Curiosity might kill cats but it can bring life to a blog.
One of the characteristics that I’ve observed many successful bloggers having is ‘curiosity’.
Wikipedia defines curiosity as:
“any natural inquisitive behaviour, evident by observation in many animal species, and is the emotional aspect of living beings that engenders exploration, investigation, and learning.”
Good bloggers are often curious about one or more of the following things:
- How things work in their field – curious bloggers are the type of people who don’t want to just know the news but want to work out how it applies to their lives (and the lives of their readers). They test new products. They try things in ways they were intended to be used but also in ways that they were not. They don’t just want to know that things work but why and how they work.
- Finding solutions for problems – they are not satisfied to let problems remain unsolved but are always looking for solutions to outstanding issues.
- How others in their niche do things – they are not only interested in things, products or news but are interested in people. They seek people in their niche out, they network, they share information, they observe other and they ask lots of questions about what others know and how they do things.
- Their niche – they keep a finger on the pulse of their niche and watch what other key figures are saying (and not saying). They gather information, analyse trends and take pride in being in the know.
- How to present things differently – curious bloggers are not satisfied with regurgitating news or having a blog that is like every other blog in their niche. They actively look for ways to present their content in interesting and creative ways. They are often innovative both in the features of their blog but in their writing.
- How principles in other fields might apply to theirs – curious bloggers often have a wide array of interests in different fields and are always looking to learn about how they can learn something from one that applies to another. Bringing together disconnected ideas and learning something new from them is a natural practice for curious bloggers.
- Digging beneath the surface to find the ‘real’ story – curious bloggers won’t accept ‘spin’ and are always digging deeper to get the real story or a scoop. They go beyond following RSS feeds and look for the inside word. These are the type of bloggers who dig around on manufacturers websites or forums looking for unannounced products. The result is that occasionally they get lucky and break big stories.
Tomorrow I’m going to take this idea of the ‘curious blogger’ into a ‘how to’ realm and will ask (and attempt to answer) the question of whether curiosity is a personality thing or whether it can be learned in How to be Curious.
Yeah, great post Darren. Its all too easy to just accept the norm and follow the herd in terms of blog design, blog content and general tone of the blog. Being unique is what seperates you from the crowd.
P.S. I was struggling to figure out what animal that was in the picture. At first I thought it was some sort of llama, then a goat, then I figured it was an upside down cat!!!
Looking forward to your post tomorrow, Darren. I believe it can be learned, however a person with curiousity from the get-go will always be a step ahead – in my opinion.
I agree, curiosity is great to have in as many areas of your life as possible. It makes so many things more interesting and fun. Looking forward to your next post.
I think out of all your reflective posts about blogging Darren this one may come closest to how and why I approach mine.
Very interesting as usual!
I think we all have curiosity; some just have it in more obvious forms than others. People who are curious about the news have an easy time finding stuff out, while people who curious about the bark on trees have to look harder and maybe do some hands on research.
Curiosity is what makes the world today.. especially blogging ;) . Looking forward for your next post Darren. “How To be Curious about your Niche” sounds like good title… ;)
Cheers all the way from Malaysia!
I ran across the phrase “Driven by Curiosity” a few years ago, thought it was a great idea and registered it as a domain in 2003. It fits my son to a T so I installed WordPress and put up a few posts/pages to encourage him to give website publishing a try. It has been a great way for an intellectually curious young man to learn that others will find what he writes to be interesting and useful. It’s a terrible keyword because there are few searches for “curiosity”, but it has become a great place to try out ideas, speculation, results and whatever else fits.
We use a stats package that maps the location of visitors and it’s awesome to see a (small) worldwide audience. I think encouraging/helping your kid(s) with online publishing has all sorts of benefits for them and for you; besides, it’s great fun.
Good post. I like the curiosity kill the cat analogy? Sometimes people are too curious. I agree with Robotys, about the curiosity factor. Without this need, most of the world’s inventions would have not been discovered.
Slainte from Montevallo
[…] Problogger has brought up something interesting in talking about the trait of curiosity as it applies to bloggers: The Curious Blogger. I agree with him that this is an important part of the personality of any blogger, but that it’s also an essential quality of anyone who is successful in life. […]
[…] lot of what I covered in my last post on the characteristics of curious bloggers related to their ability to connect with others. Reach out to other bloggers in your niche (email […]