7 Deadly Sins of Blogging

7 Deadly Sins Painting by Lance McNeel

If you are guilty of committing these blogging sins and do not repent of them in time, you will go straight to blogging hell*.

*Blogging hell – a barren digital landscape where visitors seldom wander, where views are scarce, and engagement quickly fades into indifference.

1.     Indifference – Not following other blogs and commenting on them

Blogging is a conversation, not a monologue. You’re not likely to get others interested in your blog if you don’t become interested in other blogs yourself. WordPress.com makes it easy to discover other bloggers through the built-in content stream but look beyond to blogs across platforms.

Also, don’t be a silent reader but an active participant – comment, like, and share.

Staying connected to other bloggers is one of the most challenging aspects of blogging, but it’s also one of the most rewarding.

2.     Slothfulness – Not posting at least once or twice a week

With so many interesting blogs out there, it’s easy for people to forget about your own. That can easily happen if you slacken your pace.

Blogs quickly become dusty when they’re not refreshed with new content. But posting frequently and maintaining that pace can become challenging after a while.

But then you can create some posts in advance so you can fall back on them if needed.

3.     Unsociability – Not taking your blog to social media

Many followers will find it easier to keep up with your new posts through Facebook or Twitter than through email or WordPress’ built-in content stream.

What’s more, social media enables your content to be more easily discovered and shared. WordPress makes it easy to auto-share your blog posts on Facebook or Twitter.

4.     Self-indulgence – Assuming that your audience is interested in all that you are interested in

Speaking from experience here, most people tend to prefer posts that provide useful information, are thought-provoking, make them laugh, or narrate an emotionally charged event.

Before publishing a post, it’s good to ask yourself whether it delivers any of the above. If it doesn’t, it may not attract that much attention even if it is well written. Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post it – only that it may not generate as much engagement.

At the end of the day, you can’t take your audience’s interest for granted – you need to think topics from their perspective also, not just from your own.

5.     Fogginess – Not making your intros and titles count

Most of the time, your posts will get judged based on the title and intro. In our age of short attention spans and content overload, it can be no other way.

It’s a good practice to go over the intro and headline one more time before you publish it and put in some extra work to improve them if needed.

There’s no simple recipe for writing a good title or intro. But actually, wanting to write good titles and intros and paying attention to them will help you make them stand out.

6.     Narcissism – Not filtering your ideas – publishing everything that comes to mind

Blogging is perhaps a bit narcissistic, you know, and that’s okay. The important thing here is not to make it too narcissistic. Blogging, like much of social media, can become a bit of an indulgence if you let it. For some people, it works better than for others.

Sieve your blog ideas and share with the world only the best ones. If you stop to pay attention to them, you will readily identify the self-indulgent ones and separate them from the rest.

It’s one of the most effective ways to keep your blog engaging.

7.     Shortsightedness – Not having a long-term focus for your blog

What’s your blog about? Which of your passions fuels it? And ultimately, what do you want to achieve with it?

Even if we’re talking about a personal blog here, having a focus will keep it fresh and interesting for your followers.

It will also motivate you to continue to create new content in the long run, even when blogging regularly may start feeling a bit like work.

In the end, it’s almost never too late to repent of your blogging sins. If you’re guilty of any, repent and amend them now.

5 Defining Traits of a Well-Liked Blogger

Painting of men shaking hands

Whether or not people keep returning to your blog depends not just on your content, but also on your personality and how well you express it.

In my last post, I shared with you 23 “Bad” Blogging Habits. Following from that, I want to talk a bit about the traits I keep seeing in well-liked bloggers.

By well-liked, I mean a blogger who is followed, Liked, and shared, and whose posts always leave us feeling that we’ve gained something from them.

Nurturing these traits can make us all not just better bloggers, but better writers – an invaluable lifelong skill.

So, what traits am I talking about?

Authenticity

Authenticity means being you. It doesn’t mean being obnoxiously personal or narcissistic.

It means blogging in a voice that comes naturally to you. A voice that’s not made up, but which isn’t as rough as pure speech or pure thought either.

We don’t blog like we speak or like we think. We blog like we are. That’s what I mean by authenticity.

Example: One of the most authentic bloggers I follow is Susie Lindau from Susie Lindau’s Wild Ride. Read her posts, and you will understand what I mean by being authentic.

Freshness

Being fresh doesn’t have to mean avoiding general topics. Rather, it’s a question of how you tackle a topic.

Let’s jump in time to one of my most popular posts – Are You a Handwriter or a Typer?

The topic wasn’t at all new at the time, but the opening is unlike that of any other Handwriting versus Typing post under the sun. And it drew people in.

If you’re new to blogging, ask yourself before you post something: Is this fresh? Does it smell a bit like the wind blowing through the leaves on a bright morning?

If the answer is yes, people will want to read it.

Example: Kirsten Lamb’s latest post is titled “Thirteen Reasons Writers are Mistaken for Serial Killers.” A fresh topic, don’t you think?

Honesty

To be honest with your audience, you first have to be honest with yourself. It’s okay to assume a blogging persona. Boy with a Hat is to some extent my blogging persona.

(I don’t wear that hat all the time. What’s more, I’ve been told that I look better without it.)

But if you create a blogging persona, it should match you like a glove and outline your personality. Your About page should be a truthful reflection of who you are.

Being honest also means allowing yourself to be vulnerable. It’s not easy, but that’s what blogging often is for many of us – a painfully personal exploration of your true self..

Example: A great example that springs to mind is fellow Romanian Cristian Mihai. His posts are frank, and so is his message, whether he talks literature, blogging, failure, or life in general.

Warmth

Warmth is all about inviting people to join you on your journey. It’s not about being super informal or tossing out “yous” every few sentences.

It’s not so much the language you use as the overall effect of your writing.

It means more than being friendly. It means liking something so much that you can explain it to others warmly and get them interested in it.

Example: An Historian About Town is a nice example of how history (even that of a different culture from your own) can be made interesting when the historian connects right away with her readers.

Usefulness

You don’t have to publish how-to guides or tutorials to be useful, though those are not bad either.

Being useful in this context means creating posts that leave those who read them feeling that they’ve learned or discovered something worthwhile.

Or that they can now look at something they know – such as a painting – with more precision than before, relishing the small details they may have neglected before.

Example: An apt example is a blog I’ve only recently discovered – The Eclectic Light Company. Its author, Howard Oakley, combines delightful posts on painting with practical Macs & macOS news and tips.

So, in the end,

Authenticity

Freshness

Honesty

Warmth and

Usefulness

will take you a long way in the world of blogging.

***

I’ll leave you now to explore the interesting blogs I’ve shared with you.

Until next post!

**

PS: None of the bloggers mentioned in this post are paying me to promote them. I don’t even know most of them other than through their blogs.

15 Wise Reasons to Keep on Blogging in 2019

Woman Blogging at Table with a Cup of Coffee

Blogging takes time and some mental effort. And because it’s often so personal, it’s not always easy. Still, blogging in 2019 may turn out to be a wise decision. Whether you feel a bit of blogging fatigue or are just hard-pressed for time, here are some compelling reasons to keep on posting this year.

Continue reading “15 Wise Reasons to Keep on Blogging in 2019”