I’m currently in Jay Cross’s Informl Unworkshop and we are discussing some guidelines for bloggers. From Dave Pollard’s front page is this great advice:
Blog readers want to see more:
- original research, surveys etc.
- original, well-crafted fiction
- great finds: resources, blogs, essays, artistic works
- news not found anywhere else
- category killers: aggregators that capture the best of many blogs/feeds, so they need not be read individually
- clever, concise political opinion (most readers prefer these consistent with their own views)
- benchmarks, quantitative analysis
- personal stories, experiences, lessons learned
- first-hand accounts
- live reports from events
- insight: leading-edge thinking & novel perspectives
- short educational pieces
- relevant “aha” graphics
- great photos
- useful tools and checklists
- précis, summaries, reviews and other time-savers
- fun stuff: quizzes, self-evaluations, other interactive content
Blog writers want to see more:
- constructive criticism, reaction, feedback
- ‘thank you’ comments, and why readers liked their post
- requests for future posts on specific subjects
- foundation articles: posts that writers can build on, on their own blogs
- reading lists/aggregations of material on specific, leading-edge subjects that writers can use as resource material
- wonderful examples of writing of a particular genre, that they can learn from
- comments that engender lively discussion
- guidance on how to write in the strange world of weblogs
Update: This was quickly posted while listening to the unworkshop, so perhaps I should add some commentary, especially since Stephen has picked it up. I would think that one blogger could not address ALL of the readers’ wants nor could every reader give writers everything that they want. I think that the “reader wants” show how varied are the demands of this worldwide audience, and why sites like BoingBoing are so popular. This site will never be in the top 10,000 blogs of the world, but there are some points about reader wants that make sense for my particular situation, such as — original research; personal stories; relevant graphics; first-hand accounts. Anyway, I think that Dave has made a thought-provoking list.
i think bloggers are discovering basic journalistic rules here:
1-4 means that if you dont have orriginal content your screw and NO just posting the news wire will not do.
5-17 means pepole enjoy a free lauch, have sommething great and easy to understand that will help me with my own personal issues (i am hungry and you provide a free 3 course meal)
the question for me is how do you deliver that on a consistant basis ?
you just have to be a great author with brilliant ideas and deliver at least everyweek !
the problem is thats its a tough job in a globalise infoshpere