Drop-Dead Blogging for Business

"Use 'hopefully' the way you use a gun.  If you don’t know how to handle it, leave it alone,” advises James W. Smith, Jr. of Writer’s Digest.  You wouldn’t say “Hopefully, you will die,”, he adds, even when you mean “It is hoped you will die”.  

Better to say “I hope you die,” says Smith. As I teach new blog content writers, using first person and second person pronouns adds power and personality to your blog. I teach Indianapolis blog writers they’ll be at their most effective when they are at their most personal. Even professional ghost bloggers, I explain, can write in “I” format when sharing a personal experience that brings out some important aspect of the client company’s products, services, or corporate culture.

But even “I hope you die” pales next to “Drop dead”, adds Smith. One rule that is of particular business blogging help is keeping sentences short. Short sentences have what I call “pow!” Not only can short sentences, particularly in titles, be more easily shared on social media sites, but focused content keeps readers’ attention on the message.

Brandon Royal, author of the Little Red Writing Book, calls really short sentences “naked”.  It’s not that he recommends making every sentence short (which would create a choppy style, he admits), but that short sentences add a dynamic touch to your writing.

Another way to achieve greater “pow”, according to James Smith, is to cut down on the adverbs. “Use stronger verbs,” he explains, “and you’ll find you don’t need the help of adverbs. That’s a great tip for bloggers. While it may be the keyword phrases in the title that start the job of getting your blog found, once the online visitor has actually landed, it takes a great opener to fan the flicker of interest into a flame. The shorter, more direct, and more personal that opener is, the more “flaming” is likely to happen.

Drop-dead sentences stand out in blog content writing!