How to Be Effective and Get Published

1. the GGW way
Dan Malouff
how to be effective
& get published
BLOGGING
Arlington County DOT
Greater Greater Washington
BeyondDC

2. Effective blogging
Why blog?
To build & engage a community
of people (on the internet) who
are passionate about a topic

3. Effective blogging
Good blogs combine:
1. news
2. advocacy
3. accessibility
} 2 out of 3
isn‘t enough
and they get
progressively
harder

4. Effective blogging
For every blog post, ask 3 questions:
1. news
what facts are you reporting?
2. advocacy
what message should readers get from
it?
3. accessibility
will readers (on the internet) get the
message?

5. Effective blogging
Blogs are NOT:
• Newsletters
• Press releases
• Comprehensive plans
• Academic journals
You can use a blog to talk about those
things, but good blogs should be easier &
more fun to read.

6. Effective blogging
Blog posts shouldn’t be
long dissertations
that follow the essay
structure you
learned in grade
school.
Blogging is a different
kind of writing.

7. Effective blogging
Blog writing puts the
most important info
up front, in simple
language.
More specific details &
less important
points come later.
most important
message
details

8. Effective blogging
Blog readers want to know right away what your
article is about and why they should care.There’s too
much competition on the internet to screw around.

9. Effective blogging
Blog readers want to know right away what your
article is about and why they should care.There’s too
much competition on the internet to screw around.

10. Effective blogging
Blog readers want to know right away what your
article is about and why they should care.There’s too
much competition on the internet to screw around.

11. Effective blogging
Blog readers want to know right away what your
article is about and why they should care.There’s too
much competition on the internet to screw around.

12. Effective blogging
Blog readers want to know right away what your
article is about and why they should care.There’s too
much competition on the internet to screw around.

13. Effective blogging
SO GET
TO THE
POINT
Don’t lead with process
“I went to a meeting…”
Don’t lead with irrelevant details
“Often in life…”
Lead with the takeaway!
“Remember this one thing…”

14. Effective blogging
Many blog readers only
read the first paragraph.
Say what they need to
know right away, and keep
it short.
Otherwise you’ll get the
dreaded
tl;dr

15. Effective blogging
Most blog posts only need
2 sentences to sum them
up.
One sentence to explain
whatever you’re
presenting, and a 2nd to
set necessary background
context.

16. Effective blogging
You can add more
details later.
People who want to
keep reading will, but
people who are
skimming will still get
the point.
This is where to talk
about sources, go into
detail about implications,
etc.

17. Effective blogging
SIMPLE
LANGUAGE
ALWAYS USE City planners often
intentionally use
complicated language, to
try and sound technical
and objective.
Blog readers respond
better to simple
language.

18. Effective blogging
“For northbound
bicycle traffic,
there is a
significant grade
which cannot be
alleviated.”
“People cycling
north have to
climb a hill.”

19. Effective blogging
Use the zombie rule to
avoid passive voice
“Why was the road crossed
by zombies?”
“Why did the zombie cross
the road?”

20. Effective blogging
The best data
analysis in the world
is useless on a blog if
nobody reads it.
Be short, to the
point, and talk like a
real person.

21. Effective blogging
GGW always needs
more posts, but only
certain types of posts
work for GGW.
If you want your
content to be published
on GGW, follow these 9
guidelines…

22. Effective blogging
9 tips to get on GGW:
1. Pick topics with a practical impact to the
smart growth mission.
We rarely publish:
●
Fantasies
●
Information that’s too wonky for a broad
audience
●
Posts focusing on process
●
Posts that function as ads

23. Effective blogging
9 tips to get on GGW:
2. Write the key takeaway in one concise
introduction paragraph.
- If I only read your first 2-3 sentences, will I
get your main point?
- Put less crucial details in the middle or
bottom.

24. Effective blogging
9 tips to get on GGW:
3. Explain data, analysis, or news before giving
opinions.
- The best posts take a piece of news or data
as a starting point, and use it to draw
conclusions about something smart growth-
related.
- We’re less likely to run straight opinions.
- Readers aren’t all experts already, so explain
the context.
Explain

25. Effective blogging
9 tips to get on GGW:
4. Use engaging prose.
- Write with short sentences and short
paragraphs.They hold readers’ attention
better.
- If you can say something in fewer words, use
fewer words. Don’t try and sound smart with
unnecessarily complicated language.
- Use active verbs and avoid passive voice
(“… by zombies”)

26. Effective blogging
9 tips to get on GGW:
5. Keep it short.
- Blog posts aren’t academic papers.
- A few hundred words is about right. 1,000
words is too long.
6. Include images.
- Photos, graphs, charts, anything visual.

27. Effective blogging
9 tips to get on GGW:
7. Give GGW’s editors time to edit.
- Submitting a post a few days prior to
publication gives us a chance to fit it to our
format.
- Sending us a post after you’ve published it is
like saying “take it or leave it.”We’re less
likely to take it.

28. Effective blogging
9 tips to get on GGW:
8. For best results, learn GGW’s style guide.
- If you want to contribute regularly, consider
following GGW’s format from the get-go.
- The style guide standardizes details like
when to use capitalization or spell out
numbers vs digits.
- If you become an official GGW contributor,
we’ll send it to you.

29. Effective blogging
9 tips to get on GGW:
9. Submit tips for GGW’s breakfast links.
- Every day, GGW links to a set of articles
that (for whatever reason) aren’t right for
GGW blog posts.
- We’d rather have your posts run as posts,
but you can always submit breakfast links
tips to:
greatergreaterwashington.org/tip/

30. Remember
Blogging is a means to an
end.
The end is to network
with & educate people
who are passionate about
your subject.
Good blogs make people
want to join you.

31. like GGW
Dan Malouff
BLOG
Arlington County DOT
Greater Greater Washington
BeyondDC
that‘s how you
dmalouff@arlingtonva.us