Today’s challenge in 31 Days to Build a Better Blog should be easy for some of you – but terrify the rest!
Opinion posts come easily to those who are happy to share and engage in the feedback that they get. For others, though, it might not come naturally to put yourself out there and perhaps meet some resistance from those who don’t agree.
I’ve definitely had to push myself out of my comfort zone to share how I feel about something. It comes with a range of emotions about how your post will be met – what will people say? How will they think of me?
It turns out your opinion is something your readers want, so by not sharing it, you’re doing yourself and them a disservice. In today’s episode I outline the reasons why opinion makes your blog useful, and how it differentiates your blog from standard news and even other blogs in your niche.
So of course today’s challenge is to actually write an opinion post. Be brave! In the podcast I give some ideas for different niches about what you can write about and what might work for your situation. You’ll find some are easier than others, but the point is not to be controversial, just to mention where your values align.
Having said that – don’t shy away from controversy if you think it will be a relevant discussion.
Feel free to share your post in the comments below, and have a look at other bloggers’ posts as they come in. You’ll never know where it will lead you.
I run a political website, and of course we have a lot of opinion posts. We have to do a lot of research before we approve them though; sometimes opinion posts can do more harm than good.
Controversy need not be bad. Thing is, we have to make sure that every opinion post that has any potential to be controversial is properly sourced. If you’re seen to put out a controversial opinion, you need to make sure that people understand that its both an opinion and well reasoned; if you don’t, you start to alienate your audience & sound like you have an agenda.
I run a coupon website http://freecoupondunia.com/, and of course we have a lot of coupon post. We have to do a lot of research before we approve them though; sometimes opinion posts can do more harm than good.
I think an interesting blend is heavily researched blog posts with added opinions, certainly in kind of more rational fields like business and technology, also I find it important that the author explains his train thoughts so one understands why the opinion is formed.
I often find that pure fact based content just seems to impersonal to build relationships (though there is a place for them as well) and pure opinion based posts tend to work if the author puts himself at the middle of the spotlight and lets charisma hopefully carry the content over.
I have a business affiliate website. It becomes kind of a problem to get out of the review post. It would be great to find opinions from experts on the subject, but in some affiliate niches this becomes extremely difficult. Thanks for the advice though, gonna use it on my health blog.
I’ve thought about this a lot as I’ve seen different bloggers do this and I think it makes a lot of sense