One of the amazing things about blogging is that virtually anyone can do it. Unfortunately, one of the drags about blogging is that virtually anyone can do it. Without a doubt the easiest part of blogging is sucking at it.

Fortunately, if you’re reading this, you’re already one step closer to what blogging is all about, success and glory.

Blogging Tips that Keep You From Being Confused With a Blogger that Sucks is a master-level course painstakingly constructed to, not only make you a better blogger, but to make you more attractive to the opposite sex as well as learning how to turn your blog posts into cold, hard cash.

Alright, enough with the introductions, let’s get down to brass tacks. Click after the jump to get started.

Lesson #1

Post with passion. No matter what subject your blog or your post is about there are sure to be innumerable other blogs or posts out there on the same subject. The one thing that separates you from all the others is you. You are the unique ingredient in your writing.

Earlier I started to post a blog entry about YouTube’s announcement that they’ve increased the maximum length of their video uploads to 15 minutes, up from 10.

Fortunately before I hit the “Publish” button I realized I had absolutely no business at all to be publishing a post about that. Sure, I write about tech but the only thing I use YouTube for is publishing 30 second long videos of my daughter.

Granted, YouTube increasing its maximum upload length by fifty percent is pretty big news, but really what else is there to say that hasn’t already been said?

There’s nothing wrong with posting content that you know is already being covered, that being said, keep in mind what makes the content interesting to your readers. Your perspective. Don’t just tell your readers that YouTube has increased its maximum upload, tell them why that is good news for them. Tell them how you plan on taking advantage of it and what it means for the industry.

For me, the YouTube story is a perfect example, because there really isn’t too much to say about it. If your readers can’t figure out the benefits of uploading 15 minutes of video as opposed to 10 minutes of videos then original content probably isn’t your biggest concern. Your biggest concern would be why your content is attracting people that are so dumb.

Summary

Don’t just go around the internet and grabbing every headline you see just to throw content onto your blog. Trust me, no one is going to come to your blog and be blown away by the fact that you jumped on that 15 Minutes of YouTube train.

A great goal to aim for is to be aware of your content and work toward giving your readers something they can’t find anywhere else. You.

• Zen and the Art of Blogging or: How I learned to Stop Wasting Money and Love the Blog (pt. 1)
• Zen and the Art of Blogging: Hosted vs. Self-Hosted – Where to Begin
• I’m not a businessman, I’m a…Renaissance man

Strictly defined, a Renaissance man is “a man who has broad intellectual interests and is accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences”.

I am very passionate about social media, gadgets, Google, WordPress, tips and strategy etc and the posts here are a reflection of that. I can talk for days about strategy, how to leverage your brand and the latest iPhone app, but I wonder… do I have to limit myself to just those topics or can I also discuss other interests, such as social issues, politics and what’s happening in the world at large.  Are American politics and ideals so polarizing that there isn’t room for a Renaissance man, for lack of a better word, in blogging?

I’d like to be clear that the intent of this post is not to blow my own horn or “market” myself, I’m simply trying to answer the question of whether there is room for personal idealism and social commentary  alongside strategy and gadget talk — or do I risk alienating readers from either audience?

This is one of the things I often struggle with and something every blogger, at some point, must answer for themselves. What content should make it into my blog? The fear of course is that you risk diluting your content, and as a result, your readers, by not having a hyper-focused niche blog. The reward however, is that you have a robust, multi-faceted snapshot of not only your interests and passions but of the social and political climate at the time as well.

I spent much of my early adult life in the arts. In college my major was theater and I eventually transferred to an acting conservatory. That world is, for the most part, completely behind me but it is what helped shape much of who I am. More than wanting to be an actor, I was on a journey to study what made people tick. Little did I know that my early journey to learn the Method, to figure out how to use emotion to convey the words of a playwright would play such a significant role in such an incongruous field.

Part of what makes me successful as a strategist and a blogger is a very real understanding of human behavior and the effect of tangible emotion on an audience. The fact that I now make my living producing and developing social media strategies, problem solving and coding seems like it could be a separate world, but the reality is that there are many aspects that overlap. If all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players, then social media is an even more intimate stage, and all the men and women are actually writing the play as they go.

And that’s me… Renaissance Man… writing my own play as I go. Enjoy the show.

• Social Media Statistics and ROI
• The Social Media Briefcase
• Blogging Tips that Keep You From Being Confused With a Blogger that Sucks: Lesson #1