One of the things that first attracted me to blogging was the creative genius that I saw at work in many of the blogs going around at that time.
There was an ‘anything goes’ type attitude among bloggers who were pushing the boundaries of what could be done on a blog. Of course I look back now and much of this past creativity has become quite normal now (for example I clearly remember seeing a blogger include a short video in a post a number of years back and thinking it was cutting edge).
Another thing I loved about blogging was the humor, irreverence and fun I saw happening on blogs. Bloggers were not constrained by the editorial process, policy and standards that journalists worked with and as a result some of the content that they produced was like writing I’d not seen before (note: I’m not saying that editorial processes, policy and standards of journalism are a bad thing – but that what I saw bloggers doing was markedly different to what I saw happening in mainstream media at that time).
Blogging was an exciting genre – we were cutting new ground as a community of bloggers.
Of course this tradition of pushing boundaries and expressing ourselves creatively lives on – in fact it’s a real feature of many successful blogs.
Be a Playful Blogger
In a presentation last year on principles of successful blogging – one of the points I made that tried to get at this pushing of the boundaries and new way of writing was titled – Be Playful.
Not every successful blog is ‘playful’ but many are. Whether it be in the experimentation with new mediums, tools and ideas, or whether it be in the type of content that they produce – almost anything goes when it comes to blogging.
In fact as I look back on the most memorable posts that I’ve published on my blogs it is often the ‘playful’ ones that stick out. A few examples:
- 5 Things You Should Know about My Dad the ProBlogger (I wrote this post in the voice of my 2 year old son – the voice seemed to capture the imagination of readers)
- How to Reduce Camera Shake – 6 Techniques (the pictures in this post where the author scribbled over her butt and asked readers to ignore it (by drawing attention to it) went over so well with readers. The post went viral on Digg and many other sites.
- Does My Butt Look Big in This? – What Clothes to Wear in Portraits (the title of this one drew in a HEAP of visitors)
A few quick starting points for being playful
There are many ways to ‘be playful’ on a blog but a few starting points include:
- Experiment with your voice – it is often not ‘what’ you say but ‘how’ you say it that grabs people’s attention.
- Humor – careful use of humor can really make an impact upon readers.
- Surprise – much of what I’m trying to get at with this post is to allow yourself to do things a little different with your blog – things that surprise your readers will make them stop in their tracks a little and take a second look at what you’re doing.
- Fun Projects – pretty much any project that allows your readers to do something fun and interactive would fit into this category. On DPS this would include our Weekend Photography Challenges where we ask readers to submit an image on a theme each weekend or here on ProBlogger it’d include our group writing projects over the years. These projects are largely about fun, interacting with others and a little self promotion for readers.
How have you been playful on your blog?
Being playful is not something you can make a definitive list of how to do. Playful blogging comes in all shapes and sizes so I’d love to hear how you’ve done it on your blog (or how you’ve seen others do it). Please feel free to share a link below to your examples!
PS: playful blogging is also fun and can help you to get through tough patches where you feel like giving it.
Well put, Darren. I think the reason articles that are “playful” are so successful and enjoyable is because people love to experience your personality on the blog. Granted, some blogs don’t have personality and are still successful, but I think the most successful ones are those whose writers include a little bit of themselves in the content.
Thanks for sharing.
Yes I remember your post in which you wrote as the voice of you kid. Indeed I will try to work while using a different voice in my post and see.Thanks for the post
This is a great reminder, I do try and be a playful person generally, but it can get forgotten when working hard! Thanks for the reminder and I have a few ideas to bring some more fun to my blog now.
Thanks for this article! I am blogging more and think I have found my voice. Fun is the name of the game but with a purpose and the ability to educate or give insight to my followers.
I agree it’s funny because the same parallel you point in blogging I also notice in many other creative avenues like music. While I’m not in the music biz, just watch the Grammy’s or listening to the radio you beginning to catch were originality turn into a trend (and not in the good way)
From my standpoint still being a newbie to blogging and playing the role of watcher I come across some of the same…
I’m reproaching the entire theme of my message to really show the transparency in my life and “playing” with more ideas
This blog helped in that process.
Thanks.
