Get started writing, get paid a little as you go, get used to keeping a writing schedule and get your name on something published for others to read and give you feedback.

These are some interesting places to write for online:

• Yahoo!Voices
• Open Salon
• Technorati
• Suite101
• HubPages

From CopyBlogger: The 3-Step Cure for Boring, Useless Content

1) Create an editorial mission

Most trade journals and top-tier blogs have editorial missions. The editorial mission provides a compass, always guiding writers toward relevant subjects.
What do you stand for? What do you offer customers and readers?
Every company has unique knowledge it can share with customers. Understanding the middle ground between your company and the customer opens the door to value creation.
For more complex subject areas, develop specific topic areas. You or your writers can develop content for these “beats.”

I’ve never written out a detailed plan. I’m actually not good when it comes to things like focus, discipline, planning and details.

This blog is almost 6 years old (anniversary January 2, 2006). This blog has over 1750 posts. The archives for this blog are extensive. Very few people would want to look back and try to find anything in particular in the archives. It would take awhile. Instead people search using words, not dates.

But, here we have all these nice archives. Built up over years, something to look back on with pride. It’s a shame to waste them.

I’ve been feeling I need to make changes with this blog. A new outlook, something to make it more personal for me again and something that focuses on what I really do know about and experience versus what I think I should be and do. I don’t give myself credit for anything I can do well, instead I pick on myself for anything I’m not great at. So too much of my focus goes into trying to become someone else. Meanwhile, the great things I already have get pushed to the back.

Looking into my own archives, everything I’ve been doing these past 6 years in this blog, is a way to reconnect with myself and figure out how to get where I want to be and how I can change and create something fresh.

Resources to Read:

Confident Writing: What’s Hiding in your Archives and How to Find the Treasure in your Archives

ProBlogger: Updating Old Posts on your Blog

Franklin Bishop: 6 WordPress Archive Plugins

Avoid burnout.

If you want to stick to daily posts on your site you have options.

• Write the posts a week ahead and then schedule them to appear daily.
• Instead of writing a long post with many points divide it up. Use each point as an individual post and turn them all into a series, interlinked on your site.
• Get help. Find someone else in your niche who would like to write but doesn’t want to do it alone, or doesn’t know HTML, etc.
• Use borrowed content. There are many sites which offer contributed content. Read the rules at each site.
• Write shorter posts. Go with an illustration or draw a web comic one or more days of your posting week. You’ll still be busy posting every day but the change of media could keep it from getting stale and give you fresh insights.
• Revamp your blog layout, template or theme. Giving the site a new look makes it feel new again, or at least not the same old routine.
• Change the format of your posts. Write in point form or make a list post once or twice a week instead of the standard paragraph form.
• Write ahead for seasonal posts. That way you know you have at least one day off to look forward to.
• Interviews and product reviews can be kept in a stash to be posted when you want to take a week off without notice.
• Most people have a 5 day work week. You can take off weekends and still be considered to be posting daily. (It’s a personal choice).
• Exchange content with another writer. Or, arrange to exchange blog babysitting so he/she writes for both blogs one week and you take on both blogs the next week.
• Run an event. It could be a contest or something with the idea of social networking/ community building. You will need to promote it and get others involved but it also gives you something to write about each day as you talk about your idea and the progress you are making.
• Finally, just take a week off. Announce it in your blog and give the date you will return. Try to stick to the return date unless you really do decide to abandon your site once you are away from it.

It’s all about offering extras, those little things that make one blog stand out from another. Give people something extra.

Take the information you want to write about and present it in a unique and interesting way.

• Use a quiz as part of your post. Highlight information and confirm your message.
• Give a widget with your RSS feed.
• An infographic (becoming a trend) can give your information in a visual way.
• A hand drawn post. Write it long hand, add some lettering, illustrations, etc and take a photograph you post to your blog.
• A web comic is visual and uses humour.
• Start a blog tour. Invite others to join and set a date for the tour.
• Try a blogging marathon. Set up how often and how long you will post for.
• Create avatars for readers based on their blogging personality.
• Audio like a podcast people can listen to.
• Video posts (though I’m not a fan of anything in a big, clunky file).
• Turn your blog into the focal point of a community for people in your niche. Bring everyone together to talk.
• An ebook. Turn your post into something that can be downloaded and read offline.
• A mini directory post. Pull together all the great resources you can find and turn them into a directory of information.
• A social web application or blog plugin, etc. For those who have (or get) the know how.
• Create a (WordPress or other CMS) blog theme/ template and offer it for free.
• Go with a little controversy. Debate the less popular side of a pro versus con.
• Start an event. Like ProBlogger’s 31 Days to a Better Blog.
• Create a seasonal/ holiday web graphic (add text with best wishes/ seasons greetings) free for the taking.
• Interview a popular blogger, someone well respected in your niche.
• Run a contest. Make sure you have a prize worth winning and you get our winner to confirm they did get it.
• Give out awards. Pick the ‘best of’ in your niche and create an award they can take from your site.
• Promote another blogger, someone who inspired you or had valuable information.
• Write a yearly round up with the best, most inspiring, etc. blog posts you’ve read in your niche.
• Ask for information. Ask your readers to ask their friends/ readers/ followers too.
• Write about how you solved a problem, step-by-step. Use illustrations.
• Run a survey. Ask for feedback and opinions about your own site or the topic you write about.
• Create an index of authorities in your niche and give links to each of them plus their Twitter  and RSS feed links.
• Review a book or other product available. Pick something useful/ new to your readers.
• Thank someone. Write a post thanking another blogger for something. Don’t stop at just one.

