Your blog needs to have a voice.
In order to have a successful blog, you need a tribe. You need that community of people interested in what you have to say and with whom you can relate.
How do you do that? By finding your blog’s voice.
A Voice Gives Your Blog a Personality
I have a friend who, each time I began a new blog, commented to me that each one sounded like a different person. When I created my cooking blog she remarked, “This is an unexpected voice. I mean, it sounds like you, but it sounds different from your other blogs.”
She was right. All of the blog voices are mine. All of them represent aspects of my personality. Each aspect gives the blog its own personality, a voice to which a certain tribe can relate.
I like Jeff Goins’ description of a blog voice:
“A voice, with respect to your blog, is a feel or style evoked in your writing that causes the reader to personalize what she is reading. Your readers begin to construct a person based on the voice of your blog. And when that happens, your blog ceases to be all things to all people and becomes something very particular to a certain group of people.”
How Do You Find Your Blog Voice?
Don’t create a blogging voice. Find it. You do not want to sound like that one great blogger you admire. You want to sound like you.
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Be yourself. You want your readers to relate to you. This can only be achieved by letting them know who you are.
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Consult your blog. What have been some of your most successful posts? What was your mood when you wrote them? Do you notice a particular style shining through in those posts? That may be your best voice.
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Consider your blog. What is the topic of your blog? What’s the niche? An activist blog, for instance, can get by with being a bit assertive and snarky. A real estate blog couldn’t do that. That blog would need to be professional and customer-oriented.
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Consider your audience. Who are you speaking to when you blog? A male? A female? What age group? Are they married? Single? Parents? What are the challenges, goals, and dreams of this person? How can you help this person meet those goals?
The best voice is your own voice, conveying the focus of your blog to the audience it’s intended to reach. It’s really that easy.
This post was originally written in 2013 by Michelle for HomeschoolBlogging.com. It was updated, edited, and re-published in 2018 by Heather Bowen, HomeschoolBlogging.com owner.
