Finding Your Inner Blog
May 18th 2008 06:27
I know that I generally write about music, but I thought that this info could be helpful to others starting out in the blogging community I hope that some of this will help, please feel free to link this page if you want, I will try to write more on the topic in the future
Blogging is a fairly new medium that has become what one could call a craze, in certain spheres of the internet community. Many bloggers have become self-sufficient by simply writing about the things that they care about, are interested in or on topics in which they have defined opinions. Though there are many niches for any of us to write about, finding a topic that is not over-crowded but is still popular is a hard one to do.
Here are several ways you can check your level of enthusiasm on different topics:
1. Check your browser history
See what you are taking time out of your day to read on the Internet. Chances are you can find out a good bit about your likes and dislikes, biases, and general interests. If you are looking at movie sites, music, celebrity gossip, stock market, investments, the news, and so forth chances are you are informed enough to write on these topics.
However, don't focus on the entire topic, there are too many sites working with skabillions of dollars to find out this information before anyone else. Instead, choose a subcategory of the overall subject, this will prove to be much better.
2. Look over your budget
If you are spending a noticeable part of your hard-earned money on a particular hobby, this hobby (or vice as it may be
is a potential niche for you. You could write a blog about different restaurants that you enjoy and tell us which menu items are scrumptiously delicious that we would never try. You could tell us which fishing bait is affordable and will be sure to lure in the one that would've gotten away otherwise.
3. Social Contacts
One way to find you niche is to write several articles in different areas of interest, and then circulate them around to friends, co-workers, family will not really work in this case, (they just love you too much) fellow students etc. and see which gets the most positive feedback. In the case that not much of the feedback is possible, rewrite the articles again and resubmit them to a different group of people. This is a survey method, that when used properly can not only get future readers for your blog, but also allows you to discover what you can write well, and what you should improve upon or leave to someone else.
4. Use that useless knowledge!
Have you ever wondered to yourself, "Why do I know that Sgt. Hawkins from Predator wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon?" If you have some dusty old info lying around in your gray matter, put it to use!
Being original is something that is stressed in many of the "how to" blogs about blogging, but not everyone is as handy with how to express their originality in words. Become a student of words, make the thesaurus your best friend and the dictionary your pillow. Having a unique voice is the primary reason that you have a personal web log that you want people to read, so make sure that not only your personality and idiosyncrasies come across on the page but your competence as well. Also don't forget to make sure that all spelling and grammar is correct in your posts, if someone sees that you didn't take the time to check your document before letting the world see it, chances are they are not going to take you seriously.Most of all, take yourself seriously.
Blogging is a fairly new medium that has become what one could call a craze, in certain spheres of the internet community. Many bloggers have become self-sufficient by simply writing about the things that they care about, are interested in or on topics in which they have defined opinions. Though there are many niches for any of us to write about, finding a topic that is not over-crowded but is still popular is a hard one to do.
Here are several ways you can check your level of enthusiasm on different topics:
1. Check your browser history
See what you are taking time out of your day to read on the Internet. Chances are you can find out a good bit about your likes and dislikes, biases, and general interests. If you are looking at movie sites, music, celebrity gossip, stock market, investments, the news, and so forth chances are you are informed enough to write on these topics.
However, don't focus on the entire topic, there are too many sites working with skabillions of dollars to find out this information before anyone else. Instead, choose a subcategory of the overall subject, this will prove to be much better.
2. Look over your budget
If you are spending a noticeable part of your hard-earned money on a particular hobby, this hobby (or vice as it may be
is a potential niche for you. You could write a blog about different restaurants that you enjoy and tell us which menu items are scrumptiously delicious that we would never try. You could tell us which fishing bait is affordable and will be sure to lure in the one that would've gotten away otherwise. 3. Social Contacts
One way to find you niche is to write several articles in different areas of interest, and then circulate them around to friends, co-workers, family will not really work in this case, (they just love you too much) fellow students etc. and see which gets the most positive feedback. In the case that not much of the feedback is possible, rewrite the articles again and resubmit them to a different group of people. This is a survey method, that when used properly can not only get future readers for your blog, but also allows you to discover what you can write well, and what you should improve upon or leave to someone else.
4. Use that useless knowledge!
Have you ever wondered to yourself, "Why do I know that Sgt. Hawkins from Predator wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon?" If you have some dusty old info lying around in your gray matter, put it to use!
Being original is something that is stressed in many of the "how to" blogs about blogging, but not everyone is as handy with how to express their originality in words. Become a student of words, make the thesaurus your best friend and the dictionary your pillow. Having a unique voice is the primary reason that you have a personal web log that you want people to read, so make sure that not only your personality and idiosyncrasies come across on the page but your competence as well. Also don't forget to make sure that all spelling and grammar is correct in your posts, if someone sees that you didn't take the time to check your document before letting the world see it, chances are they are not going to take you seriously.Most of all, take yourself seriously.
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