chrisg.com

It is no coincidence that I am writing this at the end of the year. Traditionally at the end of one year we look ahead to the next. I’m trying to make 2008 much more organized than 2007!

I am often paid to manage projects, it is something I am good at and enjoy, so I find it funny that I can organize projects and other people much easier than I organize myself. My writing especially tends to be spontaneous rather than planned. While this gives certain beneficial qualities, such as being current with the times, it can also add to stress and the potential for drying up right at the most inopportune moment.

Writing on the day a post needs to go out adds to risk. What if your connection goes down, your computer breaks or you come down with a bug? Also if like me you write for several places, it actually makes the job harder if you are switching topics. One minute you are writing about PDF to Excel Converters and the next you are writing about increasing conversion rates.

There are other problems too, as Skellie says

• You won’t be able to develop a consistent posting rhythm. Your publish times will vary depending on whether you’re inspired, whether you have writer’s block, or whether you have time to write.
• It’s difficult to be relaxed as you write when you need to publish your post quickly.
• You’ll find yourself forced to publish what is really still a rough draft when your post takes longer than expected and you need to go somewhere, meet someone, or do something.

Now obviously if you are covering news then writing in advance will be impossible without a customized DeLorean or a crystal ball. For the rest of us writing in advance is a case of using the blog topic ideas techniques already mentioned along with planning ahead.

A Simple Editorial Calendar

If you want to plan your blog in advance the obvious technique to use is an editorial calendar. In the publishing world these tools are very common. If you are creating a magazine then the lead times tend to be weeks and weeks, it’s just not practical to write such a publication then print it right away. You need to know what you are going to need and when. They also help advertisers know when the best time to book ads to coincide with the content. I first heard about these being used in blogging from Raj who used to be a magazine editor, amongst other talents. I have just found wrote a great article about the concept.

While I am using Excel, you can just as easily use a diary, calendar or Google Docs. The nice thing about using spreadsheets is you have flexibility for if you need to include multiple blogs into one page, plus it is very easy using date formulas to make it work out the calendar for you.

As in the simple Google Docs example, you can start just by listing days and then filling in what you will write about on each day. After that you can proceed to organize months and seasons. Depending on your niche you might want to consider national and world holidays, plus the summer slump. These can factor in where you plan downtime, maintenance, slow news days or can be fuel for topic ideas.

Task Days

One change I have immediately implemented is I now have Mondays clear to do writing and little else. This came about because I had a large writing project to complete which required hours of dedicated time. After the project is delivered I will be able to use my Writing Mondays to get ahead in article writing.

A similar idea could be used for other blogging tasks, such as dedicating a block of time to do research, commenting, promotion, social networking, etc. Once you start to get ahead you will have more time to brainstorm ideas etc, time that otherwise would be spent trying to force the gray cells into giving up some inspiration

Writing on Mondays works for me as it fits into my natural rythm. Try to be aware of which days and hours you feel most chatty and sociable, or when you are all work, or which times you just like to take off. You might find on Friday afternoons you are thinking about the weekend so don’t want to do hard graft, while Wednesday PM you are getting into a groove and can take on the world so that is the best time to give yourself gnarly challenges.

Theme Days

Some people like to have particular content appear on certain days, so one day will be a link roundup, another will be a weekly interview spot, etc. While I am told it helps some people come up with content, I am not sure it would work for me. It might be worth a try though.

Another idea is to write for a different category every day. This helps both topic idea generation and also keep a wide cross section of your audience happier. I know I get feedback very often from people saying “why don’t you write about XYZ any longer?”.

These theme days can be written into your editorial calendar so you know in advance that Friday 4th January 2008 will be about “Herding Kittens”.

Schedule Your Linkbait

I usually advise for people to plan ahead for big linkbait campaigns and not have too many too bunched together. It’s far more effective to have a “Digg of the week” (or month) than try for three in as many days, and far less likely to see your site penalized or your audience annoyed.

If you find content getting traction by accident then you can also push your potential linkbait back and let the current exposure run its course.

Looking Back

We can’t travel into the future but we can record the past. An editorial calendar works both as a planning tool and as a way to record interesting factoids as you go along. Which days and months did you see traffic spikes and dips? What topics worked at certain times of the year? What day of the week is best for news and which is best for discussion?

Up to now I have used my memory, which isn’t the most reliable method, but once I have done a full year working with an editorial calendar I will have an actual record.

Those who neglect to remember the past are doomed to repeat it! I think the phrase goes something like that anyway.

