My experience – the intro
Thank you for reading the blog. I have to admit, this is my first post online and I have no idea what to talk about. I only have a vision of what I want to do with this website, and that is to entertain my audience. While having nothing to talk about, I still think that I am in the right position to help people writing their first blog post.
I have discovered a contradiction in my own head. I have many ideas to talk about, and when given the opportunity can talk about different things for hours straight. How can I then say that ‘I have no idea what to talk about?’ I mean we all hear things like: ‘I have nothing to talk about’, or ‘I don’t know where to start’. But do you really mean that? Or are you just saying that because you have trouble starting and want help? The latter is definitely the case in my situation. But what if you can help yourself by just starting?
I clearly do not have a shortage of topics to talk about, because I think about a lot of things in my daily life. Furthermore I can’t not know how to start, because communicating is something that humans do very well. We all communicate in our daily lives even when we think that we are not communicating! Just think about what I have said in the beginning, that ‘I have no idea what to talk about’. That was a signal that I just want to start writing but was over analyzing the if’s and how’s. 99.9% of people don’t believe themselves to be amazing communicators, but we all seem to communicate our ideas to others effectively. When someone says out loud that he/she has a problem starting out, it says to me that they need help to believe in themselves and in what they have to say.
In communication there are two or more parties involved. There is one party that has an idea in their head and wants to communicate it with other people. Then there is the party that receives the message, or that has the task of discovering what it exactly may be what that person tries to communicate. In every situation, there is an exchange of ideas from both parties. The one who aims to discover the idea tries his/her best to question it’s way to the core of the message. And the one with the idea plays along, and has the goal of letting his/hers idea ‘be discovered’.
Contradictions
What I just said in the introduction proves my point. I started out by saying that I have nothing to talk about, while having the motivation to write on my blog. Do we ask these questions then as a method to help ourselves out, by participating in our own rhetoric dialogue? Can it be that you actually do know what to talk about, and that you are an excellent communicator? Wherever there is a desire to do something in life, you can not be stopped by ‘self imposed’ mental restraints. Desires are signaling in what area you need to do some work. Are you thinking about writing or creating content a lot in your daily life, then you definitely need to start your blog as soon as possible. Not because it is something you have to do, but because it is fun and can help you discover new things that you can enjoy.
The Steps
Do you wonder how to start? Or do you want some tips on how to translate your ideas into a post? I will try to help you out. First we are going to discuss the goal of communication, in order to understand that all forms of communication have the same universal goal in mind; to make a statement in their own unique way.
Then we will think about your motivation to communicate, and about the different methods you can use to do it.
Knowing the motivation or your intention behind it, creates enough drive to just start doing it. You can think of it as seeing the bigger picture so that you can stop worrying about the consequences of communicating your ideas.
Lastly it is up to you to decide what you write about and how you do it. Run your own show, because that is how you ensure loving what you do, and people will automatically want to follow you.
The goal
While there may be different forms of communication channels with the goal of delivering the message in different ways, there is also a difference in audience that receive the message. The end goal in mind is still the same: to deliver your message clearly so that your target audience understands your idea behind it. After that comes the question of why the message was delivered in the first place. Was it to inspire your audience to do something, or was your goal to help them out by providing information so that you can solve their problem? Whatever the end goal may be, the goal in all forms of communcation is to translate the idea in your head into the minds of other people. I think that it would be helpful to summarise the forms of communication channels that exist, and differences in audience. It will become clear why despite the differences, the universal goal stays the same.
Communication Channels
In 2023, there are a multitude of communication channels know to man. A long time ago, we started out by mouth to mouth communication. The limiting factor of speech was distance. We as humans found ways to leverage ‘time’ and ‘distance’ by using writings or marks on pieces of material and sending them over to the audience on faster transporation methods than by foot. The core concept of translating your ideas into the minds of other people did not change, only the methods of how they were translated evolved. You can view writing out your ideas as snapshots of your ideas on that exact moment.
