Do your blog posts stink? - Part 1
09.22.08 - 08:00am
There are plenty of places to look on the Web to find amazing resources on how to write amazing posts to draw people to your blog and keep them coming back. However, here are some tips and some observations about why your blog posts might stink. This the first post in this series.
Balance
Balance: It's hard, but do it.
I spend a lot of time on the web, so I come across a ton of different websites of differing content quality and a wide swath of design standards. A lot of people don’t have a balance. There are a lot of pretty sites that have useless or no content. On the flip side of that coin, some sites have terrific content but the site does not have an organized navigation system. You can’t find what you need if the menus stink.
So you only have a set amount of time to work on your blogging? Make sure you spend some time in all the different areas it takes to run a successful blog. Make sure you have a good looking design and appropriate for your topic, but don’t try and push the envelope in the graphics design department if you are running a blog about sewing. If you are a graphic designer, however, people want to see really well done design. In that situation, don’t be afraid to take some chances.
Don’t rush thru writing your posts, but don’t let them sit around too long either. Sometime there is stuff that is extremely timely……those are the posts you should just get it up there. There are also times when you really need to sit down and really think about where a post is going. It really depends on the subject.
Lists Lists Lists!
Let’s face it, people love lists. I would presume the reason that this is so popular is that the brain gravitates to them as important, being that they really are bullets points. If you do a quick zip around on Twitter or a blog search, every single day you will see a ton of blogs with top “insert random number here” lists. Some sites almost singlehandedly rely on this technique. I myself don’t really use them as I have a hard time distilling a point down to that level.
Get Ticked
One of the best ways to get noticed is to tick people off. The average person has no problem pointing out the pitfalls of you being you, so you might as well keep them engaged in your writing. If you are an opinionated person, let it show!
Watch the advertising
If you have a boring, badly written blog, don’t use Adsense or any advertising for that matter. It makes your ugly site even uglier. I mean it.
Actually want to do it
Blogging is one of those things that will show how much you care for the subject you are writing about. Don’t blog because everyone else is, because you think you can make money from it; blog because you can make a fantastic blog better than everyone else. If you don’t have the guts to do it, don’t bother.
Hopefully you found some value in my post, discuss in the comments all the ways that help you write a good post.
RSS
Balance is sometimes hard to find. Recently, I decided to update my site layout. I loved the colors in my previous one, but the navigation around it was lacking. So I spent a lot of time working on the layout, and it paid off. Now I can spend more time focused on the content again, and less worried about the design.
Actually wanting to do it is a huge factor in blogging. it’s easy to tell on some sites that the person is more interested in advertising than writing.
I like three of your ideas. The one I’m not crazy about, which I’m not debating may be effective, is getting people ticked off. I had one post on my business blog that I thought was a little innocuous video that, for whatever reason, sparked a firestorm as to whether it was true or not. I didn’t really care because I thought the message was the most important thing, but it turns out some folks don’t care about message, they want facts. Thing is, a lot of people came, things got stirred up, but no one thought to purchase or even look at anything I was marketing because they were in too much of a hurry to argue. No, I’d rather engage and get people thinking, and then maybe they’ll think about buying.