Prior to this class, I believed blogs were just a way to update people on your life and what you’ve been doing. This knowledge mainly comes from friends having travel or study abroad blogs. Celebrities also commonly have blogs on what they’ve been up to because they have such a strong following and interest in their lives.
Each week I wanted to see how I could make my blog more applicable and interesting than just a travel or update blog. After a while, people don’t care about you. People want to learn how to improve themselves or make something about them. I started transforming my blogs from my personal experiences to more of a guide and advice column. This way, people could apply the information to themselves.
Throughout the process of blogging, I found it was very easy to sound like you are writing a paper or research article. I wanted to change that so I began adding a lot of voice to my writing to make it sound like a conversation between friends. I believe this not only made it more interesting but more likely for people to want to read.
From blogging I learned it is important to not only talk about the things that interest you, but things that interest others. Sure, you can have a belief but it is more interesting to create a debate or other options to consider for your readers. A wide range of blog posts is also important. For example one day post a giveaway post, the next an advice post, and another day a post about a holiday.
Now that I have began blogging, I would like to learn how to create a following and what keeps readers interested. Some people live by blogs, others read occasionally, and others do not read them at all. I would like to find out how to get people to read and follow blogs.