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Lloyd Alter is an acclaimed, entertaining and sometimes-controversial blogger. His most popular post racked up a staggering 2 million views in two days. His work never fails to deliver on personality and passion – and here are his tips on how you can do the same

Lloyd Alter

If you’re looking for advice on blog writing, who better to turn to than Lloyd Alter. He’s been blogging successfully about architecture and energy efficiency since before blogging software even existed.

Whether he’s praising the latest Passivhaus building or robustly challenging common opinion on net zero energy, his work never fails to convey his personality and passion.

The two ‘P’s are the Holy Grail of good writing. The secret ingredient most bloggers strive for, but can’t achieve. In a moment, Lloyd will share his secrets.

Before that, some background on Lloyd. He’s been an architect, developer and prefab promoter. And it was when he became the latter that he decided he needed to promote himself – and turned to blogging.

Blazing a Trail

But this was before the days of WordPress, Tumblr and Blogger. So he was coding in HTML every day, just to get his message out there. By blazing a trail in this way, he became the go-to internet expert on prefab.

Lloyd was a big fan of TreeHugger when it launched in 2004. He liked what they were doing and decided to send them some tips and articles. After a few years freelancing, they asked him to write for them full time.

“Suddenly, I was a successful blogger instead of a failing prefab salesman,” said Lloyd.

He later became managing editor, but decided to return to being a writer. “My posts attracted the most page views,” said Lloyd. “So every time I edited rather than wrote, it was costing me page views.”

Now, Lloyd’s busy career includes writing for TreeHugger, MNN and The Guardian, along with a host of other lecturing and educational commitments.

Secrets of Good Blogging

Lloyd’s unique style and left-of-centre viewpoints bring him a huge number of page views and repeat readers. So what does he believe is the secret of good blogging?

“It sounds like a cliche, but it comes down to having something to say,” he said. “You’ve got to have some expertise in what you’re talking about and you have to be passionate about what you’re saying.

“Too many blogs simply slam things up for the page views. Because we’re an advertiser supported site, page views are extremely important, but you have to be careful. I think it’s a mistake to write something just because you think it’ll be popular or go viral, rather than saying something that you really believe.”

Challenge the Status Quo

That’s not to say that it doesn’t pay to challenge popular opinion from time to time.

“I sometimes take contrarian positions because sometimes I’m contrarian and don’t agree with the common wisdom, particularly on all this smart home technology – even on all kinds of issues,” he said. “Sometimes people come just to see that.

“But overall, the reason most people read my work is because they tell me I make things really clear and simple to understand. It’s not like an architect talking to an architect, which god forbid you never want to be in the middle of! I have the ability to take a complex subject – be it energy efficiency or Passivhaus – and make it understandable. That’s what I try to do more than anything else.”

So what techniques does Lloyd use when he sits down to pen a post?

“I see a concept, get an understanding of it and try to convey it,” he said. “I’ve become passionate about Passivhaus, for example, and really negative about net zero energy.

Good Writing is an Art

“Explaining net zero energy is really hard, because there are 50 different definitions running around. That becomes a sort of art – explaining new things to people who don’t normally read about them.

“I also just did a post about a report that patted everyone on the head because the US is using half as much energy per person as in 1980. It was based on energy use of new homes per square foot. But the size of new homes has doubled – so energy use has gone up 50%! The whole thing was almost fraudulent. We’re spending more on energy efficiency, but totally just standing still.

“So I took this subject and distilled an 80-page report into 80 words. I took the reader through the report and a bit of history. But I didn’t just report on it, I added an opinion – that it could be looked at as either a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty story.”

TreeHugger

Hold Something Back

It’s these passionate views that make Lloyd’s writing so successful. But he says it is possible to give away too much of yourself.

“I’ve had some quite vicious attacks sometimes about saying too much of what I think and not enough about the story,” he said. “But I have lots of repeat readers who come to expect this. Last week, someone said: ‘I can’t believe it, I’ve agreed with Lloyd Alter on two stories this week!’ I like it when I get that.”

Here are Lloyd’s five top tips for injecting more personality and passion into your blog writing:

Don’t get mad, get even

It’s a famous phrase that I really think applies to blogging. Don’t get angry, but make a good counter point. Always look for the counter point where you can add something to a discussion that’s different. Unless you stake out an opinion that’s different, you’re probably not going to get noticed.

Work from your strengths

It’s an old political line which says don’t go trying to dig out people who would never vote for your party. I used to write about anything I thought I could write about. Now, I write about design, housing and technologies that I understand – I write about what I know. I think that’s really important, especially when you get established as a writer.

Never stop reading

This is important. It’s really difficult to write a lot and broaden your exposure if you don’t keep learning and reading.

Never be afraid to say you’re wrong

I have half a dozen posts where I’ve totally changed my opinion on lots of things over the past few years. Other people have written things that have opened my eyes and changed my views. And it always makes a great post when you admit you’re wrong. People like it when you say, ‘you know what, I was wrong about that’.

Get yourself a honking big monitor

This is a technical one, but so many people work on tiny notebooks. I normally hook my MacBook up to a 20-inch monitor. When I do have to work on a smaller screen, my productivity takes a huge hit.

The post Lloyd is proudest of is one he wrote last year titled ‘In praise of the Dumb Home’. “It built and built and continues to build,” he said. “It also got me on to the lecture circuit and led to work on MNN.”

But however experienced and popular you are, sometimes it’s hard to put your finger on why some posts capture the Zeitgeist.

“The most popular post I ever wrote was about mirrored glass tree houses in Sweden,” he said.

tv-rendering-trees

“It happened to get picked up and put on the front page of Yahoo. It got 2 million page views in two days and completely broke our site! There was nothing terrific about what I said, and nothing that really made a difference and yet it was by far the most popular.

