I was speaking to a friend who now wants to turn her many talents to blogging. She said ”I’m still wanting to start blogging and have now written 6 pages…and deleted 6 pages. I don’t seem to get it how I want it”.
I am going to show you my unedited response:
“Blogging is an expression from within when it’s done correctly. We remove our critical heads. We turn off our obsession to achieve perfection. We just let the words flow freely from our mind, through our fingers to our keyboard. We then press publish. We are not authors, we are communicators and our blogs provide us with a platform. Be genuine, be direct, be YOU!”
Ok I know many of you are going to be shouting at the screen about spelling, punctuation and yes editing your posts to making sure they’re grammatically correct. Yes that’s important too, but in my mind no way as important as being you, and writing from your heart, using your unique voice.
When we don’t get obsessed with writing the perfect article, creating that pillar post, finding the words that will attract millions of visitors, instead we allow our true beliefs, feelings, emotions and thoughts to come through our words, then blogging becomes not just our freedom of expression but a place where we can really build the brand of who and what we are.
Only when you release your mind and soul, express yourself freely does your blog resonate with an audience. Believe me your readers detect when your whole self has gone into a post. Whether it’s a long consuming post or a short brief one, you still leave your mark, your stamp, and you want this impression to be the right one.
I know when I write at my best I can inspire and motivate others to take action, to believe more in themselves, to trust in the possibilities life has to offer. I am so passionate when I write like this I totally get lost in what I’m doing.
The beauty to me of what I can deliver, particularly at Healthy Lifestyles Living is information that used to only be available to people in the book stores at the crazy high prices that Personal Development books have always cost, now can read for free. That is the wonderful thing that blogging has enabled to happen. People like myself who love our field, can teach others passing information and building a free resource for them through our blogs.
Equally fantastic now is my ability to coach others to write blogs for their own subjects creating awe inspiring content. Genuineness is top of my priority list when I’m teaching blogging.
Using your real voice really will make any blog speak to others. Blogs that are successful shine through with authenticity, sincerity and genuineness.
Authenticity is a critical component of being a successful blogger. Unfortunately, way to many would blog on anything as long as they can make a bit of money. Clearly, this is the wrong way of doing it. You’ll find lots of abandoned badly written unauthentic blogs out there.
So there’s no faking it, blogging is all about being you.
So the key for any blogger is to “find your real voice.” I can’t “define” for you your voice, as it is already defined. It’s pretty inherent to who you are, and I don’t think it is possible to change it to what it ought to be. You can release it by putting in your heart and soul into every thing you write. So I promise each of you that deep within you many wonderful unique songs exist.
You have to find it.
Susan Green a UK Author said:
“Your heart’s voice is your true voice. It is easy to ignore it, for sometimes it says what we’d rather it did not – and it is so hard to risk the things we have. But what life are we living, if we don’t live by our hearts? Not a true one. And the person living it is not the true you.”
I do know how hard it is to write meaningful, effective content day in and day out. It challenges me frequently. I have 3 blogs at the very minimum to write for. What I do know, which confuses many bloggers I speak to, is why I’m writing in the first place. All the writing skill in the world won’t do you any favours if you lose track of why you are writing a blog.
To develop your own unique “voice” you need to start with purpose. The reason behind the writing, or in your case the blogging.
From purpose, passion is born. From passion well the words just come so naturally.
Whichever blog I’m writing on, when I’m at my best, which I admit isn’t always, you get the voice of a coach who loves helping others better themselves in certain areas of their lives. My purpose is to make a difference, to inspire, to motivate, to take others from where they are to where they want to be, even when they’ve forgotten themselves.
Blogging is an incredibly powerful vehicle only when you blog communicating in your true voice.
The moment I realised this was when I suddenly saw a serious rise in the performance of my blog and the business I built around it. It took a wonderful lady I met online, another blogger, Yogasavy to make me see that I wasn’t using my real voice.
She recognized that I was not my real Voice. I wasn’t lying, but I was in a way wearing a ‘ mask. It was my shield. It was quite scary to accept what she was saying, and even harder to be 100% myself every time I wrote. You do feel vulnerable at times. But once I cracked it, the feeling is just so good, and blogging becomes such a pleasure.
Writing with your real voice is the only way to write. So go do it!
Anyway hopefully you’ve learned a little something here today. If you’ve got questions, please drop them in the comments below.
