i have been known to do both, though I have never figured out how to play nicely with SEO. But i realized last month, in the middle of my EOY goal setting, that my “job” is not to write, it’s to help people understand. Sometimes that will be in writing. But the key is the helping people understand. If I write for the sake of writing, I can lose heart. If I keep “looking” at the people I’m talking to, that can sustain heart, with heart used in the way you are using it here.

okay. done. Can I get you some coffee?

The problem with writing — any kind of writing — is that if lacks conviction and personal experience, it usually lacks substance. It rings hallow, and readers move on. A good reminder to write from the soul.

Personally, I have blog/writing topics pop in my head, and I keep a running list. These often come to me at the gym, walking the dog, etc. I then write the one that speaks to my heart most at the moment.

Sometimes it’s hard to write from the heart. You don’t want to hurt people’s feelings, alienate yourself or give up some little piece of privacy. It can be a lot easier to write something that seems interesting or useful without putting too much of yourself out there.

Humor’s another way to avoid putting too much of yourself into it. It’s a brilliant defense mechanism because it evokes emotion without going too deep.

But ultimately I have to agree with you and Geoff. Writing from the heart provides the secret sauce and makes something memorable.

Very much ‘from the heart’ Suze, thanks for posting.

I’m happy to say I write because I have an inner desire to teach and help others through strong communication. Sure, other benefits accompany this action, but when it comes down to it, my first priority has always been to satiate my need to share, teach, and inspire.

I don’t write about something unless I’ve lived it. You mention unsubscribing from blogs– I do this when the author ‘teaches’ me about stuff he or she has never done nor lived through. C’mon, give me a break.

When I see such articles, I realize their lack of genuineness, and it turns me right off.

Good stuff Suze, keep ’em coming from the heart. 🙂

I cannot commit to posting a blog post unless I really “feel” it. I’m trying to make that come across in my writing.

I don’t need SEO but I dabble with it for fun and education, but who cares about SEO if visitors can’t stand reading what you’ve written once you get them there.

Hi Suze,

Glad I made it in to read this. Great position you take—its definitely the high road. I wonder if its a road that does truly need to be defended. All the tricks, the jet-streaming of SEO-ready headlines and bot-meal blog posts with twitter auto-feeding and strategic hashtags—just tricks to stab the market. perhaps necessary.

Right after college, I was an editor at a big publishing house for textbooks. The books were top quality—but NONE of the book projects made it to production until after it was clear a market existed. I’m offering this point because it was a wild revelation to my mind—even in publishing, whether or not sweet moolah is on the other side determines what gets made.

writing from the heart should be what gets you up in the morning. i agree. but, it may just be a dirty truth that doing so isn’t good enough for the marketplace.

Have you ever read “Arts of the Contact Zone” by Mary Louise Pratt? Give it a look—details a huge manuscript discovered hundreds of years after it was written, from a leader of the Incan Empire to the King of Spain—it was 1200 pages long and very heartfelt. It never made it to the king. There was no “contact zone” established through which the dialogue could be established.

Well anyway, I think the point you are making here should be like a ‘nerf bat’ all us bloggers use to bop ourselves in the head with to make sure we put more oomph into the copy—but, that copy will be just as worthless as old Incan guy’s treatise if the writer doesn’t also pull out the stops for driving traffic.

Ha ha! I was just talking about this with my boss yesterday. Sure we can sit here and crank out content that no one will read and we might be able to help the client rank for one keyword, but we aren’t adding anything of value to anyone. Instead lets focus on helping get answers to people with well thought out posts and then we start ranking for terms we hadn’t thought of.

For me the SEO part comes into researching an industry for terms specific to them. I also like Google Keyword Tool to help me find terms that user are searching for as opposed to my industries tech speak. When it comes to writing I have to write from my heart otherwise its too hard and unreadable.

anyway great stuff, keep it up!