OK, so you've joined Active Rain, tweaked your profile (Part I), started to do a little lurking (Part II)... now you are ready to hit the ground and run. 

Step 1...

Let go of perfection.  Many of us want every post to be perfect.  Let go...  It isn't going to happen.  The ONLY thing that you will get from trying to make all of your posts perfect is a lack of posts. 

• Make it good...
• Use tools like spell check...
• If you are concerned, have someone else read it first...
• Remember that even after you post it, you CAN edit. 
  

I have changed almost EVERY single post I have written.  I go back to comment or to review for one reason or another and I find a mistake to correct.  Even posts that have been corrected seem to still have the odd typo or other mistake. 

So, let go of the idea that you have to be perfect...  Settle for being "really good." 

Step 2...

Start an "Idea Log".  Most of us that blog a lot get lots of ideas for posts... and for some of us, those ideas die before getting recorded.  I have 1200 posts here on Active Rain, plus another 1000 post elsewhere from the last 2 1/2 years.  I have probably had twice as many ideas... 

By the way, I've found that there are a couple of types of post ideas that I have:

• The Unignorable...  These posts write themselves in my head.  I HAVE to write them down.  They nag at me until they are written. 
  
• The Question...  A client or friend asks me a question and there is a blog post hanging right there in the answer.  It is "low-hanging fruit".  We all should have a dozen of these wating to be written.  BTW, it is nice to answer the question with a link to a post written on the subject. 
  
• The Lost...  These outnomber the others... combined.  These are passing ideas that pop in and out of my mind constantly... except when I am sitting in front of my computer. 
  

Whether you call and leave yourself a message, write a note or have a little log book, the idea log is a powerful tool to keep you writing. 

Step 3...

You are in the right frame of mind (it doesn't have to be perfect...), and you have plenty of ideas (and even an idea log).  WRITE SOME POSTS!  Stop planning... WRITE SOME POSTS!  You'd be surprised how many folks never make it to this step.  Block out some time, sit down with your ideas and see what you spit out.  Don't worry about perfection.  Don't worry too much about presentation.  In fact, don't even worry that much about content.  Worry about getting a post or three posted.  They can even be fluff posts...  in fact, go out to eat, shoot some food porn (that is pictures of the beautiful food presentation) and write about a local restaurant.  You will have good hyper-local content, pictures and a relatively easy post to write. 

THE most important thing that you can do in order to write is to... write.  Later we will talk about ways to make posts better, but before worrying about making something better, something had to be made.

For other posts in this series, look just below the post.  There are a few "tags".  One of them says ambassador series.  Click it and you will get a list of all posts in this series... as well as some previous posts that are applicable.