Open Book: Blog Content Basics

No two brands of ketchup taste the same.  The basic ingredients may be similar — tomatoes (or tomato concentrate), sugar, vinegar, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, etc.  — but the taste differences lie in the ingredient quality and proportion.

And so it is with your blog.  Your blog site is uniquely yours even though there may be a couple of hundred or more people blogging about the same topic.  To keep your followers, consider these basics when you post your next entry:

     Does your post solve a problem?
     Does your post inform?
     Or have timeless content?
     Maybe your post is in demand (trending)?
     Or does your musings provide a bit of humor…something that is insightful,     but leaves your reader chuckling inside at your wit or twisted viewpoint…a bit of comic relief?

If you can say yes to one or more of these questions, your post content will provide value to your reader and will have them coming back for more.

Like the quality of the tomatoes in the ketchup, so is the quality of your writing. Write well (with the help of the SEO gods) and your posts will fly off the shelf.  Write incoherently and well, your writing (while surely highlighting your unique brand) might limit your viewing audience.

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Blogging with a Purpose

When I started blogging, I never realized just how much energy it would take to sustain writing consistently.  I have to admit it became a little easier the more I posted, but still sometimes I think of it as work instead of a fun thing to do.

I like blogging.  Did I kill the fun when I limited the topic to the business of writing?  On some days, such as this, I like writing about whatever I’m thinking about.  (Okay who’s yawning out there?)

Unless my blog becomes a reveal all reality journal, what will be the attraction, the hook?  And do I really want to venture into the realm of telling people I hated my ex-boyfriend’s mother or brother or couldn’t stand my husband’s best friend?

Is it okay now to air the family’s dirty laundry?  Remember the Jones next door will know my secrets and the Jones family in Siberia will too.  

Victoria Schmidt writes “if you can’t stand conflict in life, then you won’t be able to write conflict on the page.  Conflict is what stories are made of, so get used to it.  Enjoy it.  When writers can’t stand to do bad things to their characters, they usually are terrified of conflict.  These writers rarely have successful careers.”  Her point is well taken…but who goes out there and taunts viewers to charge them with daggers? 

Okay, yes shock jocks like Howard Stern and Don Imus, well known for antagonizing one group or another do it.  Yes they are successful for not dancing around conflict but what is the price they have to pay? 

Will I ever be that controversial?  Probably not.  Do I have something to say?  I think so.

So, my immediate issue is that I need to make blogging fun again.

We blog because we want attention.  Otherwise why not write in a journal and hide it under the mattress, the way most people did four decades ago? 

I’m changing the tone, but not the look.  I’m evolving and so is this blog.

Welcome to: The World According To Cori Chu.