The Sound Of Your Blogging Voice

"To gain your own voice, forget about having it heard. Become a saint of your own province and your own consciousness."                                                                   -Allen Ginsberg A good writing voice can carry most any Rand Fishkin and Quadzilla is another SEO blogger who's voice I enjoy. Because his site focues on the dark side of SEO I generally won't put into practice much of the advice I would get at his blog, but I'll still read it because of the voice behind that blog. While I may not use a specific technique mentioned, I'll still always take something away from the post. If you read here regularly it's most likely because you enjoy my voice. Most of the topics I blog about can readily be found elsewhere, but you still come here among any other stops you make. It's the voice that keeps you coming back. Over the course of the next year, it's within reason to think that I'll write 30 posts about various aspects of link building. Chances are in all but a few of them, what's said in those posts will have been said many times over here and elsewher. Yet all might still be unique because they all come through my hopefully unique voice. The reverse is also true. If you didn't care for my voice you probably wouldn't have made it to these words in this post and you probably wouldn't come back for more. The ideas in the post could be exactly what you were hoping to find and the information could be just what you wanted to learn, but you might still end up quickly leaving and looking somewhere else for the very same information. If you can develop your voice you can keep the people who like your voice coming back again and again to read your words. No matter what it is you are writing about on a particular day they will find something they can take with them. And that something will come from your voice. How Can You Develop Your Blogging Voice? The best way to find and develop your voice is to continue to write and let it come naturally. Keep a journal and write, write, write. The reason for the journal is that your journal isn't trying to impress anyone. You're writing for you and you can see through all those big words you're thinking make you sound more literary. You can see through your own BS so there's no reason to put it there. Your private writing will be more you than anything you write for the public. It's also important to read a lot if you want to write well. Remember your voice isn't just how you write. It's your unique perspective coming out in your writing. I spend a good deal of my day writing about SEO and webmaster related topics here on this blog and on various forums. But I spend even more time reading about those same topics. I'll read opinions from a variety of sources and make my own judgments about the validity of each. I'll think about the advice I receive and weigh the words I read. I'll tear them apart and put them back together in my own way and form my own opinions. The way I finally have everything assembled is my perspective. It's my unique view of the subject and it will come through in my voice and be part of my voice. If you've read the things I've said enough you can probably guess what I may say about something new, because you'll have come to know my voice. Immitation has been called the highest form of flattery and it's perfectly fine to try to emulate other voices when developing your own. There is probably a part of every writer I've mentioned here within my own voice. And perhaps one day my voice will form part of the voice of another. In then end though, imitation will only carry you so far. You could no more be me than I could be Jack Keouac. That's not to say that any of us is better than any other. We're just all different. Everything in your life will go into the development of your voice. We haven't lived the same lives and so our voices will inevitably be different. Think about who you are and the life you've led when developing your blogging voice. Are you inquisitve or philosophical. Would you rather put someone in their place or do you prefer to Comments Tag: Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl Bookmark Murdok: Steven Bradley is a search engine optimization specialist. Known to many in the webmaster/seo community by the username vangogh, he is the author of