It’s so true, and in fact I think you can extend it to any post that really sparks emotion – for the fun ones, it’s smiles and laughter.
But I’ve also written a couple of real tear jerkers that really got attention as well.
Great post! I know that my subject matter, financial aid for college students, is not the most exciting however it is extremely important for my target audience. Implementing some playful aspects into my blog would certainly make my blog stand out from the boring laws and regulations from the federal government!
This is great advice and hopefully will be groundbreaking for my work!
It is a huge puzzle for me but I think I am starting to get there. thanks for all the insight
I bet that thinking and writing beyond boundaries always has its advantages, you may not meet your planned goal, but you’ll definitely achieve something better.
http://www.dumblittleblogger.com/
well its a good article. being a playful blogger will help you to achieve more in your blogging field and will boost a huge traffic on your blog.
Great post.
Thnx for the advice!!
Really good points! Lately I have noticed that I am way too formal in most of my posts – so I am trying to make a conscious effort to bring out my personality, creativity, and humor. When we are playful, we are much more likely to make that connection with our readers. If we don’t then it just sounds like we are lecturing or talking down on them (which isn’t attractive).
Steven – getting formal as a blogger is something I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers do after a while. Suddenly blogging becomes ‘serious’ as they want to do it well and in doing so they lose something of what helped them to get to a point that they thought they needed to get serious :-)
Sometimes, you just have to have some fun in your blogs and not be ” serious ” and ” business-like ”
I use my dancing trips to have those ” playful entries ” and just write out what something for fun.
I will definitely take on some of the tips. In an increasingly competitive environment it is essential to differentiate. Plus being playful is probably more likely to engender audience participation which will hopefully increase average time on site.
There are thousands of travel guides to India, so I went for a more irreverent train travel and rickshaw guide. Not exactly definitive but a platform for others to share their horror stories or useful tips.
http://www.the-nri.com/index.php/2010/02/reckless-rickshaws/
http://www.the-nri.com/index.php/2010/02/riding-the-indian-railways/
Just this week I added something that I considered playful. The eliminate of surprise. My niche is weight loss – body image and as the title portrays, the audience is primarily female. I am doing a series of guest posts written by men. It was intended to give a different perspective from a man’s point of view and scheduled this week because of the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday. It definitely had the eliminate of surprise and all of the posters shared with their humor. It’s been a blast for me.
Good tips! And don’t forget to poke a little fun at yourself sometimes. Even though we’re bloggers, we’re (surprisingly) not always perfect!
http://www.thisquarterlife.com/2009/12/01/chip-clipped/
I love this post. My favorite thing about blogging is the ability to be creative. It’s such a great creative outlet that carries over into so many other areas of our lives.
It’s amazing how people respond to personality. I’ve been thinking about adding more personality, more fun to my personal devotional http://www.thebibledaily.org After all, we’re all on a spiritual journey.
I do think that’s a great tip. Blog are at their best when they’re not always too serious and are able to poke fun at themselve a but I think.
I write a fashion blog and at Christmas I made Santa my Style Icon of the month
http://www.retrochick.co.uk/2009/12/22/retro-chick-style-icon-father-christmas/
Thanks for the challenge! Medical/dermatology blog that’s playful…. I’m going to work on that.
Cynthia Bailey MD http://www.otbskincare.com/blog/
Right on spot you are, Darren! Being playful generates interesting content which is definite to draw attention of readers. The prominent example I found is http://www.dooce,com. Not only are the posts comical, but I love the daily chuck section, where pet dog named Chuck share his thoughts along with some funny photo. I think its a creatively unique way to add humor content to your site. Adding daily comic strips or videos relevant to your blog can also be one of the techniques to try for.
Harsh – Dooce is one good example, she certainly puts her personality and some creativity into some of those posts!
Darren,
You touched on the greatest thing about blogging: THERE ARE NO RULES!!
The public will dictate what’s acceptable – either they’ll read it or they will not. So I say this: just be yourself.
Thanks
MJ
I have an eclectic web magazine (with about 10 writers on staff) and I generally free myselfup for fun things like a weekly fiction short story.
