The human condition. We’re either too loud or too shy or not bold enough or WAY too bold or too pretty or too fat or too smart or not smart enough. Enter existential crisis.

Your blog articles can be too short when they are 100 words or less. Your blog articles can be too long and that’s usually when they are more than 800 words. See how easy that is?

There are lots of analytical schools of thought that claim Google will rank articles of a certain length and I do believe that is true. Google will rank articles 300 words or more over those lacking in word count. That’s because Google (and other search engines I’m sure tons of people use) assumes that articles with more meat have better content and those with better content are likely more useful and relevant than those that couldn’t even bother to write more than 200 words, I mean C’MON!

So if you’re worried about word count when blogging, I’d say don’t sweat it too much. When you start writing a blog article, consider the following:

• Is the subject material interesting and meaty enough for you to write more than 300 words? If so, then do that.

• Is the article content going to be plagiarized in any way? If so, then don’t do that.

• Is the article SO meaty that there is no possible way to write it in less than 800 words? Consider splitting it into 2 or 3 shorter articles and run a blog series.

As with most of my search engine optimization principles, I tend to err on the side of human conscious and common sense. Write articles that are least 300 words and make them interesting and readable. Optimize your images, add some meta data and blog regularly. Be a human that writes for humans.

Professional Blogs Are:

1. Informative
2. Educational
3. Well-Written
4. Entertaining

Professional Blogs Are Not:

1. Diaries
2. Complaint Forums
3. Online Dating Communities

When blogging professionally it is necessary to ride the line between inserting personality into your voice and creating a tone that’s too casual and inappropriate. If you’re wondering how much YOU should be in your blog, consider the following:

The Locker Room Guideline

Injecting an anecdote into a blog post is a helpful way to make your blog personal, relatable and entertaining. However, it is important to remember that some stories weren’t meant to be heard by everyone. Would you tell it in the locker room? Then leave it out of your blog. Locker room stories (similar to happy hour stories and don’t-tell-my-mother-in-law stories) are purely for entertaining and are rarely PG-rated or appropriate for a blog that’s meant to inform.

Coffee Is For Contributors

That’s what Alec Baldwin meant in Glengarry Glen Ross, right? If a specific anecdote or tonal style doesn’t CONTRIBUTE to the benefit if your blog then you should reconsider if it’s worth including. You may have a great tale about that one time you asked a girl out and she turned you down and you were embarrassed and you went to the theater to see 27 Dresses by yourself and maybe it wasn’t your first time doing that BUT what’s the point? Can you tie it up in a neatly wrapped package to tell a lesson about entrepreneurial perseverance? If it doesn’t contribute you may need to rethink its value.

If you have a lot of personality, your audience should know about it, because that is what will set you apart from your competitors. Being a true professional means being slick about how you showcase your personality by telling stories that matter while understanding when to pull the reins in. How much YOU should be in your blog? Enough, my friend. Just enough.

I just came across this Craigslist callout for a blogger/content writer. This guy is willing to pay you 100 whole dollar for:

Your experience (that you may or may not have spent years gaining)

Your Twitter and Facebook following (that you’ve maybe spent years fostering)

10 articles (between 250-1000 words (he’s paying you 100 whole dollars, so you choose)

Your CMS knowledge (because you have to post the damn things yourself.)

$100. 100 freaking dollars. This guy doesn’t need a content writer. He needs an intern with rich parents. This is timely because I just finished reading Why I Don’t Have An Hourly Rate by Chris Lema (read it, it’s good). Where creativity meets technology there is a special place where web developers, graphic designers and copywriters live. We have a difficult time quantifying our value and are constantly asked to lower our prices and provide hourly rates, which as Chris aptly asks, you wouldn’t ask your dentist or mechanic to do so, so why ask your tech/creative team?

Why In God’s Name Are You Looking On Craigslist?