Gather Material and Note it Down

As you go along you will have ideas for posts, moments of inspiration. While you could try to remember, or jot down in a notebook, your editorial calendar is a good place to put these ideas. Just place a headline on an appropriate date.

Looking over your partially completed calendar might also give you ideas, as you will more easily see patterns or see where you have left gaps in content as well as days. For example you might see that you have two or three ideas on a theme, could you make it into a series with a beginning, middle and end?

Writing in advance also gives you the opportunity to follow-on related thoughts. As I said above, if you are switching and changing topics or trying to force ideas to come, you are less likely to get into a flow. On the other hand when I have been writing longer documents, books and series posts for example, I have found I am more likely to think of several relateed things to write about rather than single solitary ideas springing up.

Summary

This is not about being anal or removing all spontaneity, you can still post as the muse grabs you. The idea here is to

• Plan ahead
• Have a safety net for when things go wrong
• Get into a routine
• Give yourself head space
• Allow yourself freedom when you need it
• Take some stress off
• End up with a better blog

What do you think? Could this work for you? Do you do these things already? Got any post planning tips and links to share? You know what to do, please post your comments

Mind Maps are a useful technique to learn for brainstorming, note taking, in fact any time you want to get thoughts down on paper. To show you how to use them I have created my first ever full length video/sketchcast.

Man did I find this difficult, it is a lot harder than I thought to create a video. Hopefully you can get some value out of it despite my “ums and ahs”!

Click To Play

Often when I talk to companies about blogging they tell me while other companies might have a wealth of things to write about, their company would probably struggle to write more than a few posts before seizing up. It normally takes me coming up with ten or so topic ideas for me to convince them otherwise. How do I perform this seemingly magical feat?

The technique I use, amongst others, is one I call “Reverse Process Discovery”. That’s a fancy name for something that is actually quite simple and one that almost any company can do.

It’s an idea based on the fact that if you are in business there is stuff you do that you are good at. Other people might like to get good at that too, or know why you are good at a particular thing. Sometimes it is your quality procedures and high standards that set you apart and give you a premium placing, why not brag about how you do things?

What I do is take the processes and reverse them. For Amazon for example they are really good at getting a choice of thousands of products to your door. How does it get to your door? We work back from the end point or deliverable and work out what has to happen at each step. In the Amazon example it would work all the way back to warehousing, computer systems, etc.

Discovery comes into play when you think about the sorts of things you do and discover lots of things you can talk about along the way. Just listing your processes is not enough, you have to turn them into blog post topics. At each stage you have to be aware of what makes this particular point or task different/better/remarkable/newsworthy. In Amazons case it is the sheer scale, the quantity of data and product, their massive popularity. For you it could be the other end of the scale, your personal approach and individual service, etc.

I use this technique on this blog. For example I can think of a particular client project. How did we make their site popular? If we go back in time at each step we can see the progression from success through to the initial consulting. Stating facts generates questions if you put yourself into a curious state of mind. At each stage we can look at ideas for what to write about:

• Thousands of happy subscribers - How did they get the subscribers? What makes them happy? How do we know they are happy? Is thousands important? Would it have been a success had this not happened? What does success mean in this case? How do you work out what success means for you?
• Front page Digg stories - How did we get to the front page of Digg? How do we think of ideas that would work? Does Digg create success? What happens when you get to the front page of Digg?
• Regular posting schedule - Is a regular posting schedule important? How do we maintain that schedule? Does the client post or outsource? What are the factors required to decide?
• Spread of blog categories - How do we choose categories? How many categories is too many? What do you call your categories? Do categories help in SEO?
• Concept for the blog - How do you decide a blog concept? Should you decide a concept or allow it to evolve? How do you communicate this concept? How do companies decide when they disagree internally?
• Convincing client to blog - When I think a blog is a good idea, how do I convince a client to blog? When would I recommend not blogging?
• Client approaches me - What makes a client approach me? How do I find clients? Do blogs help me in marketing?

As you can see, from a relatively short list of events in one project I can come up with enough topics to keep this blog going for quite a while!

Have a good think about the activities and events in your own routine, what can you find that gets results, sets you apart, or might be interesting then drill right down. Think from the point of view of a curious prospect and you might be surprised how many topic ideas you can think of!

Being stuck for a blog post topic isn’t always a case of sitting down and your brain going blank. That was the problem we hopefully had solutions for in the previous post of this series.

There are times when you know in advance the overall subject you need to cover but somehow you still need to actually write the individual articles.