I also enjoy contests. Last year I pitted two teams against each other in a contest to guess the year-end Dow (the experts got thumped by the non-experts). I also had some sports fans predict where the top free agents would go.
And on Friday, I’m unveiling another fun thing – but that’s still mostly under wraps.
Thanks for another top notch post, Darren. A really great reminder to employ some stress-management techniques, loosen up and have fun on your blog!
Over at Live Lighter, I JUST tried out my first group challenge: a new year’s resolution alternative where we detoxed TV for the month of January. It was also my first foray into video…
http://livelighter.org/category/post-series/the-2010-tv-detox/
It was heaps of fun (for me, at least) but the turnout wasn’t what I was hoping for. Perhaps what was missing what the fun factor? At the very least, I learned a lot from the experience and plan to use those lessons in future group challenges.
If anyone gets the chance to check it out, I’d sure appreciate some honest feedback! :)
Being ‘playful’ is certainly a great way to stand out. Out read loads of posts a day and so many of them are factually good but boring.
Say I want to solve a problem and I find the answer on a factually accurate blog. Well that’s fantastic for me but the chances are I’m not coming back. It’s only when someone shows personality, humour or diversity in something that I even bother to look who’s blog it is. Its just a good way to make yourself stand out in order to gain subscribers.
Spot on, prescient post, am exactly trying to have a bit of fun with my new hobby blog.
http://dailykungfu.com/
I love to use humor when I am writing,because I am really funny, heck I crack myself up all-the-time.
Humor is the ice breaker needed for me and my blog because I am not an expert, but I play one online….hey I go a million of them.
This was a good and informative post. I’m pondering ways now to show more of my personality on my blog. I’m new to blogging as of Nov. 2009 and I was focus on the content of the material and the clean and sophisticated image. Now I want to diversity it a little as far as delivery in order to get more readers all while communicating the same message. This helped me out, thanks Darren.
Jamara
http://www.hismajestyfavorite.com
@dailykf my kungfu playful is stronger then your kungfu playful http://www.ephman.com
Great post. Adding humor as well to being playful will definitely set your blog apart from the million of blogs out there.
Yeah, this site has really been an eye opener. Thanks
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I like the part where you say something about projects.
I think involving others and making a project a team effort (the blogger with his/hers audience) is a nice idea.
http://www.wannabemillionaire.com
I think experimenting with your voice is a very important part of blogging and actually very difficult to achieve. I find that I’m either too robotic and “journalistic” or too edgy and offensive. Strange, I know :) However, when I find the right tone and I’m looking for, it pays off tremendously.
You say “playful”, I say “ridiculousness”…which is totally my writing style. Thanks for the validation! :)
Here are some examples:
Dear Dudes, Please Stop Calling Yourselves ‘Daddy’- http://www.thenakedredhead.com/thenakedredhead/dear-dudes-please-stop-calling-yourselves-daddy.html
An entire store of ridiculousness- http://www.thenakedredhead.com/the-naked-store/
Ah man.. do I dare post this link?!?
I’m currently conducting a workshop series on my interior design blog, with the first installment about creating your own workshop. One of the steps was to purge.
Purging is a highly demanding, and not so exciting part of reclaiming space, so I created a video spoof on how to get rid of your stuff. :)
http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/2010/01/workshop-series-purging-part-2.html
And in this post,the video is on setting up your workshop on a dime.
http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/2010/02/creating-your-own-workshop-part-4.html
The videos have been quite popular! I’m just a schmuck that isn’t afraid to laugh at herself and it keeps a potentially dry topic a little… wetter?!? :)
Donna
Funky Junk Interiors
http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/
great example Funky Junk Interiors – video is a perfect medium for playfulness :-)
Blog writing gives authors an artistic license that isn’t available in traditional publishing. Some of the more outrageous bloggers are experiencing the commercial success that it takes traditional journalists years to acquire–the eccentric bryanboy.com author is now sitting front row next to the likes of Vogue Editor Anna Wintour at runway shows. I also find that writing about a topic in a humorous way frequently makes it more memorable. I would only caution that bloggers do not try and mask weak content with humor, because readers will quickly catch on.
Blogosphere is a playground where anything and everything is possible. You can be and do anything that you want (almost anything:) ).
