On Blogging

On Blogging: How to get “The Quality”

There’s a quality that certain bloggers have… call it charisma, or stickiness (eww! not that kind!) or just plain magic… where they seem to attract a loyal and passionate readership.

You know what I’m talking about, right?

No matter many blogs you subscribe to, I’m betting that there are probably a handful… 3 to 5… that you really, really enjoy.  Blogs that, when you see that they’ve posted, you click on them over everyone else in the list. 

How do they DO it?

What’s their secret?

In an attempt to unravel this great mystery, I spent some time thinking about the blogs on MY short list; the ones that I always click on, right away, when they update.  I love all the blogs that I read… but these are special. 

The funny thing is, when I think about topic, tone, and personality, I realize that they’re really different from each other.  They’re not all women… they’re not all in the same country (let alone the same city), their ages vary widely as do their political and religious views, they have different outlooks and parenting styles and topics…

So what’s the common thread?

Here’s the three things that I came up with: 1) a strong voice and point of view; 2) short and scannable; and 3) unique. 

1. A strong voice and point of view. 
All the bloggers in my favorites list have a writing style that is unique and recognizable… that I like and relate to in some way.  I pretty much know what I’m going to get when I click on their blog– this one funny, this one motivational.  And their voice is so distinctive that I could read something that they’ve written, and without seeing their name, tell you who wrote it. Most importantly, their writing is easy and enjoyable to read.

Here’s a couple examples of strong and consistent voice: The Queen of Shake-shake and our own Daring Young Mom.

Exercise: Start reading your blog posts aloud (although it’s better NOT to do this at work unless you have an office).  Ask yourself, does this sound like me?  When you read your writing aloud, you’ll start to notice portions that are stiff, unfamiliar, or that don’t sound quite right. 

2. Short and scannable. 
This might just be me, although I have a sneaking suspicion that it isn’t.  I have sort of attention-deficit-disorder when it comes to on-screen reading.  I can’t take too much.  Give me a long paragraph and I feel myself start to shut down.  As a blogger, you have to remember that there are a lot of things competing for your readers’ attention… whining children, TV, the pot on the stove, work… 

The trick is to break up your writing into digestible pieces, the end of each one causing the reader to yearn for the next so that before they know it they’ve read the whole thing.

Jessica at Oh The Joys is a master at this.  Her posts are primarily made up of one-line paragraphs.  Now that I can handle! 

Exercise:  Before you publish a post, look it over for natural breakings.  Try to make each paragraph as short as possible, and don’t be afraid to put a sentence all by itself for emphasis, especially if it’s a funny or dramatic one.  Re-read your writing to see where you’ve repeated yourself and delete mercilessly.

3. Unique  
In marketing, you hear a lot about product “differentiation,” which is just a fancy way of saying that your product (in this case your blog) needs to be unique.  There are so many blogs out there, it’s worth putting some thought into how to make yours stand out. 

Some people manage to do this purely through their writing… they have such a strong written voice that they could write about dirt and we’d be entertained. 

For the rest of us, there are two ways to differentiate.  One is to blog about a niche topic.  For example, one of my recent favorite blogs is The Simple Family.  It’s all about a family’s efforts to simplify, simplify.  I am fascinated by the topic and the real-life trials of someone trying to make this major lifestyle change, and it keeps this blog at the top of my list.

Another way to differentiate your blog is to come up with something quirky that you do that sets you apart from the other bloggers out there.   I Am Bossy is a great example of this with her third-person narration, hilarious drawn-on photos and tongue-in-cheek political satire.

Exercise: Read through your archives, paying attention to 1) which posts got the most comments, and 2) which posts speak to you.  Is there anything different about these posts?  Look for patterns or one-off things that you’ve done in the post that could be worked into more of your posts in the future. 

Caution: Keep it real!  Don’t “borrow” someone else’s differentiator… for this to work, it has to be true to you.

What about YOU?  What draws you to a blog and puts it on your must-read list? 

Let’s learn from each other’s secrets!

Catch more of Jenny Blackburn’s humorous anecdotes on being a mom, a woman, and a whole lot crazy at Absolutely Bananas.  You can also find her blogging for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in Adventures in Parenting.  If you have questions, anecdotes, or topics for “On Blogging,” email jenny@seattlemomblogs.com.