Consider the situation where you start a new blog, or get invited to write for a blog. You get given the niche, such as “photography”, “gardening”, “tech”. The problem is scale; how do you find a focused and interesting article topic out of the entire field?

The strategies to use in this circumstance overlap somewhat and are complimentary too. For this post let’s take a look at “chunking and outlining”. This strategy is ideal for when you have a starting point, a country-sized subject to explore.

Chunking for Blog Topic Ideas

“How do you eat an elephant?”. Of course the answer is “One bite at a time”. It’s a cliché but it’s used so much because it works.

Your problem here is the subject is too big, it is hard to find an entry point. The trick is to break it up into pieces. Start looking for the chunks, look for places you can break the big subject into smaller ones. Some ideas for where to start:

1. Are there obvious chunks? - Many topics have chunks you can think of right away, for example photography you might talk about equipment and technique as two chunks, in SEO you might talk about on-site and off-site tactics, gardening has seasons, etc.
2. Are there difficulty or complexity levels? - I often find that any subject I am asked to write about has beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, these can be chunks too.
3. Are there chronological chunks? - Some subjects have a beginning, middle and end, or are categorized by time. Think how people often try to place things into eras, like Web1.0 and Web2.0, or comics “Golden Age”, etc. What is the “history” of your subject?

Already you might have material to start writing! “The history of _____” or “The 10 Types of ____” etc make worthwhile articles before we even get into the detail of the subject.

Once you have big chunks you need to start chunking the chunks. You stop when you either have sufficient material to work with or have each chunk down to the atomic level and can go no further.

The way I go from “big blob” to “atomic detail” is to use an outline.

Outlining for Blog Topics

Outlines are something I learned for writing books and large reports. Essentially it is chunking in bullet form. You can of course like most things complicate it further, and there are even software packages and an XML format especially for outlines, but for the sake of this discussion just think of it as nested bullets.

When you look at a books content page we have chapter titles then under that you might see subheadings. That’s pretty much what an outline is.

Taking photography as a subject, we would start to outline it using nested bullets like so:

• Photography
  • Techniques
  • Equipment
    • Lenses
    • Lighting
    • Cameras
      • Digital
        • Point and shoot cameras
        • DSLR cameras

Keep drilling down, going up and down the list to find more places where you can branch off, re-categorize items, and generally expand as best you can. When you have exhausted your ideas then look over the list for inspiration.

If I looked at my list now I could take the last point and further break that down into directly applicable topics:

• DSLR cameras
  • What is a DSLR?
  • Choosing a DSLR
  • Most-needed DSLR features
  • Finding a DSLR for under $500
  • DSLR maintenance

As well as finding topic ideas, this technique is also ideal for finding your categories. I have not only written books this way but started whole blogs using the same technique.

Summary

Although very effective, this technique works best when you are already knowledgable and comfortable with your subject area. It’s all about organizing knowledge you know you have. In the next part of this series we will look at more open and creative techniques for when you don’t know what you know until you see it

Do you use chunking and outlines? Is it something you can see yourself trying?

One of the most challenging aspects of blogging is thinking up what to write about. It is something that impacts all of us at one time or another.

While it is true the more you write the better you get at it, you can still sit at the computer one day absolutely blank. When that happens it is good to have some strategies for generating new blog topic ideas and fast.

In this post I will cover some of the quick-fix inspiration triggers for when you are in a fix here and now. In future posts I will go into detail with some longer term strategies for generating ideas to store and use over time.

Before I share some tips, I do have to remind you that unless you are under contract to write today, it could be best to miss a day rather than turn out something less than you are capable of. Just saying!

Quick Fix Blog Topic Triggers

I call these triggers because rather than handing a fully formed idea they are meant as inspiration-starting sparks. Think of them as launch buttons for your imagination. You still have to come up with the topic, but you can be brought closer to forming the topic by making the appropriate connections between the trigger and your blog theme.

