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How to Be an Interesting Blogger

Posted By Darren Rowse 9th of June 2008 Miscellaneous Blog Tips 0 Comments

How-To-Be-InterestingOne of the keys to building a successful blog is to build something that is ‘interesting’.

But how does one BE interesting?

It’s probably a topic that deserve someone smarter than me to explore but it strikes me that one element of being an interesting blogger (or an interesting person for that matter) is that they are often people who are ‘interested’.

To be interesting you need to be interested

Image by riot jane

This is a concept that I’ve seen many write about over the years (example) but today it hit home for me.

You see I had 10 minutes this afternoon to check my RSS feeds. Regular readers will know that I follow 650+ feeds – so 10 minutes didn’t really cut it so I headed to 4 blogs that I generally find most interesting.

As I quickly read these 4 blogs I wondered to myself why I was drawn to them and realized that what made them interesting was that the bloggers behind them were:

  • interested in their topic – you can tell by reading their work that they are obviously fascinated with the topics that they write about. They love researching it, learning about it, talking about it and exploring it even though they write about it every day.
  • interested in their readers – they seemed to love the conversations that happened on their blogs but also based much of what they wrote about on real needs of readers and helping them.

Applying this ‘Interesting’ Principle:

There are a number of ways that I think it’s useful to think about this ‘interesting’ principle:

1. Starting a Blog – when starting up a new blog an important question to ask yourself is whether you are genuinely interested in your topic. This comes back to working out what you are about when choosing a topic.

2. Hiring Bloggers – last time I hired bloggers for DPS I had a number of criteria that I judged applicants by – one of which was how much I felt that they loved the topic of photography. Ability to write is important – but unless the person demonstrates a love for the topic they’ll probably not be able to take the blog to the next level.

3. Monitoring Your Interest Levels – perhaps a good question to ask yourself periodically when reviewing your blog is about how your interest levels are going on your blog. I think it’s a fairly natural thing to have your own interest levels for your topic to rise and fall over time – but to monitor this can be useful because it means you can take action when it drops (take a short break, find some guest posts, change your posting routine/rhythm, experiment with some new types of posts etc).

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. 650+ feeds? Wow I thought I subscribed to a lot (129)!

  2. @ Ari Herzog Thanks!

  3. I would say I have quite a specific reader base and I have definitely found that some titles and topics work much much better than others. I need to mix things up for myself though but I have focused a bit more on those topics – just not exclusively!

  4. 1) Try to post interesting content, make sure that content are new/latest.

    2) Update your blog every day

    3) Make reader to visit frequently to your blog

  5. Darren, that was good information. I find so many bloggers actually more than 90 per cent perhaps 99 percent are out for money. I am also out for money but it is only secondary, you will know if you visit my blog. I belive the interest comes when you actually believe in somehting and try to change the society from anything they are doing wrong in this niche.
    As for my blog, I try to change the people from using bad grammar and bad style in writing through my writing-related blog. I am an enthusiast of perfect writing, and strive to see good writing as much as possible. Telling my readers of this gives me interest to write more in my blog.

  6. I completely disagree – I think the most interesting bloggers out there are the ones who are blatantly different than everybody else and try to set themselves apart from everything else in the internet world.

    You could be lukewarm passionate about a topic, but if you can slant it in a novel direction, you immediately become amazingly interesting to most people just due to the interesting viewpoint. You can also be strikingly passionate about your topic and the readers, but if you write dryly and boring-ly, who’s going to read your blog or care what you have to say?

    Just my two cents. :P

  7. I reckon this is GREAT advice… but *people* still aren’t always interesting — maybe its because some of us try too hard… or maybe we need anonymity. The funniest blog I’ve found recently purports to be by a stuffed penguin http://www.bestplushlife.com/node/181

  8. Lenin –
    It is interesting to hear you say that about bloggers being out for the money. I read a study once about some research that was done on entrepreneurs… they were trying to find out what if any characteristics these entrepreneurs shared. Interestingly enough, the one thing they all shared, and these were all very wealthy/successful folks, is that they all were doing it NOT for the money but because of their love for it.
    Having tried to do things for money in the past, they tend to always fail and I think that is because doing anything well is a ridiculous amount of work. So much so that the things I really love and have been successful at I have quit many times over, but have always managed to pick myself up the next morning and come back just as strong. The difference is that if you are doing something just for the money… well then, for me at least, it is too abstract and meaningless. While, at the same time, I would like to earn a living doing what I do. And a good one at that.
    I often tell people that the key IS finding what you love because once you do that it’s not that the hard work is done its that you can actually stomach how much hard work there is!
    Cheers!

  9. The level of interest is most essential to succeed in anything you do, you can name any profession or a hobby. With blogging is like if you pick a blogs topic you got to stick to it. But writing about the same topic such as making money online can be challenging, because you have to stick to it, you can not blog about food, if you blog about making money. Although their are bloggers that do that, but this makes me sick if you can not stick to the topic, then a personal blog is the most interesting. Personal blogger can blog about anything. People who are interested will come anyway, but my level of interest in making money onine is sufficient, this is not my main blog anyway. Thanks for the great post. thanks for sharing.

  10. Its true that if one does not find passion for one’s work, then they will never be satisfied by it, eventually they will become bored of it.

    Nice post!!!

  11. You REALLY REALLY have love what you write about, otherwise it’s like forcing yourself to take a mid-term. It can be pure torture, not to mention that you might make a fool out of yourself or just look weak on that certain subject. As long as you are writing about topics that interest you, I’d say you are already half-way there. Passion comes from within and writing skills can always be improved, but your passion is already there. Great post Darren.

  12. @ problogger

    this is best post and Every blogger must follow your tips

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