How Personal Should a Blog Be? OR "Velvet Verbosity Thinks This Blog is Dope Yo"
I asked this question of some fellow bloggers over on the NaBloPoMo forum. Like, should I tell you, dear readers, that I blog in a bowtie and striped socks…only? Or that this morning I ate a double whopper from three days ago for breakfast? Or that I live in MaryMark Pennsylvania at 204 Iron Rod Lane? Or that my boyfriend likes to wear my bowtie and striped socks on Wednesdays at 7:32 P.M.?
Just how much should I tell a bunch of strangers, any of whom could be my next great stalker?
The truth is, I think I already have some answers to this question. And the answer depends largely on what you want to accomplish by blogging.
If you want to have an audience, a real audience, there are three known formulas that seem to work. 1. Have a topic or theme, and be an authority on it. 2. Get personal. 3. Be scathingly funny. It goes without saying that all three require good writing. And good writing combined with all three of the above is bound to be a hit.
Think about it. From a reader’s perspective, you might catch them once, but what will keep them coming back is either a desire to know more about your topic, or a desire to know more about the writer. Funny is just funny and people always come back for funny.
Blogs are a form of media and it stands to reason that what has always worked through history will work for blogs. Take television. The general categories of choice are news (informational television), drama (including the bane of our century, Reality TV), and comedy. You could break it down further, like into cartoons and music television, but these really still fall into the three larger categories.
Anyone can blog, and everyone seems to. However, not everyone is being read. (Whether everyone should be blogging is a topic for another post.) Gaining an audience requires emerging, through strong writing, into one of the general media categories. Establish yourself as an authority on something, reveal the drama of your own life, or take comedy lessons from Citizen of the Month. He’s even mastered how to harness all three here. (Look, it’s about his ex, her bra, and how he mastered the art of unhooking said bra so just go read it. You’ll learn, you’ll love, you’ll laugh.)
Myself? I don’t care if I have an audience. But if you do happen to be reading, perhaps you could say hello? You know, just a little comment so that I can see you’ve been here? Not that I care or anything.
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Hello! Thanks for coming to my blog and looking at my cat. I don’t know if I’m funny, I also don’t care (much) about having an audience, and I’m dying to see a picture of your cat now! Hook me up, woman!
MoD, are you out there?
I think you may have forgotten a fourth rule: 4)Interact with others. Now, you could argue that by utilizing a ‘blog (I don’t usually add that little apostrophe there, however, it’s serving my purposes here), you are putting yourself out there for the consumption of the public. True. Just not effective. Getting out and supporting and interacting with other people through comments, emails, scary stalker-ish notes placed in easy to find places (e.g. their bathroom mirrors.. now, THAT gets their attention!) tends to create a community and maybe even a semblance of friendship through data back-roads.
Anyway, you’ve got another reader over here. I just thought you should know. (and I will stop quoting Poe lyrics.)
And why is it that personal somehow boils down to mentioning undergarments? You did it, Citizen of the Month did it, I did it. Who will be next?
Anyway, thanks for stopping by my blog! I am enjoying this whole fourth aspect of things, you know, by INTERACTING with one another. I’m bookmarking you, too.
“You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.”
L
…Oops, typing in the wrong window. Sorry.
Hello, I read and I’m telling you I read like you asked.
I’m trying to find blogs to read and/or put on my blogroll (what blogroll? I don’t have a blogroll)that are different from all the hugely read ones (not that I don’t enjoy some of those).
So, off I go to check yours out.
Peace
I’m a big Citizen of the Month fan too.
Thanks for the friend request. I’m glad to find you!!
Stacy, did I mention undergarments? I only mentioned that Citizen mentioned it. Certainly not enough times to rank in Google for it.
Hey mamma, yeah, Citizen is a funny dude!
I followed the Peep love over here, and I’m glad I did.
After reading blogs for ages, I finally started one this year. I’ve gone the route of laying it all out there, save our physical address. I try to be personal, I try to be funny, and I try to publish things that are easy on the eyes. Because that’s what I like to read.
I’m really hoping for a stalker by the end of the year.
Can I have a Peep now?
I really like the interacting bit. I talk to people that I probably will never ever meet, but that’s cool. It’s not lame to have internet friends.
K.
melanie,
Good luck acquiring a stalker! I’m out of Peeps, sorry. I ate them all.
Kate,
I like the interacting bit too. Thanks for stopping in!
You are very correct although I think you forget the obvious, female card of being scandalously sexual– that also get attention.
I try to be true to myself and keep it a journal. Though I do work on my writing to make it appeal to my readers.
Croaker, you are so right, though I didn’t mention it because it goes without saying. Women can always pull that card, but it’s painfully easy.
Peeps are for putting in the microwave for peeps races! You eat them? What’s wrong with you?
Microwave? Peep races? Girl. I don’t know about you. Peeps are definitely for eating. Stale, that is.
http://www.kerismith.com/blog/index.html
and scroll down to Nov. 15th.
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