WRITING AND PUBLISHING A BLOG

Right after I retired from practicing law in 2006, I created a blog and began writing articles in my blog and publishing them three times a week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) Since then, my blog has received as many as slightly over a third of a million hits from countries around the world and even including China, Iran and Russia.  However, most of my hits are from the United States and Canada.

I spend eight hours a day, six days a week in my study (my former law office) in my home at my computer, researching and writing my articles for my blog and my books. (eight of my books are published so far since 2006). So far, I have written and published 1,503 articles in my blog. The lengths of the articles range from 11,00 to 18,000 words. Sometimes I spend two days writing an article. Now I am going to offer you some advice on how to write your articles in your blog.                          

(1) Title of your blog.

You can give the title of your blog any name you wish but make sure it isn’t the same name of another blog that is in the internet as that will create problems since your readers might choose to read the other blog with the same name instead of your blog.  I chose to use my own name as the first two words of the title of my blog. Believe me, there isn’t anyone anywhere in the world that has that full name.

You will notice that I added to those two names—the word Opinions. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that you can insult anyone you want in your blog and no matter how much it upsets and embarrasses the person you are writing about—that person can’t successfully sue you for defamation of character because what you say in your blog is strictly your opinion and nothing more. If it isn’t part of your title, place in a side bar as I have, so that what you say in your blog is strictly your opinion. This way, you have covered your ass, so to speak. I have no qualms about referring to some people I am writing about as creeps, shitheads, SOBs dummies etc. if in  my opinion those words are fitting for those people. The Canadian newspaper, The National Post actually place the word OPINION above the columns written by their columnists as a protection for the paper and the columnists from being sued by disgruntled readers.

(2)  Format of your articles

Many articles in blogs that I have read are difficult to read. For example, printing words in white against a background of black is silly. Only children play with colours. Trying to be fancy when you are also trying to be serious is really dumb. Your readers did not go to your blog to be fascinated with your colours in your blog.  You will notice that in my articles, the words are in black against a light brown background. This way, my readers are not facing a bright white background which can be tiring to their eyes after a while.

The print size of words in some of the articles in blogs that I have read is far too small. You shouldn’t have to use a magnifying glass to read them.  You will notice how large my words are. They are very easy to read.  I use Georgia as the text choice and the size is 16. I then augment that size by going to View” and increasing the size to 130. If that is too large for you, then change the view size to a smaller number.  Also, all of my articles are in one column only.

(3)  Subject matter     

You can choose any subject that you want to use in your articles as your choices are limitless.  Some people use one subject and that is the only subject they use. A medical doctor or a psychologist or a psychiatrist can write thousands of articles on those subjects but the average person is not a professional although anyone can certainly give their opinions on any of those subjects or any other subjects.

I have the advantage of being a criminologist and I trained in law and practiced law so I have no difficulty writing about areas in those two professions. In fact, my choices extend to crime, civil law, human rights, war crimes, terrorism, politics, corruption, historical events and any other topics that tickles my imagination.

I subscribe to two daily newspapers—the Toronto Star and the National Post. Including the two newspapers I listed above, there are also 13 other news agencies that I use for source material.  As an example, I am currently working on an article of the recent school shooting in Florida and so far; I have downloaded as many as 39 separate articles from these publications so that I can choose the appropriate information I have read from them when I am writing my own article on that particular shooting.

I have also down loaded many other articles  that I have read each day that fascinate me and if they fascinate me, then surely they will fascinate my readers so I rewrite them in my own words and include them in my blog. If the articles in the newspapers were well written by the columnists, I will literally incorporate them word for word in my article and credit the authors of those stories.

The articles I have written in my blog thus far cover many topics so I will be able to write many more articles in my blog until I am not able to function anymore.  I don’t see that happening in the near future since I am only eighty-four years old and I plan to live until I am at least in my nineties. Why do I think that I will still live that long? The answer is simple enough. Only the young die at an early age.  My wife says I am so bad, I will outlive God. Alas, she exaggerates. I have told her a million times if I have told her once not to exaggerate.

(4)  Avoid certain words   

There are certain words that you shouldn’t use in your articles such as using words that depicts race and nationalities, Don’t use the word Nigger when writing about blacks, Spicks when writing about Italians, Japs when writing about Japanese, Krauts when writing about Germans or the word Gook  when  you are writing about Asians.

When writing about women, don’t refer to them as Cunts or Bitches. When writing about men, don’t refer to them as a Cock Sucker or Mother Fucker.

When you are writing about mentally retarded people, don't refer to them as retards or dummies.

Using the words I have shown you in the three previous paragraphs  are not only demeaning to those people of those sexes, races and nationalities, it shows your readers that you are gross as a human being and indifferent to the feelings of both sexes and also people of various races and nationalities and the problems they have in functioning. 

And finally, DO NOT write anything that can be considered as a threat on the lives of anyone. There is an exception of course if you are suggesting that terrorists should be killed. In times of war, that exception would also apply to the enemy.

Good luck in writing your blogs if that is what you want to do. Keep in mind that it is time consuming but if you have the time, you will enjoy doing it.