Blogging: Art or Science?

Bloggers. They are everywhere. Writing on every topic under the Sun.
Have met some awesome ones.
Have met some terrible ones.

So what’s the difference? What differentiates a Blogging rockstar from a dud?

Believe it or not – a good blog post has nothing to do with style of Writing. Your level of Written English and so on. Most bloggers get caught up in this and thus fail to write a blog post that can stimulate passion.

What an excellent blogger can successfully do, is replicate the following 4 things, repeatedly, over and over again…

1. Be Passionate – Brilliant bloggers choose a specific topic, and become thought-leaders in that space. Say, I love Apple. Steve Jobs was my first corporate love; almost read every printed book and article under the Sun on Steve Jobs and Apple. Thus, when creating a blog for myself, I decided writing on news/events/product launches on Apple & Steve Jobs. Another passion of mine is – Digital Marketing, and more specifically, Social Media. And finally, the startup space in India. Thus, my blog posts are mostly restricted to: Apple, Steve Jobs, Social Media & e-Commerce in India. Be passionate about something; and choose to write on that something. Just don’t create a blog for the sake of creating one.

2. Be Honest – Have met good bloggers, who failed to mature into brilliant ones. They lacked ‘honesty’. Be honest. Whether good or bad, be honest. And write – straight from the Heart. Your readers can quickly understand the difference between – “praising a product” versus “blatant promotion”. Be direct. Be honest.

3. Provide Value – This automatically follows from being passionate and being honest. Personally, I know, I can stand on any podium anywhere on Earth, anytime of the day, and speak about Apple and Social Media, non-stop for 5 hours. Cause the knowledge comes from within, and I’m passionate and honest about these topics. Similarly, whilst writing content – write content which provides value to your readers. They should wish to come back and read your blog posts every day – if not, at least once a week. This comes from delivering value repeatedly. Is tough to create content that satisfies this value proposition week after week, but is possible.

4. Research Judiciously – Excellent bloggers are researchers par excellence. Comes owing to a combination of the earlier 3 points. They research, read, analyze reports etc a lot cause they are passionate, they do so cause they wish to be honest whilst writing, and thus, they provide value. In fact, the point (4) is a resultant factor for them becoming brilliant bloggers.

I recently met the Head Marketing of one of the finest IT Solutions Provider companies in Bangalore; their in-house content team is rocking; clocking over 10,000+ visits per month on their Corporate Blog. That’s the hard work of 10 members in the In-bound Marketing Team. Whereas my personal blog, wherein I write blog posts once in a while, sometimes, once in a month, clocks over 7,000+ visits in a good month. The difference is in – quality of content written, and value proposition. As I mentioned this to the Head Marketing – there’s nothing wrong with the team, or in the style of writing. But what is needed is a more focused approach, understanding the buyer persona, creating a main writing persona, and then making it a more personal experience for the readers. It shouldn’t be a Corporate Blog, but an end-user interaction style – via a Persona. Writers write focused, direct, honest and value provided posts using this Persona.

If you have a personal blog, or you’re in-charge of your Corporate Blog, and visits are stagnating, it’s time to get a move on. Build a content team, a focussed agenda – what to write on, then an editorial calendar, and leave the rest to the Bloggers. If they follow the 4 points mentioned above, chances are you will be clocking 10,000+ visits in a month soon. If you’ve any tips, please do leave comments. Will include them in the above list.

Personally, I believe ‘Blogging’ and building and nurturing a community around a Blog, whether, personal or corporate; is more of an “Art” with some elements of “Science” in it.
Do you AGREE? If, disagree, WHY?