I read an interesting blog post today at http://www.copyblogger.com/user-focused-content/ with the title "Why Nobody Cares About Your Content and What to Do About It".

Have a read and come back and discuss your blog and how this advice could help.

Are you giving people enough information that helps them?

That was a really good article, thankyou for sharing, Tim.

The goal of my primary blog is initially to share my writing, musical, and artistic hobbies with those who wish to see them. Things I've found in my web wanderings that I have found intriguing or useful, writing prompts I've tried, music I like, and scribblings I've done make up the bulk of my blog. I don't feel as though I am the focus; I try to focus my posts on a story, a plot, a type of music, a specific point in art. My way of keeping it personal would be where I was when I wrote something or writing something that reflects what I've seen/heard recently.

Wow, long ramble. Anyway, thanks again, Tim! You've caused me to think of different ways to make my blog more reader focused.

That's good Tim, it is very good indeed. This is actually why I will be sticking with two blogs. I think that it is good to have a smaller blog which your family/friends follow that is more personal and related about you (especially if you never see said family ) My professional blog, on the other hand, will not be like that.

Could we maybe move a part of this conversation onto a different tangent for a little bit? When I create my professional site, I'm going to want that one to have more writing-related content, but I will probably still post my thoughts on the Bible and whatnot.

What sort of content is best to post that is writing-related? Writing theory articles? Excerpts?

eru

A very interesting post. Thanks for sharing, Tim!

This is something I've struggled with in trying to develop a focus for my blog. Right now, I am using my blog like a free website. It's an economical way to give my writer-name a place on the web. It comes up in searches for my pen name, and it's a unified site I can direct people to. It's a portfolio. I have a bio and a list of my credits, and the posts of the site make up a "gallery" that I update once a week.

Originally my intention was to make all the posts excerpts from my writing. It was a way to give people examples of my work, as well as a way to self-publish short pieces. That's a unique use of a blog.

I've had at least one friend tell me that my blog fits a niche that she loves, but lately I've noticed that my more "interactive" posts get more comments. By that I mean posts where I talk about something (6-word stories, Wordles), give my examples, and then invite everyone else to share their work. These are the kind of posts that give benefit to the reader and put the focus more on them, like this article talks about. Clearly, this kind of post is a better way to generate user interaction and, ultimately, traffic to my site.

However, it feels odd every time I post one of these more casual, interactive posts because they deviate from my original design for the blog. For various reasons, I don't do "chatty" personal blogs (that's what Twitter is for), but I'd be willing to do more "writing theory" style posts if they would be a good way to promote my writing while helping others and exercising my talents. But the question is - do I want my blog to go that direction, or would it be better to start a second blog to keep the focuses separate?

I think KatherineRoid has a blog that's a lot like what we're talking about here. It's story prompts, reviews, and other "tools for writers" content.

Okay. I don't have a blog, but when I do get one, I will want to have 6-word-stories, tips for writers, my drawings, doodles, and photographs, story ideas, NaNoWriMo related things, and writer tools.

Yes! It was very helpful.



A "focus" doesn't have to be all plot ideas or all music spreadsheets. A "focus" can overlap several relating things.



That is a good idea.



That is also a good idea.



I like more interactive posts.



A second blog might be good for different topics (i.e. piano, music, helpful articles, and so forth).



She does. It's www.kathrineROID.wordpress.com .

Thanks, Elly! I'm pondering some various ideas for my blog, and one of them involves moving to WordPress hosted on my own server. If I do that, I can use my Blogspot site for more casual, interactive stuff. Just an idea I'm tossing around.

Great conversation going. I'm getting all kinds of ideas from the various ways you all use your website.

Phili, if you want to include both samples of your work and chatty pieces, I don't see why you can't keep them on their own blog, and then just categorize each post into its own page. That way, when people come, if they want to see samples, they can go to that page, or if they just want to see what's most recent it will be right there for them. I'm not that great at website building, and when I've added new pages, I've had to insert links to all the related posts (example). They could just click on the category menu as well.

Right now I'm so busy writing that I am too exhausted to come up with any content that is helpful to people. At some point I'll be publishing the Bookmarks to Publishing blog series, but I'm waiting on some guest bloggers to help me.

Thanks, Tim! Yes, I am considering using tags to help separate posts from the same blog stream onto different pages. I know Into the Book does this; there's a tab for fiction, nonfiction, and misc., but it's all one blog. I'll have to get someone to help me set that up if I go that route. I might also get on a schedule - say, a writing theory post on Monday and a sample on Friday. If it's regular, then everyone will know what to expect.

Slightly off-topic: Copyblogger is a blog worth pouring over if you have a blog. The content is valuable, accurate, effective, and excellently written.

KatherineROID, not off topic at all. Thanks for the info. Taking time to read blogs on blogging is unfortunately not something I make time for. The lack of success of my blog probably illustrates that, but not making time to write blog posts may as well

I second CopyBlogger, and if you run Blogger www.bloggerbuster.com and www.bloggerstop.net are must-reads as well

@Philli: A lot can be accomplished with Blogger XML wizardry Personally, I'm sort of going the route Tim suggested with my soon-to-come personal site in that I will be sorting things out into writing excerpts, writing tips, faith/Christianity, web design, and then more personal stuff Tags are very powerful (I think they're called categories in Blogger, actually).

(Strange; my posting in this forum is inversely proportional to the amount of web design/blogging threads in here )

eru

I may have to enlist your help sometime, then. If I can purchase a domain through Blogger and stay entirely on the Blogger interface, getting a custom-designed theme instead of starting from scratch with a website, that might be easier for starting out. (Because once the theme is in place, I know how to make pages and such all by my pathetic little self.)

Sounds good; I'd be happy to help Drop me a PM, though, so this post doesn't go off on a tangent

eru

Interesting. I also started out with a writing focus, but then realized that I wouldn't be able to keep the blog going if I focused on that. I'm also trying to make it funnier, occasionally pointless, but thought-provoking.

I agree with the others. I found the link very helpful because I've been somewhat clueless as to what I should be posting. It's my first time having a blog, so I wasn't sure how to get it started off topic-wise.

It's my personal writing blog under my pen name, but I'm was sort of torn between being strictly writing related and covering random other subjects. After reading that link you posted, I realized that, although it is a writing blog, people may want to know who I am as a writer and as a person. Obviously I don't need to give them the story of my life, but I realize I can now allow some of my personal interests and other little facts about myself filter on.

Thanks again!

~Calen