busy
jongibbs shares some tips on mistakes to avoid in blogging. Many of these are good, some debatable. My thoughts...1) Don't be boring. To this I add: Know what you and your audience consider interesting. There are different branches of blogging; the core of one is often annoyingly irrelevant in another.
2) Don't tell people what to do. Applies to some branches far more than others: there are advice blogs, and general blogs where the author is an expert whose advice is relished by their audience.
6) Don't promote yourself or your work in someone else's blog (unless invited to do so). I'd simply amend this to "... in a way that annoys people." Because one of the best means of self-promotion is also a terrific content-booster: making a comment about your work when it is relevant to the discussion. I mean, come on, if I see someone lamenting, "Everyone tells me to write my own rituals, but nobody says how!" then of course I'm going to point them to Composing Magic. That's WHY I wrote the book! Again, this varies by blog branch. Pimping is disliked in personal-blogging, but often embraced in professional or hobby blogs.
10) Filling in the blank, I add:
* Don't vanish. People get antsy if you post frequently and then disappear for days without a word. And if your posts are erratic to begin with, people tend to drift away.
* Don't write so badly that the technical errors drive away your audience. Good grammar, punctuation, and spelling are your friends.
Thoughts
October 10 2010, 22:14:16 UTC 10 years ago
It's a matter of taste. The relevant questions are: 1) What kind of blog do you want to write? and 2) What kind of audience do you want to attract?
People say the same about politics, don't bring it up or you will drive people away. *shrug* If they can't handle my very active activism, gods help them if they get into my poetry or fiction, because some of those things are sharp enough to cut. I make a choice to use minimal vulgarity because some of my friends dislike it, and I want them to be okay reading my blog. Not everyone feels that way, which is fine.
The bottom line is, whatever you write will largely determine who reads it. There will always be people who are bored or offended by what you enjoy. They will go elsewhere. As long as you're honest about what you like and dislike in blogging, you'll probably be happy with the results.
Re: Thoughts
October 10 2010, 23:12:12 UTC 10 years ago
This.
You've answered those questions rather well for yourself.
I first added you after you had made a comment somewhere that piqued my interest. After checking your lj, I thought, "Hey, this is some good stuff, I should follow this person."
The payoff for me as an audience member is that not only do you engage me, even on subjects of peripheral interest to me, but you engage *with* me. That's the kind of blog I prefer.
Re: Thoughts
October 11 2010, 00:57:41 UTC 10 years ago
I think it's because I approached blogging as a writing project. I waited until I had some ways for it to benefit me before I did it at all. I researched what kind of things I thought would be effective, and launched with those, which made a pretty good beginning. And then I observed the results and fine-tuned things based on audience feedback, which is when it really took off for me. I am pleased with that.
>> I first added you after you had made a comment somewhere that piqued my interest. After checking your lj, I thought, "Hey, this is some good stuff, I should follow this person." <<
*grin* Yay! I've picked up a substantial number of audience members that way, over the years. I do it myself, too -- a savvy comment on the blog of a mutual friend can easily send me browsing that person's blog to see if I want to add them.
>>The payoff for me as an audience member is that not only do you engage me, even on subjects of peripheral interest to me, but you engage *with* me. That's the kind of blog I prefer.<<
Thank you!
I like the kind of blog that reminds me of fun conversations in a coffeehouse or con suite. That makes me want to wander over, join in, and make friends. And it works whether the topic is something of mutual activity (such as writing) or something I can just admire from afar (like puppetry).
Re: Thoughts
October 11 2010, 01:37:40 UTC 10 years ago