What makes a good Blogger?
A few days ago I started to ask advice from my readers, now I am starting to give lessons.
What makes a good blogger ?
This has been extensively discussed in many blog posts by many people.
But do not be afraid to address common themas, as long as it is your personal view.
Hence Rule n°1 : Be personal.
Whatever you blog about, make a point. Be crisp. Don’t just repeat what others have said better somewhere else.
Don’t just quote for the sake of quoting. if you quote, give your two cents.
Nobody will blame you for having an opinion. Your readers are interested in it. If not, they don’t read you.
Rule n°2 : Be constructive.
Your opinion matters. You are part of this galaxy of opinion makers that contribute to global awareness. Maybe I am getting carried away here.
But my point is that everybody can have an influence. Just make it a positive one.
You can be controversial, but try to not be too aggressive, or you will probably turn off 90% of readers.
Rule n°3 : Be passionate.
Love what you do and do what you love.
Having fun while writing is extremely communicative to the reader. So is boredom. Don’t force yourself.
Rule n°4 : Affirm your own style.
(You may think it’s similar to rule n°1, except for the number.)
Develop your own style. Opinion is one thing, style is another. You can borrow opinions from others. You cannot borrow style.
Easy to say, not easy to do.
Try to understand what makes you unique and develop it.
Rule n°5 : Diversify the media.
If you like to write, fine. That’s the first function of a blog. Be your own publishing house.
Don’t forget pictures : some say you should try posting one photo a day. At least it shows you’re not always sitting at your computer.
Personally, I like to put screenshots of websites I write about.
It takes a second, it’s free of rights (nobody ever complained to me I was promoting their website) and illustrates your point (especially if you don’t have any, but then go to rule n°1).
If you like to talk or sing, podcast it. Put it on Youtube with your URL at the end. You may attract a virtual fan club and a Major will sign you.
Rule n°6 : Interact.
This is obvious but it takes dedication.
Reply to comments and comment to blogs you like.
Hypertext is the cement of the internet, so link to your fellow bloggers, and do it well.
Remember : blogging supposedly started the so called “social web”.
Rule n°7 : Stay focused.
Don’t make too many digressions. Stick to your subject. One subject per post.
Your readers come for a content that matches the title of your post. Try to match their expectations. No brilliant off topic.
Rule n°8 : Post often, but not too much.
I thought that readership and traffic was proportional to the number of posts. The more posts, the more traffic.
I was wrong. As Darrew Rowse points out recently, too many posts are the number one reason people unsubscribe from your blog.
Don’t be bulimic, adjust to your inspiration (you can edit the date of posts to publish in the future) and respect people’s time : if it’s not worth reading, don’t write it!
Rule n°9 : Write good content, duh.
This one is the one and only rule for many bloggers.
What does it mean ? If you respect the above rules, you probably write good content.
Rule n°10 : Forget all the rules.
Don’t assert things like I did here.
Or do it like Seth Godin (”Write short, pithy posts / Write long, definitive posts”). Ask yourself questions. Contradict yourself.
Don’t be too dogmatic. Don’t try to have an answer to everything. Raise the debate, don’t close it…
Any comment?
Now let’s see if I can apply all these rules to myself !
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March 4th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Good advice! To me there are 3 kinds of bloggers:
1. Those who do it for self-expression or art. Theoretically they should just do what they feel and not care if anyone reads at all.
2. Those who do it to be useful to others in some way, like a tech or political blog. They seem to care the most how many are reading, usually because they have advertising on their site.
3. Those who wish to entertain or interact with others. For them, perhaps, this advice is the most useful. The content is a means to connect with others and obviously, the more readers the better.
March 4th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Absolutely.
I belong to the three of them ! :)
March 16th, 2007 at 4:41 am
I don`t know where is sign in for your blog!My english is not very well!Thank you!!
September 25th, 2007 at 12:36 am
[...] I think a good blogger should know their audience. In that spirit, we ran a 24 hour test yesterday with Google to see exactly what people in the United States were searching for relating to Lake Tahoe. Google’s keyword tool offers a really good idea of what keywords people use and their general search volume, but it doesn’t provide specific, real-time numbers. Although there were the no-brainers at the top (lake tahoe, tahoe, south lake tahoe), you might be a little surprised by the lack of popularity of certain keywords (especially real estate related). I thought it was interesting that “lake tahoe” was 2.5 times more popular than “tahoe” and almost 6 times as popular as “south lake tahoe”. I also thought it was funny that 4% of the people left the “e” off tahoe. I guess it’s possible that they were looking for a Philippine snack food :-). [...]
November 26th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Hi~ I’m from Korea.
I was so impressed to read your advice to make a good blogger.
Yes, I agree with you mostly to “Stick to the rules, forget all the rules, however.” :)
Keep up the good work!!
(If you came to my blog and leave a message,
I would really appreciate it. )
November 26th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Wow!!
You have 143 readers!!
I just keep one rule. –;
(Reply every comments in mine.
I don’t write something informational.
(Most of things, I write what I like.)
September 29th, 2008 at 1:46 am
blutoto, me too! plus, you need to be kind to your readers and your own blog. some people might use unpleasant words to express what they feel. but i personally think it may distracting readers.
regards from Malaysia.
have a nice day!
October 25th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
[...] 365 QUESTIONS - BLOGGING [...]
June 9th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
[...] There is much written about how to be a good or “successful” blogger like this : What makes a good Blogger? and more on copyblogger.com: The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging , The Two Most Important [...]
July 29th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
nice. i like it
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:12 am
[...] is updated frequently, well-written, and on-topic. Or to put it more succinctly: “Write good content, duh.” [...]
February 4th, 2010 at 2:46 am
I don’t seem to be getting much of an audience but my blog is mainly technology and current affairs being my take and opinion on it. Although I don’t get many visitors I enjoy it just to get my views across even if people don’t read it ;)