I know what you’re thinking. Craigslist is become an increasingly illegitmate place to connect with people, find work or buy a broken television from a man with an eye patch who may or may not stuff you a van. While I don’t foster many professional connections through CL, I do ty to stay abreast of my field and its job offerings. If a major PR/ad/web shop is looking for content writers, I may contact them. Craiglist remains part of my weekly social media skimming that helps me better understand my tech community.

This job offer has made me irate. How dare this person demand professionalism, experience and the utilization of a vast social network without offering to pay what it’s worth. How dare he/she offer commission based sales dependent on whether or not the content pulls traffic (How do you even quantify that? 100+ hits means you get another dollar?) This isn’t professionalism. This is an 8-letter word that starts with “bull” and ends with, “shit.”

People, if you’re not willing to pay qualified professionals for strategic, creative work then don’t demand creative and strategic work that isn’t, “sex or negative nancy.”

But I digress…

Blogging: It’s Like High School All Over Again (Except For The Bitches)

When I blog it feels like homework. The feeling of a task uncompleted, the responsibility to do what I said I was going to do. The unwavering feeling I’ll never be good enough (I know I’m good enough, dammit). Beyond the usual reasons blogging can feel like homework lies the framework from which we blog. The very composition of each blog post is a lot like a high school or college essay.

Central Theme With A Beginning, Middle and End

Each blog post should be a neatly wrapped package with an overlying message or theme. Start with an interest-grabbing beginning, fill the meat of your essay with juicy information and facts and wrap the whole thing up with conclusion that reiterates your points and drives them home. Like every good essay, your blog post must make sense and have at least of little bit of rhyme and reason (unless you’re writing about alternate universes).

Cite Your Sources

No, you don’t have to go to the library and deal with the ornery woman who’s been working there for decades (unless you like ornery women, in which case we should have coffee sometime). Still, like the school essay, if you draw inspiration from something or quote directly you must cite your sources. Instead of leaving time and space for a bibliography, a link will do just fine.

Word Count Matters

My sister has been a word counter for years, and she’ll be the first to tell you that word count matters; remember that quality, not quantity is the key to word count. Yes, most search engines love to link to naturally written content (specifically blog articles). Blog articles that are 600-800 words in length will have a greater chance of incorporating more keywords naturally. Consider your search engine optimization when writing blog articles, but keep user experience in mind as well. Will someone read, enjoy and SHARE a verbose article on a non-interesting topic? Probably not. Use your judgment and find that balance.

By the time I’ve finished writing my outline, citing my sources and counting my words (you did notice my font of choice is Courier New) I swear I’ve been slingshot into my high school English class. Don’t think of your blog writing as homework, but do refer back to solid, simple writing principles to make your articles sensible, interesting and comprehensive.

Here’s where I got the photo.

I promise I will return to tips and blogging tricks. But for now, here’s this.

Trying. This has been a recurring theme in my life. Whether or not the outcome is positive, you have to try. Trying has nothing to do with failure, because often you try and you still fail, and let’s face it that sucks. A lot. But if you don’t try and you still fail, doesn’t that suck a lot more?

When you try, you go after that client or project that means something to you. Or you stand up for yourself when you feel you’re being mistreated. Or you go for that extra lap when your body is saying, “Ha. Yea right.” There are a 1,000,001 ways to try, but the point is that you still have to do it.

You should also be prepared for the fact that trying can suck. You may fail. It may be too challenging. You may not like the process. In fact, the whole thing may be a giant pain in the ass. But after you try, and you decompress and take a step back to look at the entire picture, won’t you be soul-satisfied* with your endurance and determination.

Honestly, you don’t have a choice. If you’re alive and you’re positive and you feel like doing something worth a damn, you have to try. It’s the only way.

*Soul-satistified, for the non-hippies in the room means your brain may not be sure what you’re doing is smart, but your gut and your heart understand it’s the right thing to do. And sometimes, that’s enough.

I got the photo here.