Ten Reasons I’ll Read Your Blog

Posted on June 19, 2007

Your blog is written with a professional and creative tone. Becoming an excellent communicator takes time. No matter where you are starting from, you can improve and develop your voice. I am pleasantly surprised by my twelve year-old’s blog Gloriana’s Book Blog. Call me biased, but for her age I find her short posts entertaining and informative.
The posts are not riddled with coarse, profane and negative words. Writing that is pilfered with these qualities are like the overuse of the exclamation point. Quite often writers will employ these methods instead of using more thoughtful concepts to get their point across.
You pride yourself in your work enough to re-read for grammatical and spelling errors. Spell check anyone? A spelling or grammatical error on occasion is understandable. If it is indicative of your work however, do yourself the favor of re-reading and checking your work. If it’s worth writing, it’s worth proofing.
You are passionate about what you are writing. It is obvious when someone feels deeply about what they communicate. I learn much from people with different perspectives when they present them wholeheartedly.
The intrinsic motivation for the blog is not a get-rich-quick scheme. There are many more profitable and easier ways to make a buck.
The content is an original and/or unique collection of information. Developing or adding to interesting online content has real value. If your blog is only a collection of the latest YouTube videos, I think I’ll just go there myself thanks.
You have categorized your content into topic areas for easy reference. Content broken into categories gives me themes to follow in your blog. I may be more interested in one than another. Serve-up content that I can quickly digest according to my interest and you’ll get me hooked.
Reading your blog adds something of value to my personal or professional life. When you write for the reader, you are giving them a gift that has real worth. If that’s your blog, I’ll be back for sure.
You interact with other bloggers with thoughtful comments. Thoughtful comments suggest that you are interested in engaging about your topics. Comments are the heart and soul of the blog. It is the comments of you, the reader that makes my blog so interesting to me. I enjoy the fact that there are 64 posts and 151 comments at this posting. Thank you friends for making this a rich experience.
You are an honest soul. Writing is a very vulnerable and revealing expression of you and what you value. If you are true to your voice it is obvious and endearing. Everyone has something of value to contribute. Go for the gold.

Filed Under Writing, Web and Tech Helps, Productivity, Blog Tip, perspective |

Comments

21 Responses to “Ten Reasons I’ll Read Your Blog”

Lord Matt on June 19th, 2007 10:07 am

Wow. Now I feel I have a lot to live up to. My posts often contain both gramatical and spelling errors (and today when my keyboard went nutty capital letters in odd places). However I know you read my blog because you leave comments (plus the MyBlogLog thing tells me so).

On the subject of exclamations!!111 My pet peaveis the trailing dots. Three in a row without spaces indicating an incomple… (like that). But dispite the fact that I started this sentance with an incorrect word some writers like to use lots of dots…… (like that) in place of this: “,” - the humble comma, or worse, the full stop or exclimation mark. I might make the odd error every fw lines with all the other puntuation marks and I am guilty of misusing the apostraphy from time to time but I feel a special irritation with those dots when misused.

Also because I was drilled by tutors to use a style sheet and write my essays in a standard way (my choice of standard but it should not change) I get just as irritable with iconsitent paraph breaks even though almost no blogging software supports anything helpfull to clean it up (wikipidia does but thats a wiki).

All that led to my most embarrising moment as a blogger when I wrote a stinker of a review about a blog that did both thsoe things and then the blogger said thank you. I felt about this big ” “.

Butyes the application of the same basics I strugle with put me off faster than finding a big fat bug wiggling in my dinner. Where as blogs that educate, inspire or amuse me and those that make me feel good about myself keep me coming back for more. Like this blog.

All that said I feel I must try to live up to those standards I hold others too and make sure I don’t let you down (too much) on the dodgy splelling front. My fave error being getting the “T” from “the” stuck to the prior word.
Phil on June 19th, 2007 10:44 am

Matt, No worries as you so far meet or exceed the other points that it’s easy to look past spelling errors. I think I know you fairly well through your online expression. It is uniquely you. Your honesty, passion, engaging comments and knowledge alone are reasons to read your blog. We all have our faults and you seem to be very well aware of areas to grow in. That’s what is most important. If this entry encourages towards greater work, then I consider it a success. I do hope it is encouraging to see how many of these points fit you and your writing. Hang in their friend.
Dave on June 19th, 2007 12:18 pm

Well said Phil. I also appreciate your willingness to approach this topic from a positive stance re: why I read a blog, or like a blog, vs. the all too common “this is what annoys me about other peoples’ blogs.”

To Matt, I suffer from an over usage of the …, not in my actual writing, but in my comments, and were I to pin point why, I’d have to say that for me at least, it indicates that I am deep in thought regarding what is being discussed and that I do not feel that I am adequately explaining that which I am attempting to articulate. In that sense, it acts almost as an emoticon, because it is defiantly placed to convey a feeling.
Phil on June 19th, 2007 12:28 pm

Dave, Everyone has their style of expression and I appreciate your thoughtfulness in both your postings and comments. I think it’s good to feel challenged now and again to sharpen ones skills, but then again persistent communication has a way of honing ones thoughts into a cogent explanation. For a man of your youth, you are well on your way to becoming an excellent communicator. I will enjoy watching as you continue to develop those skills. It is a natural process.
kellypea on June 19th, 2007 5:27 pm

I enjoyed this post, Phil. An excellent way to “teach.”

