टिप्स ओं blogging

How You Can Pull Off a Personal Blog
Written by Panah on September 11, 2008 – 5:29 am -


I did mention a few posts ago that you need to provide unique value to your users to expect anything out of your blogging efforts. When you think about it, there are millions of blogs out there that are trying to get some traction in the huge World Wide Web. But this is where the 99-1 rule applies. Essentially, 99 percent of useful content is generated by less than 1% of sites on the web. The other 99% of people talk about things that are either not unique or provide no value at all to readers. So if you want ot have any success on the web, you will want to think about how you are going to make yourself unique to your audience.

I did mention that usually diary blogs don’t work that well (read the book “nobody wants to know what you had for lunch”). But the truth of the matter is that a few insanely popular bloggers have pulled of such feat. You may ask, “what is it that makes these guys successful in such a tough blogging vertical.” Again, it all comes down to being unique enough and provide value to your readers. Here is how you can pull off a diary blog:

Know your target audience: we are all very unique with very unique life experiences. But if you think about it, a lot of us have somewhat similar life stories and experiences. Everyone has had that minor car accident or that embarrassing birthday party experience. The key for a blogger’s success is to connect with readers through their experiences. Not everyone’s going to have the same experiences as you do, but for those who have had similar encounters, your blog can help them get over embarrassing moments or deal with awkward situations. Connecting with your audience is key!
Target a problem: these days, you can provide a lot of value by providing everyday solutions to people’s problems. One way to do that is by using your diary blog to address issues that you have personally faced and solved. For instance, if you have just divorced your husband, you can talk about how you have gotten over your marital issues, or how you are planning to move forward. You’d be surprised how effective this approach is in bringing people to your blog time and time again.
Inspire people: if you have had a unique life experience that you can use to inspire people, you are golden. If you are a cancer survivor or you are a war veteran, your insights can be extremely appealing to a wide range of people. Not only can you provide people with your valuable life experiences, you can also inspire them to do more and maybe even join you for a good cause. Now that’s what a successful blog is all about.
Add a spin to your story: So what if you are not Lance Armstrong or John Mccain. Does that mean that you don’t have a good story to tell your audience? Every life story is unique and can help someone out with their situations. But you need to make sure you add a spin to your life story and make it more interesting by adding humor and other ingredients to it. No life is boring, I can tell you that.
Pulling off a diary blog is one of the hardest thing to do if you don’t have an inspiring story to tell. I often recommend people focus on other types of blogs before getting into this vertical. But if you feel you have a set of experiences that can help a lot of people out, then you might as well take on this challenge. It is a very rewarding experience to be able to share your life story with others on your blog and keep them coming back for more.


Tags: Tips
Posted in Blogging Strategies |