Let's talk about foundation aly what what you need to get together and having your head before you ever start writing ah lot of times when people say ask me where do I begin? Where do I start writing it's actually take a step back there are some foundational things you have to know and have in place for you could never really be a great blogger so I wouldn't recommend just diving right into blogging and some of what we'll get two is understanding the audience and who you want to connect with before you ever put pen to paper as it were ah thousand hours behind every great story apple has a great slogan that for every there's a million noes to every yes on every product they come out with and they've done a pretty good job of onley picking the best products to unveil and so behind every block post is it's quite a lot of thought that goes into it and you nicks a lot of things and a lot of practice before anything ever gets published so when I began I really didn't have a frame of referenc...

e on why my writing was poor why it was okay and in that five hour edit process I mentioned there was a lot of hair pulling on my editor is changing this and I'm perfectly happy with this I don't understand why this needs to be changed and it was sometimes very subtle things I was I was writing about phones and gadgets at the time, and I would say something about a phone and he would say no, that's, the angle is a little off on that you got to remember two years ago, such and such happened, and you're not really bringing that into the forefront of the story, and so I was often times writing in a vacuum and not really considering what was happening. So one of these air questions, these first two you really should tape to your monitor before you even begin and that's, what are you interested in and what is your brand or business? And the reason why I think these air so important? Is it's really hard to block about something you aren't interested in or you have no stake in where you have no real opinion on or background on? Um, I know, and particularly in university will get assigned papers in courses that we don't really love, maybe a chemistry paper we have to write this thing it's probably not going to be your best writing, so when it comes to blogging and meaningfully riding on the web, try to find something you're interested in or at least if it's on the marketing side of it it's a it's, a business urine so you at least have to be passionate about making that business successful. One thing I recommend is to read before riding, and I know that sounds a little bit counterintuitive it's, like shouldn't start writing and then read mohr and it'll build in, but I want to give an example here. Warren buffett so this man he's a billionaire he's, the man behind berkshire hathaway he's done a few things right? And one thing he does every day as he tries to read six hours, which is just mind blowing to think of all the things he has to deal with on a daily basis and still somehow tries to find time to read six hours a day. Now you don't have to read six hours a day. I don't want anybody just walking out, storming out! It doesn't require youto to read six hours a day, but the purpose of showing this is it forces you to learn, the more you read good authors, the more you are likely to absorb some of the tricks of the trade that they use on dh. And the good news here is you're able to choose what you read. So when when you, uh, when you're looking for what kind of reading list do I build up? So it all comes down to what are you passionate about? What are you going to be writing about? So in my world I was writing about technology and so there's ah really handy site tech mean where they rank a lot of great technology authors by their reliability and credibility and things like that and these rankings actually exist in quite a few genres on the web and so wherever it is if you just search for great authors in marketing or great authors and cooking if that's your niece you'll probably find a list somewhere where someone is curated a list of great authors you don't have to start from ground zero unless you want to and then build up a reading list maybe you email this list of authors you subscribe to their rs s feed you subscribe to their sights you get their email newsletters just start reading what they write and really pay attention to the technicalities of the writing on dh figure out what you like what you don't like and start jotting these things down I mean it sounds really minute now but if you learn something small every day over the course of weeks and months you build up your vocabulary and you build up your arsenal of things that you can use the key here at the bottom and when you're reading a site ask yourself are you likely to return when you hear the word traffic and content and how do we drive traffic somewhere that's sort of a vague term that kind of gets lost like what exactly is traffic and what exactly is the goal to me, it really boils down to are you likely to return? So if there's a site that you visit weekly or daily, even you're returning because you like what you found there, and on the other end of that, they love that because you are the traffic, and so you have to put if you're if you're the one creating the content, think about is this what I'm what I'm publishing? Is this something? When someone reads it, they're going to say, I've got a return, I've got to come back either tomorrow or the next day or the next week that is traffic, and if you can convince somebody to return, you will slowly but surely begin to generate traffic. So let's, talk about strong habits, that's the foundation I want to talk about what kind of habits that you need to develop going forward to be a strong writer, I recommend writing daily and publishing occasionally, especially at first. Daly is it's kind of a struggle it's, kind of kind of daunting to wake up every morning and think, you know, before I go to bed, I really need to write a block post its it's one of those things that after three or four weeks it becomes natural, sort of like going to the gym the first three weeks, it's a it's, a real struggle to go to the gym daily, but after you get into it, it kind of feels like second nature, and if you miss a day, you sort of feel it. Writing is the same way practice makes perfect in almost every walk of life and riding included. If you're looking for a specific number, I think three out of seven if you write seven post in a week, try to find three that are really strong really connect that really gets your message out there on then save those other ones because as the as time goes along, maybe you want to go back and revise them, bring them back to the forefront, but as talking and talking with other great writers that I know that do publish their own personal blog's they usually try to write daily, but they'll only published three or four a week because, you know, not every day is you're gonna have your best work, so you don't necessarily have to feel compelled to push that out all the time I won't ask you guys when when were you most productive? Is there a different time like is it early in the morning? Is it late at night? Is it is it a mixture? Is there a certain certain time that works better for you guys sweet spot is between eleven a m and two pm okay mi tio that's that's very good to hear I'm not not not allowed any morning people yeah, a morning person are you okay? Very good you're our special breed you need to hold on that's that's gonna you're gonna do you're gonna do just fine uh I say that because you're great bloggers really find their zone writing is a is a it's a very creative enterprise and it's not the kind of thing that you could really do well under duress unless you're in that trailer with fifty other people that are under the same pressure as you are. But I digress. Finding your zone is really important if there's a time like you said we're most productive you're just most mentally engaged try to fit your block post into that day into that time every day it will most likely be better, but I'd also encourage you to be ready to write anywhere on anything so if if something strikes you, you just have a great idea if you're running a small business and you think this would be an amazing promotion, maybe you see a banner in the airport you think I could do a better job of that. I should write something about that. You know, pull out your phone, pull out, and put a pull out a notebook. Get something down on paper, because even one to two sentences in the moment can be turned into one to two paragraphs a few hours later. But if you just let it go, it's pretty hard to just conjure that up. So wherever you can find inspiration, be sure to get on it while while you're thinking about it.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with RSVP

