Making an impact with your content

Aug 06, 2008 4 Comments »

For a few months I have been thinking about trying to create as much unique content on this blog as possible. Creating unique content certainly doesn’t mean not participating in the conversation; when you participate in conversations – writing content based on what’s being published on other blogs, websites, online forums and micro-blogging platforms – in one way or another you end up writing content that makes you feel as if you’ve already read this. Take for instance blogging; every kid in the neighborhood is writing about blogging and disseminating oracular tutorials on how to publish blogs, promote them and unleash the gigantic waves of success. I too publish lots of posts on blogging because this is the subject I enjoy writing about and over a period of time have gleaned some knowledge about.

Uniqueness is one of the ways of making an impact with your content. I will be writing more on this topic later on. Right now I want to share some thoughts on how to make an impact with your content.

Your content needs to be highly useful

It is an indisputable fact that in order to make an impact you need to offer something that is extremely useful. Don’t bother if the same thing is being offered by other bloggers and website publishers because your visitors might not be visiting those websites and they may be totally dependent upon you for their content needs.

Being useful doesn’t always mean that it should help people earn money or improve their behavioral problems. If your visitors visit your blog to get a good laugh then your content that makes them laugh is highly useful to them. Similarly if they want to see great examples of photography and if your blog publishes exquisite photographs then you are being highly useful. The moment you begin to satisfy the fundamental need of your visitors you become useful to them and they keep coming to your blog or website. You make an impact if they make an extra effort to keep abreast with the happenings at your blog or your website.

Make a difference

Lately I have been visiting lots of environment and alternative energy blogs. They publish great information on how to improve the environment and use alternative energy sources to curb global warming and pollution. There are many other blogs that constantly publish information related to the field of poverty alleviation, rehabilitation, disability, world peace, prevention of cruelty to animals, wildlife preservation and many other worthy causes. The content on their blogs and websites is constantly making an impact.

In order to make an impact through your content your need not follow a templated advice. Just think about what your visitors need and provide it to them in the friendliest manner.

Is the future of blogging shaky?

Aug 05, 2008 2 Comments »

I was reading this blog post on Read/Write Web and it seems people are already suggesting how you should cope with the demise of blogging. Is blogging really fading? It depends on whom you are asking and who is blogging.

When considering this question you shouldn’t take blogging as a simple term or an activity; blogging is a form of communication no matter what you are communicating and how you are communicating. Just like any application or activity blogging too is going through a transformation. There was a time when there were very few blogs and very few readers. Then came a time when there were very few blogs and many readers. This phase proceeded to a stage when there were lots of blogs and lots of readers. The last stage obviously creates lots of competition, lots of repetition, and consequently lots of weariness. This is the reason why many bloggers feel that the popularity of blogging is fading to an extent.

If you go by the numbers and statistics then you will surely feel that but if you see blogging as a utility, a tool, that you can use to spread your message and to communicate to people who are eager to listen to you then blogging is still the most potent application you have got. If you cater to an audience that is fad-centric instead of personality-centric or value-centric then you will very soon lose that audience as soon as a new fad appears. Something like, some bloggers feel that they have been gradually losing their audience due to YouTube and Twitter. If this is the case in your blogging too then you needn’t worry because that audience anyway didn’t belong to you; it was simply there because it had nothing better to do.

As long as you keep on providing relevant content and keep the channels of communication flowing between yourself and your audience your blog is never going to lose its significance and place.

Creating Unique Blog Content

Jul 23, 2008 3 Comments »

It is really very difficult to come across totally unique content on the Internet, especially on blogs. The definition of unique content may differ from topic to topic but it more or less means content that is very difficult to find on other sources and at the same time it is highly useful, relevant, or topical.

Creating totally unique content is not possible always because when you are blogging you are mostly talking about things that other people, the bloggers are talking about. Even your visitors would like to know what your take is on the subjects generally being discussed on other blogs. The key expression here is “your take”; what you have to say, what you have to add. This is a big reason why lists are becoming big bores on various blogs, even on the “A-list” blogs because these lists have nothing unique to say. They are either pointing out things that have been said thousands of times by thousands of other people or they simply linking to things that have already been said thousands of times by thousands of other people.

Again, you can say the same old thing but with a different perspective in order to be unique. This way people will come to your blog just because they know you’re going to say your own thing on the topic; that what you are saying is totally unique to you. This uniqueness can be your style, the examples you use, the way you write and the links you link to. In order to generate unique content you have to come out of the herd mentality: just be yourself and don’t follow all the suggestions copiously thrown around by different “expert” bloggers.

