Twenty Set

Hi! Welcome to Twenty Set. Here you will find 4-5 new articles every week about personal and professional development written specifically for the young professional. If you like what you read, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

People complain about bloggers a lot, mostly that they are diluting journalistic integrity with their non-experience. But those complaints don’t matter in the end, because blogging isn’t about journalism or credentials. Blogging is about being interesting, and all of your favorite bloggers, who you read every day, know that. Here are 10 tips on how you can become a favorite blogger yourself:

Talk About Yourself

This one should be so obvious, and I almost didn’t write about it. I don’t want people to start reading this list and think, “Oh, talk about yourself, the rest of this advice is going to be lame also,” and then jump.

But unfortunately, it’s not obvious, and I think it’s because people think they’ll be perceived as narcissistic, or whiny, if they write about themselves. And to some, you will be perceived that way - but most people love gossip and desperately want insight into what makes a person tick. So jeez, just give it to them already!

Not convinced? One of the guest posters on Problogger wrote about why readers subscribe, and six out of the seven reasons are about you, with the first reason being “They want to be you.” You, you, you, you, you, you. So get in the mindset that this is a popularity contest, and the people who get heard are the prom queens of the blogosphere. Then go claim your crown.

Figure Out Why People are Boring, or Otherwise Unlikeable

You’ve met people that you hate talking to. And guess what? They are the same people that everyone else hates talking to. They are Debbie Downer, Negative Nancy, and the rest of their boring, shallow, vain friends. So here’s an exercise which unfortunately will force you to return to these conversations once more, if you can remember them (apologies in advance).

What exactly makes you dislike conversations with those people? What about them makes you roll your eyes, or drift into daydreams? What things do they say that annoy you? What topics do they bring up that irritate you?

Now make sure nothing you write falls into those categories. You can’t write about something interesting if you don’t know what to avoid first.

Pick a New How-To, or at Least Put a Spin on an Old One

I read a lot of career and financial advice, but for many articles I rarely do much but skim the headlines before moving on. That’s because everyone writes about the same topics, over and over again. How to Save Money. How to Dress For an Interview. How to Pay Off Your Student Debts. How to Nail Your Performance Review.

I like how-tos, I write how-tos, and I don’t mean to criticize people who write how-tos. But the majority of how-tos rehash other people’s advice and rarely inject personality.

Here is when recycling old topics works: you create comprehensive, long lists that people can bookmark, or you approach the problem with a unique way of thinking, or you inject your own experiences as the basis of your advice.

Otherwise, it doesn’t work. So stop doing it.

Write About the News, or Events in Your Life

Here’s a way to guarantee you aren’t writing about something that has been done a thousand times - offer your opinion and insight on current events. But do it quickly, because if too many others beat you to the punchline, your voice will get lost in a sea of rehashers.

Unless you are an internet addict and can respond quickly to stories as they happen, it might be easier to write about events in your own life. So do that instead, and give advice by telling your story.

Make Yourself a Minority

Majorities are the masses, but minorities are interesting; and luckily, everyone can be a minority. Here is something people think makes them interesting: “I played soccer in high school.” Too vague though. “I was varsity soccer captain as a sophomore and we went on to win three state championships” is more interesting.

But let’s face it: we are all young, educated, cream-of-the-crop professionals. Everyone has the equivalent of Mr. Soccer Star on their resumes, so if you really want to be interesting, dig deeper. Like I’m a female blogger who is young, with a technical degree, who doesn’t write about technology or anything remotely related to my industry. People think that’s pretty random, and I agree.

What about you is completely off the wall? Write about that!

Be Controversial

I don’t write things to be controversial on purpose, but I honestly love when people don’t agree with me, for the mere fact that it makes the conversation interesting. Blogs are not newspapers or magazines or books - and the people who are boring bloggers are the ones who use blogs to publish traditional media online. But blogs are a platform for opinions (not facts or information); and if you don’t have an opinion there’s very little point to having a blog that people subscribe to.

State your opinion, back it up, and make sure lots of people can disagree with you. Boring is people nodding their heads in unison, like cows chewing on the same patches of grass. Interesting is being controversial.

Stop Pretending You’re So Happy

I spent a good portion of March reading happiness theory and research because I was going to write a post about it. Then I realized that most of my favorite posts have nothing to do with happiness. In fact, my best posts are my sad or angry ones.

Let’s face it, happy people are boring. None of us are happy all the time, so none of us have to be boring; we just choose to be because we want to pretend we are always happy, which everyone sees through immediately anyway.

So from now on, when someone asks you “How’s it going?” don’t respond with “Good.” Say “I shot a gun this weekend, and I think guns are evil. But here’s what I learned…”

And when you write a blog post, don’t say “I’m awesome… again. And here’s some advice on how you can be as awesome as me.” Because frankly, I’m bored with reading posts like this, and I bet your readers are too.

Share Your Vulnerabilities

I received feedback from a friend about my last post, and she basically said that although she admired the things I was doing, the post really demonstrated the downside of my lifestyle.

And you know what? I’m okay with that. Because I’m not perfect, and to let people think I have this great, successful life would be a lie.

So now when I give advice, people may actually listen, because it’s honest. And if something horrible happens to me, people might actually care, because they are emotionally invested. And even though it scared me to write that post, it gave others strength to share their own fears.

Be Tyra Banks -risk it all and make an ugly face at the camera. It might end up being your best shot in the film roll.

Articulate Your Dreams

Readers need a reason to cheer you on, but they can’t find that if you don’t tell them what you actually care about achieving. Share your goals, dreams, passions, and wish lists regularly. Update readers with your progress, or reversion. Ask for help when you need it, and help others with their dreams too!

Blogging is about interacting in a community, and communities don’t survive without people who have an interest in each others lives, and are willing to do a little bartering.

Talk About the Hard Stuff

We love to avoid sensitive topics in our daily lives, for good reason. Racism, sexism, rape, politics, abortion, mental illness… none of this stuff is off limits in the blogosphere though. And you don’t have to regularly write about sensitive topics to write about the hard stuff.

In fact, one of my favorite honest posts about a hard topic is on a TV fan site. I’m not even going to tell you what it’s about because I really want you to click and read it. What I love about Kelly’s blog is time and time again she makes a seemingly shallow, dramatic show mean something beyond gossiping and entertainment by weaving her own experiences into it. And that’s interesting.

You can call these tips narcissistic, or you can try a few and get more readers. Good luck, and if you have any other tips feel free to leave them in the comments section!

Popularity: 39% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Categories: Blogger
Tags: Blogging, Features, Opinions