From unloading with the perfect rant to sharing the perfect tutorial to simply sharing an idea to inform others, it’s safe to say that blogging is native to me. After writing literally hundreds of blog posts over the years, I have learned many mistakes from myself and others when blogging. These tips can be used to help you produce more responsive, meaningful and interesting blog posts.
And it’s not to say I’m perfect by any means. Just trust me on that. As they say, “behind every great writer is often a great editor.” My editors catch me with my illogical, tangential statements and help me share my ideas clearly. It’s my goal to save you from these mistakes and to provide advice for your future blog posts.
- Having a lack of commitment.
Commitment is crucial. I don’t just mean time – because that’s important, too – rather, the commitment to an audience. While no one is staring at you demanding your next piece from six feet away, almost every blogger has an audience who wants to hear more. Commit to a topic (at least one) and give them a show. One post doesn’t cut it. Consider sharing one idea on one subject per week. If you can’t do weekly, do once a month and do it regularly. - Being impersonal and indirect.
This is the biggest flaw that will make or break a blog entry. People don’t necessarily follow blogs for a lack of bias. People want bias. It’s why Glenn Beck and Ariana Huffington have loyal audiences. Give them an personality to attract towards. This means that bloggers need to show strength, weakness, interests, anger, and sadness. Don’t be afraid of sharing their opinions. With professional blogs, a line is drawn with politics, religion and other divisive topics; however, personal opinions are perfectly safe to share on professional blogs. If it’s potentially offensive, state it’s your personal views and front-load how (a given subject) makes you feel. People respect and in fact appreciate that. - Failing to front-load your points.
Front-loading is difficult for bloggers because it takes practice and discipline. We are taught from early ages that conclusions are always at the end of a story. This isn’t true with blogging. Make your point up front (early) in the blog post and support it with varying facts and opinions later. Generally speaking, people are strapped for time, so respect theirs and don’t make it mystery what your idea is about. - Neglecting the basics of storytelling.
A good story has these elements:– A theme
A good blog post should more or less have these in order to take a reader through your ideas so they understand them. Generally, blog posts should take the reader from start to finish without having prior knowledge of the topic and hopefully entertain them in the process.
– A plot
– Vivid pictures and descriptions
– Characters
– Dramatic appeal
– Adapted to audience
There are a number of mistakes and opportunities that plague today’s blog posts, but I wanted to share the four most bothersome and noticeable flaws in blog posts. Am I telling people how to blog? No. Instead, I’m helping bloggers share their ideas so we want to read their blog posts. I believe that this advice is ideal for practically any blogger on any topic.
Blogging takes patience. It takes practice. It takes commitment. Hopefully if you write blog posts for fun or pay, you’ll consider my advice and incorporate it in your next blog post. Hey, you just might enjoy it, too.
[Image credit: brightmeadow]