Okay, being different, being unique, and not following trends does not mean you devoid yourself of benefits of following some well proven methodologies for success. For instance it is highly advisable that you create compelling titles for your blog posts and organize your blog content under various headings and subheadings. Now, this is not just a suggestion, it is common sense. Titles do entice us especially if they cater to our sensibilities and headings and subheadings do help you organize your thoughts properly.

Generating unique content for every successive blog post is normally not possible but among five blog posts at least one should be totally unique – totally your own, unadulterated perspective and point of view.

Unique content also helps you target niche audience because the more you focus on less common content the more targeted your audience becomes.

Writing a good blog post

Jul 08, 2008 3 Comments »

I was preparing a quote for a new blogging assignment and while preparing the quote I was explaining to the client who intends to hire me what makes a good blog post. At that point I thought will also share my thoughts on this on my blog. So here are a few things that make your blog post a good blog post (the opinion may differ from blog to blog but it can be generally acceptable):

Make your blog post interesting and topical

I think this goes without saying. People are not going to read your blog posts if they are not interested and they will only be interested if you can offer something interesting. By “interesting” I mean something that is highly relevant, that is current, that is useful, that is realistically useful, and that is topical. Current topics, garnished with your own personal opinion, are generally great in bringing more and more people to your blog. I will quickly like to add here that more people reading your blog post does not make your blog post good; the entire goodness exists in the relevancy of your blog post.

Pay attention to the title and headings

Titles and headings make it easier for the reader to quickly go through your blog post. After all one has to visit scores of blogs in a day and a post that goes on and on and on quickly sends the less interested visitors away. A good way of keeping them hooked to your current blog post is highlighting the relevant portions and expressions with the help of headings. The title is what gets them initially interested and the headings keep them reading your blog post. A well-defined title can get you good rankings on the search engine result pages. Your headings are like orientation tools. Once you know what is there in the paragraph you can read that paragraph faster. Therefore if there is heading over a paragraph it is a lot easier to read that paragraph or at least skim through it.

Keep your blog posts short if possible

Although personally I have nothing against long blog posts — in fact sometimes even I write pretty long blog posts – keep the length of your blog post as much as there is requirement. Don’t unnecessarily increase the length of your blog posts because your readers are intelligent enough to see through if you have got nothing solid to say.

Organize your main thoughts in bulleted lists

It seems everybody loves bulleted lists on the Internet and they come highly recommended. In fact the bulleted lists are so relevant that even search engines take them into consideration while ranking your web pages and blog posts according to the related keywords. So if you think that you can write your thoughts in bulleted lists instead of a paragraph then use bulleted lists. They not only reduce the size of your blog post they also make it easier to read.

Stick to your fundamental theme

Don’t try to cover everything under the sun; people come to your blog to read on a particular topic and preferably on a topic you specialize in. So if you are a web designer it is better that your blog posts deal with web designing rather than cooking macaroni, although sometimes you can do that to keep things interesting.

Instill passion into your blog posts

This is a must; write only if you believe in it and if you believe in it then people will be able to perceive the underlying passion and passion is always powerful.

Do successful bloggers have a great ego?

Jul 04, 2008 2 Comments »

I was just now reading this very old post at technosailor about most successful bloggers having a big ego. The writer says that successful bloggers do things in order to gain attention from search engines, from readers and from other bloggers and this satisfies their ego. So is it necessary that if you want to be a successful blogger you need to have an ego?

It depends on how you perceive ego. Some say it is your inner consciousness and some say ego is what you think other people think of you. In blogging personality, attitude and attention do matter and in fact they matter a lot. To stand apart your blog required an identity, a unique personality so that people can instantly recognize you and then remember you. Along with remembering you they must also remember you in good stead. It is no use being notorious because although you will get attention initially this attention won’t last long. You need positive attention, you need people to like you and appreciate you and value whatever you publish on your blog. For some this is ego boost and for some it is a step towards something else.

People blog for different reasons and of course there are people who blog merely for attention. But some people mean to do business from their blogs, through their blogs. This business can be selling ads, promoting affiliate programs, promoting own business, spreading awareness regarding a social cause and disseminating religious and political messages. Of course social work, religion and politics don’t come under the ambit of doing business but after all it is an objective. For such people – who are blogging for one of the above-mentioned objectives – blogging success is not merely a satisfaction of the ego. They are not bothered about their personal fame (although very few people dislike the idea and the outcome); they are more bothered about the effect it is going to bring about.

Having said that I have often noticed that successful bloggers do develop a certain kind of “superior” attitude and I don’t mean it in the negative sense. Success takes lots of perseverance, skill, effort and networking and there are very few people who can sustain for a long time. This obviously fills a person with a sense of achievement. Nonetheless, there are few bloggers who remain untouched by all these feelings.