Geek Tales The Internet, technology, business, and blogging.

Online Social Life

Blogging is all about social activities that we are involved in every day. The more engaged we are, the more satisfaction blogging will give us, and the better bloggers we will be. I prepared the following list to share with you how you can participate in such social activities. If you have any other ideas how else a blogger can participate, please share it with us by leaving a comment. Here goes the list:

1. Comment on other people’s blogs. Do it as much as possible and whenever possible. Don’t you love being part of the blogosphere? It is visiting other people’s blogs, and reading interesting posts. I think it is natural for bloggers to check out other blogs whenever their time permits.

2. Reward people for visiting your blog. You can do it in a few ways:

• By visiting and commenting on their blogs.
• By displaying on your hompage top commentators that comment the most on your blog. This will definitely encourage your readers to comment. By doing so you will be linking to them which will also benefit them. I know of at least a few blogers that use very successful methods to encourage others to leave comments. The truth is simple, everyone likes his readers commenting on his blog, unless it is spam. Don’t you enjoy visiting your website and finding out that there are at least a few positive comments?

Grammar and Bloggers

The World Wide Web is full of people for whom English is not the first language or for whom it is their first language, but they do not have strong writing skills. Blogging is not only about correct grammar and spelling. Even though I believe that correct grammar and spelling are important, many people with poor writing skills are bloggers who have many interesting things to say. The World Wide Web is also full of people who are so-called grammar “Nazis.” Their tolerance for grammatical or spelling errors is almost non-existent. It is always important to remember to we draw the line between sound criticism and non-constructive criticism. People for whom English is not the first language should do everything to learn to use it properly, while bloggers living in English-speaking countries should help them become better writers and editors.

Writing on One Subject

There are many types of blogs on the Internet. There are also many topics to write about. Some bloggers write about a variety of different topics, while others decide that they want to be portrayed as experts in only one field. I think that each decision has its advantages and drawbacks. One of the advantages of writing about only one topic is that it is a lot easier to be good at it. Eventually, you might be even recognized as an expert in your field if you will be really good at what you do. That can be especially the case if you put a lot of work into writing articles. On the other hand, writing about only one topic might get boring after a while. This might be true if it is a niche in which there are not many interesting things happening. If that is the case, then you will be forced to write about some other topics anyway.
There is no clear rule what to do, and nobody is going to force you to write about any particular topic. That is why you should remember to choose a niche that is of interest to you so that you would be motivated to write posts. There is no bigger mistake a blogger can make than choosing a topic of his blog that he doesn’t even like.

Reasons to use Lists

Generally bloggers agree that writing posts in a form of lists is a good idea, as it can improve your traffic. How is it possible? Well, here is a list of reasons:

-Lists often make it easier for a writer to express his thoughts. This way a writer can write higher quality posts, because he can express himself in a better way.
-Many bloggers decide to summarize another bloggers list, and link to them at the same time. This makes the blogosphere more connected.
-It is easy to read a list type of post, as you can jump from one point to another easily. This will be especially helpful to your readers, who for some reason are not interested in some points of your posts. Instead of giving up on reading your post, they can easily analyze what are the other points presented in your post. They can decide to move to the next point if it is of interest to them.
-Persuasiveness is another key element for lists. This applies to those posts in which you are trying to prove something.
-Lists prevent a writer from “rambling”, and as such can be an excellent source of information. Rambling might be good from time to time, but if you prefer to be more concise and specific in your posts, you will want to avoid rambling to give your readers solid information they want.

Ideas for Writing Good Posts

Some people say that content is all that matters when it comes to blogging. I would like to share with you a few ideas that will help you write better posts:
-Write short sentences. Almost nothing is as tiring as trying to catch up with long and complicated phrase. If you use short sentences, your readers are more likely to understand what you want to tell them.
-Use simple words. Avoid sophisticated language. Unless you hold a Ph.D., you are trying to appeal to readers from different social groups and different walks of life. You do not want to make anyone feel uncomfortable by using words they cannot understand.
-Use positive language and blog about things that make you happy and relaxed. Use such adjectives as good, comfortable, beneficial, etc.
-Use dynamic and vigorous language. It is advisable to use a lot of verbs. It will add to your articles a feeling of constant motion.
-Make a good use of lists. This is my favorite style of writing. I often compose my articles so that they appear in the form of lists. This helps me in organizing my posts into logical sentences. It also helps me to avoid writing off-topic as well as unnecessary words and phrases.

Allow Users to Search Your Blog

One of the top webpages in the world are search engines. I believe it is so, because high quality search engines save people a lot of time and help them find what they need very quickly. When it comes to your website, it is important that you allow your visitors to use the search option and allow them to browse through your site this way. This is especially important if your site has a lot of posts, since finding them manually would take too much time. Your older posts will eventually not get any hits at all. This is a serious problem, especially for websites that are in a niche where older articles do not necessarily get outdated. For example, a website about pets will have many articles that could be useful for readers for many years, but with no search box, it will be hard to find those articles. By integrating search into your site, you give people more freedom to explore your blog, but you also make your site look more professional. I would say that allowing users to search your blog is a must these days, because you will not be able to compete with other webpages if you will not have this feature.

Blogs About Blogging

I believe that blogs about blogging will become increasingly popular. Some people might wonder why I think so. That is because such blogs are a useful resource for all bloggers no matter what niche they belong to. Basically, as long as there are blogs, there will be blogs about blogging, as people will need advice. It doesn’t matter what kind of blogs will be the most popular: business blogs, personal blogs, or technology blogs. The important thing is that all of them are blogs. Secondly, the cost of maintaining a blog about blogging is lower than is some other niches where you need to upload a lot of videos, files, or images. Many hosting companies claim they offer unlimited bandwidth, but in reality they will close your account if you exceed some limit that they set secretly. That is why it is an advantage to have a website which does not require a lot of bandwidth. Lastly, since there are so many new blogs being created every day, there is a large audience to address. Someone has to teach new bloggers about blogging, as there is plenty to teach. While blogging platforms might seem easier and easier to work with, in reality there are so many tools, plug-ins, and decisions to make that most webmasters will appreciate useful advice.

How to Detect Blogging Addiction

Here are some signs by which you can say that a person has a blogging addiction:

• You suffer “comment envy” – another bloggers post gets 50-something comments.
• You “binge blog” 3 or 4 posts at once, but only to feel guilty and empty afterward.
• You ditched all your real friends for blog friends, because, well, “they understand.”
• Your usual lunch hour has become your “blog hour.” You keep a few posts prepared in your desk in case you need them during the day.
• After a few minutes of meeting someone really interesting you ask, “So – do you blog?”
• You filter everything through your post-writing. You cannot watch a movie, see a play, read an article, or share a sweet moment with your child without thinking of whether it’s blog-worthy.
• After reading this post you go straight back to your blog. “Just one more post for today”, you say. If your conclusion is that you are indeed addicted, do not worry – you are not alone.

I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I also hope you realize that blogging in reality is not so dangerous as I portrayed it above. Why not try blogging yourself, maybe you will really like it and you have nothing to lose.