journal is online, you don’t want to write in a manner that will make you look like an amateur. If you are merely scribbling your thoughts on your site, your readers might also start feeling that you have no regard for them and they will eventually stop reading you.

I never shy away from reading BAD material someone has written, though. You know why? Because it becomes my constant reminder to save myself from getting embarrassed by making the same mistakes they made. I suggest you read the bad writing as well as the good, because you will be able to tell which one made ‘more’ sense and it will motivate you to develop a better style of your own.

So, lets see if we can come up with a few pointers for good writing and put them in a list.

1. Be yourself and write in a conversational style so the readers feel as if you are talking to them.
2. Write in clear, short and simple sentences without making it look like a reading comprehension passage out of Great Expectations.
3. Give an introduction to the reader in a sentence or two at the beginning so the reader is aware of what they will learn from it.
4. Give something new to your readers. The Internet is a hodgepodge of a whole lot of information. Your readers will only want to come back to you if you provide them with something they have not come across somewhere else.
5. Engage your readers. Give them a story or an anecdote in a way that makes them feel they are a part of your world.
6. Short one-liners like “You had to be there” or “I am depressed today” usually do not do much for any audience. Tell them the joke or explain why you are depressed and haven’t showered in week (that’s an exaggeration) but you get the gist. Involve them in whatever it is you are trying to say. You don’t have to over explain yourself, but if you want to have some input on your situation or your story, you will have to give them something.
7. Amuse your readers. Have a sense of humor! Everything in life can be looked at in a light manner. This reminds me of a funny line I read in a novel and it stuck with me, “When the kidnapper called the blind woman, he told her that she’d never see her son again.”
8. If someone leaves a nasty comment, do not take it to heart. The web is open to all sorts and once you are out in public, you will come across negative as well as positive criticism.
9. and finally, never ramble because rambling will make the readers feel you are wasting their time and they will never want to come back to read you.

I am sure we can come up with tens of other points that make for better writing but this is the start. Sharing with your readers as if you know them, engaging them in dialog, asking questions, and telling stories will make your writing enjoyable. This will lead to happy readers who will continue to come back to read you, making you happy bloggers.