Official 2011 Second Guest Blogging Contest Post #2
Contest Article
2011 Best Guest Blogger Contest Article – Not Completed Yet
For the bloggers reading this I want you to think back to when you first decided to start your online venture with the word and the reader, because really a blog just boils down to those two things. Word and Reader. Your written words must meet the readers expectations in order to convince them to become a loyal follower, subscriber…fan of your site.
This doesn’t mean you have to be an expert in your field, or write about something professional in any way. Some of the most popular blogs are just people ranting or sharing bits of humor and entertainment. Personality is what shines the most and causes you to be remembered in a readers mind. I like to think that bloggers have a “Charisma” all to their own and this isn’t a physical charisma as is seen by someone’s swagger in a crowd or in public but a charisma that is felt and enjoyed while reading their written work.
Too many bloggers start off with the intention to try and make income, sell a product or just simply report and regurgitate news articles or product information and there is nothing wrong with this. Many who start in this fashion will carve out their niche and some can even make some decent earnings, but it is the ones who have pure personality in their articles that get remembered and are often talked about online and offline.
See someone’s raging rant on maybe a road rage incident or someone venting at a company who wronged them some way, everyone loves “connections” and by sharing your personality and situations you find ways to connect with your readers which establishes more than just a simple generic article feel and makes the reader start to feel like they know the blogger personally a little bit. I have actually seen this in fact, when other bloggers have said “I know Dragon Blogger” and they are fellow bloggers and readers that I have shared words and articles with but never spoken to on the phone or had any real life conversation with.
I often tell people that the difference between blogging and journalism is that journalists report on the facts and are not supposed to inject any sort of opinion. Bloggers on the other hand are supposed to add the human element of opinions, thoughts and even engage in gathering readers opinions. Bloggers can sway readers to feel one way or another toward something and I also think an ideal situation is when readers with opinions can engage in conversation enough to possibly sway the blogger into taking a different stance or opinion. I have had my mind changed on a few things by readers sharing their opinions or letting me know something about a service or site that I didn’t know.
So no matter what topic you blog about and whether you are providing analytical information, entertainment, reviews or problem solving articles you should always make sure you inject a slice of your personality into your articles. Add whatever makes you “YOU” or whatever you want to come out in your blogging persona. It doesn’t even have to be your real life personality, you can use your blogging persona like an actor does with a movie “role”. Be more aggressive your writing if you are timid in real life, or inject humor in your work. Of course you don’t have to make up a persona, just insert your real personality into your writing as well and you will do fine as well.
Connect with your audience by adding some real world information and opinions they can connect with, engage them by asking questions or telling them that you are unsure of something invite their opinions. One reason why blogging is so popular is human beings tend to socialize automatically and they want to share their opinion on something, or join a conversation.
I ask 3 questions to those reading this article and would invite you to answer any or all of them in your comment.
When you first started blogging what personality quirks and traits did you want to bring to your articles?
Did you succeed or change your writing style or personality traits along the way?
Are there any memorable bloggers or blogs you visited or first visited that left such an impression you became a fan after an article or two?
This is my entry in the the Blog Engage Guest Blogging Contest #2, so I am asking my readers to leave feedback or share this article if you enjoyed it.
-Dragon Blogger
All images are courtesy of Free Digital Photos
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Twitter: kg_photography
Hello Dragon…
I started blogging two years ago and I went back and forth between professional and fun – I had no idea what I was doing, I was just told that if I wanted to have a business, I needed to have a blog. Now, two years later, I’m a photography blogger and I love it. I inject ME into my blog; in to each of my posts. I’ve even started posting YouTube videos so that people can think of me (my inflections and voice) when they read my posts.
The only changes I made were to be more focused. My niche is photography and I find that if I go off the ranch and start talking about traffic, I lose people. It’s not hard, because I have a blast with photography and I share that with my readers and I’m excited that they’re picking up my excitement in each of my posts!
There are several photography blogs that I follow; I’ve even become friends with the writers. And there’s a celebrity gossip site that I love, because the writer, Jason, is snarky without being nasty.
Kimberly Gauthier recently posted..I Asked the Dumbest Photography Question
Twitter: dragonblogger
Photography blogs can be very fun and enjoyable, Ben Spark a blogger I first met years ago runs a photography blog. Also, fstoppers is one hugely successful blog dedicated to professional photography. The one challenge with photo blogs is making sure there is enough content and meta tags on the photo’s to SEO them, also when images show up in Google search they can be scraped often without watermark’s, a CMS system like Amazon S3 is essential for a popular photo blog so the images load from the cloud instead of directly from hosting provider too. Since images especially if you post high resolution ones can kill bandwidth quickly.
