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25 Tips for Aspiring Bloggers

4/23/2013

5 Comments

 
Occasionally I get email from other aspiring queer bloggers asking for advice, and I received another one recently, so I thought I'd share some general, hard-won blogging advice.  Take it all with a boulder of salt.

BW's Tips for Bloggers
  1. Assuming you want an audience, your blog should revolve around a theme, not just be a diary.  For a following, you  need an angle.  (Once you have a following, it's okay to deviate sometimes--regular readers are forgiving...  As, I hope, you all are right now...)
  2. Let your personality shine through.  Whether it's nerdy, quirky, punny, whatever--it's genuine you, and this is the fun of it.
  3. Keep a running list of possible topics.  Then on the weeks you're running dry, check the list and see what inspires you.
  4. You don't need to know anything about coding or building websites.  Personally I use Weebly, because I like their templates and options and easy-to-view stats.  But there's also WordPress and a bunch of others.
  5. Reach out to more experienced bloggers.  After you've got 10-12 good posts, ask if they'll put you on their blog rolls. 
  6. Don't feel obligated to post every day.  It's nice if you can, but you don't want the blog to feel like something you have to do.
  7. Give people an option to subscribe to your blog via email.
  8. Do it for love, not money.  I'm positive I've spent more on BW than I've earned.  Would I like to make a living writing BW?  You bet.  Am I willing to post ads all over my page and pimp products I don't care about?  No freakin' way.
  9. Have patience!  It can take a really long time for your audience to grow.
  10. Some people will hate you, disagree with you, and/or think you're stupid--and won't be afraid to say so.  Pay attention to thoughtful critiques; ignore the morons.
  11. Don't be defensive.  You will screw up.  When you do, admit it.
  12. You're going to offend some people, even if you try not to.  This is not a nice feeling, but it's a virtually inevitable one.
  13. Readers love pictures, especially if you take them yourself.
  14. Have fun!  Be silly, be weird, be random.  If you're laughing while you're writing, your readers will laugh while reading it. 
  15. Keep a separate email account for blog-related email.  This will keep your blog life from leaking into your work life, and vice versa.
  16. Think carefully about whether to be anonymous.  It's a hard choice.  I'm still closeted for professional reasons (and deeply ambivalent about it), but plan on coming out in the next couple years.  Once you're "out," you can't go un-ring the bell.  While being up-front about your real identity will increase your credibility (and get you a bigger following, I bet!), it may limit what you feel comfortable writing about. 
  17. Social media is your friend!  Lots of people have stumbled across BW randomly through Twitter and Facebook.
  18. Don't write about friends/family who read your blog, unless they've told you it's okay, or you specifically let them know ahead of time.  Some will get pissed off; it's hard to predict who.  Also: use pseudonyms.
  19. Interact with your readers!  Most of them will be awesome, and eventually you'll probably get more emails than you can handle, but if you see blogging more as a conversation than a mouthpiece, readers will be engaged (and they'll share smart, interesting ideas that will teach you cool things and inspire you to write more!).
  20. You're allowed to vary: sometimes you may be funny, sometimes reflective, sometimes informative.  Don't feel like you have to keep up some kind of consistent "persona."
  21. Don't get too obsessed with your numbers, and certainly don't write in response to them (e.g., "People like posts about fashion so I'd better write about nothing but fashion").
  22. Don't apologize if you go a while without blogging.  (Yeah, I broke my own rule recently.  Sue me.)  Just roll with it.
  23. Focus on creating good, interesting content.  Rachel Maddow said recently that there are too many great content-container creators and not enough great content creators.  Be one of the great ones, and strive to get better.  I'm talking about technical stuff (for grammar tips, there's no better source than Strunk and White) and non-technical stuff.  Think of the bloggers you admire most.  Why do you like their posts?  Strive to embody the qualities you admire.
  24. Good writing takes way more time than you think it will.
  25. Understand that you have something to say.  If you're thinking about blogging, it's because you want to tell something to the masses.  Don't second-guess yourself.  Everyone's an expert on his or her own corner of the world.  A blog is an awesome way to share your point of view!

I'm sure other bloggers feel differently about lots of this stuff, and I hope they'll weigh in with other thoughts they have.

What about you, dear readers?  What are your favorite qualities in a blog?

5 Comments
Cat Calhoun link
4/23/2013 05:30:18 am

You never disappoint! Thank you for another great blog topic.

Reply
Kyle Jones link
4/23/2013 06:01:00 am

A while back I posted on the same topic, My Bullet List for Blog Success... it's a little shorter, but I think it summarizes many of your points quite well:

Reciprocation
Inspiration
Collaboration
Perspiration
Dedication

(full post: http://www.butchtastic.net/2011/07/my-bullet-list-for-blog-succes/)

You make a lot of great additional points. I wrote that 2 years ago, and I use social media a lot more than I used to, and that's bringing in a new readership. I'm slacking on my Reciprocation and I think that's to my detriment, so I need to get back to visiting other blogs AND leaving comments. On interactions with readers, you can invite input, create a contest, give people a piece of the pie and invite them to help you create the content.

Definitely know ahead of time that you will get crappy comments, people will misunderstand you even if you believe you made your points clearly, people will disagree and drag you through the mud. Also, use a comment spam filter plug-in of some kind. I use Akismet, and I blog with Wordpress.

Though you will attract crap and negativity (that is if you're doing your job and getting your name out there), you will also attract positive attention, loyalty, support and potentially, friendship.

Becoming a blogger literally changed my life, brought me great love, valuable connections, lasting friendship and the ability to work on my writing craft regularly. Through my blog, I've had the opportunity to tell my story to people I otherwise would never have met, and positively impact other people's lives. That's not an exaggeration. Every once in a while, I get a comment that basically says "Omg, I thought I was the only person who felt/thought/saw the world that way, thank you so much for posting this" ... not coincidentally, some of those posts have been ones when I've been most vulnerable, open and raw.

yeah, I love blogging :-)

Reply
womandrogyne
4/24/2013 02:50:27 am

Resonance makes me follow someone's blog - when there's something in what (or how) they write that rings my own bells. So for me, it's definitely vital to bring your own authentic emotion to whatever you're writing. Also, I like being entertained!
I started writing a blog with no particular desire for anyone else to read it, so it's been fascinating to start having a few people interact with me about what I write - but it made me pretty self-conscious for a while when that first kicked in. Like you said, it's best to think of it as starting a conversation rather than giving a speech - because public speaking is scary as shit.

Reply
Michele Spring-Moore link
4/24/2013 02:56:52 am

Great post! My blog is rather an amalgamation, but I think it's interesting to mix it up with the Latin America travelers, BLTGQ folks, and decluttering people and see what happens. I like the cross-pollenization (is that a word?)!

Reply
Jan C. link
4/28/2013 12:10:48 pm

Great tips, BW. I struggle with some things, like social media. I know how important it is to the spread of information, but I've always been such a private person and balk at the notion of 300 "friends." I have three, and I'm pretty sure that's all I need. I started blogging as a way of holding myself accountable to myself for actually WRITING. And I figured if I ever had anything important enough to say, that someone else wasn't saying better, I would deal with my feelings about social media. As a member of the LGBTQ community, I know there are many with more to say who say it better. But it might well be the issue of education that throws me into the fray of social media. I think you're dead on for your 25 tips--especially #s 2 & 8. You rock, BW.

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