Oh, dear reader, I was so naive! When I began blogging, all those year ago, I thought that the aim of my endeavours was to develop a large readership. To gradually, through perseverance and good writing, increase the number of people who read my blog.

The Dream of a Big Blog

And although I’m naturally a humble kind of guy, I dared to dream that I would eventually have a loyal following, a steadily increasing band of followers. Careful readers who enjoyed my words, employed my advice and conversed in comments.

The Reality of a Small Blog

So far, that has not happened. I don’t cause controversy, or get many comments. Sometimes I wonder if anyone’s reading at all. But that doesn’t get me down.

Why a Small Blog is Still a Good Blog

My blog doesn’t need to be big to be good. Because this blog is good every time it is read by any one person (like you). If one person reads a sentence or two of my blog and thinks something positive, or gets a nice impression of me, then it’s worthwhile.

Blog – the Window into the Website

One of the web’s biggest problem is its facelessness. The web is anonymous, technological, artificial. It can be cold and scary. Blogs give us a chance to be human, and to chat a bit. We can be less formal, less contained and more revealing about our personalities.

My blog lets me drop my guard and write the way I speak. And that lets people get to know me, which seems to help them decide to employ me.

Keep Blogging!

So even if you only have a handful of subscribers and a trickle of daily traffic, keep it up! A neglected blog is never a good advert for anything.

I’ve been a promiscuous blogger! Hope you enjoy the following posts:

Dharmafly

• Twitter: the Simplest Little Big Complicated Website in the World

Freelance Advisor

• Go Freelance: the  Complete Guide to Starting Freelancing
• Thank God I’m Freelance

Freelance Supermarket

• Use Twitter to Find Work, Make Contacts and Develop Your Reputation: 12 Tips
• Social Networking: Good for You, Good for Your Career

So here it is – my second guide to writing for the web.

Writing for Bloggers – A Quick Guide on Style, Substance and Strategy

This guide focuses on blogging, and things bloggers can do to improve their writing. It’s a very short guide, intended to cover the basics and remove obstacles in the paths of new bloggers.

If you would like the white label version to give your clients, email me and I’ll send you a copy. Please distribute freely – I want to encourage people to blog.

Thanks to the following for their input: (who responded to my request for readers on Twitter)

• Emma Nicol of Door 22 Creative (a graphic design agency) who has done an amazing job designing the document
  
• Donald Strachan
• Anca Foster
• Jane Dallaway
• Catherine Pope
• Amy Harrison

I’ve contributed a couple of posts to Freelance Advisor, and just wanted to let you know. They are:

Five Tips for Surviving as a Freelancer During a Recession

and

Three Reasons Why Freelancers May be More Secure During a Recession

Although the tips are aimed at freelancers, I think they apply equally to most businesses. Please add your own tips in the comments section of Freelance Advisor

Blogging has revolutionised the way organisations communicate with their clients and peers.

CEOs are blogging about their work. Organisations are opening up, creating greater transparency in their dealings with customers.

Anyone in business that wants to blog must understand that the key to a blog’s appeal is honesty.

Readers accept that the CEO may need an editor, but they won’t accept ghost-written posts from an office junior. Blog content must always be high-quality, pertinent material, direct from the boss.

Copywriters make perfect editors – leaving your voice and your message intact while weeding out errors and improving readability.

“If you want to be seen as a cool place to work, then you need to have a blog. And it’s not just about being cool; it shows that you believe in being open and transparent. Customers also prefer to deal with a company that is not just a faceless entity.”

- Debbie Weil, as quoted in the Guardian article “Why CEOs should learn to love the blog”

Now this article is a couple of years old, but it’s still very relevant. I like the idea of smaller companies using blogs as a way to connect to customers in a cost-effective manner.

But, given the enormous number of blogs in existence, only quality blogs (regular, interesting and informative) will find an audience.

One point not mentioned in the article is the significant Search Engine Optimisation value of blogging. Take a look at my free white paper if you want more information: Free White Paper – Blogging for Business

Our white paper – Blogging for Business – is already gaining an audience.

Raj Anand of Kwiqq put it up on edocr.com – a very useful site that offers free documents – and we’ve already had 955 hits!

If you’re in business of any kind I highly recommend edocr.com; there are tonnes of useful documents available and they’re all free to download.

Free White Paper – Blogging for Business (click here to download PDF document)

Have you ever wondered how your business can use blogging? Or wondered why blogging might be useful?

Our new white paper looks at the benefits blogging can bring your business, and gives clear instructions to get you started.

If you’re not sure what a blog is, click here.

Thanks to Madhava Bailey of Dharmafly and Raj Anand of Kwiqq – fellow bloggers who also worked on this white paper.

Welcome to the revitalised home of Leif Kendall’s copywriting blog!

After finding my blogging feet at WordPress.com, I decided it was important to step into the fast-flowing river of the internet and get my own domain.

With the help of Madhava and Premasagar of Dharmafly – social web development -  I have been able to hop over to my new domain with ease.

I would also like to thank everyone involved in WordPress (and Will Wilkins for Moo Point) for giving people like me a wonderful method of communicating on the web.

This site will be used as a forum for discussing copywriting in all its forms – from web content to blogging to brochures to ads to speech writing.

If you have any writing questions, please leave a comment below and I will blog a response.