Feb 13 2009
`Selfish’ Blog Posts That Will Keep Readers Away
How will my blog post benefit my readers?
If you don’t ask yourself this question, you may end up writing a post with a personal agenda. There’s something in the post for you, but very little or nothing at all for the reader.
An example is a blog post written with the intention of selling an affiliate product. The post says, in between the lines, “Hey, I’ve written this so that you will read it and buy the product. I badly want to earn my commission.”
A typical post says you will get all the benefits only if you buy the product. The reader comes away with nothing from the post unless he’s willing to open his wallet. Nothing is given as a reward to the reader for reading the post, not even a single tip which the reader could use without having to spend money.
If you have to write a blog post promoting a product, do offer some tips or valuable information readers can use without having to buy the product.
The other type of `selfish’ post is one about the blogger’s personal life. The blogger talks about his personal life without asking himself what readers can learn out of it. He talks about his dog falling ill and he takes it to the clinic and now his dog is recovering and he will wait patiently for it to be back on its feet.
The reader does not learn anything useful about dogs, or clinics or anything. However, the blogger assumes you know his dog and therefore you must be concerned.
Then there’s the post about struggling with a problem. Recently I read one about a blogger who has not been blogging regularly. She writes about her problem and just ends the post saying she must write regularly. The post is merely a personal reminder to write regularly. No tips or solutions for those who may be facing the same problem.
So, the next time you sit down to write a blog post, ask yourself, “What reward will the reader get for spending time on this post?”
This will prevent you from writing `selfish’ posts.
The number one reason why people are not making money blogging is the fact they are too personal with their blog posts. The only time someone wants to hear about your personal life is when you are famous. The biggest turn off for me is to read about someone being sick or their daily rants and raves. I guess those people are unaware that you can make blogs private.
I agree with you. These private posts should be limited to their friends, family members and their admirers.
I’ve been reading these comments with interest. What sort of blogs do either of you prefer reading? Granted too much personal information is of no interest to me, either, but then I think about newspaper columnists (yeah, I’m in the generation that grew up with newspapers) and some of them became household names by writing about daily happenings in their lives. Deb deSandro (sp?) is a more modern reincarnation of this kind of writer.
aw2500
http://permissionsplease.today.com
I think there’s nothing wrong in writing about your personal as long it’s used to illustrate a principle or to convey a message. Only skilled writers can write about something personal and give the impression that they’ve provided something valuable to their readers. They are actually letting us into their worlds to gain useful insights.
If you’re just starting out, you would have to be impersonal until you have a following or until you’ve learned how to turn what’s personal into something universal.
hmm. This got me to thinking that the columnists I’m recalling all used humor to get their message across.
Granted that a blog that’s geared toward too much personal life detail - an online journal, more aptly put - is not going to interest anyone unless you are as famous - or a good writer - as Carrie Fisher.
That having been said, I think that to say one has to be totally impersonal until you have a following is too much of a hard-and-fast rule. It might be fine for a blogger with no previous writing experience or track record, but what about writers with loads of experience or at least talent?
Thanks for your comment, fardreamer. If you’re a beginner, there’s nothing stopping you from being personal in your blog if the personal details you include are useful to the reader. But if you can’t handle that well, you would want to write about something impersonal to generate interest.
But this is not an absolute rule. If your personal experience can illustrate a principle well, then you should go ahead and include it whether you’re a beginner or not.