“It’s just the luck of search and the luck of going viral.”

Architect Elrond Burrell launched his lively, plain English blog on Passivhaus last year. So what has he learned from a year in the blogosphere?

Elrond Burrell is passionate about designing buildings that are affordable, comfortable and healthy to live in – and which have the minimum impact on the environment. It’s a passion he puts into practice at the firm where he works, Architype. They’re one of the UK’s leading Passivhaus and sustainable architecture companies.

He’s long been an active and outspoken participant on social media, interacting and commenting regularly on matters of environmental and sustainable design. It was this evident passion that saw his peers prompt Elrond to start his own Passivhaus blog.

“Because I was active on social media anyway, establishing relationships with others in the industry, I found myself commenting on Passivhaus and sustainable building a lot,” he said.

“A couple of people said to me that it was unusual to have someone who was so knowledgeable and outspoken about Passivhaus and suggested I do something for myself. That was what really prompted me to think about blogging.”

Conflict Resolution

Elrond loves to write. In fact, he goes as far as saying that if he had an alternative career, it would be as a writer. But if you think that made starting a blog any easier, you’d be wrong.

“There was a lot of deliberation when I started thinking about writing the blog,” he said. “It took me a long time before I published anything.

“My main concerns were about what I could and couldn’t write about in a personal capacity. The blog is a personal project, so I have to be careful not to write specifically about Architype, clients or projects I’m working on.

“That conflict between work and personal opinions was a tricky line to tread – and there are still some grey areas. It took a few months of thinking about that before I got the guts up to publish.”

Avalanche of Ideas

Elrond’s second concern was what to write about. So he embarked on the ambitious task of scheduling ideas – one blog every two weeks – for the entire year. Each one would be based on questions or challenges he encountered around Passivhaus and would provide a few key answers.

“What always interests me is when you work with clients you hear the misconceptions and misunderstandings people have about adopting Passivhaus. So these were a great starting point.”

With the planning in place, Elrond stepped into a brave new world of blogging. And here are 10 key lessons he’s learned:

Tone down your perfectionism

It always takes much longer to write than I anticipate. I’ve had to learn to tone down my perfectionist streak. Early on, I was drafting something, then editing it, then worrying whether I should have done it in a different way. What I’ve learned is that at some point, you say ‘it’s done, it’s good enough’ and you hit publish.

Your schedule is sacrosanct

I decided early on to publish a post every two weeks. And having a schedule for this was important for two reasons. Firstly, it meant I did it – otherwise it was too easy to put it off. Secondly, reliable, regular posting helps people get engaged because they know something is coming. The most important thing is to keep going. Regularity is as important as the quality of your work.

Collaboration is key

Working with other people is beneficial in terms of generating different quality of content. I’ve done two interview-type posts with a structural engineer and builder. I use their comments to reinforce my message, help flesh out my own ideas and get a good synergy between their words and mine.

Controversial titles are good for traffic

I wrote a piece called, 10 Things I Hate About Passivhaus. It was kind of tongue in cheek and based around the film 10 Things I Hate About You. In that film, through hating each other, two characters eventually fall in love. The blog was similar. It said that in order to adopt Passivhaus, you need to get to know it first and change your mind about a few things. It caused a massive stir, with triple the normal traffic. But I’d be cautious about being too attention-grabbing. I’d rather get people who want to get involved in the subject rather than those just looking at the blog because of a controversial headline.

Be clear on your ideas

I find it easier – and I write better – if I spend time getting a clear idea of what I want to say before I start writing. I’m also a fan of writing in small chunks and then checking they all fit together at the end. So I’ll tackle the intro, make sure I’m happy with that, then each key point, and then the summary. Then I’ll give it a final proofread to check it flows well.

Short is sweet

It’s really important to write shorter sentences. With technical subjects, it’s easy to have a long, in-depth style. But actually, in terms of getting people to read what you’ve written – and feel it’s fast paced and easy to understand – it’s better to write punchier sentences.

Define your target readers

At the beginning, I tried to establish who my target readers were, which helps me to keep my posts relevant and engaging. I established that my readers would be either self builders, architects or design professionals looking for information on Passivhaus, or corporate clients keen to find out more. I’m also trying to provide resources that take Passivhaus back to basics to see what response I get. I want it to be an evergreen resource for people new to Passivhaus, to try and extend the blog’s reach.

Book reviews boost traffic

I had the idea of reviewing Passivhaus books quite early on, where I’d take out the key points and get people to think about them. So I wrote to authors who had published an English language book on Passivhaus and asked for a review copy. It’s been great on a number of levels. You establish a relationship with the author, who’s an influencer in the sector, you get a free copy of a book you’re interested in, and you bring a new audience to your site.

Ideas flow once you’re up and running

I found that once I got going, I was overflowing with content ideas, so I’ve barely referred back to my original list. It’s important to make a note of good ideas when you get them – or you’ll forget them later! I’ve got so many things to write about now, that I can’t possibly fit them all in. I’ve also learned to borrow ideas from other disciplines. Lots of Passivhaus writing is quite insular, but I want to push the boundaries of understanding Passivhaus and get it out to a wider audience.

Fresh ideas grow your audience

I recently added a pop-up to the blog, which displays when it looks like you might be leaving the site. It gives people an easy opportunity to subscribe and has increased my number of subscribers considerably. I’m also using MailChimp to send a newsletter out when each post gets published. While the mail used to just be a summary of the blog and a link to it, I now write a few paragraphs of original content that share my thoughts on various conversations I’ve had or my thoughts on projects I’m working on. I refer to it as ‘insider information’ – although I don’t share any specific details – and it is an experiment to see if it entices more people to subscribe and feel privileged as a subscriber.

You can read and subscribe to Elrond’s blog at elrondburrell.com