1. Explore blog post types - There are many lists of types of blog posts around, here is my “10 Killer Post Ideas” Performancing article from 2005. Since I wrote it quite a few people have expanded the list but I maintain the core list is those 10 types and most new post types are simply variations of those themes.
2. Look to the magazine rack - Take a magazine or TV headline and make it work for your blog niche as Brian recommends. For example yesterday I saw an advertisement for an upcoming TV show detailing the best and worst of 2007 and used it as the inspiration for a blog post at Invesp.
3. Add to blog conversations - One of the great things about blogging is you can use other blogs as inspiration for article ideas. While not all blogs are well suited to doing this too often, readers can and do respond well to a good blog conversation. A good indication that you have something that could be made into a post is if you find your blog comment going into multiple points and paragraphs. Go through your feeds and see what sparks your interest.
4. Converse with yourself - Once you have a good archive you can dig through your older posts to find inspiration. In many cases you will have skimmed over a subject, alluded to something you can cover more deeply, or even perhaps changed your mind. The end of the year is a good time to refer back, perhaps with a best-of for the year. As time goes on this becomes an ever more rich source of material.
5. Joys and frustrations - What in your niche is making you happy? sad? angry? frustrated? laugh? Emotions are a good starting point, if something makes you feel then there is a good chance your readers will too and that can create a good connection.
6. Your readers questions - Some of my best articles have come from reader questions. They work well because if one reader wants to know a particular answer you can guess many more do too. If you can’t find anything useful in your own comment area or inbox, go look at another bloggers comments or a forum.
7. Picture a person - I mentioned this technique before when I wrote about how to think up ideas for guest posts. Say you write a photography blog, if you bumped into a friend who also likes photography, what would you talk about? For each blog I write on I have created an imaginary conversation partner or recalled a real person who would be interested in the blogs subject matter. You might imagine giving this person advice, discuss the latest news, or laugh about that funny thing someone did. When I sit down to write I pick up the imagined conversation where I last left it. It works because you rarely run out of things to talk about with your good friends.
8. Phone a friend - You don’t have to always imagine a character to converse with. If you have had the foresight to make friends in your niche you could always just call and talk to one of them.
9. Create a new category - At first this advice might seem bizarre, if you are having trouble thinking of topics for your existing categories how will a new one not just add to your workload? In fact coming up with a new category gets you thinking about related subject areas within your niche which in turn could reveal article topics you have not covered previously.
10. Begin again - If you started over in your niche today, what would you need to know? What would you do differently? Where would you look for information and guidance? Write advice or an explanation for an absolute beginner to your niche or a facet of your blogs theme. It can be amazing how popular even the most basic advice can be. It still takes me by surprise how popular Darren’s article on how to hold a camera was. The great thing about this tactic is, your final article does not have to turn out as only useful to beginners, it could lead you to more advanced topics.

Hopefully if you refer back to this list something will get you moving towards a fresh article. Unfreezing the gray cells is half the battle, once you get some traction you can build momentum and have the finished piece written in no time.

In future posts I will outline some strategies I use for preventing getting to this “no ideas” point in the first place!

Got any other instant-inspiration-starters? Please do share your tips and links in the comments …

Do your readers have a clear idea of where you stand? Does any philosophy or approach come through your writing?

Making your blog opinionated could be a way you can make your blog stand out and gather an audience.

Gather Your Community Around an Idea

Consider what a community is. Would you agree that a community is a group of people unified by having something in common? What if that “something” was an approach, an idea or a philosophy?

When I launched this blog I outlined a key part of my philosophy in my free ebook. I also defined what I call Authority Blogging, that is blogging your expertise and experience in order to grow your profile, credibility, audience loyalty and trust.

BoingBoing seems light-hearted and fun, and the posts are rarely what you would call “in depth” but in fact there is a continuing thread taking a stand against DRM, supporting internet freedoms and fair IP laws. Strobist has a philosophy that you do not need to spend thousands and thousands on photographic lighting equipment to light your photographs well. Mark shows how business can make profit without losing heart. One of the successes I believe with Threadwatch was the humorously anti-establishment stance, the cynical view of the major search engines and the suspicion of the concepts of white hat vs black hat.

I am sure you can think of more examples.

From Consumer to Advocate

We see it in all kinds of brand allegiance, from music fans to sports team supporters. When a member of a group becomes exposed to certain messages over time, understands, considers and agrees with them, they integrate them into their own working models of the world.

The ideas become less provider to consumer and more part of a shared experience. Membership becomes part of their identity and the connection to the blog community becomes stronger and deeper.

While a blog is unlikely to grow the sort of fanatic support of a political ideology, similar psychological factors, such as cognitive dissonance, can come into play.

What do You Stand For?

Step one is to determine what your philosophy, concept or modus operandi is.

• What are you for or against?
• What is your winning strategy?
• How do you think differently?
• What elements do your audience wholeheartedly agree with?
• Is there any common thinking between people who connect with your writing?

Once you have an idea that will work, consider how best to communicate it.