Small packages bring good things. Turn what began as a plain text blog post into a small, contained unit of information like a quiz, infographic, widget, web comic, web graphic or something else small and simple which can easily be shared through social media and links.

Wikipedia: Link Bait

Link bait is any content or feature, within a website, designed specifically to gain attention or encourage others to link to the website. Matt Cutts defines link bait as anything “interesting enough to catch people’s attention.”

Resources:

Blue Glass: Overlooked Linkbait: The Value of Widgets, Quizzes, and Other Interactive Content.

Sam Tilston: How to Write Linkbait

ProBlogger: 20 Linkbaiting Techniques

Smashing Magazine: Golden Rules of Linkbaiting

3. Your Website’s Content Got “Scraped”

If your rankings suddenly deteriorate, that could be because someone has stolen (or “scraped”) the content from your site and posted it somewhere else on the Web. In this case, search engines sometimes lower both sites’ rankings – then look deeper into the matter. Eventually, they are likely to start ranking your site as high as they used to before the incident, once they realize who copied whose content. However, this may take some time.

The Way Out

Dealing with content thieves normally involves locating the site that posted your content, contacting their webmaster, emailing their host, filing a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) request or taking the matter to court – whatever helps. It’s recommended to start with contacting the scrapers. If this does not help – take the other measures mentioned here.

via Rankings Dropped? 9 Possible Reasons and 9 Ways Out | The Ad Master – Advertise Everywhere.

Wikipedia: Web Scraping
Blue Glass: Content Scraping: Prevention, Repercussions, and… Benefits (Good information but has some link rot).
Perishable Press: How to Deal with Content Scrapers
The Blog Herald: The Six Steps to Stop Content Theft
Magnet4Marketing: 4 Ways to Help Prevent Content Scraping from Happening on your Blog

I started Men’s Style on Scoop.it, mostly as an excuse to look at men in suits. I don’t mind admitting how nice it is to look at men dressed up and looking good. As I began looking at content (it’s a curated content blog sort of site), I realized how many fashion blogs there are geared to men. Not all of them are good, of course. Some are really great.

It’s funny the things that can make one blog great over others which have good content, navigation, layout, etc. If you think about it, what is the one thing that makes a blog stand out for you?

For me it’s whitespace. Having space and a clean look to the blog. This includes not having a lot of ads and other stuff cluttering up the sidebar. But, some blogs go bare minimal. For me this makes them look professional, easy to read and better written even. They may not be at all better than another blog which isn’t so clean-looking, but it’s the first impression I get when I see that simple, clean site.

Have a look at some (or all) of the men’s fashion sites/ blogs I’ve listed. See if you can decide what one thing makes or breaks a great blog for you.

• The Dandy Style
• Real Men Real Style
• PRZMan
• The Art of Manliness
• Guy Style Guide
• Samuel Jing
• The Urban Gentleman
• A Man Fashion
• Dapper Lou
• The Dandy Project
• Style Savage
• French Truckers
• Calculatus Eliminatus
• How to Talk to Girls at Parties
• Man Blog
• Fashion Bits and Bobs
• Men Psychology
• Kate Loves Me
• We Could Grow Up Together
• Fashion Blogs

Glamorous, exciting and stylish… isn’t that how a good fashion blog feels when you open it? Those high heels, the just-right dress you wish you could fit into (some of you may, not me). I never wanted to be a model, a clothes horse. But… I have a secret lust to be a fashion blogger. Posting photos of clothes I’d love to wear. Having an excuse to buy that extra pair of boots you really don’t need but they would look so great with that coat you saw in the store window. Maybe even dropping in on the fashion world itself, attending a fashion show as if I belonged there.

I won’t be a fashion writer, blogger or editor. For a few reasons: age, weight, interest, I just don’t suit the world of the fashionable.

What about other fashion? It’s not all clothes. Think jewelry… how nice to photograph designer lockets, charming bracelets and sparkling diamonds, emeralds, rubies and assorted costume jewelry and other creations meant to be worn. Consider blogging about something other than women’s fashion, how about fashion for kids? Fashion for men? Or, pets, I haven’t seen that done yet. Also, I know of at least one lingerie fashion blogger. If you really want to create a fashion blog find your own way, create your own niche and then be prepared to push your way into it.