I am not to much a fan of celeb gossip sites in general, don’t really care about lives of celebrities one bit, too busy with my own.
dragonblogger recently posted..Movie Review- Black Death 2010
I have been blogging for close to a year and so far – while I succeed as blogger – i fail to use some of the strategies you mention, definitively place for improvement!
Linda Campbell recently posted..Know The Culprit: What Is Candida Virus
mine
no
far to many to list but i could suggest … if i had a blog – http://ifihadablogpart2.blogspot.com/ .. as an example
i started tbaoo to vent my silly views, offer some snippets of music, tv, films and politics, while laughing at religion .. i think i’ve managed to keep up the momentum and have enjoyed it all along the way .. i’ve just past the first birthday and working to more .. cheers
tbaoo recently posted..an atheist cannot contact the dead
Twitter: indihow
To be honest when I first started blogging, my only objective was to write for myself. Gradually as I read about blogging and how it can be used to help others, I decided to share my knowledge of computers, internet and technology in general through my blog. Thus the change in my writing style was drastic! It went from a passive and third person narrative to a second person, active and interactive style.
My first idols in blogging were Daniel Scocco, Gabe Young and Amit Agarwal. Later I came to appreciate Justin Geronimo (:D) as a very interactive and helpful blogger.
Samir recently posted..HOW TO AUTOMATICALLY BACKUP DATA ONLINE DROPBOX
Twitter: dragonblogger
Err, Germino not Geronimo but thanks for including me. I am often on Amit’s blog and he has a great one, Daniel of course I have run across as well. Not sure I know Gabe Young though, sometimes I know the blog name or profile pic better than the name of the person.
dragonblogger recently posted..make money online
Twitter: IvicheSays
Dear Justin Germino,
Nice post to take you to way back when…
Why I started…
At the time I started my blog IVICHIE SAYS 2 years ago, I was in-between-jobs and my main objective was to use the blog for profiling. It was to be solely personal —on a professional level; with no commercial intent. One very pleasant perk is that writing has always been a large part of my work and I’ve always enjoyed doing it. Being jobless, the blog gave me ‘an excuse’ to keep at.
Did I change?
My objectives haven’t changed much. I still want a pure personal blog; and I still have no intentions of going commercial. I love the (writing) freedom that gives me. I have changed otherwise; I’ve grown. My writing has gotten better with each post. And I now have a ‘portfolio’ of thoughts I’m very proud of.
Memorable Blogs
The blog that made a big impression on me when I started out is Dumb Little Man. I still love it for it’s diversity of writers and topics.
Good Luck with the Blogging Contest!
Greetings, Evita
Evita Martina recently posted..Single Stories and Blind Spots
Twitter: dragonblogger
Thanks for sharing your rich history behind Ivichie Says, I do also run a personal blog but I find I like writing about software, technology, games and topics that fit on my tech blog so much that often my personal blog has articles that would or could be for my tech blog. I also enjoy the writing freedom, and wanted to share something. I do work for a major company and one time on my personal blog I shared a personal insight that took place at work (I didn’t name names or anything, just things that happened to me and around me). I unfortunately was asked by my boss to remove the article (not forced, but suggested) and I almost never share any of my personal thoughts about working again since then. This is a lesson to be careful what you share on your personal blog when you work for another company for sure.
dragonblogger recently posted..iPad2- InCase Convertible Book Jacket
Hi Justin, I started blogging sometime in 2006 with two different blogs. The other i showed to friends, the other one i kept to myself. Different names, same personality. It was when someone started connecting to me (in that kept blog) through a blog comment that i started connecting with other bloggers. That’s also the time when my blogging interest grew and my blogroll list increased. I used a pseudonym. Same with lots of them. But we didn’t care.
As time went by, those early connections shifted to money blogging and some even retired. No one blog hopped anymore. My visits became rarer too. I actually miss reading their posts and our comment interactions.
Then in 2008, I retooled and added domain blogs and the “Ceblogger” name. I found new interesting connections. I also showed up in blogger meet ups and became friends with other bloggers in FB and in real life. I now introduced my real name. Some of my early connections, I also met in these blogger events. But they most never knew we interacted way back in 2006.
Novz recently posted..May 21- 2011- Judgment Day
Twitter: dragonblogger
Thanks for sharing the evolution of your blogs, you know I started with “Dragon Blogger” and never had any ties to my real name and my site or any social media accounts originally. It wasn’t long before I realized that people connected more with a ‘real’ person than an online handle or pseudo-name so I made sure it was easy for people to know who DragonBlogger was.
I wanted to share inspiration when I started to blog. I wanted to share the feeling of achieving whatever you hold most dear. I’ve read a few blogs where the writer engages the audience completely. It seems so effortless, and I’m continuing to improve my writing to show me, instead of being a journalist, as you so eloquently put it.
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