Recommended Blogs and Authors

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Sample Style Guide

Darren Murph

Darren Murph is a Guinness World Record®-holding journalist, author and consultant, having covered the untamed world of technology for nearly a decade. He's driven a motorized vehicle in all 50 U.S. states, and is probably on an airplane to anywhere at this very moment.

SEE INSTRUCTOR'S CLASSES

topics covered in this class

Business Basics Communication Skills

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student

I have been blogging for more than 20 years. I started out with personal blogs then eventually shifted into blogging and other forms of content creation professionally (part time) in the areas of fitness, nutrition, and wellness while I also train and teach classes. I took this course because I've been contemplating make this my full time work. This was a great review of some blogging basics AND I learned a few new tips and tricks that I plan to implement right away. I particularly enjoyed the discussion about LinkedIn blogging. What a great way to add portfolio pieces that can be viewed by potential clients/employers! Great class! I highly recommend it!r

Tom Jamieson

As a new writer, I found this fantastic. Darren was a pleasure to listen to and I would happily recommend this to anyone who is starting out writing for the first time in regards to a small business blog, which is the area that I am coming from. He probably has taught me to use fewer words, but that can wait until tomorrow. Great class Darren

a Creativelive Student

I thought this was a good course on writing effective blog posts. It didn't seem to be too focused on driving traffic, however, his way of presenting his thoughts and tips were easy to watch in a single shot. Great course for non-writers who are trying to become writers!

2,000+ classes ranging from fundamentals to advanced techniques.

The Blogging Training Process

The Blogging Training Process

Lesson Info

2. The Blogging Training Process

Lessons

Class Introduction