Well, we all want to sound smarter than we are, right? When we are writing, we do that more often. I am stupid enough to try that too, and it feels wrong.
I always had a story to tell you and wanted a platform to write and improve my writing without restrictions.
That was the primary goal of this blog.
Making money or becoming a full-time blogger was not my intention, and I did not want to prove to people that I knew things and that I’m smarter than they thought.
But, the problem is, now I feel like I’m doing what I have never wanted to do.
So, I think it is time to rethink why I started this blog, what I have done and what I’m doing right now.
Probably, you should do the same for your blog.
SEO and content
Content is King. SEO is everything. Everybody has been talking about content and SEO for years. Perhaps it is true.
From the day I decided to focus only on SEO-friendly content, my desire for writing started to fade. My goal changed from writing a lot to bringing my blog to Google’s first page.
I succeeded with one keyword, “Best Freelancer” though.
I learned a lot about SEO, content marketing, affiliate marketing, Wordpress, blogging, etc. That is 100% true.
But, I couldn’t focus enough on my writing; instead, I focused on doing thorough research on topics and some other things, such as,
- Writing SEO-friendly posts
- Counting words (1500+ words)
- Blog analytics (how many views every day)
- How to increase my social media shares
- How to do the affiliate marketing
- Worried too much about grammar (because my grammar is terrible)
- Updating the published articles constantly
- Design of the blog
- Testing new Wordpress plugins
I tried sounding smarter than I am by doing all the above little things, and I failed.
Power of blogging
Blogging is a serious business, and it is pretty amazing. I’m not underestimating the power of blogging. There are millions of great blogs out there. They inspire people every day and share knowledge.
Please don’t take my words wrong. I do not say that SEO, word count, or blog design are irrelevant. Those things might be significant for pro bloggers/money bloggers, but not me. At least not right now.
I want to fulfill my desire first. I have to become a good writer. To achieve that goal, writing a lot is the only option.
Every great writer is once a beginner like you and me. So, I found what they have followed as beginners. So, If you are an absolute beginner and want to become a smarter blogger, you should set your mind to these three necessary points.
Something worth saying is enough
You may hesitate to write your story because you wonder who would read this.
It does not matter if nobody reads your story. It might be a dumb story. Do not worry. Something worth saying is enough. Write that and hit the publish button right away.
Do not try sounding smarter than you are, and do not try to prove that to anybody. Your story is always good enough.
As a beginner, it is easy to write without thinking about the audience or the quality of the story and what others would think because you probably don’t have an audience.
So, you can write and publish anything you want.
But, when you’ve become a successful blogger, you have to think about your audience and the story all the time and write for them. So, write what you want to write while you have time.
You should not write to generate leads/sales or increase traffic.
You should write for yourself. Traffic and sales are the byproducts of your constant practice of storytelling.
Be yourself
This is the hardest part of writing for me. I’m still struggling to find my inner voice and real me.
If you try sounding smarter than you are, you’ll lose your voice. You have to write like someone else.
When I tried to write like a blogger I follow, I became him. My voice was no longer there.
Being yourself (even if you are not smarter like others) is the only way to survive among the other bloggers. People can find anything they want from big blogs. Why would they come to your blog?
You have to let them know that you write passionately and have a unique voice if you want them to return to your blog.
When you’ve found yourself, you will see that you are smarter than you think and don’t have to be afraid of your voice anymore.
Open for negative feedback
Feedbacks are a gift. Not only positive feedback but negative feedbacks are also important for writers.
Are you ready for negative feedback? Because you certainly get a lot of negative feedback from people around you.
Negative feedbacks are very annoying, especially for beginners to bear. People automatically go into defensive mode and get angry quickly when they get negative feedback.
Please don’t rush to react. First, smile at it. Take your time to process that. Sometimes, you can take a few good things from that and improve your performance and effectiveness.
Yes, I know, we all take things differently. I usually take negative feedback as an opportunity for self-improvement.
If you want to be a good writer, you have to be open to a lot of negative feedback.
Note: Please PIN the image below.
Is this article crap? I do not care because I want to find myself in writing. I want to explore myself and improve my writing skills.
I do not want to sound smarter than I am anymore. I write. Everything else is behind that.
Photo by Thought Catalog
Hey Nirodha
Awesome article. There are some things which do require constant reminders and I think this might be one of them.
No, this article isn’t crap. You have done a great JOB.
Keep up the good work
Would love to read more awesome articles
Hey Bhawana,
Sorry for the delayed response. I really appreciate your comment. It is inspiring and helped me to write more and more.
Thank you very much.
Love you!