I’ve been watching a number of blogs recently that seem to have become a little obsessed with one of two things – Memes and attempting to get to the top of social bookmarking site’s like digg.com and del.icio.us.
Now I’ve got nothing against a good meme from time to time and have been known to write posts that have done well with social bookmarking sites – but I wonder if perhaps if every every second or third post you write has this type of focus whether a blog can end up looking a little one dimensional.
You see as I reflect tonight upon the niche topics that I’m covering on different blogs I realize that to cover them comprehensively generally means a need for a variety of types of posts. For example on a gadget site a blogger could just write reviews and have a half decent blog, but if they added in a ‘how to’ or ‘tip’ post every now and again they’d add a second dimension and if they wrote a post every now and again that gave the latest news in the industry they’d add a third dimension. Add in some ‘rumor posts’, ‘rants’ and a post or two that are questions for readers to discuss and you could end up with quite a dynamic blog (see this post for 20 different types of posts).
Of course you don’t want to use every type of post all the time as it’s important to establish some consistency in your voice and style – but I do find myself getting a little bored with some blogs that just seem a little too one dimensional.
Am I the only one?
I must say that I fell prey to this type of writing after “discovering” the style of articles that most social bookmarking websites can’t get enough of. It was very disruptive, as if the visitors were those unwanted house guests that leave a mess behind them.
I still enjoy those sites, but I don’t think I will be catering an article to them any time soon.
I’m posting this entry to del.icio.us
no mate you ain’t alone couse i get like that aswell when i read blog or anythings couse after a while it gets boring i can’t read anymore couse it boring.
Wow, you really *are* a problogger, huh? Once again you have not failed to enlighten me. This is a good post! Thanks!!
Minutes before reading this post I unsubscribed from about two dozens blogs I had in my RSS reader. Why? They offer little original thought, ideas, and information. Every post reads the same. And what they offer can be found from numerous others. I unsubscribed from them all.
It’s pretty similar to real life. You get pretty tired of hearing people talk about themselves all day long. Or you get tired of hearing someone consistently grumble about everything in life. And readers get tired of reading the same drivel day in and day out. Spice it up, shake it up, throw it all out there and more readers will read.
I always say that change is good for the soul. Yes, people, spice it up a little :)
I really try to be multi-dimensional with my customer service blog. I never knew that I could write so much about one topic.
Yes, a blog is about your “voice”, but it’s also good to let other people be heard as well…
~Maria Palma
CustomersAreAlways.com
On the other hand, I find it hard to talk about myself. I just managed one post on the “Value of Feedback” in my life and everything else since then has been pretty much about Web Traffic Analyis, and the likes.
Does wondering off my main topic and talking about other niches like blog comparisons count as an extra dimension, does it add lustre and spackle to the blog, or is it just plain old wondering off?
My ruminations …
I’m gradually broadening what I’m writing about on a couple of blogs to include a range of news, comment on press releases, relevant concepts/techniques that aren’t time-dependent, and my own opinions. It’s more fun to write, too, and is good if there are ‘slow news days’
I don’t know if my readers appreciate this gradual shift – my RSS counter is slowly rising and my visitor count likewise, but this was happening anyway.
I’ve never been particularly good at writing the type of content that specifically gets to the top of social bookmarking sites anyway. I don’t consciously try.
I’m afraid I’m one of those Digg people. I’ve got on the front page of Digg twice this month; and I’ve had nearly 40,000 unique visitors. You need to see the attraction of a 7 fold increase in traffic for someone such as me.
But getting on Digg isn’t all glory. I’ve really suffered from immature comments full of bad language, grammar, obscenities and spelling. I feel as though this lowers the tone of my blog.
I think Darren is referring to having a variety of post types/styles as opposed to topics. By diversifying topics, you may defeat yourself in ad sales or traffic where posting different kinds of posts may help instead.
Yep – I’ve got nothing against Digg or writing in a style that will appeal to Digg users – I guess all I was saying that I think a diversity of voices/styles/tones might add new dimensions to a blog that actually build a readership.
I’ve been dugg a few times myself but the challenge is creating a space that people visit not just the days you’re at the top of the list but every day/week.
Digg is great – but if you can convert some of those readers to follow you via RSS and/or bookmarking you you’ll build a bigger readership in the long term.
I agree. I think you need various different angles to attract users. Especially adding questions with different angles is very useful.
How do you get on the front page of digg though? For me it seems like an impossible task