Making the Grade – What Makes a Blog Post Successful?
With Blog Paws only a couple of weeks away, it naturally got me to thinking of all things, blogging, which led me to the realization after self-analysis of the top basic rules to follow when creating a good blog post, that I was mediocre at best and needed to give myself the “Imperfect Blogger Award.” Or, if you prefer, “The Flawed Blogger Award,” or “The Blogger who Just Can’t Conform to the Golden Rules of Blogging Award,” or just simply, “The Bad Blogger Award.”
Now before anyone gets in an uproar, after all, I am up for a Nose-to-Nose Award from BlogPaws for Best Blog Writing, let me explain. For those of you that blog, I’m sure you have seen the “must do” guidelines for being a good blogger and how to create a perfect post. The lists vary, but there are a few suggestions that seem prevalent amongst all those giving advice, with the first one being that ever powerful acronym, SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization. In real estate terms, that would mean location, location, location, but for a blogger, it means keywords, keywords, keywords.
Basically, a blog post and title should be rich in key words that trigger search engines like Google to bring your post to the top of the page rankings when people are looking for a relevant topic, product or service. So, if you are blogging about a review you are doing for NVR Miss Litterbox, you better include those words in the title and not something generic like “My Cat Fluffy Meows About her Bathroom Habits” and think that will drive traffic to your site for people who genuinely want to read a review about NVR Miss Litterbox.
This photo is taken from the NVR Miss Litterbox review that I did last year – I must have done a good job with the keywords, because I am still getting feedback on this post.
That’s odd…. I don’t know how my book that would be the perfect Mother’s Day gift got in this shot of Zee in the kitchen…
My feeling is this – you are all intelligent human beings and I respect your time. I try to make my posts as entertaining and compelling as possible, but if you don’t want to read them in full, or at all, then that is your prerogative and I don’t begrudge your decision either way. There are plenty of blogs that are written in a variety of styles – some with less content than mine, and yes, believe it or not, some written with more content than mine. I am not going to bend on this one and humbly except my “C-“ with no intention of changing my style to conform to the cookie cutter, sound bite world we live in. And, to my credit, I do fill my posts with a lot of great pictures to keep the topic interesting and not one big, long article, which brings me to the next bit of advice that is given to have good blog posts. Pictures…
If there is one area where I can easily say I follow the golden rules of being a good blogger, it’s with pictures. No matter what the topic, I always make sure to have at least one or more great photos, as a matter of fact, watch this:
Gratuitous picture of adorable kittens that has nothing to do with the post at hand, other than to momentary distract you from the overwhelming length of this post. These kittens do not pertain to my life at all and I have no idea who they are, other than being cute… .
The last “to be a good blogger rule” that I break on a weekly basis, giving me a pitiful grade of “C” is the one that suggests you must blog every day to keep your reading audience. People, I’m sorry, but my cats and my life is just not that interesting, not to mention, I work a full time job and can barely keep up with posting twice a week. I do my very best to be relevant and keep up with things, but just how many national this and that days and themes are there? I pick and choose the ones that are important to me, but I leave the rest for other bloggers who do it so much better than me. Not to mention, if you don’t want to miss any of my elusive posts, all you have to do is subscribe to my post notifications and that problem will instantly be solved.
Between all the causes, themes, and everything else to keep up with in the blogging world, sometimes it’s just too overwhelming and I want to say, “Calgon, come take me away!” (Remember that commercial?)
I love an editor like Peanut who tells me to take a break from blogging and play Fairyland on Facebook instead… Priorities people, priorities…
We’ve never seen a rule that says daily blogging is a must. We’ve seen regular blogging (ie weekly, monthly, biweekly or whatever but consistency) but never anyone requiring daily! We also break the rule of consistency sometimes, but work towards things that people would want to read because um, other than my name, what exactly are people going to search for in finding me in the search engines?
Chey – the rules do vary from article to article that I have read, so maybe we just have not read the same sources. But not only have I read that daily blogging is important, but at last year’s BlogPaws conference, one of the speakers at a seminar I attended said it was the most important rule of blogging, which completely shocked me. She said it with such extreme emotion that she said even if you work a full time job and have no time at all, that you should find the time during work, such as lunch, and sneak on your computer to put up a post!! LOL… clearly I did not take that advice to heart!
My goodness. I hardly have time to read the bloggers I do read! Imagine if I had to read them EVERY day! :0. However, I shall get my whip out and try and get the Woman blogging ABOUT ME more often (which you know, now only happens a couple of times a week, the other times filled in with the inferior cats who are not me but which insist upon living in my house).
We think we have an A in two areas: we post everyday and we always have pictures. After that, we’re proud to say we’re imperfect too!
Sweet Purrfections – well then, welcome to the Imperfect Club!!
Hmmm, Mes just blogs for fun. Purrhaps mes should be more serious…..
Nah!
Kisses
Nellie
Oh heavens no, Nellie!! We think you are purrfect just the way you are and don’t want you to change a hair on your furry little body!
