{"id":1119,"date":"2007-03-06T08:34:37","date_gmt":"2007-03-06T15:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1119"},"modified":"2007-04-12T21:14:19","modified_gmt":"2007-04-13T04:14:19","slug":"weblogging-as-if-it-really-mattered-how-to-write-with-integrity-and-passion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1119\/weblogging-as-if-it-really-mattered-how-to-write-with-integrity-and-passion\/","title":{"rendered":"Weblogging as if it really mattered: How to write with integrity and passion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you know what stinks? The world is acrawl with canned-spam, cookie-cutter, rinse-and-repeat weblogging advice — and people follow it slavishly instead of keeping their own counsel, living their own ideal, following their own star.<\/p>\n

That is: If I read another weblog post on how to write weblog posts, I think I’ll scream. To absolve myself of charges of hypocrisy, in advance, this not<\/i> a post about how to write posts, it’s a post about how to write<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Do you want to know how to write? Here’s the tiniest taste of a first lesson: Start in the middle.<\/p>\n

Not: “This is my report on…”<\/p>\n

Not: “Webster’s defines…”<\/p>\n

Not: “How can I begin to tell you…?”<\/p>\n

Start in the middle, the way you’d start a phone conversation with someone you knew would be calling.<\/p>\n

Like this: “Do you know what stinks?”<\/p>\n

Oh, yes, comforting rules abound, but they are the very same rules you rebel against in every other aspect of your life. You say, “I don’t want<\/i> the cookie-cutter taupe-on-taupe one-size-fits-all same-damn-thing.” And yet you scour the web, looking for sage advice about how to produce weblog posts that will not challenge, will not inspire, will not a<\/i>spire, will not in<\/i>voke, con<\/i>voke or pro<\/i>voke, will not do anything except testify to your perfect ability to master perfectly bad advice.<\/p>\n

If you<\/i> are not interested in what you’re writing, how could you expect anyone else<\/i> to be interested?<\/p>\n

If you<\/i> are convinced (by your own conviction or by having imbibed from too many fonts of false wisdom) that you cannot hope to connect with other people except by resort to EZ-reading tricks — dumbing the entire universe down to the drooling imbecility of the dumbest conceivable specimen — why would you expect anyone to respect and reflect upon your brilliance?<\/p>\n

Good grief!<\/i><\/p>\n

If you are writing to manipulate, follow the rules. They work.<\/p>\n

If you’re writing to sell a product, follow the rules. They work.<\/p>\n

If you’re writing to hide, writing to dissemble, writing to occlude, writing to obfuscate, writing to pull the wool over as many eyes as you can capture — follow the rules. They work.<\/p>\n

But: If you are writing to communicate — make Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you know what stinks? The world is acrawl with canned-spam, cookie-cutter, rinse-and-repeat weblogging advice — and people follow it slavishly instead of keeping their own counsel, living their own ideal, following their own star. That is: If I read another weblog post on how to write weblog posts, I think I’ll scream. To absolve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,5,16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blogging","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","9":"category-weblogging-101","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1559,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1559\/real-estate-weblogging-101-a-how-to-book-in-weblog-form-for-would-be-real-estate-webloggers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1119,"position":0},"title":"Real Estate Weblogging 101: A how-to book-in-weblog-form for would-be real estate webloggers","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In commemoration of the Southwest Real Estate Blogging Conference, BloodhoundBlog today launches Real Estate Weblogging 101, a book-in-weblog-form about weblogging for real estate professionals. The book is built as a WordPress weblog because it seemed foolish to me to write about a deep-linking medium without deep linking. Even so, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":432,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/432\/blogoff-post-55-real-estate-weblogging-write-about-blogging\/","url_meta":{"origin":1119,"position":1},"title":"Blogoff Post #55: Real estate weblogging? Get real . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"More from Seth Godin offers 56 tips on how to get traffic for your weblog. Here are four that I've had enough of:Use lists. Include polls, meters and other eye candy. Do email interviews with the well-known. Be anonymous.Anonymity can be cool if there's a reason for it. If you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2695,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2695\/bloodhound-lit-the-art-science-and-business-of-writing-interesting-and-profitable-real-estate-weblog-posts\/","url_meta":{"origin":1119,"position":2},"title":"Bloodhound Lit: The art, science and business of writing interesting and profitable real estate weblog posts","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"By his good example, Kevin Warmath reminds you to get busy on your BloodhoundBlog Black Pearl Diver\u2019s contest entry. We're about to talk about writing, so let me remind you that I wrote a post on how to write a Black Pearl Diver\u2019s contest entry that advances your interests --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1298,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1298\/real-estate-weblogging-101-our-story-so-far\/","url_meta":{"origin":1119,"position":3},"title":"Real Estate Weblogging 101: Our story so far","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a true fact of weblogging: Sometimes you decide you want to do something that requires you to go back and edit 30 or 40 posts. As an example, imagine that you decided you wanted to add a new category. You would have to go back and re-categorize all the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":384,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/384\/blogoff-post-7-weblog-review-in-the-trenches\/","url_meta":{"origin":1119,"position":4},"title":"Blogoff Post #7: Weblog Review: In the Trenches . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Kevin Boer's In the Trenches weblog is a serious place -- notwithstanding Kevin's creation of a predictive betting market for the Sellsius\u00b0 101 Blogoff. Kevin believes in math, and it shows. His weblog is awash in charts and data, and he doesn't hesitate to create his own metrics where none\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1165,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1165\/perfectibility-in-weblogging-revising-yourself-to-genius\/","url_meta":{"origin":1119,"position":5},"title":"Perfectibility in weblogging: Revising yourself to genius","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I replaced Teri Lussier's photo this morning. I'm talking about the little thumbnail photos you see running down the sidebar. Guys are easy to crop, because our hair is short. But in my original crop of Teri's photo, I left her too much hair -- which left her with way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}