How to Write Your First Blog
You have a unique perspective. Why not share it?
3 Reasons to Have a Personal Blog
1. Articulate your Thoughts
Read this sentence:
When you write a school paper that has a minimum word limit you might be tempted to add any and every word that, while in theory adds to the essay, in reality actually adds a very small amount of value.
Did you read it all? It was difficult to digest.
Now read this one:
Papers with minimum word limits encourage the addition of unnecessary words.
Same idea with half the words. Our brains like to ramble, but more is not better. Blogging helps you recognize how confusing writing can be. Delete everything that doesn’t add value. Stylistic additions are the only exception. Don’t worry about writing perfectly the first time. Get your thoughts down and edit, edit, edit.
2. Keep your Network Up to Date
Most people don’t have time to seek out what you’re up to. You have to go to them. Posting blogs, even occasionally, put’s you back in your networks feed. You never know who might see your post. A job opportunity or even a friendship could be created. You won’t know if you don’t post. Posting once a month puts you in the top 5% of people in your feed. Use this to your advantage and become the girl/guy that people associate with creating content.
3. Share Past Experiences/Knowledge
Writing is one of the best ways to convey a cool experience at scale. Maybe you started a business, led a cool project, or saw a movie your network would appreciate. Having a couple sentences in your LinkedIn profile is fine, but this assumes that people are actively reading your profile. If you want to cement the fact that you were the top fundraiser for your sorority’s charity drive, this is where you can do it. Even better, share tips on how you raised all that money. Your entire network can benefit from your strategies.
After reading your blog, that information is stored in your readers mind. I recently met someone who didn’t remember my name but remembered something I wrote… I suppose that’s a win 🙂 (we’re friends now)
What should I write about?
If you’re in college or early in your career, you might not have much technical knowledge to share. That’s ok! Write about what you know. You have a different perspective than anyone else in the world. If you don’t share it, no one will ever know. I’ve organized a list of possible blog topics. It’s best to tie in a life lesson or have a purpose beyond a recap. Some topics are more likely to get shared than others, but above all write about what interests you.
Possible topics:
- Travels
- Study Abroad Experience
- Reason you decided to travel some where
- Recommendations on things to do in your favorite travel destination
2. Internships
- Why you chose to work at XYZ Company
- Expectations going in vs. how the internship turned out
- Fun/Hard experience you had during your internship
- Boss or Coworker who had a great impact on you
3. Club experiences
- Why you joined XYW Club
- The story of founding ASDF Club
- Influential moments in a school club
- Project you led
4. An interesting class or professor
- What you liked about him/her
- What what different from other classes or professors
- Survival tips
5. A life experience
- Pretty much anything 🙂
6. Thoughts about the industry
- Why XYZ industry will be the next big thing
- Which stock will outperform the market and why
- Why ZYX marketing tactic is a waste of money
How can I get started?
Don’t talk about it, do it!
Action steps:
- Sign up for Medium. It’s the easiest way to get started. Later you might want to consider a personal website but don’t let that be a barrier to starting.
- Pick something interesting and start writing. I like telling stories of things I’ve done but you can write to make a point if that’s of interest to you.
- Reach out to me! I’ll help with any brainstorming or editing that you need.
- Hit publish! This can be the hardest part. It can be scary releasing a piece into the wild. But you’d be surprised at how much support you’ll receive.
This post originally appeared on my personal blog: https://www.soygrayson.com/blog/how-to-write-your-first-blog
