What good bloggers do

After two months of being lazy and not blogging at all it’s pretty hard to get motivated and start working again. In order to feel a bit more inspired I decided to check out some other blogs and I also went through my own old posts. Afterwards I came up with a short list of things that in my opinion are important for blogging in general and what I want to improve about my own blog.

• a good first impression
  To catch the attention of potential readers it’s important that your blog is aesthetically pleasing. Posts should be easy to read, which means choosing complementing colors and the right size of the text is a crucial point when you’re creating the layout of your blog. And don’t forget to add a few relatable pictures to your posts – don’t overdo it of course, but a few well-placed images make reading more compelling.  

• content
  After catching the attention of a reader it’s important to maintain their interest in your blog. If you don’t have a specific topic to blog about, choose things that you are interested in or that are important to you. Posts about something you’re passionate about are most likely more entertaining to read than posts about stuff that bores you. Be yourself, be funny, be relatable. Don’t sell yourself short – if you think a story is intriguing and worth sharing then share it. It’s your own personal blog after all and in most cases authentic posts are the most enjoyable to read.

• check your facts
  If you happen to not write about a personal topic or something you already know much about, you need to do some research. Take your time, don’t rush and end up with wrong facts. It doesn’t matter how interesting the topic you’re blogging about might be if half the stuff you’re saying is actually wrong.

There are probably many more things you need to consider when you want to create a successful blog, but these were the ones I came up with while looking through some other blogs. I also realized which elements of my own blog need some serious improvement.

My biggest and most noticing weakness when it comes to blogging is the regularity (or rather irregularity) of my posts. If you look at the dates of my posts you will see that I didn't post them very regularly. It’s very clear that in beginning I was lazy and only did my assignments. I didn’t have creative ideas and wasn’t motivated. That’s definitely an area where I need to step up this semester. I’ll try and start gathering some ideas in the beginning and make myself notes whenever I come across a topic that might be worth blogging about.

Other than regularity I also think that my blog lacks creativity. Most of my posts are about generic topics: I reviewed TV-series or wrote about holiday traditions. Not that these can’t be entertaining subjects to read about, but you can find similar posts on other blogs. I need to try and come up with more unique and fascinating issues that actually leave an impression on people – or at least are a bit more exciting than a movie review.  

All in all I think I improved my writing skills over the last few months and I think blogging was very helpful. I hope I continue making progress and my blog will get better with time!