Okay so what? The method of delivery changes all the time, but why does that matter? It matters because the utility of communication changes. Not the ideas themselves change, but the possibilities of making a point increase exponentially. Ideas can be combined with visuals and audio to include more context, so that unrelated topics can become one. The inspiration people receive from the exhange of ideas, and the emotions they create, become more intense.
Vertical expansion of methods
The expansion of web-1 to web-2, where respectively people could only read information to later being able to share their thoughts on the exact piece of content that millions of other individuals read, was revolutionary. When in the past people had to specifically describe what it was that they were writing a commentary on, with the web-2 evolution eveyone saw the same piece of content on every device. It becomes clear that with each vertical step in the ladder, the utility of that thing increases for the people who participate in it. With the increase of utiltity there is an increase in user experience, which further increases emotions and understanding. In my opinon that is amazing.
Back to the evolution of methods of communicating ideas. From writings we expanded to visual ‘interactive’ content. The word interactive is important. Because you can communicate ideas from drawings on a wall, but that is not the same as making a poster or graphic and including a page where someone can comment on it. Or even add another piece of content to that graphic. Think about a video of an artwork on social media. Someone creates content and people have the opportunity to share their thoughts in the comments section, right next to the artwork that is being displayed.
The methods of sharing ideas expand like vertical evolution in technology. And in each step further up the ladder, the user experience becomes more interactive and intense. Who knows what will be possible in the future, and how the experience of communicating ideas will change with better technology and innovation.
Different audience
The reason why companies change their writing style is to appeal to their target audience. They have to do that in order to market their products effectively. They have to work within the framework of their brand. The writing style has to ‘fit’ the product and the brand that is selling it. When writing your own posts however, you are not bound by formal rules and can make it personal. The only thing that you have to sell are your ideas, so it would make sense to make it as fun as possible to read. Where the methods of communication decide the limits of the utility users can have when discovering your ideas, the style in which you write or deliver your ideas, is not limited by your audience. People follow you because they are interested in what you have to say, and in the person behind the ideas. ‘What else does he/she know or have to say?’ People follow you because they like your unique style of delivering content, not because you follow all the writing rules.
Your intention behind it
The motivation to start is unique for everyone. Some people really like writing, and some people like talking but don’t want to record their voice, so they choose to write out their ‘speech’ instead. Some people may dislike writing, but have such passion for a project that they believe in, that they feel a need to share their ideas with others despite their feelings on making content. Everyone that is making content wants to share their ideas with the world. The more passion you have for something, the more you want to talk about it. The first posts will be average, and that’s okay. The fact that you are writing things yourself makes it unique, and people will follow you for your uniqueness. Out of curiosity and because they like content that does not look like 99% of all the other content out there. For all that matters, all your posts can be average, but as long as you like it and have the ability to express yourself, I am all for it. The quickest way to start writing is to have passion for something. And that is also unique for everyone. Having enough passion for something is enough to make it. You don’t have to know things. Having a good dose of interest in something, and being curious yourself is enough to entertain your audience and to inspire others.
Finishing thoughts
I really feel that you have to love what you are doing for a full 100%. Out of all the content I have seen in my life, from fitness articles to fitness video’s, to art channels sharing their process, HipHop channels entertaining and all the other thousands different topics and channels, they all had one thing in common: the creators behind the content loved what they were doing. That was the reason why I subscribed in the first place. They loved what they were doing (and the majority of them would even do it for free) and I liked what I was seeing. Be yourself because that is all that matters. And by making unique content, which is far from perfect, because you can’t have ‘perfect’ if you are making unique things, you ensure success for yourself. Because perfection is when all the rules are followed, and following all the rules, like only using specific writing styles, never thinking outside of the box when creating new content, etc, is a sure way to lose your uniqueness. I’m looking forward to reading your own posts. Thanks for reading and have a good day.