I chose to drip my ideas daily through long blog posts like this one, plus a free ebook. Michael uses podcasts and video. In the SEO world I particularly enjoy SEOMoz “Whiteboard Friday“.

When I talk about this sometimes people become frightened that they have to have all their thinking clearly laid out before they start their blog. Fortunately this is not the case.

While many of my ideas were formulated before launching this blog, they are plastic and not concrete. Your ideas do not need to be completely fixed and set in stone. My Authority Blogger concept is always evolving as I understand what works best. For example there was a time where I dismissed adsense completely while now I can see how it can work in some cases.

You can change and evolve your ideas, take your audience along with your thinking. Providing it does not come with too much of a jolt your audience will go along with you.

Could this work for you? What could be the unifying idea behind your blog?

What have bloggers got as an advantage that other webmasters do not? I would argue “conversation”.

Have a think about which sites you feel a part of, or where you feel a connection to the site and its owners. What are the common elements?

Liz has turned blog conversation into an art form and a key differentiator. As someone once remarked, Liz’s blog is more event than website. It’s 2/3 audience and 1/3 Liz. How many blogs can you think of like that? Few I imagine.

Last night I was talking to Kathryn from the Budget Fashionista. Now, as you can see from my photographs, what I know about fashion could be fit on the head of a pin, but I do really like Kathryn’s blog. Unlike some areas of fashion, that site is not snobby or harsh. What sets it apart from others in the niche is a warm, welcoming, community feel.

Community brings stickiness. When you connect with a blogger you are less likely to abandon the site. This is what I mean by competitive advantage.

Doesn’t this apply to forums? Yes, of course. I would say it applies equally well to my Authority Blogger forum. The combination of blog and forum though is more than the sum of its parts. You have blogger-initiated conversation and user-initiated conversation. There are conversations inter-blog also.

Why is conversation so important? Conversation is engagement.

Never underestimate how significant engagement can be, especially if you are in business. Engagement and interaction brings a feeling of being part of something and a level of investment. The more invested people feel the more committed they become to helping something work. There are powerful psychological factors at play, from reciprocity to simple friendship.

I can’t find the research now but I once read that when giving a presentation, rather than lecture you should speak as if you were having a conversation. This keeps your audience alert as their brain has to keep coming up with their side of the discussion. I believe blogs are the same, if you treat it as a conversation your readers will be more engaged. Would you say that is true?

It has to be the right sort of conversation to really work:

• Welcoming - The first factor is very important. You need to know as a visitor that it is ok to comment. You will see I nearly always ask people to share their thoughts. This gives people “permission” to answer. Imagine arriving late to a party where everyone is in small groups, how nice does it feel when someone calls you over and involves you rather than leaving you hovering around the perimeter?
• Inclusive - As a community grows there are often trends towards in-jokes and private shorthand. You must do what you can to make your conversations inclusive rather that cliquey.
• Authentic - While some people can get short term success by creating controversy, in time the appeal fades and you have to become more and more outrageous. If you are authentic in your opinions you will attract like-minded people and your community will grow more slowly but deeper.
• Sharing - Of course it is not a great idea to expect people to divulge their inner most secrets, but try to encourage some sharing, interests, geography, likes, dislikes, hobbies, as this helps create connections.
• Easy - Remove any barriers to joining in. Do not expect people to jump through hoops. I actually do not find registration too much of a barrier. While it does stop a lot of people from commenting, in fact you will find those people who do register are more invested than those who do not. Don’t go overboard though and expect a full profile, avatar, signature, etc etc before being allowed to join in.
• Sticky - In order to prevent drive-by comments you need to pull people back. This has to be done both in the nature of the conversation, so people come back to see where the discussion went after they left, and through technology, such as emailing replies.
• Responsive - It is vital that the discussion flows, if you see comments arriving on your blog moderate them quickly. Some times I do not get back to my blog soon enough and I can see a great conversation start then sputter to a halt. It amazes me how Liz can handle her events so well.

How would this help a business?

Think of all the positive brand associations that come from identifying with a community. Have you seen how people react when rather than being a product owner their product becomes part of their identity? I am not suggesting your plumbing supplies store might create “fanboys” but you can still bring in elements of community, conversation and mutual assistance.

The brand that succeeds to engage will have both a deeper connection with their audience and a strong barrier to protect from competition.

For any blogger, conversation is a key component in growing your blogs value. Brilliant content combined with a strong community can set you apart. The first step is starting the conversation.