Gloriana’s book list is excellent, and her writing lovely. My son is a fan of Brian Jacques as well and has read nearly all of his books. Jacques’ highly descriptive narrative and use of “hefty” vocabulary come from a very interesting aspect of his background…
Phil on June 19th, 2007 5:36 pm

Kelly, Thanks for the comment. I will pass it along to her. I know it will mean alot to her. Of course I am proud of her, but I do expect to see her rise to become a very accomplished writer/editor someday. She just has the bug. It’s fun to see her go for it w/ blogging. Tumblr is a great forum for her as it’s so very easy to use w/out managing comments etc. which for her is a very good thing.
mr. besilly on June 19th, 2007 11:05 pm

You have really raised the bar here Phil, while making a positive point on what keeps you coming back in ten simple steps. That kind of ownership and personalization in writing holds my attention. Be sure that I also do love a great distraction that is mindless ( plenty of that ilk out there). I’m not sure if you realize that your work of late is shifting a few degrees in a new direction. I encourage you to keep the sparks coming Sir.
Me like.

a new direction? That gives me an idea. (beep, beep! thought spark coming!)
Phil on June 20th, 2007 5:07 am

Mr. Besilly, Thank you for the affirming and thoughtful comments. I appreciate your writing very much and your blog is a particularly good example of me of points 4 and 8. You’ve got me hooked.
Savvyology on June 20th, 2007 1:27 pm

Personally, I struggle the most with #9. Sometimes when I read a really interesting and thought provoking post I don’t have enough time to digest and formulate my thoughts into a brief comment worthy of leaving behind. In fact, as I sit trying to write this comment my son is in the room talking at me and I’m often thus distracted. Sadly, I fear I’m relegated to the status of blog lurker in that I visit a variety of other blogs but rarely comment.

You’ve provided some great advice here. I still feel like I’m testing my wings in the blogosphere even though I’ve been actively blogging in one place or another for the past year and a half.
Random Magus on June 20th, 2007 1:44 pm

I read blogs that touch me in some ways and of course bloggers who I exchange regular comments with… it’s like have a network of friends you look forward to ’seeing’ daily. They become more a part of your life and your routine then some of your ‘real’ friends that you meet mostly on weekends…
alalee on June 20th, 2007 2:39 pm

Wonderful, Phil. In this day and age where too many people are far too “me” oriented, it’s nice to see someone share useful perspectives. Your positive approach, rather than tearing others down, also makes one such as myself feel better about learning how I can improve. Thanks so much!
Phil on June 20th, 2007 7:32 pm

Sav, I think we all see ways we can grow on many of the points. I am not the most consistent bloke myself with comments. Sometimes I take more initiative than at other times, but I try to interact in a meaningful way. Your response to this blog is a good example of honest and sincere interaction.

Random, I agree with you. There are people that I work with on a daily basis that know less about me than many of you who read my blog. I don’t know if that is a sad fact or just the dynamic of a shift in society. I know there are many critics, but I find it invigorating to communicate with many friends around the globe on a daily basis.

Alalee, I am so very excited to have been a source of encouragement. ThoughtSparks is really about that, “sparking thought”. This online interactive forum is purposed to equip, encourage and challenge readers. Quite often I too am very blessed in the process and comments like yours bring delight to my day. You are more than welcome.
Lord Matt on June 21st, 2007 3:23 am

You have certainly sparked some thoughts for me, Phil.

Dave, you go for it with the “…” if you want - don’t let my geeky hang ups hold you back.
Phil on June 21st, 2007 6:12 am

Matt, then mission accomplished. That is my driving purpose. Thanks for the encouragement.
Mark Palmer on June 21st, 2007 8:22 am

Phil-

What’s you stance on corporate blogging? There is certainly higher risk in allowing folks to blog-at-will, but is it worth the risk of exposure?

Is there a policy/guideline for blogging where you work?
Phil on June 21st, 2007 8:42 am

Hey Mark! Great to hear from you. Well, I’m all for corporate blogging. Essentially blogging is great for SEO. Consider that “Nine Random Facts” in Google turns-up my blog as number one out of 1,100,000. If that were your target phrase for a service or a product, bingo you’ve got amazing exposure. Now in terms of corporate blogging, I think it has incredible potential but would be much more controlled. First, you’d have to have a well qualified and estute voice that knows how to handle comments and is a prolific writer. Second, all comments of course should be moderated, so it is a more controlled means for feedback. Managing identity I think is going to become bigger and bigger business. It is the encompassing business that includes PPC, SEO, PR and whole host of other acronyms. In any case, those are great questions. We currently don’t blog as a company. We are doing good to publish regular news to an RSS feed. I’d like to see that change but that may come slow in my setting.
Jessie on August 22nd, 2007 9:22 pm

Jessie…

I never knew this thank you this will help me with my study…
Phil on August 29th, 2007 10:49 pm

Jessie, Glad it’s helpful.
Sanjdeep on May 1st, 2008 1:09 am

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Kayla on September 29th, 2008 3:55 pm

Stumbled upon you from a google search on Jing - glad I did. You have some great content here!
Phil on September 29th, 2008 4:42 pm

Thanks for stopping by and very glad it was helpful!