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10 Steps to Becoming a More Interesting Blogger

By Monica O'Brien on May 8th in Blogging 21 comments

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People complain about bloggers a lot, mostly that they are diluting journalistic integrity with their non-experience. But those complaints don’t matter in the end, because blogging isn’t about journalism or credentials. Blogging is about being interesting, and all of your favorite bloggers, who you read every day, know that. Here are 10 tips on how you can become a favorite blogger yourself:

Talk About Yourself

This one should be so obvious, and I almost didn’t write about it. I don’t want people to start reading this list and think, “Oh, talk about yourself, the rest of this advice is going to be lame also,” and then jump.

But unfortunately, it’s not obvious, and I think it’s because people think they’ll be perceived as narcissistic, or whiny, if they write about themselves. And to some, you will be perceived that way – but most people love gossip and desperately want insight into what makes a person tick. So jeez, just give it to them already!

Not convinced? One of the guest posters on Problogger wrote about why readers subscribe, and six out of the seven reasons are about you, with the first reason being “They want to be you.” You, you, you, you, you, you. So get in the mindset that this is a popularity contest, and the people who get heard are the prom queens of the blogosphere. Then go claim your crown.

Figure Out Why People are Boring, or Otherwise Unlikeable

You’ve met people that you hate talking to. And guess what? They are the same people that everyone else hates talking to. They are Debbie Downer, Negative Nancy, and the rest of their boring, shallow, vain friends. So here’s an exercise which unfortunately will force you to return to these conversations once more, if you can remember them (apologies in advance).

What exactly makes you dislike conversations with those people? What about them makes you roll your eyes, or drift into daydreams? What things do they say that annoy you? What topics do they bring up that irritate you?

Now make sure nothing you write falls into those categories. You can’t write about something interesting if you don’t know what to avoid first.

Pick a New How-To, or at Least Put a Spin on an Old One

I read a lot of career and financial advice, but for many articles I rarely do much but skim the headlines before moving on. That’s because everyone writes about the same topics, over and over again. How to Save Money. How to Dress For an Interview. How to Pay Off Your Student Debts. How to Nail Your Performance Review.

I like how-tos, I write how-tos, and I don’t mean to criticize people who write how-tos. But the majority of how-tos rehash other people’s advice and rarely inject personality.

Here is when recycling old topics works: you create comprehensive, long lists that people can bookmark, or you approach the problem with a unique way of thinking, or you inject your own experiences as the basis of your advice.

Otherwise, it doesn’t work. So stop doing it.

Write About the News, or Events in Your Life

Here’s a way to guarantee you aren’t writing about something that has been done a thousand times – offer your opinion and insight on current events. But do it quickly, because if too many others beat you to the punchline, your voice will get lost in a sea of rehashers.

Unless you are an internet addict and can respond quickly to stories as they happen, it might be easier to write about events in your own life. So do that instead, and give advice by telling your story.

Make Yourself a Minority

Majorities are the masses, but minorities are interesting; and luckily, everyone can be a minority. Here is something people think makes them interesting: “I played soccer in high school.” Too vague though. “I was varsity soccer captain as a sophomore and we went on to win three state championships” is more interesting.

But let’s face it: we are all young, educated, cream-of-the-crop professionals. Everyone has the equivalent of Mr. Soccer Star on their resumes, so if you really want to be interesting, dig deeper. Like I’m a female blogger who is young, with a technical degree, who doesn’t write about technology or anything remotely related to my industry. People think that’s pretty random, and I agree.

What about you is completely off the wall? Write about that!

Be Controversial

I don’t write things to be controversial on purpose, but I honestly love when people don’t agree with me, for the mere fact that it makes the conversation interesting. Blogs are not newspapers or magazines or books – and the people who are boring bloggers are the ones who use blogs to publish traditional media online. But blogs are a platform for opinions (not facts or information); and if you don’t have an opinion there’s very little point to having a blog that people subscribe to.

State your opinion, back it up, and make sure lots of people can disagree with you. Boring is people nodding their heads in unison, like cows chewing on the same patches of grass. Interesting is being controversial.