My Human pretty much gets an F in all the categories. She is an EPIC FAIL at being a serious blogger. In her 3D life, she teaches A.P. English Lit to bored high school seniors, so when it comes to my blog, she is just having a bit of fun. We don’t think anyone ever found us on a search engine, and we’d be shocked if anyone ever does 😉 Now, if it were up to ME…..
Spitty – we don’t mean to be disagreeable, but we consider you to be an EPIC SUCCESS!! We discovered you during Zee & Zoey’s Cat Ruler of the World Contest and have been hooked ever since!! We love your outspoken personality and find your blog to be extremely entertaining! Not to mention, you sure are one beautiful cat, but you probably already know that!
Well, I am in shock. You and Caren are two of my favorite bloggers and you think you are not perfect? I need to go back to the drawing board. This is a great post!
Oh dear, Fisher… so sorry to burst your bubble!! LOL – I am so glad you enjoyed this post and that you consider Caren and I two of your favorite bloggers!!
I’ll admit that I too am an imperfect blogger. I wish I had time to write a post every day. In fact, I wish I had the time and motivation to post even twice a week on a regular basis. But like you, I have a full-time job AND I post four days a week on Catster. Honestly, by the time I get home at the end of the day, the last thing I want to do is stare at a computer screen for even longer.
I’m certainly not one for keeping it short. I regularly violate the 500-words-or-less policy. But my long posts are broken up for easy reading since they’re written in the voices of my three cats. I use one photo per post unless more are called for.
I don’t even attempt to do SEO in my posts, although I have been more conscious of writing post titles that make it clear what the post is about. Instead of worrying about the post titles, though, I edit the post permalink titles to make it clear what the subject matter is, so that it’ll come up more easily in a search. For example, I may give a post the title of “Why is my cat peeing all over the place?” and label the permalink “cat-inappropriate-urination-stress” or something like that.
Janea – it’s funny how perceptions can be. I always consider you a resource when it comes to good blogging, yet you deal with the same imperfections that many of us do, which makes me like and respect you all the more!! Great tip on the permalink title – I will have to keep that in mind when I need to clarify subject matter.
There are rules? Why didn’t somebody tell me? I write about what I enjoy…my kitties. Sometimes I get a little long-winded, but I do try to break up the writing with photos that pertain to the subject. Posting everyday would be an absolute chore, especially as more days than most, the only activities I can expect from the cats are napping and eating. The one thing I strive for is clean, understandable writing. I pride myself in proofreading each post before hitting that Publish button. I don’t like misspellings, glaring grammatical errors and misuse of words in my posts. So now, I have hit on my pet peeve: finding these things in the posts of others. I feel it shows a lack of respect for your reader. Finding those things consistently in other posts will not keep me from reading the post if the content is good, but all the boo-boos do grate upon me. So, if anyone wants to follow any rules, I suggest they make one for themselves, respect your audience enough to proofread! I am now jumping down from my soapbox so I can read some other blogs. Great topic Deb. Thanks, Janet
Janet – I am happy to provide a soapbox for you! I had wanted this post to be a forum for honest discussion and am happy to see it has provided that platform. I’m not a fan of spelling and grammar errors either, but sometimes it is hard to distinguish them when a post is being written by a cat, in an invented cat language that has a life of its own! So in that regard, I am willing to let it go. Blogs that are more professional in nature, then yes, it does bug me too, and I have actually found some whoppers in the blogs of some very respected and famous authors which was shocking to me!
I always enjoy your writing style and pictures and look forward to your posts!
Well, I guess this means you can add us to the list of blogging failures. We have never blogged every day (heck, with work, volunteering and life in general, we have trouble posting and visiting as often as we do). We blog for fun, and to give voice to the kitties of PAWS (even though we are not an “official” shelter blog). We do follow the “picture” and the “keep it short” rules, but otherwise … we are imperfect, for sure. 🙂
Whoo Hoo meowmeowmans! I am thrilled to have your company as part of the “Imperfect Club!” I love your blog and am so impressed that you can manage it with such grace in light of all you do!
Imperfect… x 3. There is no way that I keep up with blogging everyday, even if I count one post to the boys blog, one to my business blog and one to the UN-Cats blog (we don’t even want to go there). There are mostly short posts, although sometimes I want to go on a bit, I do use pictures , and I think my post titles more reflect a thought I have within the post, I don’t really worry about “keywords” “tags” etc… I really haven’t taken time to learn about all that … yet.
I’m like many, I do what I can, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t do it, cause when it isn’t being more fun than not… I’m out of it (ask the windows in my house… they aren’t fun and they know it and they show it!). This is a great “thinking” post Deb. Just do what you want! We’ll be there with ya all the way!
Cherry City Kitties – we are so with you on the fun part!! We have many a window that is no fun at all, so it suits me just fine to leave them in their imperfect haze of grime… As long as the cats can still see the birds and squirrels that pass by, then I know I am okay!! Thank you for sharing your opinion and I am glad I got you to thinking – I love when I can create a post that does that now and again!
