5 Ways To Be A Better Blogger

I’ve written thirty-eight posts on this site in a little over a year’s time, and about 160 if you include the asides. So I thought I’d take what I’ve learned from that year’s worth of experience and try to distill it into a few communicable chunks. Having completed that task, I present five ways to be a better blogger.

Disclaimer

The advice below is more for those who run less of a personal blog and more of a topical, industry-focused, etc. blog; so, you know, mileage may vary.

1. Write About Everyday Things

People respond most to topics they know the most.

Two of my more popular posts were Using Spreadsheets to Brainstorm Grids and Writing CSS Code: Inline and/or/vs. Block. Neither had I anticipated to be very popular at all, quite the contrary actually, they were mainly filler posts between “big plan” posts.

In hindsight, I think they resonated so well because they dealt with everyday stuff. Web designers deal with CSS all the time and many with grid-based designs too.

This “everydayness” naturally leads to discussion since most will have a set method of dealing with or approaching the subject and will want to share it with others. Likewise, a conversation will usually occur if you challenge the status-quo or offer value to a common task.

2. Realize No One Cares

Respect people’s time and attention and they will respect your content.

I learned early that no one really cares about your writing until you’re someone whose writing is worth caring about. There are a multitude of blogs to read and most people place a high value on their time.

For these reasons, no one is going to try to decipher what you’re saying if you’re not crystal clear, so take the extra time upfront and polish your writing. It’s essentially a one-way conversation and you usually don’t get a second chance to explain yourself if someone doesn’t get it.

3. Make Sure You Have Passion

You’ve heard it before and I’ll say it again: A strong affinity for your subject matter goes a long way.

A successful blog must have passion behind it. You’re wasting your time if not. Why? (1) Because good blogging is very hard, (2) making a significant amount of money by blogging is almost completely unrealistic, and (3) everybody has a blog now so more than likely ten other people are writing about the same thing you are.

Looking at the three reasons above, I would anticipate the following outcomes for someone who’s not passionate about the topic(s) on which they’re blogging: (1) Burnout, (2) wasted time and (3) better writing on the same subject elsewhere.

Conversely, if you’re passionate about your subject, the outcomes change drastically: (1) It’s still fun, (2) maybe the money will come later and (3) I have ten friends now that share the same interest.

4. Fill A Void

If there’s no market, create one!

Another popular post on this site was a tutorial that explained how to get sIFR to work. To implement sIFR can be tricky, and the documentation is vast and hard to decipher; so I saw a need for a clear, concise, step-by-step tutorial. It was popular and was saved by over 800 people on del.icio.us.

In this case there was an obvious need and I jumped at the opportunity to fill it. However, the jump was neither quick nor easy. It was a very hard tutorial to write and took several weeks to finish, which leads me to my last point.

5. Work

It’s hard to be a good blogger, if it weren’t everyone would have a popular blog.

Generically speaking, when a venture capitalist firm is evaluating a company, they try to ascertain whether or not that particular company will make enough revenue in the future for them to profit from their initial investment. If they think it does, they invest in it.

I would argue a similar approach to blogging. Evaluate your posts before you make a huge time investment in them. Does this post make sense? Is it necessary? Why do I want to write about this? Is this something I’ll want on my site two weeks from now? Have other people written about this topic?

Or whatever questions you feel are necessary to evaluate the quality of potential posts. (Though sometimes all it takes to gauge the quality of a post is to start writing it.) Once you have a winner make sure you invest in it. Good posts take time and energy, don’t expect it to be easy.

In Closing

“Say more, write less.”—Ellen Lupton (Thinking With Type)