Stop Pretending You’re So Happy

I spent a good portion of March reading happiness theory and research because I was going to write a post about it. Then I realized that most of my favorite posts have nothing to do with happiness. In fact, my best posts are my sad or angry ones.

Let’s face it, happy people are boring. None of us are happy all the time, so none of us have to be boring; we just choose to be because we want to pretend we are always happy, which everyone sees through immediately anyway.

So from now on, when someone asks you “How’s it going?” don’t respond with “Good.” Say “I shot a gun this weekend, and I think guns are evil. But here’s what I learned…”

And when you write a blog post, don’t say “I’m awesome… again. And here’s some advice on how you can be as awesome as me.” Because frankly, I’m bored with reading posts like this, and I bet your readers are too.

Share Your Vulnerabilities

I received feedback from a friend about my last post, and she basically said that although she admired the things I was doing, the post really demonstrated the downside of my lifestyle.

And you know what? I’m okay with that. Because I’m not perfect, and to let people think I have this great, successful life would be a lie.

So now when I give advice, people may actually listen, because it’s honest. And if something horrible happens to me, people might actually care, because they are emotionally invested. And even though it scared me to write that post, it gave others strength to share their own fears.

Be Tyra Banks -risk it all and make an ugly face at the camera. It might end up being your best shot in the film roll.

Articulate Your Dreams

Readers need a reason to cheer you on, but they can’t find that if you don’t tell them what you actually care about achieving. Share your goals, dreams, passions, and wish lists regularly. Update readers with your progress, or reversion. Ask for help when you need it, and help others with their dreams too!

Blogging is about interacting in a community, and communities don’t survive without people who have an interest in each others lives, and are willing to do a little bartering.

Talk About the Hard Stuff

We love to avoid sensitive topics in our daily lives, for good reason. Racism, sexism, rape, politics, abortion, mental illness… none of this stuff is off limits in the blogosphere though. And you don’t have to regularly write about sensitive topics to write about the hard stuff.

In fact, one of my favorite honest posts about a hard topic is on a TV fan site. I’m not even going to tell you what it’s about because I really want you to click and read it. What I love about Kelly’s blog is time and time again she makes a seemingly shallow, dramatic show mean something beyond gossiping and entertainment by weaving her own experiences into it. And that’s interesting.

You can call these tips narcissistic, or you can try a few and get more readers. Good luck, and if you have any other tips feel free to leave them in the comments section!

Tagged as: Blogging, Features, Opinions

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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }

Kristen @ ramenrentresumes.com May 8, 2008 at 9:20 am: Great tips! I agree–you don’t need a journalism background to be a great blogger at all. While professionalism counts, especially if the blog is for business purposes, most of us just like blogs because they offer a glimpse into someone else’s reality.

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Liz May 8, 2008 at 2:17 pm: Interesting tips! Some are really insightful. I enjoy that your blog is so candid- which is probably part of the “share your vulnerabilities.”

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Presh May 9, 2008 at 1:51 am: I have to compliment you that you practice what you preach. An example: I don’t usually read articles about blogging, but you make them wildly interesting.

Thanks for writing that I have a unique way of thinking. On that note, I have a method for how I get these unique views. My tip: read less and think more.

A recent example: I read an article about Tiger Woods undergoing knee surgeries. A few articles I read churned through the same facts, so I stopped reading more. Instead, I thought about something no one seemed to cover: why was he getting injured to begin with? That was the inspiration for the article.

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Monica O'Brien May 9, 2008 at 9:23 am: Kristen, you are right. The level of interesting you want to have will depend on the purpose of the blog. If it is for professional purposes, you probably want to err on the conservative side.

I do think you can still make a professional blog interesting using some of these tips though. Many authors who write self-help or advice books draw from their own experiences and failures. A professional blog can still incorporate those stories to build a brand.

Liz, thank you! I love when bloggers comment because they I get to follow their links. Off topic, but I am a huge fan of Freakonomics. And I used to live on Guam! That’s where my mom is from, born and raised. Anyway… nice to “meet” you!

Presh, great tip. I wholeheartedly agree – original ideas are the currency of blogging! That’s the reason I wanted to start blogging. And I love your unique approach to every problem. All your posts really make me think.

