The Mad Blogger, slaving endlessly over a hot edit, is the typical picture of the hardcore blogger. This is where the jagged edges of the net, the rants, regurgitations and revelations originate, you’d think. Well, actually, no they don’t. The best blogs are based on something more than publishing your neuroses, however adorable. They’re based on a combination of motivation, talent, skills, and usually some good Search Engine Optimization which the ranters and ravers would be well advised to learn.
The blogging motif
Bloggers tend to gravitate to their primary areas of interest. That’s real motivation, not the tedious and unconvincing type of external motivation which rarely does much more than disturb the peace of mind of people trying to work.
The fact is that your talents, skills and interests are a much better guide to your abilities as a blogger than any amount of painfully learned irritating techniques. The expert is a person that can teach effortlessly. Some don’t even know they’re doing it. Although for bloggers this occasionally leads to the description “writes like an expert”, which can mean incomprehensible to some people, in most cases the blogger writes to people at their own level of knowledge.
Some bloggers do go to great lengths to ensure that novices and others can understand their materials, and even prepare “induction courses” to ensure that their audience can follow their blots.
The “blogging motif”, however, is the overall tone and scope of the blog, and the way it’s presented. Another description would be the character of the blog, and its general accessibility to users.
There’s a basic dichotomy in blogs:
Some are all-purpose, highly evolved blogs, with a complete archive, lots of background, and links everywhere to explain the issues. In big, multi-faceted blogs covering a large range of subjects, the blog can be pretty complex, and the “blog motif” is sometimes submerged in the vast array of materials.
The other type of blog tends to be more personal in nature, and the blogger tries hard to provide a personalized touch, including rather selflessly trying to provide the support materials themselves. Some of these blogs are excellent, although the amount of work involved can be horrendous in some cases, particularly in the case of technical blogs in which the materials required for references are extraordinarily complex.
Experts, however, are extremely highly motivated people. It’s not really work to them, it’s their passion. Their subjects are things they love, and they manage to present their blogs in the best possible styles, ensuring that their much loved topics and subjects are seen as favourably as possible. This personal touch is generally highly appreciated by their audiences, which react to the high level of empathy with the subject, and the invariably valuable advice experts can provide.
Find the subject you love, where you know you can perform effortlessly forever and never get tired of your subject matter. Learn SEO and how to manage your page rankings, and you’ll never look back.