Today Chris Brogan shares with us one of the secrets of his blogging.
I’m not sure what it is about Darren’s blog that makes me confess my blogging secrets. I did it once before when I discussed how I promote my blog using Twitter, and here I am back to give away another of my secrets to what powers my blog: imperfection.
Image by quinn anya
I Can’t Add to That
One way people accidentally cut down on active commenting on their blogs is by writing a post so complete and thorough in its presentation that the audience doesn’t really know what to add, or how to contribute. Comments like, “Great post,” and “Couldn’t have said it better myself,” aren’t really what most of us want to leave, so instead, we’ll choose not to engage. It’s the old instant cake mix story.
The story goes that instant cake mix went from requiring the cook to add a few eggs, some milk, some water, and a little butter, to just adding water. Sales dropped immediately. But why? Wouldn’t it be even easier on the homemaker to just add water to make a cake? It turned out that our man or woman of the house wanted the sense that they were contributing to the act of making the cake. And thus, producers of such mix have backed it out to allow for adding in the eggs, and some of the other simpler ingredients.
Make Your Blog Posts Imperfect
It’s tricky, because you can’t exactly make them horrible and unreadable, but the point is that maybe you can write them in such a way as to allow your audience and community to add in their level of expertise. I do this all the time over at my site. I end posts with questions. I thread the blog post with the sense that YOU are the expert on several points, and that maybe you can help me better understand things in the comments section. Linking works this way, too. If someone else has said it better, cite it with a nice link.
The things you do to build a little bit of participation into your blog posts is what will bring more community experience together, and give people a sense that they matter. Helping that sentiment grow builds a robust commenting community, which in turn, gives you a great reason to pour more time and attention into the care and feeding of a community that you’re hoping will help sustain you in one way or another.
Did I Miss Anything?
Most of you in Darren’s community are experts at creating excellent content that drives passionate relationships. Some of you do this to become Six Figure Bloggers yourselves. Others just like learning how to make your blog more sticky as a destination site. What do you think I’m missing on this idea? Have you tried it already? Does it work for you?
Chris Brogan advises businesses about emerging technologies and social media tools at ChrisBrogan.com.
I’ve been writing “complete posts” for a while now, so I think I’ll give this a shot and leave room for my readers to complete the post, thanks for the tip. I’m really hoping this will increase their involvement with my blog.
Great post! ;D
Haha I believe that reader-blogger communication is the most important aspect of a blog (besides the actual posts) and the idea of imperfection really opens the door to much more.
This is a great tip! Bloggers forget, it’s not always about being the “know-it-all.”
Maria Reyes-McDavis
Asking questions, leaving holes for others to insert there opinions, and asking advice are good methods for bloggers just as they are good traits in a conversation. No one likes talking to a long winded know-it-all, and that same thing carries over into online discussions.
Amen- imperfection is inspiring to the folks that are the students- and make it a reachable destination to be where chris is one day as well asc possibly having a well read blog as problogger – great inspiration-thanks
Doug Firebaugh
Very interesting perspective….basically you need to leave the readers wanting more and wanting to fill in the gaps….that’s got to be an art in itself.
This is insightful. I’ve always focused on trying to provide value in my posts and as a result some of my posts probably do end up too complete to comment on. Even controversial posts suffer from this. People might disagree with you but if your post offers a solid argument few people are going to spend the time to try and pick you apart.
Good post I like Brogan’s perspectives. I think there are caveats to it, sometimes the more complete and firm and thorough you are, the more you fire up those who disagree, leading to the best comments ever. But for the most part I agree with the post.
I’m glad I read this. I think that I should have the most comments on the web for my posts, because they are inadvertently imperfect most of the time! I like to leave questions at the end, so we’ll see how that works. If I ever become good enough to leave something a bit undecided on purpose, I will feel like I have reached blogging nirvana.
One thing to remember is that imperfections can be profitable.
One of my blogs has a mis spelled title – it reads James Bone instead of James Bond. Because I’m fairly authoritive, I could never rank for “James Bond”, but I do rank for “James Bone”. The Adsense on the site does have links to James Bond, and receives more click throughs than usual. :)
Perfection doesn’t give passion. One example is by saying “What is the Fonz’s catchphrase?”. You can either say “eeeeyyyyy” (spelling all over the place) or “hey” (properly spelt). Which one is more accurate?
Good post :)
Hmm…. Perhaps the times when I have less comments on my posts is because it is actually so complete and good! :)
Great points, thanks so much. I have found myself rewriitng my blog several times just so that is sounds perfect and then find I lose some of the personal touch I have always strived for with my subscribers, customers and online friends. Now I can relax and just update. :-)
Imperfection certainly allows you for engagement. It allows you to create a) series posts that really add value to your blog and b) link them in a cohesive resource that adds value to your blog & your readers.
