This guest post is by Angela Severance of Wonder Divas.
As a blogger, connecting with your readers can sometimes be a challenge. If you’re new to blogging or you haven’t quite “found your groove” you may even be struggling. You want to make an impact on your readership, but the “how” of it kind of escapes you.
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So here are a few tips on injecting a bit of humor into your blog and giving your readers (and yourself!) a few tickles to the proverbial funny bone.
Duh! Find the funny
It may sound oversimplified, but injecting humor into your blog means finding the funny events happening in your life around you and finding a way to tie them into what you’re trying to say in your blog post.
Maybe you use a funny story to illustrate a point or a funny example to showcase “what not to do”. Maybe you just share something funny you heard on the news or tell that witty joke your co-worker told you at lunch yesterday. Look to the experiences happening in your own life, whether they are positive or negative and try to find the humor in them. Then share those humorous (and human) moments with your readers!
Choose your words—literally
When you polish up your vocab skills and use different words that may mean the same thing but carry different connotations, you increase your ability to write not only effectively but with humor if you so choose.
Often something that might not be construed as comical at first glance becomes comical if you use the right language to express it. A thesaurus is a great tool to help you in the “wording” department, by the way.
The upside is that, as you increase your vocabulary, you increase your ability to communicate and find your true “voice”. Or even “voices” if you desire! And sometimes using colorful adjectives can throw a reader just enough off-guard to incite laughter!
Don’t be bossy
It’s not your job to tell your readers something is hilarious. It’s your job to tell the story, describe the situation or express the character, and allow them to come to their own conclusion that something is hilarious.
You can do this by using words to paint a picture for your reader. Pull them into your world, immerse them in your words, and allow them to discover the funny all on their own.
Dress it a little differently
Sometimes what you’re saying might not be smashingly unique. That’s fine, but you can still make it witty by finding a way to say it a little differently than the next average Joe. You can also use things like metaphors, similes, silly clichés, and irony to inject humor as well.
Just remember that when you’re using metaphors, similes or silly clichés to choose ones people can relate to on some level, that engages their senses and creates a “picture” in their minds. Don’t use some obscure cliché that almost no one has ever heard before or you’ll be shooting yourself in the foot. People find the most humor in things they can relate to, not things they’ve never heard of!
Get up and flow
Finally, remember that to write with humor, whether it’s a blog post, a novel, or a letter to your friend, requires a certain amount of cahones. (It’s okay if you’ve only got the proverbial kind, ladies.) No subject is taboo and when you start writing you shouldn’t censor yourself too much.
Sure you can go back later and edit if need be, or if you don’t want to be quite so “balls-y” you can censor a bit after you have something written … but don’t let it be your first impulse. Write what you think and feel, let it flow freely and worry about who you may or may not offend later.
And remember that you don’t have to be a stand-up comedian to write funny material and make your readers laugh. Often you just have to be you and be willing to let your guard down a bit. Now get out there and tickle some funny bones people!
“What if you tell a joke in the forest, and nobody laughs? Was it a joke?” – Steven Wright
Angela Severance is a Certified Holistic Life Coach, image consultant, writer, and Chief Happiness Officer at Wonder Divas. She enjoys dance parties with her daughters, baking cupcakes, roller skating, traveling, learning, inspiring, and laughing. Subscribe to her blog, and join her on Facebook.
This is something that we should take into consideration. But the thing is it is hard to punch a good humor in your blog posts.
It is true that you can’t humor others if you punch in something that they can’t relate to. I totally agree with that. Most of the time as I observe my officemates they usually joke but the thing is they are the only one that gets it.
Thanks for pointing out this things.
When it comes to infusing humor into blog posts, it can be relatively easy when we remove ourselves from the equation. We tend to over-analyze what other people might think if we inject humor into our writing, but it shows that we’re human after all.
Humor is the key to eliminating fear. Write like you speak, if you need to tickle the funny bone, do it and enjoy the journey.
I thank you for a nice post. Written humor is really tough and whoever manages to pull if off will sure attract a lot of regular visitors.
It is really hard to do especially if you are a serious person… but I think it is not bad to work on it sometime and make your readers laugh.
Just in time.
Blogging voice is important because this how you get loyal readers. They will subscribe to yourRSS(Like I have a lot of RSS Readers) if they find your voice unique and entertaining.
Blogging is like watching a new TV series, we follow it because we find something attractive about it.
Armand Polanski
That’s exactly what I try to do….just write and let it all out what I’m trying to say. Later, I clean it up a bit and make sure that I am still getting across what I would like.
