Susan asked an interesting question when she left a comment in my blogoversary post. She asked, "Do you have any words of advice for all the newbie bloggers out there (me included)?"
Since you’ve asked for it Susan, here are three bits of advice:
1. Write about the topics that interest you. People who read blogs are attracted to our favorite blogs because they are written by people who are passionate about the topics they cover. The funny thing is, sometimes we are even attracted to bloggers who are passionate about topics we don't know much about.
I know don't a lot about old movies, but I love Sheila O'Malley's blog--much of which is about old movies. She has this way of writing about certain scenes within a movie that gets to me. She'll notice the smallest thing, and then point it out to the reader, and then tell you why it matters. She did that when she wrote about Rocky (a movie that I happen to know a lot about). Here's what she said:
I love the moment when Rocky goes to his locker, takes the lock - does the combination - but it won't open. He tries the combination again. No luck. So what does he do? He takes off his hat - takes a slip of paper out of the lining - which obviously has the combination on it for safekeeping - checks it, and tries the lock again. I just LOVE that detail. That was Stallone's idea - nobody told him to do that. He knew that Rocky was enough of a realist, and enough of a ... well, Rocky knew that the possibility of him forgetting his combination was pretty high ... so he put the combination in a place where he could get to it, where it would always be on him if he needed it. It is tiny details like this - that make up a great character. A 3-dimensional character. It's not just all the big things - his heart, his soul, his drive, his kindness, his struggle - The character itself is revealed in the fact that he is the kind of guy who keeps his locker combination on a slip of paper in the lining of his hat. Gorgeous.
By writing about the things she cares about, she makes me want to care. By writing about a movie that I already love and by pointing out a tidbit I'd never thought twice about, she makes me want to dig deeper into one of my already all-time favorite characters. When you can do that for a reader, he or she will keep coming back.
Sometimes I’m hesitant to write detailed posts about tennis. I love the game, but worry that I’m going to bore my regular readers to death. But the thing is, they are regular readers for a reason. Maybe they are tennis fans, maybe they aren’t. But they are regular readers because they like my take on life. So I feel like I owe it to them to approach the topic of tennis that same way I do every other topic I blog about—in detail.
2. Don't underestimate a small audience. It is generally believed that the vast majority of all blogs get fifty visitors or less per day. When you have one of those blogs, it can be disheartening. So often, new bloggers are given a list of things they can do to build traffic, and they follow through but never see huge gains. To be honest, that's probably the norm. Don't let that discourage you. Do what you can to increase traffic, but be happy that you have regular readers.
When you have fifty people reading your material on a regular basis, you impact their lives, and the people in their lives. I can't tell you how many times I've been sitting in a coffee shop on a Friday night with a couple of friends and sharing stories, insight, or quotes from blogs I've read throughout the week. My friends may never go to those blogs, but the blogger still reached them even though their hit counter doesn't show it.
And this might sound ridiculous, but visitors are people, not statistics. When fifty people visit your blog throughout the day, they've taken time from their busy schedule to read what you have to say. How many other venues in life do you have in which people regularly come to you asking you what you think about any given topic?
3. Be your own blogger. You will never be able to write like the blogger you most admire because you have your own unique experiences, style, passions, and voice. I won’t tell you not to try it because you will probably do it anyway, but after you’ve got it out of your system, experiment. It’s okay to start a blog and then kill it a few months later if you don’t like the direction it’s going. I’ve killed more than one blog in my day. But none of it was wasted time. I needed to write all of those posts to figure out what I was and wasn’t supposed to blog about.
Don’t be afraid to be who you are. I am a Christian, but this isn’t a “Christian” blog. It’s a blog about the little things of life through the eyes of someone who happens to be a Christian. But if you are a Christian who wants to write a blog about the truths you find during your Bible study time, then go for it. You have something to say. If you are a single mom who wants to write about the arts, please do it. Your perspective will be unique. If you are a grandfather who wants to share his war stories, I beg of you to do it. Don’t let those stories die when you do.
