Why would you want to write like a child? Well, if you write like this 10-year-old boy who recently started a great blog about how to care for Guinea Pigs, you will engage your readers with useful content and build lasting relationships with them. James got two new pet Guinea Pigs in early December, and as a responsible young man, he is determined to learn to care for them the best he can, then share what he learns to help others care for their pets.

Granted, James is an unusually good writer, especially for one so young.  James definitely has a style all his own, and has already begun developing his writing voice—a notable achievement at any age.

And so for your consideration, I present a few tips you and I can learn from James and his excellent Guinea Pig blog:

1. Be yourself and get to the point. This is a recent quote from James’ blog that made me laugh. It’s so direct and genuine. And if you read between the lines, there are a few fundamental life lessons here, as well. James just gets right to the point (“lightbulb” refers to his user name):

First of all I my name is James and I’m telling you my name because it’s kind of wierd for you guys and girls to be calling me lightbulb, but you can call me either.
I hope all of you take really good care of your guinea pigs and watch them a lot but sometimes life makes unexpected changes and you can’t get back to your guinea pigs for dinner or even a few days! This is why you need back-up people to take care of them…

2. Offer all the best information and resources you have. Don’t hold anything back. James tells us everything he learns about caring for Guinea Pigs. Imagine the positive effect this ten-year-old can have on the world if he helps even one other kid keep his or her Guinea Pig alive and healthy—just by taking the time to share what he knows.

3. Interact with your readers. Okay, I confess that I’m bad at this myself, so James, I am going to do better because you have inspired me by example. James encourages his readers to post their comments and questions, and then he answers them. With thoughtful, helpful responses.

4. Make it easy for readers to comment and subscribe. If you visit James’ blog, you will quickly find the “subscribe” button, and easily be able to post comments and questions, choosing from a variety of signatures to validate that you are human, such as clicking “Google acount” next to “comment as” to use your Google user ID (your Google login info is not seen by the blog owner).

5. Include images for visual interest. James takes interesting photos of his Guinea Pigs and includes them in his blog posts. Again, I could learn from James here. Even though I am a graphic designer, I never seem to know which image suits which post, so I wimp out and don’t include any. Hmmm…

Okay, so one of my New Year’s resolutions for 2010 is to write like a child. And thank you James. I hope to base at least one resolution for 2011 on inspiration from your blog, so keep writing!