I am, for my sins, an idealist. This makes life difficult as constantly I am striving for perfection, and the perfection of others. Even the easiest of things, walking down the pavement for instance, tax my day. I live in the UK, you’re probably well aware that as a nation we drive on the left hand side of the road. To an idealist, such as me it makes sense to walk down the left hand side of the pavement too. It would prevent all of the bustling and weaving, pushing and barging that occur in city life. Far from saying we should be robots and step onto the conveyor belt of life, just some kind of orderly respect would make me a much happier person. In Birmingham where I live we have many cycle paths, clearly labelled, white paint on the floor. Next to these are footpaths, clearly labelled, white paint on the floor. The amount of pedestrians straying across the line and causing me to swerve or plough into them on particularly sleepy commutes to work by bike is unbelievable. In an ideal world everyone would have common sense, like me.

I find this trait both enabling and disabling when it comes to writing and managing a blog. Striving for an idealistic plateau of perfection means that great care is taken in the construction of a post. I’s are dotted, T’s are crossed (okay so this cannot be done in a literal sense but a good old spell check is carried out along with several rereads to ensure good readability). References and statements are checked for accuracy. As an advocate of usability and accessibility online, erroneous terms such as ‘Read More’ and ‘Click Here’ are labelled descriptively, with, for example ‘Read More on Introducing the idealist’ and ‘Navigate to the offers page’. It is these small, commonly overlooked items that make me happy when I see them being used on blog posts I am reading.

So how does idealism become disabling? Some bloggers have the ability to piece together a post very quickly, a splurge of thought dumped onto the page at an alarming rate. This, after what I have just mentioned previously sounds like something I would not care for. However, ideally I would love to be able to carry out several conversations per day and create a real buzz around my blog by capturing the hearts and minds of a wider audience. This is where the idealist comes unstuck. With this inane idealist mind that worries about the small items, the research, the content, a brain dump or thought splurge is out of the question. Not to say I do not try. No. Idealistic I strive and try to splurge from time to time. It is a constant battle.

We as bloggers, in order to grow need to be in tune with our personalities. There is no hard and fast rule to blogging. Some of us write essays, others bullet point. Some write personal diaries, others news or corporate blogs. Plugging into our own traits and using these to our advantage will allow us to develop our own voice. Use what is in your head to your advantage, whether it be a battle like mine or a road of creativity lined with roses. Also be in tune to the fact that there are many other styles too. If your own is hampering you or today you fancy a new approach don’t be scared to give another a whirl to break the mould of your current style. You never know your audience may prefer it. Gauge it through your analytics software.

I would be interested to hear how you approach your blogging style and whether you put up your own personal barriers. How do you overcome these?

Kevin Rapley is a web designer, developer and blogger from Birmingham, UK. Branching into social media and educating both clients and web visitors to his site website www.Digikev.co.uk has been his goal over the past year. He currently works for HRO’C, a digital agency, as a web developer and also gets involved in online projects www.newmediajunkie.com as well as various freelance projects and meetings with local blogger groups.