Blogomanija.ME: How to Write Post People Will Want to Read
Blogomanija.ME is a regional conference about, of course, blogging. It was held this weekend in Serbia, in hotel Falkensteiner Stara Planina, far away from civilization, but with excellent internet connection and Wi-Fi coverage. 😉 The participants of the conference all agree that blogging is a great way to promote yourself and most of our participants have had good experiences, like jobs and connections, as a result of their blogging.
Having a blog and posting on it regularly will take up quite a lot of your time. That’s ok, because “time you invest in your blog is the time you invest in yourself” (Nebojša Radović). Because we all blog in our free time, we know that bloggers spent time writing posts when they could have been sleeping, partying, reading books or watching TV. Raša Karapandža said that a „blog exercises the ability of man to delaying gratification, and that is more important for success than intelligence.” So, in order to help you become successful, we have gather some basic blogging tips at this conference:
1. Write About What You know.
If you are about to start blogging about gadgets, because that’s what’s popular now, even though you prefer knitting, wait a minute. Your blog will only be as good as you make it. And if you pick a topic/theme you are passionate about, then you will have a lot to say about that topic and it will be easy for you to write. Your love for the topic will be visible in your posts, and readers appreciate a passionate and knowledgeable blogger.
If you can, try to pick a niche. If you like fashion, think about your favourite part. Maybe you are crazy about shoes? Good, which shoes exactly? Christian Louboutin’s red soled shoes? You have just found your niche! Istok Pavlović says that picking a niche will help you monetize your blog at some point with advertising or sponsored posts.
2. Formatting Matters!
People will not read big chunks of text. Your text has to be visually pretty and easy to skim through, so make sure that you use space after a period or a comma. If you use paragraphs and click Enter/Return after every 4-5 sentences, it will be easier to read. If you have many paragraphs, add subtitles. Speaking of titles, make sure your titles are interesting.
If you can enrich your posts with pictures and videos, do it. You can use this to attract people to read a post written on a serious note, that they would not read otherwise. We like to be entertained, so entertain us!
3. Stop Worring About Stat Counters.
Do you have a stat counter installed on your blog? Remove it. The best bloggers write because they want to, not because of the people that read them. When you’re looking at a number of visits, it creates a pressure to create content for people that expect it. Every bloggers know how easy it is to write when words just come out on their own. If you’re trying to push them out, you’re doing it wrong.
We are not trying to say the audience does not matter – of course it does. If it did not matter, bloggers would write their thoughts in little notebooks and keep them by their bed, not publish them online. However, it’s the quality, not the quantity that matters. You can not easily tell if you are reaching your audience, but if your blog is about airplanes and most of your audience comes from the cities where the airplaines are made, you are probably doing it right. This will result in meeting the right people, cooperating with them and it might even end up with a job, even if your blog never goes over 1000 views per day.
4. Pick a Good Domain Name
Are you ready to start blogging yet? Great! Make sure your blog will be easily finable online. In order to do that, you should think about the domain name. If you are thinking about opening a corporate blog, then www.company.com/blog will be just fine. If, however, you want a personal blog, we suggest using your name and surname in the domain name – it will help Google and other search engines to find it. You can check if your namesurname.me combination is available here!
