My Approach to Blogging: Part II
Feb 3rd 2007Nik AgarwalBlogging & My View
This post is a continuation of the original post: My Approach to Blogging.
When it comes time for me to choose what to write and how to write, I generally follow the same approach throughout. Every day, I read a variety of websites for interesting news and easily spend a few hours just reading. While it may seem that reading is a never-ending task, I do make mental notes about certain articles which I feel strongly about and I come back to them later to read more thoroughly. For some bloggers, creating fresh new content is really easy. Many of them will talk about things that help them succeed or they will talk about their financial capital related to their blog. Of course, it goes without saying that bloggers have a limitless supply of topics to write about. However, for me, I prefer to write about content that I feel strongly about. Rather than catering to what will be more interesting to write about, I simply choose to write about topics that are meaningful to me. Some successful bloggers will tell you that you should write for your readers. I disagree with their statement. I feel that since this is my blog, I have the ultimate right to choose what I want to put in this blog. I cannot understand why it would be essential for me to put my readers’ thoughts ahead of my own. Antithetically, I am willing to listen to what my readers have to say and I am more than willing to at least consider writing about what they want me to write about.
Generally speaking, I visit the following few websites daily:
That may seem like a long list, but allow me to break it down for you. The first three sites offer me news on finance and politics from around the world. I consider these sites to be not as polluted by faux drama and have excellent writings by renowned journalists. Digg and Slashdot are excellent sites that have user submitted news and posts. Many times they have stories on there which have yet to be picked up by major news outlets. Hence, I find that both Digg and Slashdot offer great content and it is quite entertaining to read some of the content that is posted on there. MSNBC, BBC News, and C|Net News are great outlets that have quite a bit of polluted stories on them. They generally have “drama” news designed to appeal to your emotions, but for the most part, I just ignore quite a bit of them. Of the three, BBC News is perhaps my favorite since they actually spend more time writing about relevant news and not stupid gossip and rumors. John Chow’s blog is also an excellent source of topics to write about. Very little of the content on my blog has its roots in John Chow’s blog, however, his choice of topics are quite entertaining and many of them are very informational.
When you are in the process of creating content, it really is in your interest to seek out information from a variety of sources. If you feel that none of the content is to your liking, I suggest you pursue the creation of your own content. This post, like many in the Must Reads section, are of my own creation. Creating your own content is time consuming and requires you to do some research as well as some soul searching. Although this blog is still fairly new, I want to share my experiences with everyone and have them documented so that I can reflect and learn about it down the road. Original content is what makes blogs really great. Your readers will have the opportunity to learn more about you and your viewpoints. In fact, it does not hurt to even draw upon your life experiences and write about them. You never know what direction your blog might enjoy.
Once you find the topics you want to write about or have in your head, you have to actually sit down and type them up. I feel that you do not have to write extremely lengthy posts about your topic. I generally aim for at least 200 words and go from there. The main thing you want to remember is consistency all around. After reading dozens of blogs, I find it more annoying if a blog is not updated regularly than a blog that has mediocre writing. Most users will bookmark your blog or return to it on a regular basis. As such, it is always a good idea to have a defined update path for your blog. My goal with this blog has always been to have at least one post per day. Sometimes I will have the opportunity to write up to five or even six posts. Nevertheless, I always aim to have at least one post per day so that my potential readers can return to my blog daily and find fresh content. I also encourage all of you to use a word processor to check the spelling and grammar if possible. Normally, I use Mozilla Firefox 2.0.X.X to compose my posts. It has an automatic spell-checker that grabs 95% of my spelling mistakes. I also use the preview feature of my blog to preview posts before I publish them. Tools like these can really help you out and save time.
Finally, remember to have fun. You should not be blogging because you have to, you should blog because you enjoy blogging. Any successful blogger will tell you that you should focus on your content and enjoy what you write. If you cannot enjoy your own writing, then how can you expect your readers to enjoy your posts? That is why I reserve the right to be the judge of what is posted on my blog. If I enjoy what I write about, then I am sure that some readers out there will enjoy my posts as much as me. You cannot satisfy everyone, but it should not matter. So enjoy your writing and happy blogging.
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