I’ve never really considered myself a funny person, although I love to laugh. I can actually think of some ways I can add a little humor into my blogs. Thanks for the tips!
Kendra~
Does humor always work? I personally feel everything depends of the positioning of your content.
I for example run an educational blog, on management theories.
I don’t feel humor will boost my brand image.
Angela – This is a nice thought, and I would say, we have to lighten up every now and then. Good Humor is here to stay, everyone can use a little bit of it in their daily routine. A smile passed on to another is a smile gained. I think I will also try & implement these in my blogs and see what my visitors have to say about them. Thanks for sharing.
Humor is probably one of the hardest parts to add, but worth it when you can manage it. There’s a balance between offensive and funny sometimes, as well as making sure the humor comes across as well in print as it would if you said it out loud. The lack of inflection sometimes makes humor harder to spot in an article.
Great post, I think it isn’t given to all bloggers to be funny.
Your advises can be helpful for those bloggers!
Thanks for sharing!
so true, a little humor in the right spot can really warm up your readers
Coming from a blogger who writes basically all humor, I agree with your message..
They always say making a girl laugh is the way to her heart.. In the blogosphere, making a reader laugh is the way to keep him coming back!
Humour goes a long way in the blogging world, and being able to inject a little humour into your writing is indeed a skill and something that is a great ally if you have it in the bag. I often use puns and double meanings in my writing and indeed my titles too to get attention and a laugh – in fact you should read my latest post, everything from the title to the image I used (made) was designed to poke a little fun.
Yes that was a blatant attempt at self promotion. What?
Well written Angela, thanks for sharing, this definitely helped me with my college assignment. My neighbour has been looking for this information for ages so I will definitely pass it on.
Oh, btw I am having a helluva time trying to locate your RSS feed but can’t seem to find it. What theme are you using, email me because my client just died and left 47billion euros in an account in his goats name.
For about eight years I wrote a weekly humor column that appeared in several local newspapers. After a rocky start at doing such a thing on a regular basis, I finally learned to trust my instincts and write to entertain myself. Once I adopted this mindset, my readership went up, the web traffic to the column went up and reader interaction became a regular thing.
Once I learned to trust myself and go with what I thought was at the very least entertaining, the stresses of deadlines and publishing a so-called “Humor” column nearly disappeared. If you can entertain yourself, chances are there is an audience out there who can also appreciate your style. Individuals aren’t as unique as we sometimes think. So set some moral boundaries that are in-line with your intended audience, and just let ‘er rip with the funny.You’ll do just fine.
For about eight years I wrote a weekly humor column that appeared in several local newspapers. After a rocky start at doing such a thing on a regular basis, I finally learned to trust my instincts and write to entertain myself. Once I adopted this mindset, my readership went up, the web traffic to the column went up and reader interaction became a regular thing.
Once I learned to trust myself and go with what I thought was at the very least entertaining, the stresses of deadlines and publishing a so-called “Humor” column nearly disappeared. If you can entertain yourself, chances are there is an audience out there who can also appreciate your style. Individuals aren’t as unique as we sometimes think. So set some moral boundaries that are in-line with your intended audience, and just let ‘er rip with the funny.You’ll do just fine.
Hi Angela,
Thanks for the humor reminder. I sometimes get a little too focused and serious with my posts. I will write one soon that is injected with a little humor.
LOVED this post! Took the words right out of my mouth. I’m a newbie blogger and “haven’t found my groove” yet, but I’ve noticed that if I inject some yummy funniness into my posts I get more reader feedback. For me I naturally try to spin the post in a way that surprises and delights my readers. Doesn’t work every time. But, when it does, it’s like magic. And I definitely agree with not being the boss. It’s your job to gently coax the reader to read the entire post and hopefully share it with others. They are the big boss man that you hopefully impress with your skills (which should speak for themselves). However, I’m stealing your title: Chief Happiness Officer. Since my blog helps my readers follow their bliss, I think that fits me perfectly: C.H.O.
I agree that using humor is a great way to connect with your readers. Some emphasis needs to be put on not offending people, especially for bloggers with an international audience. What may be considered humorous in America may not be so funny half way around the world. With that being said, as a blogger you know your audience, or should for that matter, so write accordingly.
Even though a subject is serious in nature, this doesn’t mean we as writers can’t lighten it a little so that it digests easier, right?
I think this is called romancing the reader.
“A thesaurus is a great tool to help you in the “wording” department”
Just dont use the one that comes with Word – it’s utter crap.