This is gutsy but good. How do you find your unique "voice" for writing your e-newsletter or blog posts? How do you capture and include personality into your content?

I was poking around the E-Newsletter Success membership site and found this great exercise journal. The document is designed to help professionals write in a way that is unique, personal and compelling. In other words, NOT boring…

Maybe this is the secret sauce to why Michael Katz's E-Newsletter on E-Newsletters is such a raving success. Michael always tells a personal story, usually with humor, and then ties it into a relevant, useful tip.

Anyone can do this. The trick is to do it with personality and flair. Wait a minute, though. What the heck is that? …And how do you elicit your own personality in your writing? How do you write about yourself without being egocentric or boring?

Here's the gutsy exercise: write an email to 10 people who know you well and ask them to describe you with the first 3 words that come to mind.

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Two great posts to read for blog authors who are procrastinators or perfectionists:

Speed Blogging: How to Write Better Posts in Less Time by Mara Rogers who gives four guidelines for procrastinators: "Just write and commit. Click on “Publish.” And then start writing your next post."

But if you know your writing could use a little forethought and editing work, then don't miss this post by Sonia Simone, Slow Blogging:

"I try to write a post two days before I want to post it. Over those next two days, I’ll read the post with fresh eyes each day and make changes. I do a last pass when I’m prepping it to post."

I agree with both. Many clients I work with are overly concerned with their writing and delay publishing because of unwarranted fears. They miss the opportunity to improve their writing because they simply aren't doing enough of it.

And I truly believe that re-reading and editing most stuff can only improve it. I strive to make at least one in-depth original post once a week and will take several days to edit it before publishing. What about you?

Your writing on the web must connect with readers. Easy to say, really hard to do. Readers are different and come to your blog or article searching for different things, motivated in various ways.

But there are definite "best practices" you can study and learn to make this easier and better. So here's a simple list to get you thinking and practicing…

1. Be clear, be very clear about your point
2. State your point clearly, simply
3. Make a list of key sub-points to make it easier to scan
4. Include emotional language as well as the facts
5. Illustrate your points with anecdotes, examples, stories of real people
6. Use metaphor and anologies to spice up your writing
7. You can go deep, but avoid complicating or over-intellectualizing
8. Write conversationally, Include pronouns such as "you" and "I"

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Enough of the goals "to-do" lists of new marketing tools to tackle in 2009. Take a good look at the content you're already publishing on the web for your business. Focus on the quality of your content.

Okay, maybe you want to start using Twitter…but even so, same guidelines of writing apply. More so, with only 140 characters to use to connect with tweeps.

I love this post by Ardath Albee, Marketing Interactions. She posts a "won't-do" list for the New Year, and says:

That's Ardath's partial "won't-do" list for content marketing in 2009. What would you add for your own list of things you'll strive to avoid this year?

For me, I am very guilty of #5: pitching under the guise of educating. I'll start a post innocently, sharing important stuff, then switch to… "Oh, and by the way, if you haven't registered yet for the class we're doing on this very subject, here's the link." Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, unless you do it too often. Then it's very inelegant and unbecoming…

What's on your "won't-do" list for 2009?

One of the most read posts on this blog has been Pillar to Post: Do you have 5 pillar articles on your blog? In it, I discuss a suggestion from Yaro Starak that you should have at least 5 important stand-alone articles that are key for your readers and put them where they can have easy access.

On a Typepad blog, you create a typelist or side-bar item and put the titles to these articles there. You can title the list something compelling, like "Content Marketing Keys," or, "How to Write Content that Markets for You." You would, of course, substitute your own niche topic.

Have you done this for your business blog yet? I have been reviewing this blog, as I do every January. I see that I intended to do this but never got around to it. I posted one stand-alone page: Why Writing on the Web is key to Internet Marketing Results.

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Here are the three most popular posts on this blog through 2008:

1. 5 Keys to Crafting a Really Good 'About' Page,
2. Morning Writing Ritual: Using your right brain
3. Pillar to Post: Do you have 5 pillar articles on your blog?

Who knows why this is so? As someone who is always skeptical of statistics (consider the source and never assume what the numbers mean), we can only guess at the reasons.

I suspect readers are savvy and know that their bio or 'about' page on their blog is one of the most frequently viewed pages. One of the first things readers of a blog want to know is "Who is this person? Why should I read what they have to say?"

I've re-read these posts myself and suggest you do too. Then tell me how you think these nuggets of advice apply to you.

Start with #1, crafting your blog 'About' page. Instead of using your usual bio, with all that staid educational and business experience stuff, I suggest using storytelling elements screenwriters use. Tell your true story. Connect with people's emotions, reveal some drama. Take off your mask!

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Why are you reading this blog? Seriously, I'd like to hear from readers what you are seeking. What would you like to know about? What topics are so compelling you'd come back here each day to read something new?

Since the name of this blog is Writing on the Web, I'm assuming you have questions about writing and how to use content on the Web to attract clients for your businesses. But this can mean different things to different people.

I focus on content marketing and blog writing tasks. There are many ways to write and publish content (blogs, newsletters, articles) on the Internet that helps you attract people who want and need your services and products.

At the beginning of the year I started a poll and asked this question:

"Which writing tasks do you need to master to explode your Internet marketing in 2008?" Here are the results:

Writing great blog posts that attract prospects and gain subscribers and eventually convert those readers to clients is one of the most challenging writing tasks. The difference between good and great is enormous.

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