I love the point that you are making about playfulness. Blogging is not serious business. It can be if you want it to be, but for the most part blogging gives us a chance to create, write and experiment with the ideas, thoughts, ways of presenting data without failing or becoming discouraged.
I have actually written an article about the exact same topic on Write To Done. If you realize that you can have fun on Blogosphere, then you free yourself and unleash your creative genius!
Best,
Tomas
I love the idea of been playful on a blog. To me, this is what makes it fun. When I first started reading this blog and copyblogger, one of the things that grabbed me was the voices used.
I try and wrap humor into mine (Cos productivity for alot of people isnt the most exciting subject in the world and doesnt make everybody gyrate), but on future posts i’m going to try and assume a different voice like you did with your sons voice.
Really great post – thanks for the helpful points once more Darren.
I read what you had to say and acted immediately – I’ve issued a challenge to my readers to tell me their funniest kitchen disaster stories – and I HAD FUN doing it. I’ve been so serious up until now. Hopefully I get the response I’m after. Thanks for the challenge. P.S. If you do happen to go to this link, Yes, my Dad really did cook dog food for the visitors one night…
I consider my blog my writing playground and try throw in a dash of humor or fun whenever possible because I can’t really do that in my day writing job. Those posts seem to go over well but the post I wrote from my dog’s point of view went over better. Everyone’s a sucker for a cute dog.
Darren, from Japan, thanks for this perspective. Being playful in your blog is a wonderful idea but I think that it important to consider cultural implications. I post a bilingual blog in English and Japanese and what works in one language rarely translates into the other as is. It is challenging to encounter the difficulty of sharing a sense of humor or playfulness across cultures. I write in English, and although I may use the same photo, I will change the title and the blog format to adapt to the second language, Japanese. There can be quite a difference, as you can see by switching between languages at http://www.energydoorways.com
This is such a good reminder. I am working now on a new site to blog on where my dog will be the author, good to see others think dogs have good messages. He has been writing letters back home for awhile now, has his own Facebook page and Twitter account and can’t wait to get started. Still, I will have to type it for him (if he only had thumbs!)
thank you for the information but in my country should not be writing articles freely there are laws that govern when there is violation of sanctions in court.
Hi Darren,
I appreciate your suggestion to bloggers: “be a playful blogger”.
Being playful is great and in my opinion it has to come spontaneously.
I think that even the most serious people have playful moments and that holds true for bloggers.
So instead of stifling playfulness it will be good to just let it out.
On the other hand when being in serious frame of mind forcing playfulness may come out wrong.
Reading your post may help a lot of us to be playful naturally when blogging and not overdo it with being serious when we really feel playful.
Vance
Good post, I have a wicked sense of humor and love blogs that are written with a more fun and humorous tone. It can be hard to really do it well however, sometimes it sound strained.
You really wanna find your voice with this so you sound natural, which just adds a whole new level of awesome to your posts.
Yes I tend to agree with many of the comments. You must sometimes be careful as “being playful” may not always come across that way in writing.
Of course there are those many very talented writers who can paint a picture with a single sentence.
Ultimately if its in your personality it is much easier to move away from the strict writing techniques and have some fun.
I think a writer could have a successful blog by using a stiff Wall Street tone of voice. The key I think still is incorporating your personal self into it making it relatable to the reader.
Great tips — many I will try to incorporate into my posts going forward.
I always try to inject at least a small amount of humor or just plain silliness … without sounding like I’m clowning around. Here’s my most humorous from the past few days, titled “The cheese on my pizza.” (Or maybe I *am* just stupid … you tell me):
http://www.grandmasbriefs.com/home/2010/2/8/the-cheese-on-my-pizza.html
I need to start having more fun on some of my blogs, I tend to stick to business way too much. Thanks for the reminder Darren.
note: Hi Professor
Hi Darren,
You are right, but what do I do if I have no sense of hummer?
Well I probably do, but it doesn’t always come out in my posts, I’m usually very serious and formal. However, I do know how to tell a story, I think that goes a long way as well.
Thanks – Ami
Ami – stories are a great way of being a little playful. It’s not always about being ‘funny’ but doing something ‘different’ is what I think works for many.