How to Blog??? (Guide to writing a blog)

Types of Posts

Blogging can be hard. Thinking of what you will post on your site every few days can be mentally taxing. A blog post should be entertaining and appeal to a wide audience. Blog posts can be anything you can think of. Blogs posts can be videos, pictures, written articles, or audio files.

The following typres of posts were listed by Darren Rowse in his article "20 Types of Blog Posts - Battling Bloggers Block" (2005).

Instructional posts give people step by step by instructions on how do things. These are popular because searching for instructions remain one of the most common things that people look for on the internet. Instructions range from baking a cake to fixing a 1965 VW Beetle.

Informational posts simply give people facts and details on a wide variety of subjects. One example that Rowse gives is Wikipedia, Informational posts are increasingly being used by many businesses to provide free of charge information, These posts are on a variety of subjects like insurance, home improvement, or even medical problems, giving the business 'expert status'. These sponsored blogs may overlap with advertising of goods and services.

Reviews of another authors works are common posting topics. These generally critique and/or praise an author's work. Subjects of reviews can be movies, books, scholarly articles and music.

List postings are getting to be very common. In the blogosphere, these posts are easily recognizable by their titles, like '5 Reasons Why You May not be Sleeping at Night" or " 4 signs You May Be Having a Heart Attack".

Interview posts are much like interviews in other media. They are a good way to provide content when you are running low on ideas. Rowse suggests to keep your questions to 2-3 interesting ones vs. a whole list of cliche questions.

Rant Posts are emotional responses to a event in the writers life or current event. They may be angry, can be self-centered and often the comments left are also emotional. Rants can be an effective way to get traffic to your site, and may be used by some bloggers to do so.

Inspirational posts are written to inspire others, and are in effect, the opposite of rants. They are typically more well thought out and purposefully designed to make the readers feel good about somethings, or themselves.

Satirical posts can be some of the more fun posts to make. These are humorous posts that are fun to write and to read. Rowse recounts "Well written satire or parody can be incredibly powerful and is brilliant for generating links for your blog."

While this list is by no means exhaustive, it will give you a good start in writing a variety of blogs to start off with. Once you gain experience with these types of blogs, you may gravitate toward a certain favorite as your blog following grows.

What to include

Like a nice meal that you sit down to in a restaurant, every blog has certain 'courses' that allow the reader to feast upon it and savor the various elements, before they leave your site feeling sated and satisfied.

The opening sentence or paragraph is the appetizer. The reader will be left wanting more. It may take the form of a humorous line, and inspirational quote or a picture that piques their curiosity. The title may also serve as part of this function.

Next, does your blog have a main point or is the reader left asking himself 'where is the beef? An informational blog, for instance, must contain useful information, or it will not serve its purpose. An inspirational blog must inspire and present the elements to do that job. A blog that reviews must point to the item of question and give sound arguments to defend its view. Davison says "Publish as fact only what you believe to be true." Thorough research and well presented facts will always win over cute titles and catchy opinions.

A blogger can add spice to a post by presenting a unique perspective, a fresh look at an old argument or new information that makes an old topic new again, much like adding a new flavor to an old dish. But blogger beware, just as too little spice will make your meal taste bland too much spice burns your tongue. Too many points of view will confuse the reader. Best to leave different spices for different blogs.

Tone of Blog

A blog is essentially a public journal. Often, blogs are more than likely opinion pieces that may be triggered by current events, new inventions or any other news-worthy finding. As Lauren Davison reminds us in her report "A Bloggers Handbook", under the section "Blogging for an Audience", it is crucial when blogging for the writer to know who their audience is, and to consider "what they are craving. An important aspect of any blog is the tone, or 'voice' that the author conveys, and often determines if the reader will continue reading or not.

Tone is comprised of several important components or considerations, which are language choice, sentence structure, point of view, organizational structure, and any other choices you make that will help you make your point. For example, when writing an informational blog, the writer would present the facts. The choice of what facts to present, and then the commentary on those facts would contribute to the tone of the blog. Profanity in a blog conveys strong opinion, but may effect who the reader thinks you are as a person. Tone in blogs is generally more casual but it is ultimately linked to your subject.

The tone of a blog is generally more conversational as opposed to the formal tone used in academic journals or more serious forms of journalism. This can be a benefit in a blog as it can invite your readers to comment and discuss your latest post which is one of the main goals of a blog. Davison advises that it is 'best to be consistent in language, tone, them , voice" to maintain your audience and readership.

I hope that the information you find above is useful. Feel free to leave me any comment and suggestion to improve on the blog. Have fun blogging!!!