Meanwhile, I indulge my inner fashionista by posting clothes I will never actually wear to my Pinterest account. I can visit them there when I need a boost.

• Wikipedia: Fashion Journalism
• Independent Fashion Bloggers
• Scoop.it: Fashion Bloggers
• HubPages: Become a Fashion Writer
• eHow: How to Become a Fashion Blogger
• eHow: How to Get Known as a Fashion Blogger
• Scarlet Black Fashion Blog: How to Write for Fashion
• HubPages: Become a Beauty Blogger
• Fashion.net: How to Become a Fashion Editor
• Teen Vogue: A Pro’s Guide to Fashion Blogging
• Refinery29: How to Become a Star Style Blogger
• Canada Arts Connect: Want to be a Fashion Blogger? Here’s How
• The Runway Times: Fashion Journalist/ Editor
• Fashion Schools: Fashion Writer
• StyleCareer: Fashion Writer 
• State University: Fashion Writer
• Cellardoor Magazine: Interview with Becky Ringer, Fashion PR.
• Viceland: An Interview with the World’s Best Fashion Writer

I noticed a job post for someone to write Twitter posts for a handyman service. They asked people to submit 5 tweets as examples. The content could be anything you deemed appropriate for the site/ service.

What would you write? This is what I am sending in. Maybe it is too commercial and too much of sales copy for what they would like. But, I don’t see the point of advertising a service to the world at large unless you can do it with email or some other digital media.

• Need someone good with their hands in Queensland? Call Fallon Services for your handyman. We’ve got the right tools.
• Has your TV antennae fallen and can’t get up? Call Fallon Services in Queensland. We can fix it!
• Sprung a leak? Have a drip you can’t get rid of? Call Fallon Services, Queensland. Handyman and plumbers.
• Getting a bit hot under the collar? Call Fallon Services, Queensland. Let us get your air conditioner working.
• Need some electrical work done? Tidy up your wiring? Call Fallon Services, Queensland. Let us zap your problem.

Kim Lawless wrote What do we mean by content?

Back in 2007, pioneering content strategist Rachel Lovinger defined the main goal of content strategy as “to use words and data to create unambiguous content that supports meaningful, interactive experiences.”

Part of the problem in defining methodology is that content is such a small, generic-sounding label for the big, diverse, unruly, ever-changing universe of digital stuff we consume. To complicate things further, what stuff we can call content seems to be up for debate (there have even been backlashes against the word ‘content’ itself).

But instead of arguing about what is and isn’t content, could it be more helpful — in order to better come up with the ‘how’ of content strategy — to start instead by looking at how to work with particular types of content? Think of content as falling into one of these four major groups: informational, branded, user-generated, and systemic. The lines between them aren’t always completely clear, but each type tends to bring up a unique set of goals and challenges, and desired outcomes.

Informational content
Reduced to its essence, the goal of informational content is to meet one of your users’ most obvious needs — to give them the information they’re looking for. Relevance, clarity and consistency are crucial. To make that happen, one of the biggest challenges is in managing production flow and lifecycle. You need to understand who the authors, approvers and editors are; how content gets from ideation to publication; where it gets published (on your site, to an app, social media channels?) and when — does it change hourly, daily, weekly? And finally, how it will be managed and governed.

Branded content
Rather than strictly informing, branded content builds connections with users on an emotional level. Its goal is to build and support brand messages, persuade people, tell stories, and encourage engagement.

User generated content
Whether it’s through social media, commenting, or more intensive uses of UGC, having content produced by your audience is an effective way to build engagement and loyalty with content, and as a result it has become key to many content marketing strategies. Since real users are contributing content, UGC is often seen to bring both authenticity to brands and engagement to the audience, benefitting from things people are already doing online. In many cases, UGC is being produced in alongside (often in response to) informational or branded content.

Systemic content
This is where you’ll find content that describes content, making it findable, helping it flow to the right places, supporting SEO and even setting it free from the constraints of platform by giving it structure and extensibility, allowing for reuse. It is often available through an api, and helps publishers to identify, organize, and publish content in ways that are meaningful to users.

On any site or platform, the content ecosystem is going to be made up of one or more of these content types. By delving more deeply into the each of these types and clearly defining what outcomes you want from each of them, the ‘how’ of content strategy –- processes, tools, and roles should be involved, for example — starts to become more clear.

This is more than I am really OK with quoting from the original post. Usually I restrict the content I quote to a paragraph or the essential elements of the list post. I will write things in my own words with my own experience and thoughts added to give my point of view.

This time I want to read this over myself and get more from it. Also, the points made don’t make sense once they are taken out of the original context. So, here it is.

Where do you stand or waver on the limits of curating content versus just reprinting someone’s original ideas?