Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Blogging Baits

Writing a blog is a lot of fun, but it can get tiresome fast if no one is commenting or reading.

To bait readers, writing as often as we can should come first. Then a good overall theme is necessary to attract the attention of people who are interested in that theme. In my blog's case, however, I had been trying to keep to the writing theme in general, but with Blog City, since we are writing from prompts, this became something difficult to do, although since Blog City, I am having a lot more fun writing in my blog.

To accommodate this change in my blog, with every entry, I try to put in at least a sentence that has something to do with writing, to give the idea that my blog is about me but in regard to the craft of writing. In my case, since I have been deviating from the general theme, I try to concentrate more on the content and try to stick to one main idea.

It is important to find one's niche in the blogging world. This is usually what the writer is passionate about, for it to add value to the readers' lives. Surely, originality, or in other words, our own stuff and being ourselves is what counts. Honesty, transparency, and being real attracts more readers, all the time.

Writing teachers usually would say, "Find your own voice." Now this is a great advice, but how are we going to find anything if we don't write? I would say, whether we think we have a voice or not, to just keep on plugging. The voice will come on its own.

Another thing article writing taught me is the POV; that is to use "we" instead of "you" when talking about negative behaviors and tendencies. Even in teaching, "we" works better than the accusatory of condescending "you."

Since it may flood the newsfeed in WdC, it is not a good idea-I think- to let the members know we have added to our blogs every single day, unless what we write really could interest everyone. On the other hand, there is no problem in giving a link in Twitter, FB, and other sites where we can.

Blogs that contain videos and graphics are always more interesting, but here in WdC, where those things have a limit, the count for them adds up quickly, and soon enough we could run out. For that reason, I am careful with those things, but if I had a blog offsite, I would definitely try to make it as interesting as I could and add anything that would enrich me and my readers.

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Prompt: What pointers would you give me to become a good blogger.? Do you think pictures are important in a blog? Music? Links to information?