Got voice?

How to make your posts more compelling

The tale and the teller

• J.D.’s keynote speech last year was about the importance of story.

• Story is vital -- but so is storytelling

• People can get information from plenty of places. Why should they choose yours?

What is voice, exactly?

• “Voice” means being able to hear the writer while I’m reading.

• A writing style that not only keeps me going until the end – it also makes me bookmark the site.

• Your voice is you -- loud enough for the rest of us to hear it.

Not that kind of loud…

• Do not mistake volume for voice. • Loud may get people’s attention but probably

won’t keep it. • ALL CAPS ON THE INTERNET IS REALLY

ANNOYING. So is blog writing done as a series of snarls.

• Not only is it tough to maintain, it’s likely to turn off readers over time.

In the PF blogosphere…

• How many genuine voices are there? Too few.

Listen up…

• I don’t hear a lot of originality – and I don’t think that’s because bloggers aren’t creative.

• I think it’s because they don’t trust their own voices.

I see blogs written…

• Inverted pyramid style• Yearbook style• 9th-grade-English-essay style• Hey-girlfriend! style• With slang that not only sounds forced but

will soon sound dated and maybe embarrass the writer five years from now (remember, the Internet is 4-ever)

What else do I see?

• Bloggers who feel they have to put in every single fact they collect

• Bloggers who think they have to fling attitude to get noticed

Attitude isn’t voice.

• Neither is relentless snark• Or hip-weltschmertz

• Those things can be elements of voice, just as voice is an element of writing. But it’s hard to sustain a blog on fey wit or “another sign the apocalypse is upon us” moans. You’d have to be a much better writer than most of us are.

What’s your voice sound like?

• So don’t let any of those things substitute for voice -- or overwhelm your voice.

• That is, if you know what your voice sounds like. A lot of us don’t. When we think “writing,” we’re back in that 9th-grade English class, building the weighty sentences we think the teacher wants to read. (She didn’t, by the way.)

Is that really you?

• Or we fall back on the shibboleths mentioned above -- maybe because we think our own voices aren’t interesting enough.

• Is your blog voice the way you talk? Or is it the way you wish you talked? Do you want to be a lot more hip, sardonic, erudite or oh-snap! than you actually are?

• Striking an attitude is easy, and comments like “LOL! Your so funnneee!” are real ego-strokers.

What is your goal as a writer?

• Merely to pull in page views, or to contribute to the conversation?

• To out-obnoxious other writers by larding your copy with slang words for genitals or phrases like “financial retard”?

• Or to provide information that can help people change their lives?

Style + substance

• If you’re a number monkey, pure and simple, more power to you and I hope you get 10,000 hits a day.

More than SEO…

• If you actually want to help people understand personal finance, pay attention to your writing.

• If you have both style and substance, you probably have voice. Let us hear you!

How do you find your voice?

• Start by listening to it. Read your last post out loud.

• Does it sound like a drone, even to you? Or to the person you asked to listen to it?

• Try this: Imagine how you’d tell your next post to a friend.

What old print newshounds can teach us….

• Newspaper journalists might get only 15” to tell what happened.

• Obituary writers have to sum up entire lives in as little as 8” of copy.

Print journalists…

• Assume a certain amount of collective knowledge.

• Attribute only things reader might not know• Ask the right questions – the famous 5 Ws• Use the most evocative info they can get.

But they don’t use all of it. • Tell us why this topic matters.

Bloggers shouldn’t…

• Set up or qualify every point. (You’re the one telling the story, so just tell it.)

• Go on and on and on… (More words won’t necessarily make your point. In fact, they might smother it.)

• Get lazy. (Each post is a chance to impress a new visitor to your site.)

Keep your voice in the forefront.

• Be unique.

• Tell stories that matter.

• Make your voice unmistakable – and make it yours.