Great post from a social media rockstar!
i concur, the other day, i posted something which i had in my head, but couldn’t put my finger on it… my readers had fun coming up with the answers.
perfection is overrated anyway. no one actually likes it.
I love it. I like to stir the pot on purpose sometimes, and to drop subtle ideas in other times and just see if anyone picks up on them.
The good thing of not beeing an expert makes you Imperfect by default, but at this point maybe you don’t have a big community on your blog, but it makes it easy for people to comment on the articles.
This is kind of like the way I view article marketing, but applied to getting people to comment on your blog.
You don’t want your article to be so complete they don’t need to click through to your site for more info. You want to give them enough info to establish you know what you’re talking about and could teach them more. Then they have to click the link in the resource box to get the rest of the info (and/or be exposed to an offer).
Same thing goes here. Like you said… walking this fine line can be tricky. I’ll try to use this in my blogging to get more comments.
I find it extremely easy to make my blog post imperfect!
Love this tip… I sometimes agonize over writing the ‘perfect’ blog or article because I want to give my audience the best I’ve got. But your point here is to engage the reader and provoke thought and discussion. Such an obvious point… one I missed completely.
Chris, I love this idea of leaving something out for readers to add. Often, I find my readers take a new angle which I never even considered! I think I will add this suggestion to my “Corporate Blogging” section of the Social Media class I am teaching. :)
I understand the reasoning behind this and think that it might be worth giving a try. I am with Todd Andrews when I say that I am good at making my blog imperfect.
It’s funny, but when I have been stressing out during the completion phase of writing a post, I have been thinking I don’t have to cover ALL bases… I could leave some “space” for the reader to add something.
I don’t know whether I have been carrying it off, necessarily, but it seems I have been intuitively doing what you are suggesting on my blog! Thanks!
I am trying to knock the “must tie up every possible loose thread” habit out of my thinking.
Michael Martine at Remarkablogger turned me on to the idea that it works better to leave some room for the conversation. I’m digging the improvement in the number and quality of comments, but it’s still hard for my print-wired brain to let go of perfectionism.
(Or maybe “completionism.” I’m under no illusion that my blog is perfect.) :)
I’ve always tried for ‘complete’ posts but the I think the nature of my topics are mostly impossible to be complete. However it is something I’ll keep in mind in the future. Thanks.
I don’t have to worry about making my post imperfect. They are all imperfect.
The Masked Millionaire
Chris, you ask so many questions from your readers I wander how you manage all of the responses you must get from your blog and Twitter. You could seriously spend all day just keeping up with your large network. So, my question for you is are you really interested in the answers readers send in? Or is inviting their participation mainly a way to get them invested in your blogging “commenting community”? I sense it might be a blend of both with more of the latter than the former. Maybe you can answer my question! ; )
i will never forget your blog.nice article.
Some of the best advice I’ve ever heard is “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good enough.” Especially with blogging, there is no end to the amount of things you can do to improve – comment, write another post, participate in social media, etc.. If you are trying to be perfect in each one you’re wasting valuable time you could spend being good enough on something else.
Great comments everyone. I am new at blogging but really think that the comments are for the readers, not for the writers. On blogs that get incredible amounts of traffic, I think that you would have to hire someone to respond to all the comments they receive!
I’m going to try this. Usually when I write, I try to meticulously cover everything to make sure I have a thorough blog post but I see now that this may discourage comments. I actually just wrote a new blog post and I’m trying the technique out!
I love this site!
Paul Del Vecchio – Director
http://www.PaulDVBlog.com
http://www.triple-e-productions.net
I agree with Michael Carnell that being a good blogger is much like being a good conversationalist, or perhaps, the host of a dinner party: trying to spark interesting conversation, and then listening attentively to guests’ responses. But I might substitute the word “humility” for “imperfection” – a good blogger is confident in his/her ideas, but also genuinely interested in other people’s ideas, and does not feel superior to his/her readers.
Wow! Great article, I couldn’t have said it better myself….J/K
I hate this idea. I’m a journalist and it’s almost painful to leave it unfinished, incomplete – leave questions without answers? I’m afraid my editor will make me finish it I guess.
But, you might be right so I rewrote tomorrows post with the questions at the end instead of the beginning and left them hanging. We’ll see. . . I have heard this comment from some of my regular readers. They would enjoy participation – but how do I then maintain my position as Girl Empowerment authority?
Fantastic! For a new blogger like myself, I take heart when I read that I can mess up and still be successful; that I don’t have to be a know-it-all to get into personal finance and make valuable contributions.
