Writers Unbound

From Steve Pavlina’s post: Ask Steve - Blogging Questions.

Imagine yourself on a stage before an audience of a million people. You have the mic for as long as you want. What would you say? Would you start spouting marketing gobbledegook? Maybe if you want to get boo’ed off the stage. Would you blab on about what you had for breakfast this morning? Zzzzzzz. Figure out what you’d say to that audience (for real), and you’ll know what to blog about. Then go do it!

From Yaro Starack’s post: Pillar Article - How To Write Great Blog Content.

Write at least five major “pillar” articles. A pillar article is usually a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good “how-to” lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.

From Darren Rowse’s post: Writing Good Content.

My advice to new bloggers trying to break into a topic where others are already blogging is to take a surf through the other blogs and websites in your niche and do some analysis upon what sort of content that they are producing. In most niches you’ll find that sites are all presenting very similar information in pretty much the same voice, tone and style. As a new blogger on the topic you have a choice - you can either replicate what they are doing and try to do it better (difficult as they will already have loyal readers and unless you’re brilliant at it you’re unlikely to convert these readers over to you) OR you can distinguish yourself in someway from what others are doing.

From Leo Babauta’s post: What Makes Great Blogwriting?

The difference between blogwriting and other forms of writing lies in the audience, and the closeness of the blogger to his readers. Unlike other similar forms of writing, such as the op-ed column, magazine writing and the like, blogwriting is intensely close to the audience….If you try to write without personality, if you try to remove yourself from your writing, it will be dry and not a bit boring. I don’t advise it.

What’s your best blogging advice on writing great content?