Part Two: Blogging Tips
Click if you missed Part One: How to write a successful blog.
The second part in the blogging series pertains to a blog’s specific message or theme. When people ask me for tips on writing a successful blog, this is one of the things I stress: Make sure you have a clear understanding of your own blog!
Can you guess what my blog is about?
Did you say something along the lines of healthy dessert recipes?
Recipes such as my Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes.
What is your blog about?
1. There are thousands (millions?) of blogs out there. What makes your blog unique? What would make readers want to come back? If readers are unclear about your blog’s purpose, they won’t know whether or not they’ll enjoy future posts and thus might not feel compelled to return.
2. If your blog’s purpose is to hold yourself accountable for what you ate or to help organize your thoughts, and you therefore don’t care if no one else ever reads, it’s perfectly fine to post without rhyme or reason. However, even if you don’t want more readers, knowing your blog’s purpose can help you to understand what types of posts you love writing the most.
For example: In my own journey to find my blogging voice, I experimented with the style of “this is what I ate” posts. But I wasn’t having fun with it. When I took a good look at the posts I most enjoyed writing (the posts I couldn’t wait to publish), they were all dessert posts! So I decided, “If this is what I really love, why am I not only writing these posts? Why waste my time creating posts on subjects for which I have no passion when I could be publishing my favorite posts every single day?”
How to figure out your blog’s theme:
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What makes your blog unique?
- Fill in the blank: My blog is about __________.
- What are the reasons you blog? Why does your blog exist?
- What can people expect to find when they read your blog?
For example, when readers click on my blog, they can expect to find a good-for-you dessert recipe that tastes downright naughty.
Like Healthy Milkshakes.
Lately it seems I could write an entirely new blog based solely upon the theme of bean-dessert recipes.
Such as the Chocolate Chip Blondies.
What is your blog about?
Or, if you had a blog, what would it be about? Recipes? Fitness? Family? A “what I ate” diary? A combination of some of these? What are your favorite subjects to post about?
Once again, if you missed it, here’s part one: Tips for Food Bloggers
great tips, Katie! I think it’s really important for people to find their true “voice” and blog about what inspires them, not just what they “feel” they shoould blog about because that’s what all the bog-name bloggers are doing.
I know for myself I don’t blog everyday. But my blog is more of a “life-casting” blog… so things have gotta happen first for me to blog about! Otherwise it’d just be boring same-old work-school-sleep stuff, and noone wants to read that (heck, I don’t even want to write about that!). So i write when I’m inspired. And feel no guilt for that. Blogging is fun for me and never feels like a chore because of that, and now I’m creating my own “virtual scrapbook” to document my life! It’s a win-win.
My blog mainly serves as a place for me to write about food and my healthy lifestyle. Other than that, I can’t really pinpoint a theme. When I used to have my vegan blog, it got a lot more traffic, because I devoted a lot of time to it. I think that’s definitely a key in making a blog successful. I haven’t spent as much time on this blog, or worked very hard on it, but I have a goal to start putting in more effort. I’ve been following your blog since my vegan days, and still have it on my Google Reader today! 🙂
AWESOME tip Katie!! When I started my blog, I dabbled in everything trying to find what I should post about! And now I just blog about the things I am PASSIONATE about, so running, fitness, yummy CCK food and LIFE in general!! 😀
The thing I love most about you, Emma, is your incredible zest for life in general. Honestly, if I try to think of someone who’s embracing life and just living to the fullest… you are the #1 person that comes to mind!
I second that! Sweet tooth runner fan club right here.
Katie, you ARE a piece of chocolate. Sweet, yet naughty at the same time. Your innuendos crack me up 😀
And my blog is my outlet to share things I am truly passionate about. I have always been a foodie, so I love posting my dinner recipe creations, desserts (created by me, but mostly inspired by you!) and what I do to exercise.
Aww that makes me so happy :).
I really need to do a post about what I mean when I say things like “healthy tastes naughty.” People sometimes take it the wrong way, thinking I’m saying that not-so-healthy treats are evil… but really I mean “naughty” more like “sexy” or “risque.” But lol I think writing “Making healthy taste sexy” on my blog header might be a little too… naughty? 😉
LOL. I love it the way it is. And it might take up too much space to say “Where healthy feels like you’re overindulging but really you’re benefiting your body from eating some of the most delicious desserts I’ve created”………. haha
Too funny!
My blog started out all over the place, and to be honest it’s still kind of all over the place. But really it’s just bits and pieces from my life that I’ve put together in an attempt to prove i can be vegan, and ride horses.
Mine’s not so much a blog as a website- it’s a support site for people that want somebody to talk to/ that feel alone… it can take ages sometimes to narrow down exactly what you want your blog/site etc to be about- plus they change constantly, you know? 😀 I really love the advice here, Katie, thank you! x
Hey Katie! Thanks for the blogging tips! I am a “newer” blogger and im always looking for ways to improve. My blog theme is about healthy eating and living. My husband and I are both personal trainers and im studying to be a dietitian so health is a part of our life. I want to share with others how to make healthy choices and still enjoy food and life!
You sound so much like me! Checking out your blog now! 🙂
Chocolate, Cheese and Wine of course!
Yum!! Sounds like all my favorite things!
My blog is about style – and all of the things you’d want to share with your girlfriends (food, art, travel, fashion, and interior design). I still feel “new” to blogging, so I really appreciate these tips. And all of your chocolate treats, of course!
My blog is a place I’ve created to document my life; I want to share with others what I have eperienced and am curretly experiencing. I hope to insipire and get inspired in return from my readers. I’m aspiring to be the best girl I can possibly be and want to have fun in the process…life’s a journey that I’m on and I just had to have my “blogging pals” join me! In saying this the topics I generally cover are those that mean the most to me, and those I’m likely to encounter on a day-to-day basis; health, fitness, friends, relationships, random funny thoughts whatevers peeking my interest that day!