Archive for the ‘Content’ Category
Posted on October 24, 2008 - by Jonathan Davies
Why You Should Turn Comments Off
Most people expect, when they visit a blog, to be able to leave a comment. Some may even think it’s a bug if they can’t. But in fact a small percentage of blogs have simply decided that their blogs aren’t the place for comments. I have decided that for this blog in particular; it is best to keep them open.
But for those who are unsure of why anyone would want to. Here are a few reasons:
- A lot less hassle - Writing the post is only half of the work. Then, for the rest of the post’s existence you have to monitor all the comments that flow in. Some may need a response, some deleting. If you didn’t have comments in the first place; when you hit the publish button - that would be it. Shawn Blanc puts it best:
When I hit publish - I’m done. The article has now been completed. It’s off to print. That’s all she I wrote.
- No comment SPAM - This could be reason enough for anyone. Sure, Akismet does a good job, but I still have to go through the SPAM folder every so often to make sure that nothing has been accidently missed.
- More personal communication - If someone has something that they feel you want to know, they’ll email you directly, it gets rid of those who are leaving comments for the sake of a link and allow you to get a stronger relationship with you most faithful readers.
- Your blog isn’t devalued - You’ve spent hours crafting a post, and all you get are stupid comments and people being TROLLS. What does this do? Simply devalue
Who Has Done It?
One prominent blogger out there, John Gruber of Daring Fireball has. He is the sole author of one of the most popular Apple orientated blogs.
This is what he had to say on the matter (transcribed by Shawn Blanc):
I wanted to write a site for someone it’s meant for. That reader I write for is a second version of me. I’m writing for him. He’s interested in the exact same things I’m interested in; he reads the exact same websites I read. I want him to like this website so much that he reads it from the top to the bottom, and he reads everything. Every single word. The copyright statement, what software I use, he’s read it all.
If I turn comments on, that goes away. It’s not that I don’t like sites with comments on, but when you read a site with comments it automatically puts you, the reader, in a defensive mode where you’re saying, “what’s good in this comment thread? What can I skim?”
It’s totally egotistical. I want Daring Fireball to be a site that you can’t skim if you’re in the target audience for it. You say, “Oh, a new article from John. I need to read it,” and your deadlines go whizzing by because you have to read what I wrote.
I believe that whether to turns comments off is a battle that everyone has to fight at some point. Some make the decision straight away, and for others it takes a while for them to realize. Some may disagree, but I think some of the points made provide quite a convincing argument.
Posted on September 27, 2008 - by Jonathan Davies
The Vision - Making A Plan For Your Blog (Part 1)
In this short series I will be discussing what you need to think about when starting a blog, when I started my first blog over a year ago I didn’t have much of a vision and it cost me. However I leant from that and am here to tell you how you can stop yourself from making those same mistakes.
The Vision
Who, What and When.
These are the three aspects that are very important for any blogger. Who is your blog aimed at, what will it be based upon and when will you take the time to work on it?
Try picking a niche so that you can cater for their needs. By doing so you can keep them interested on a post by post basis. If you suddenly do a post completely off topic then they might feel alienated. Remember, if you do find another topic that doesn’t fit with your current blog, there is nothing stopping you from starting another!
You’ve also got to consider that your niche of choice perhaps, might already be blogged about and therefore it may be very hard to penetrate that area. You have to come to the decision early on if you can take on these blogs. Normally through some innovation or just going that one step further. If you can’t come up with anything; move on. I have found myself pouring over this one blog post idea when I could have simply moved onto the next. Quite often, I’ve found my second idea to be the best as I’ve already worked out all the possible ideas from the first.
It’s a great idea to state from the beginning how many posts you intend to do. By doing this you are making a commitment to your readers that, if you want them to take you seriously, you will uphold. Most readers don’t like erratic posts; if you decide five times a week: Stick to it! It might also help you to tell everyone that you want to do X number of posts. Then they will (hopefully) complain when you don’t meet that target.
Always ask yourself: Where do I want to be in a month, two months, even a year. If you set yourself targets and push for them they don’t seem so far away. In the next post of this series I’ll be talking about that in greater depth.
Posted on September 17, 2008 - by Jonathan Davies
Five Ways To Make Your Blog Posts More Reader Friendly
Simply due to the higher volume of blogs there is going to be better content out there.
The following are five, sure ways to make your content more interesting to your readers so you can be counted as being one of the few that have readable content:
1. Short and Snappy Phrases
People don’t have time to read an article with thousands of words (unless they’re very good). By getting straight to the point and cutting out all of the waffle you are allowing your reader to consume a lot more information in a lot less time.
And by giving your reader more time they might be more interested in leaving a comment and taking a bigger part in the community aspect of your blog.
2. Create an Introductory Paragraph
By doing this you are telling the reader what he is about to get in a nutshell and if you give them a bit of background information they will be more prepared to read what follows.
For instance, in my Feedburner article, I said who used the service and how it came to be purchased.
Remember though, you don’t want to tell the reader everything he is going to learn in the post, they’ll either be overwhelmed or not feel the need to read on.
3. Create Subheadings
You want to make your content as easily digestible as possible. You are splitting up the article so your reader can jump about or focus on one thing he or she is interested in.
Subheadings can be especially useful to a reader as it shows that (in most cases) you are considering another point and your article won’t be (hopefully) to biased if your comparing things. Just by looking at the subheadings your reader can see the points that you will be discussing.
4. Short Paragraphs
By having short paragraphs you allow your readers to skim content, this is very important as you’ll find your blog is only one of many and people don’t have time to pay the upmost attention to every word.
You can also separate your paragraphs up by using bullet points or numbering to convey key points. I have always found this very useful when reading blogs.
5. Use Pictures!
They not only help separate content but can also be used as a simpler way of displaying information
For instance, Glenn Wolsey documented which of his applications got the most usage, instead of writing it out in a paragraph he created a pie chart that made the information a lot easier to grasp.
If you take time to incorporate these five techniques in some form into your blog posts, I can guarantee that your readers will be thankful for it. Don’t feel the need to use them all at once, try different combinations and see which has a better effect!
Some of these methods might take a while to grasp, YOU have to decide when they are appropriate to use, I have just given a few examples.
The Question For You:
Do you have any to add to the list? How do you make your blog posts for reader friendly?
