This document discusses how to make blog posts more compelling by developing and using your authentic writing voice. It emphasizes that voice means being able to hear the writer's individual style and personality. Bloggers are encouraged to avoid mimicking other styles and instead focus on being genuine, telling stories that matter, and letting their unique voice be heard. The key is finding a voice that sounds like how you would naturally explain something to a friend. Developing an authentic voice will help content stand out and better engage readers.

1. Got voice?
How to make your posts more
compelling

2. 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?

3. 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.

5. 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.

6. In the PF blogosphere…
• How many genuine voices are there? Too
few.

7. 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.

8. 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)

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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.)

13. 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.

14. 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?

15. 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.

16. 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!

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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.)

21. Keep your voice in the
forefront.
• Be unique.
• Tell stories that matter.
• Make your voice unmistakable – and make
it yours.