Deb, I was wondering if you could ask the question at Blogpaws about the need for daily posting? It’s bugging me! I don’t know how bloggers can put out a thoughtful well constructed post every single day? I have trouble once or twice a week – though I know I am slow! I don’t seem to suffer from lack of readers and surely if someone chooses to follow my blog using whatever means, they will get all the updates! I would have thought one of the most important ways to get traffic to your blog is to visit other blogs!
I’m am curious to know, even though I intend to stay an imperfect, part time and peripheral blogger. In fact I might blog about it! 🙂 xx
CATachresis – If I am taking any of those types of seminars, I will do my best to remember and ask for you. I think though, that in a case like your blog that is for entertainment purposes and not to generate income, that posting daily would be a bit ridiculous to expect. You do have a nice following and it seems to be growing at a steady pace. Signing up for your email notifications also helps. I take the rules with a grain of salt – what works for some, does not work for others. And if I must be quite honest about it, not only is it difficult to find the time to post on a daily basis for me, it is even harder to find the time to read everyone’s blog post. That’s why I like your blog – I look forward to an occassional interlude with Austin – I can keep up with the pace you are at now. If you posted more frequently, I regret to say I probably would not get to read all your posts!
I am happy to have provided you with something to think about and look forward to your possible post!! 🙂
I Love this! I am brand new in blogging and trying to learn the ropes, so I know I’m an imperfect blogger! I found you on Inspire Me Monday! I LOVE this post!! I’m excited to read around your blog! I’d love for you to come follow me at http://mybutterflyhaus.blogspot.com
Hi Elizabeth! So nice of you to drop by my imperfect blog! I’m glad you enjoyed the post and hopefully it gave you a better sense of peace of mind that many bloggers are in the same boat! I will stop by and check out your blog as soon as I can!
Yes, you are right of course! I forget that many people blog professionally! lol. The word “blog” lends itself to fun and lighthearted activity. I always think it’s strange when I see someone is writing a “blog” in a serious heavyweight daily newspaper! xx
I work on several blogs as part of my “Day Job” for a book publisher, and even then I don’t post every day. However, there is more pressure to use search words and links that will encourage people to buy our books. Google Panda has done a number on our sales and traffic and my boss is still trying to figure out the system. Then there’s Google Ad Sense, a whole ‘nother ball of wax.
Sally – Google Panda? Sigh… I am so far behind in the times, I don’t even know what that is. Guess I’ll be going to Google right now to search “Google Panda!” I’ve heard of Google Ad Sense, but I really worry about that type of advertising on my site since it is so design and content intensive.
Yes! Google Ad Sense really butts into the design aspect of our blogs, which I find annoying, especially when it comes to placing photos.
We could write a book on imperfection! And it really wouldn’t be all that interesting. ; )
I break rules everyday, except that since BlogPaws 2012 I have actually managed to post everyday, even while on vacation. …but the only way I got through that was by preparing a number of images ahead of time and having a live-in cat sitter that just happens to be a skilled photographer. ; ) …gee, I bet she could actually quit her day job and just take care of all of us bloggers!!! haha : )
My greatest inspiration for blog posts comes from both my and my husband’s photography of Katie & Waffles. When I’m stuck for a topic or idea, I just peruse my library of photos until something strikes me.
Alas, we come to SEO and key words. Is chicken a keyword? How about Waffles? I am just like you Deb…I don’t even think about key words when I’m writing anything other than a review. I don’t do any serious writing either, so I pretty much suck at SEO. And I’ll probably continue to lag behind the curve on this one. If something makes my head hurt, I tend to walk away. And that’s exactly how I feel about SEO, analytics, yadda, yadda, yadda.
The other thing that wasn’t mentioned is blogging platforms. Everyone and their DOG tells me I should switch to WordPress. Ok, ok already…I know I should. And I should eat more vegetables too.
; ) GG
Glogirly – your blog is one of the few that thrives on the posting everyday concept, primarily because you take one topic and draw it out like a well-crafted soap opera that keeps people tuning back in! It is brilliant and could not possibly withstand the premise of keywords to make it successful. Save the keywords for the commercial breaks!
Analytics… please, don’t get me started on that one. Major “F” for me. I know I’m supposed to check my numbers and my stats and know who is following me from what state and at certain peak days of the week, but I just don’t have it in me. I suppose if I were a big corporation like Purina, then maybe it would matter. But, looking at my numbers is not going to dictate to me how, or what I write about. And a platform, that’s just something I stand on to see better, because I’m so short!
Welcome home – it was fun following the Waffles Two, Katie, Smelly Cat Sitter saga while you were on vacation!!
Don’t forget your PRIMARY platform… you know, the high heeled strappy ones with leopard print. (!)
Thank you SO much for your kind words…that means to me the world coming from you.
Can’t wait to see you next week!!!
xo
MOL… I remember those platforms… they were gorgeous!!! Can’t wait to see you either! 🙂