I certainly don’t know it all, and I rely on my few readers to fill in the gaps.
I would not make my blog posts ‘incomplete’ because readers will soon find out the trick. You will lose customers who are seeking for clear cut advice. Rather, I would talk about small topic in great detail, so I won’t run out of topic.
http://www.marketingnavi.com
I find vulnerability combined with imperfection gets me the most comments. When I open up and show something a little (or a lot) raw the responses come flying in!
I’m not sure where I first came across the advice (probably here) to leave room in your posts for people to add their thoughts, but I now consciously leave points out of posts.
I think it does inspire others to comment and I figure the worst cast scenario is I have more information I can use to blog about the topic again.
Sometimes I’ll still write a post that tries to be complete, but more often I’ll purposely skip a few things and let my readers say them instead.
You make an interesting point; I think of it as “writing posts to which something can be added.” Whether you’re taking a strong opinion someone can argue with, or just asking for participation by ending it with a question, the best thing is to write a post someone will feel the need to add to.
Instructional articles leave little room for leaving anything out. Those also inspire the fewest comments, at least so far. If the instructions are complete, people get what they want and move on, but also come back. It the instructions are incomplete, people just move on. So there is a delicate balance that would invoke more comments.
Will you all acuse me of spamming if all i can say now is just a simple ….
AGREE!
:D
Purposely making a post with ‘holes’ might be good to encourage your readers to comment but what does it do to your ‘authority’ on the subject or your credibility? Plus readers are quite savvy, especially if they have read you for a long time. I’m sure they will know a ‘bait’ when they read one. This also defeats the purpose of being ‘transparent’ for your readers.
Rather than crafting your post with ‘holes’ ask open-ended questions of your readers, ask about their experiences. This means readers are contributing because they want to rather than contributing because they feel obliged to correct you or point out what you have missed. There are other, more positive, ways to encourage a ‘natural’ comment – use ‘point of view’, throwing questions back to the readers, presenting a problem etc.
good point you got there,
make a post that people can comment or even can make it right so controversial post gonna bring lot of comment, and sometime i see people interact with people through post, like asking why or asking opinion.
I am used to think that your posts always perfect. But, this post open my mind up. I never realize that imperfection lead readers to leave their comment. Thanks Darren.
The light bulb has gone off! You are so right with this point. I had lost sight of this very important element. And you’re right – I won’t even make pancakes if I can’t at least add the eggs!
@Liz (or one of the lizzes) – I read all the answers. I don’t always respond to every answer, because my goal is to facilitate the larger conversation, not become a public relations unit for my own writing. That said, I try to ensure that people feel heard. On days when I’m horribly busy, I fail. On days when I can dig in, I try to respond back to several folks.
@Tracee – I feel your pain. It has to be hard to shift out of one writing style’s form and habit.
@L-Jay – you asked what it does to one’s credibility as an expert. Let me ask you: do experts know it ALL? If you answer yes, then I can’t help you. If you answer, “of course not,” then you see my point.
@everyone else- some very encouraging and inspiring responses here, and thank you for them. I’ll try to dip in and answer here and there. If I miss you, don’t hesitate to drop me an email: blog at chrisbrogan dot com . : )
Great idea! Great post!
I think that your sharing of Twitter was something I will always be grateful for.
I had not considered writing a blog post in that way. My mindset was more ‘what would they see wrong with it?’ Perhaps it is a process where you eventually relax and have the focus on the reader and not yourself.
Many years ago I had the shocking experience of the boss popping by my desk and saying that from the next day I would be out with other staff on the counter in a benefits office and interviewing ‘Joe Public’. I was terrified. Too terrified and shy to say I could not do it. I was given training of course but it was still awful. Six months later i could do the job standing on my head. I’d stopped thinking about myself and was totally engaged with the person in front of me. So maybe the same can happen over time with the internet.
Chris, This is quite an idea I would not entertain in my blog. I want them factually perfect, with my opinions inserted appropriately. Blog is one’s opinion first, with the flavor of facts. So, there will always be room for improvement, and suggestions from readers.
We cannot actually write a post that perfect as mentioned here, so that nobody can appropriately comment anything valuable. Also, one of my readers recently commented the difference between the first person narrative and third person. Blogs should be first person, because only your opinion is there, while articles should be third person since they are based only on facts and not your opinions.
Thanks
Lenin
I am constantly editing my own posts, because they are never, ever perfect!! : ) But I get the point. Leave them a bit undone!!
Excellent points, Chris. This approach is beautiful. It’s not always the right approach – it always depends on your aims – but it’s remarkably well-suited to blog publishing.