Blogging: How to Gain Readership

by Danny Davids

Welcome to ProBlogz! It's our goal to have one of the best, most informative, most entertaining blog sites on the Internet. Whether blogging is old hat for you or you've never had a blog in your life, we want you to feel welcome here.

Which brings me to today's topic. People post blogs for many reasons. Some reasons are grandiose and some are more down-to-earth and personal. Some blog for personal gain, promoting a business or a hobby. Others blog to inform and instruct. Many want to share their opinions with the rest of the world and hopefully have a bit of an influence in the culture. But when it comes to the bottom line, people blog because they want to be popular. No, I'm not kidding. Deep down we all want people to like us, and if our writings are accepted, we are accepted.

So if you're going to blog, how should you go about doing it? What, and how, should you write to gain readership? Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

Write about something you care about. If the economy doesn't interest you, or politics bores you to tears, then for God's sake don't write about either subject. Your lack of interest will show in your writing, and people won't come back to read future posts. "Oh, but writing about my favorite hobby is so stupid. Nobody'll be interested in [fill-in-the-blank]." How many potential readers will have access to your musings? There are more people out there who care about your topic than you realize. And even if they aren't, your passion for your topic will shine through. Who knows? You may even get somebody interested in what interests you!

Write as if you will never get another chance. If you knew every one of your personal heroes was going to read your blog tomorrow, how would that change the way you write? What you have to say is important to you. Convey that importance in your writing. Not every entry has to be the next Great American Novel, but your missives should be more interesting to read than a grocery list.

Write to persuade, not to offend. It's a strange and inverse relationship: The people who tell us we shouldn't offend anybody are the ones who more often than not end up being offensive. So don't go there. Sometimes it's hard to follow the first two ideas and not grate on a reader's nerves--yet you should always try. Especially if you're trying to convince someone that your position is the correct one, take the honey-versus-vinegar approach. You'll catch more flies...uh, excuse me, I mean readers...with the former.

Write for yourself. The worst-case scenario for any blogger is that nobody will read his or her entries. So what? If you enjoy writing, write to please yourself. In the final analysis, that's all that matters.

Now that you have a few ideas to help jump-start your thought processes, put fingers to keyboard and start writing! We look forward to your submissions!

Article submitted Tuesday, October 13, 2009 & read 276 times.

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