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Analyze This
By dana | October 2, 2007
There are literally thousands of intelligent, thoughtful posts and resources out there to aid new bloggers in writing better headlines, producing better posts, getting more comments, increasing traffic, gaining more subscribers, pretty much gaining eternal blog salvation and happiness!
As a new blogger, it can be a bit overwhelming. A person can only take in so much information at a time. I’ve spent hundreds of hours reading, taking notes and bookmarking awesome articles and posts from every corner of the blogosphere.
One topic I haven’t seen discussed too often is one that we all, hopefully, already have in our arsenal.
Common Sense
While to become truly successful, it’s imperative to learn the tips, tricks and culture of blogging. There is one thing that I know I’ve often overlooked that could have been implemented from day one.
Read your posts. Don’t just check for spelling and grammar(though please do that too), really analyze what you’re putting out there.
Read your work as if you weren’t the author. Rather, look at your post as if you’d just happened upon it on someone else’s blog. Then ask yourself a few simple questions:
- Would I stop and read this post based on the way it looks and/or the headline?
- Would I continue reading once I got past the first few sentences?
- Is this the kind of post that would make me want to subscribe to the author’s RSS feed?
- Would I take the time to comment on this blog? If not, why? Is it not thoughtful enough? Is it written in a manner that dismisses the reader or intimidates them to a degree that they are left feeling unworthy or unprepared to enter the discussion?
- Is this post worthy of me taking the extra effort to Stumble, Sphinn, Digg or otherwise bookmark it?
A little extra time and honest self-analysis can really benefit your blog!
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October 2nd, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I love it when we try so hard we miss the easy stuff. Thanks for the reminder!
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Thanks Jason! Isn’t that always how it goes?!
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:16 pm
I actually overdo it sometimes with respect to the above pointers, so much so I try to go off the cuff as well. If I were to use too much common sense, my perfectionist evil twin might come out from the closet…
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Hi Dana, thanks for the great post.
I’m with you in that one, you are right 100% not only the grammar counts. Does the post give value? do I need to add links that the user may want regarding the post? Would a reader will want to share it with his friends? etc.
In my opinion all of the above are very vital to the reader and sometimes are much important from a small grammar mistake.
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:10 pm
Hmm very well said,Dana.
From now on I’ll keep these issues in mind before writing any post.
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I love this post
Like my grandmother kept telling me, “Common sense is the most uncommon”. Something we all forget. Thanks for the reminder 
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Dana, it sounds like you’re still having fun! It’s just great to see someone jump in with both feet like you have done. It sort of reminds me of me. ;o) Keep up the good work!
Michael
October 4th, 2007 at 7:30 am
I’ve found that since I’ve been writing a lot of my posts ahead of time (as part of my “organise thyself” program), when it comes time to publish them, I find a lot of errors or general bad writing that I wouldn’t have seen at first.
So there’s a hidden advantage to writing beforehand!
October 4th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
@YC It is a bit of a double-edged sword isn’t it?!
@Tal I agree with you. The value to the reader should be our most important evaluation.
@Roxi Thanks!
@Brown I think we would all be wise to listen to your grandmother
@Michael Thanks, I am having a great time.
@Jayne Another advantage to being prepared…someday I’ll get ahead enough to be able to take advantage of that one
October 7th, 2007 at 10:40 am
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