I came across an article in the online San Francisco Chronicle titled 20 habits of highly effective job seekers.  This was written based on Ford Myers stuff… I have met Ford a few times at conferences and we’ve communicated outside of that.  Nice guy.

I didn’t read his article (too long for my attention span), but I skimmed it to see if he mentioned JibberJobber again (that would have been cool!).  He didn’t

I was interested in the 60+ comments the article got, though… they were… scathing!  Hardly anything good from those comments!  From accusations of being self-serving to “utter twaddle,” from BS to ”worst article I ever read in my life…”

I’ve felt for a long time that getting comments from a newpaper article compared to comments on a blog is night and day… I don’t know who is reading and commenting on the regular articles but if you read it too long you’ll lose all faith in humanity.  These people are mean, and cruel, and unforgiving.

And, they can provide an opportunity for growth as a blogger.

From the feedback I see in Ford’s article I see a grand opportunity to tighten the writing and message.  Instead of 20 points, how about go with Covey’s example and do 7 habits?

Instead of calling these “strategies,” maybe they should be called mindsets (many have to do with attitude), or tactics?

How about drilling down on some of them and going into more depth, instead of just presenting them at a high level?

As blogs become more commonplace, and bloggers get their material in more traditional media, you better:

1. Be ready for scathing, hateful, unintelligent comments and feedback (and a few nasty stalkers),
2. Figure out how to improve the quality of your writing (grammar, spelling, word choice, etc.),
3. Ensure the message is high quality,
4. Figure out how to not be self-promotional… or not overdo it.

What do you think?  Do bloggers need to step up (especially when not writing on their own blog)?

My heavens, every time I hear this I cringe.

“I wrote a blog…”

No, you didn’t, you newbie!  You wrote a BLOG POST.

You don’t write an envelope, do you?  NO.  You write a letter.

“Hold on, I’m writing an envelope to grandma!”

Get it?

Blog vs. blog post.

If you blog, learn the difference.

(now, someone find me a ladder so I can get off the soapbox :p)

There are probably a million ideas on how to write, and how to write a blog post, and how to write a freaking awesome blog post.

I’ll share just one… since it’s on my mind. I don’t remember where I heard this but it made a ton of sense to me.  Before I share it I want to say why I think it is brilliant.

One reason I write is to develop a community. One measure of community is the discussion.  A way to gauge the discussion is by the comments.  A “comments” metric is “Number of comments.”

I think blogs that have comments show they have (a) readers and (b) a community.

So, how do you write a blog post that gets comments (perhaps that should have been the title of this post, which really should become a series)?

WRITE ONLY 80% OF THE POST.

Let your readers finish the other 20% in the comments.

Think about that – if you write enough of the post, but leave it open for discussion, as opposed to making a super-tight conclusion, you don’t give your readers much to comment about.

When I heard this I thought it was absolutely brilliant.  It takes skill to write that 80% and not sound aloof… and I think by nature we want to complete things, but if you want to generate discussion and create community, make sure you don’t say all that should be said.

I’m wrapping it up here – tell me in the comments what YOU think a FREAKING AWESOME blog post entails