The world of blogging is an odd place, but at the same time, it’s a beautiful paradise full of free speech and a variety of personal views. Granted, it could also be considered the graffiti of the Internet, but that’s just someone else’s opinion.
It seems like every blog has a theme or a running topic. However, there are a few topics that you might want to reconsider blogging about before setting your heart on them. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t write about them, but hear me out for just a few minutes.
Relationships
I’m not against relationships (my girlfriend is pretty fresh), but I am typically against writing about relationships. Past, present, future… anything. Why? Well, the Internet is relatively permanent, and things might come back to haunt you.
For instance, say that you write about how amazing Dreamboat McSexy is in 2009. McSexy dumps you in 2010, and then you proceed to write every detail of the break-up including how you sliced his tires and burned down the front porch of his house. One, you’ve potentially ended all possibilities for a future relationship. Two, you’ve confessed to destruction of personal property and arson. Good job, kid.
Making Money
Online writers typically don’t make much money, so my question is why do some folks think that their blogs on how to make money are going to fly on the Internet? Granted, I believe that there are writers out there who give fantastic financial advice. However, I do believe that the pickin’s are slim.
It seems as though there are a lot of start-up blogs out there that are chock full of get-rich-quick schemes. The irony is that when you look at the writer’s past experience… well… there’s not much to say for their financial history. My suggestion? Get out there and make some money before you try to gain ad revenue from your blog about making money.
Writing
My philosophy on writing is this – there isn’t a set way to do it. However, a lot of blogs spend quite a bit of time telling you how to write. Now, I’m not against blogs that cover basic writing structure and the typical do’s and don’t's. What I am against is the Nazi-fied this-is-how-it-must-be-done way of writing critique.
So when it comes to writing blogs, here is what I suggest. Don’t be a stickler about everything, and let the creativity flow. Much how everyone has a different voice than you, not everyone writes like you.
Your Life (Revised)
We all love to embellish our lives a little bit, and for some reason, this often comes out through blogging. I don’t know how many Facebook posts I’ve seen that say, “Make sure to check out my blog tomorrow… and you’ll see what kind of adventures I can get into at Starbucks!“
Truth is, around the time this Starbucks post rolls around, the only interesting part of it is the fact that the barista misspelled the writer’s name on his cup and there was no toilet paper in the bathroom – stop the presses. But really, if you’re going to blog about your life, keep it real and don’t resort to making it sound cooler than it is.
Blogging
I know what you’re thinking – “He’s blogging about what not to blog about, and he says not to blog about blogging. How do we trust this guy?” For the record, I wouldn’t trust me, but right now, that’s not my problem. The ball is in your court.
What I actually mean is that it’s not always a good idea to write a blog about blogs – blogging tips, blogging exercises, blogging everything. This isn’t to say a blog shouldn’t include tips about the trade. However, devoting an entire blog to blogging might be a little monotonous. If you can spice it up, then more power to you.
Conclusion
So now that all is said and done, hopefully you can see my reasoning for a lot of this blogging nonsense. Maybe you’ll change your topics, or maybe you’ll keep them the same. Who really cares?
What other topics should people reconsider blogging about? What should people not blog about at all?
Image Credit: mantasmagorical
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Well I guess you broke your own rule, there. Stick to the tech stuff.
False, he mentioned: “He’s blogging about what not to blog about, and he says not to blog about blogging. How do we trust this guy?”
Therefore granting him immunity.
Jeff, I can confirm that I shouldn’t be trusted with anything but this publication, really.
Well you’re an author, I’m hoping I can trust you.
Edited that comment to be a little more reader-friendly…
The keyword in the title is “reconsider”. It also looks like you’ve done well blogging about blogging, and as I stated, “If you can spice it up, then more power to you.”
I’ll probably write about more than tech stuff in the future. I like pterodactyls. I may blog about pterodactyls.
You can’t earn money with just blogging. The people who make tons of money online aren’t bloggers , they are “internet marketers” . And also you need a original product to make huge amount of money.
You can earn money with just blogging, but it takes a lot of work. However, in theory, that original product you speak of could be the content itself.
Of course you can earn money with blogging. What do you think MakeUseOf is? Some of us are full time on the site (me being one of them) and I make a nice salary.
Perhaps Nika is referring to literally just blogging, Mark. We do have a product on MakeUseOf – knowledge of technology and all other things concerning it – but if I were to write a common poorly developed blog that consists of only personal poetry… a description of my day… a rant about one of my instructors… it would likely not raise much revenue.
However, this isn’t to say that that those kinds of blogs can’t raise revenue. The Internet is an interesting place, and sometimes the most peculiar things will go viral. But even still, those types of personal blogs sometimes serve a greater purpose. They allow people to stay in touch or have some form of emotional release.
But weblogs were, and still are, mostly online diaries. That is the basic definition of blogs. To say that bloggers shouldn’t blog about life and relationship is to defeat the purpose of most blogs anyway. Topical blogs (like tech blogs) are just writers, journalists, academics, and blowhards who publish half-baked opinions using blogging CMSes (Blogger, WordPress, Movable Type) cause most other CMSes are hard. And also because they want to hide behind the cover of “just blogging” where normal journalistic and academic standards are not required.
I agree. You have to write about personal stories, but make it interesting! There’s nothing wrong with writing about your life, but pick out the good stuff, and don’t try to make it seem more interesting than it is.
My goal for this article was not to tell you what not to write about. You should write about whatever you want. However, reconsider what you put on the page.
Also, my opinion is fully baked. Almost over-baked, even. I didn’t check the oven in time, but it still tastes alright. Maybe a little dry.
: )
The idea of blogging becomes somewhat convoluted when people can’t differentiate between (or decide) what to put in their blogs and what sounds better and should ideally be put on Facebook or Twitter. Let the message suit the medium — or perception thereof.
Story of my personal blogging life. I’ve been on hiatus for quite some time.
I agree with you to a certain point, meaning I don’t want to see some of those types of blogs, but I would never discourage people from blogging, it’s the best way to learn. If it works out for you (no matter what your goals are) then great, but if it doesn’t then you should learn from your mistakes.
Either way, as a reader, I always have the option not to read…
“It seems like every blog has a theme or a running topic. However, there are a few topics that you might want to reconsider blogging about before setting your heart on them. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t write about them, but hear me out for just a few minutes.”
A lot of people pick a topic (a great topic!) but sometimes, they approach it too hastily. These are all good topics, but sometimes they need to be fleshed out a little more or rerouted to protect one’s original vision. I hope that makes sense.