Which blogs and sites do conversation well? Do you know any companies that have managed to develop a community feel? Please do share in the comments (see what I did? )

In my last article on Social Media I said getting more Digg traffic means understanding and appealing to the peculiarities of the Digg audience without alienating your own.

What do Digg users like?

• Pro Apple, Anti-Microsoft
• Pro Open Source, especially Linux, especially Ubuntu
• Anti George Bush, pro Ron Paul
• At least half seem to be Atheist, or at least anti-creationist
• Big on gadgets … iPhone, Wii and Xbox 360, PS3 not so much
• Webmastering, Freelance Design, Programming and Photography
• Anything mentioning Kevin Rose, Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart
• Cheeky/NSFW, especially celebrity NSFW (edited, originally had “Nudity” but “cheeky” is perhaps more appropriate)
• Geek TV and cinema, such as Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Lost, 24, Heroes
• Anti “The Man”, hate DRM, RIAA, Rupert Murdoch/Fox News …

Connect your topic somehow to bashing Fox News, containing celebrity nudity, or top 10 ways X is like a Heroes character and you will get more votes. Basically if it will appeal to a middle class white male teenage/college geek, then you are probably going to do ok!

Rather than just talk about theory, here are a few examples of articles that succeeded.

• Codswallop is the blog of Cogniview, most famous for their PDF to Excel product. They are all about productivity tools and Digg users love to find new software recommendations, so I came up with Top 10 Tools I Can’t Live Without
• Start Cooking is obviously a cooking blog, how did Raj and his team come up with a concept to appeal to Diggers? Food + Games = Top 23 Snacks for All-Night Gaming
• Copyblogger has been on the front page of Digg many times but I think the best successes come when the articles appeal to webmasters, designers and writers of all types, such as Does Telling Someone to “Click Here” Actually Matter?
• There are a lot of Freelancers using Digg, how can you make your topic appeal to them? I did the obvious thing and wrote My Top 5 Biggest Freelancing Mistakes for Freelance Folder

How have you tuned your content to make it appeal to Digg users? Can you think of other topics Digg users like? Let me know in the comments …

I was asked last night how I think up topics for posts when I am writing freelance or guest posts. It can be tricky but I did come up with an analogy that I think works to explain how I deal with it.

Think of each place you post articles to as a different friend. It shouldn’t be too difficult as each blog will have a person or group of people associated with it, and will usually have a distinct audience.

If you are chatting to one friend then go and talk to another then normally you will not talk about exactly the same things. There might be some overlap, they are your friends after all, but if you are anything like me you will have friends with diverse interests. I talk to one group of people about motor sport, and I have my geeky friends and my photography buddies.

So right away if you treat writing venues like you would your friends you can see they each require you to talk about something different.

What about when they topics are similar?

Well like I say above, sometimes subjects overlap but as they do with friends they will not be identical. My motor sport conversations might be about Formula 1, or they could be about speedway or super bikes. With photography I have friends with Nikon while I have a Canon, they might prefer gig photography while I take landscapes and city shots. My geeky friends could be gamers or internet nuts. Even when talking about the internet, are they corporate types or more into the leisure side.

Just think as if you are going to a party where there will be a certain type of crowd. Soon you will be able to imagine what sort of discussion they will enjoy and you can start allowing the ideas to come.

Does this make any sense?

Tags: blogging, writing,advice, tips

A common challenge with writing is putting forth your opinion while knowing you are going to upset, annoy or lose a portion of your audience.

How can you explain your position when you know it is not going to be 100% popular?

Some of the best stand-out articles are when someone actually has an opinion and explains it well. The fact is if you muddle through an argument you are going to lose some of your audience anyway through cloudy writing.

Relax, this is not about stirring up a hornets nest. You can write with a point of view without looking like an ass:

• Have an opinion and explain it clearly.
• Support your arguments.
• Own your words.
• Be polite and empathise with the other side
• Be open to persuasion.

The important thing is to not seek controversy for the sake of attention and to be genuine. Explain things the way you see it and be prepared to be corrected.

Anyone who has stuck with this blog will have seen on occasion my opinions can differ from the popular advice.

• I am not against paid links.
• I think it is better to skip a day than post sucky content.
• I believe blogging is not an easy way to riches.
• I am not convinced great content is all you need.

Each time I post something like that I do lose readers, but I also get a lot of positive feedback too. You can’t please everyone and nor should you try.

There are hundreds of thousands of blogs all looking to capture the same audience as yours, there is room for differing opinions. When someone visits your blog it is to hear what you have to say. If you have an opinion share it with your readers.