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Mike Michalowicz May 10, 2008 at 9:23 am: Monica,

Not to stroke your ego, but that is the BEST tips I have EVER read about blogging. You really showed me some great ways to be different, unique and focused.

Damn, that was a good blog!!!

Thanks

- Mike

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Mike Michalowicz May 10, 2008 at 9:24 am: Oops!!! A typo. I meant to say “…those are the BEST tips I have EVER read…”

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Karl Staib - Your Work Happiness Matters May 10, 2008 at 9:58 am: You make a great point about not being happy all the time. I write about work happiness, but I’m not happy a lot of the time. I get tired, grumpy, and angry too. Just another day I screamed at a driver who cut me off. After I was done I was a little shocked because I was just singing along with the music on the radio. I will include this subject in a blog next week.

Thanks,
Karl of Work Happy Now

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Miguel Wickert (Pineiro) May 11, 2008 at 4:43 pm: Hey Monica, I dugg this post because it rocks! I also sent a shout to all my friends of Digg, hopefully it should get some love.

I need to talk about myself more on my site. Thanks for the tips!

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natural May 11, 2008 at 4:51 pm: cool. i kinda do many of these things already.

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Charles Lumia May 11, 2008 at 5:01 pm: Those are great tips, Monica! I just started blogging recently and I don’t currently talk about myself at all, but perhaps that’s a good idea for me to try in the future.

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violet May 17, 2008 at 1:35 pm: hey monica,
thanks for the great tips. I am going to get my blog up and running pretty soon (20 something here), so these tips are really helpful.

violet

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Brad Brown May 18, 2008 at 5:19 pm: Also remember to not let those around you criticize your writing to the point where you don’t publish certain articles. The number of critics out there is overwhelming – don’t let them stop you. Usually, when someone says “Are you sure you want to write that?,” I know it’s a good article.

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Monica O'Brien May 24, 2008 at 7:43 pm: Thank you to everyone for the comments, and to everyone who dugg this article. Best luck to everyone in their blogging!

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Khyron May 27, 2008 at 12:52 am: Ha!

Pretending to be happy? I am happy.

Now, its a loooong story to get to why I’m happy. 2007 was not, generally, a happy year, but in the process of learning about myself more than I had in a decade, I learned how to be happy. And happy feels pretty damn good. If your happy is boring, maybe you’re just a boring person. (Speaking generally to anyone who would think happy = boring, not specifically you, although it applies.)

As for my life, ill schitt happens. You deal. You blog. You know, writing off 35K didn’t make me happy. Nor does the failure of my real estate partnership, largely at the hands of people who are supposed to be friends and general failure to execute by all of the partners (myself included). But you accept the schitt, you make/adjust plans, you act, and you move on. And you don’t have a to be a depressing bastard about it either.

Happy does not automatically mean boring. Boring means boring. Happy means appreciating and enjoying the life you have, even if its just a step on the path to loving life even more.

Peace, sweetheart!

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Monica O'Brien May 27, 2008 at 9:08 am: Khyron, maybe a better phrasing would have been “don’t be fake.” Like don’t pretend everything always goes well for you to your blogging audience. It’s an invitation to talk about the difficult experiences you may have, as those can sometimes make the best posts.

Thanks for the comment!

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Ork July 22, 2008 at 9:42 am: Interesting hints that I’m daring to use them on a different scenario. I have a daughter doing internship on a multinational company with a very difficult challenge to, besides demonstrating excellent technical skills, captivate her colleagues and be remembered on future possible job opportunities. So I’m exercising and changing the verb “write” for “talk” and adjusting the tone to understand the hints as a guide to become an interesting person. I think it can work.

Thanks for the opportunity and allowing me to find this very timely post.

Ork

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maria01 July 22, 2009 at 6:48 am: I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Susan

http://ovarianpain.net

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maria01 July 22, 2009 at 7:48 am: I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Susan

http://ovarianpain.net

Reply
plus_size_prom_dresses September 29, 2009 at 4:16 am: I'll back again for sure, thanks for great article

Reply

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