Visiting Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference was a great experience — I saw old friends and met some new ones. I also spent quite a bit of time answering questions from writers of many different publications.

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]After almost 20 years in this business, I guess I’m sort of a veteran Mac guy. To be honest, I didn’t mind the questions. I know some people like to keep everything to themselves, but I figure if someone asks for help, I should do my best to give them what they need.

Here is some of the advice I gave.

Don’t be afraid to take a stand on a topic; Be honest with yourself and your readers; if you are wrong, admit the mistake and move on; Don’t write link bait; write about things you enjoy; and put some personality in your writing.

When it comes right down to it, I write for my readers and so should you. Those people may enjoy my style of writing, the topics I choose to write about or the honesty and humor that comes through in my stories.

For instance, some people really enjoy the stories I write about RIM and how bad they are doing. The fact is, when I started writing those in February, nobody was writing bad things about them. They were the darlings of the media, the ones that were going to dethrone Apple.

But I went ahead and wrote those stories anyway.

The reason I did it and continue to do it is simple — I believe what I’m writing is true. It’s easy to write something if you believe it is the truth.

Over the years, I’ve made mistakes in stories and still do. Some were bigger than others. Mistakes may even make you look stupid. When that happens, you have two choices — stand by your story or admit your mistake.

I always try to take the high road and admit my mistake. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong.

That’s not the same as caving in on an opinion. If you have an opinion, you have to stand up for that. I guarantee that not everyone will agree with what you write, but if you back up your opinion with historical fact or can draw a picture with your words, you will have as many people agree with you as those that don’t.

We all see link bait around the Internet. People hate it. Simple as that. If you become known for writing link bait, it will hurt your reputation.

One of the most important things is to write about things you enjoy. I love the Mac, iPad, iPod, and iPhone, so it makes it easy to sit here for 18 hours a day working on The Loop.

I also enjoy creating music, so I’ll often post stories about the best ways to create music or playing guitar through my Mac or iPad. Not everyone will enjoy those, but I do, so I write them.

If you can go to bed at night and you’re happy with what you’ve written, you’ve had a good day. Don’t worry about pageviews or recognition, those will come as more people read what you write.