February 15, 2008

"Attributes that make up remarkable blog posts."

Karen E. Klein of BusinessWeek was right on the money when she said: "There's no doubt about it, blogs are hot. With their interactivity and their ability to position even micro-business owners as niche experts, blogs are the "it" marketing trend (source: businessweek)."

But blogging is hard, especially trying to blog really great content. That is, of course, unless you know what makes up a perfect blog post.

Who am I kidding? Nobody knows what makes the perfect blog post, but - as an expert - I do have an idea of attributes that make up remarkable blog posts. And today I'm going to share some of those attributes with you.

These are only recommendations for your blog, but if you follow them in each post you make, you are guaranteed to become a bit more popular, and have your blog be viewed as a bit more professional. So what are you waiting for? Start blogging with these traits:

Don't refer to companies or organizations... write about specific people. It doesn't matter what it takes: find out who did what and talk about them. Instead of writing about Apple releasing the iPhone, write about Steve Jobs announcing it. People like to connect, but they can't connect with organizations.

Avoid negativity... and instead write positive remarks. Readers love to be informed, and if they can go away from your blog feeling like they learned something good and powerful, they will come back for more. But if your readers are reading your criticism of everything about anything, they will quickly be turned away by your negative aura. It's like my Mother use to say: "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

Speak your thoughts... nobody likes to read the same thing over and over again. That's why people love bloggers who have strong opinions and insights, which makes this point a "no brainer" for most. Don't be shy, your opinion matters to somebody; and if you share your opinion on enough interesting topics, your opinion will suddenly matter to a lot of people.

Don't blog when you are angry... even when you think you have something big to say. I know: this point contradicts with my previous point... but not really. You should post your opinions often, but anger is typically an irrational emotion and can lead to a lot of bad feelings on your blog. Instead: write down what you feel, then wait a day or two and see if you still feel that way; if you do: go ahead and blog about it. But, as I previously stated, try avoiding negativity at all costs.

Make your article easy to scan... because time is important for everybody. If your readers can come to your blog and quickly scan through your content to get a basic idea of what points you are trying to get across, they will be more likely to visit again and again and again. The easier your points are to get across: the more often people will read what you have to say.

Get to the point... and don't ramble on and on. Nobody cares THAT MUCH about what you have to say, but they do care a lot about news, research, and entertaining things.

Sure, nobody can make a "perfect" blog post, but we can all sure try; simply by trying to apply these attributes to each of your blog posts.

I'm heading out of town for the next few days, so there won't be any posts for a while, but when I get back I will be focusing on understanding a website's page rank (not just Google Page Rank, but REAL page rank).

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are all great tips. I think the hard part is actually implementing them.

There's no doubt that constant negativity and criticism will turn off readers, but we know through TV talk shows and news radio that people LOVE conflict; and when criticism is well founded and thought out, it makes for provoking, insightful blog posts.

Anonymous said...

These are some good points, but I think there is more to a great post than what you mention. Still you have some good ideas. Thanks for posting.

Anonymous said...

I don't agree with you manizesto. Whenever I read criticism on a blog I usually think the poster is an idiot.

Juggling Jason said...

I like the easy to scan tip. Overlooked by many bloggers.

Anonymous said...

@ Nick:

Consumerist is a great example of a blog whose focus is criticism and conflict. It's entertaining to browse because it's full of criticism, most of it well-founded. Of course, fictitious or petty critiques and blogs full of personal rants are sites you never want to visit again, but I think there's a way to be critical and provide good content too.

Anonymous said...

It is really hard sometimes to implement those tips. Anyway, those are really helpful tips... Thanks for that!

Anonymous said...

I'm afraid I disagree with a good portion of these. I guess it's all about your audience.

Tanner said...

Interesting insight anonymous, can you elaborate?

Joe said...

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Thanks,
Joe

Anonymous said...

Very nice insights... Thanks for the nice tips... :) It's really a big help...