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Building a Better Blog, Part 1
When I set out to do this project, I never thought that I'd learn so much about aliens, Shakespeare, and the Dalai Lama. I mean seriously, it's supposed to be a project about BLOGGING!
For the last few weeks we've partnered with Christian Web Trends (part of OurChurch.com) in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog project. It's based on an ebook by Darren Rowse of problogger.net. The objective of this project is to get several bloggers together to follow a structured study and discuss how we apply all of this information to our blogs. The community and discussion has been fantastic, so I wanted to take a moment to share some insights from the first half of this project.
1. It's important to stay in touch with your audience
L.L. Barkat experienced this one first hand! What she wanted to do with this project didn't fit well with the type of content on her signature blog, so she ran her posts on a secondary blog. Doing so has given her an opportunity to stretch herself creatively and discover a more humorous side. This allowed her to draw a unique audience that she wasn't reaching before.
However, while stretching yourself and exploring new styles, it's important to remember to stay in touch with those who already follow you and be sensitive to their needs. It's okay to try new things, but when a blogger makes a noticeable shift in their style of content the reader response might sound like Ricky telling Lucy, "you got some splainin' to do!"
2. You must get strategic if you're serious about increasing your audience
I've discovered that there's some serious strategy that goes into serious blogging. In order to take a blog to the next level, it'll likely involve quite a bit of planning.
There's a great deal of work to do creating the right kinds of posts, being smart about how you link to other content, understanding marketing and 'consumer' behaviors, and maintaining relationships with readers and blog buddies. Successful blogging certainly requires much more than just a passion for writing.
3. Blogging is a community event, not an individual one
Claire Burge shared with me that successful blogging can become overwhelming (L.L. feels this way too), and she believes it's important to maintain a circle of blog buddies that can aid and support your growth.
One must not forget that blogging is a social networking activity. Connections will be made a many different levels (readers, commenters, and partners), and each of those relationships are critical in developing community on a blog.
I look forward to continuing through the second half of this project, and developing some cool relationships with other bloggers.
Much like the church, bloggers make up an interesting and important community. We can help encourage and strengthen each other, and in the end all of us have the opportunity to grow in more ways than just our blogging.
Photo by S. Etole. Used with permission. Post by Dan King.
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