Tag: blog content

Don’t start a blog if…

Yesterday, I gave you 10 reasons your should start blogging.  Today, it’s the flip side.  There are lots of reasons why people don’t blog.  However, that’s not what I’m talking about.  I’m going to give you reasons why you should not blog, even if you think you should.

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9 Reasons you should not blog

1. Don’t blog if you don’t have anything to say.  In the meantime, though, find something to say.  Learn to beautifully communicate the mundane.

2. Don’t start blogging if you know you won’t be able to consistently post.  My goal is, at minimum, 1 blog per week.  I always shoot for 2-3 per week, though.  If you won’t be able to consistently post, don’t start blogging.  Just wait until you have the time.  Blogs that aren’t updated regularly lose readership and influence.

3. Don’t blog just because everybody’s doing it.  Don’t just jump on the bandwagon, especially if #1 and #2 apply to you.  And yes, I know I said the same idea as a reason to blog HERE.  Remember, this is my blog, and I can do what I want.

4. If all you want to do is create an advertisement page.  Blogs are meant to communicate more than just advertisements.  Websites, billboards, and TV commercials do that just fine, thank you.

5. You have no writing skills.  Blogs aren’t terribly difficult to write, especially with the advent of spell check and grammar check.
However, you may need to touch up your writing first.  Or, maybe you should have another person in the organization write the blog for you. Not a bad way to loop one more person into the process.

6. You’ve tried it for 6 months, and still see only negligible benefits.  Maybe your efforts should be focused elsewhere.  What are your goals in writing a blog?  Personal?  Financial?  Organizational?  Evaluate effectiveness by your expressed goals.

7. Your blog is always focused on attacking others.  I’ve seen these blogs.  I don’t read them, so please don’t write them.

8. You can’t handle others attacking you.  A blog is your voice.  The more people that hear your voice, the more likely you will receive criticism.  If you blog consistently, just get ready to be slammed a few times.

9. You only want a one-way conversation.  Blogs, in my opinion, are meant to be a dialog.  I write my blog so that others will comment.  In fact, I completely redid my comments section to enhance debate.  If you want a one-way conversation, go talk to your car.

What do you think?  Are you convinced that blogging is for you?  Or maybe you’ve decided against it?  My goal is to help you think.

Are you blogging?  Will you start?  Will you share your blog address with us?

 

Disappointment

Can I be honest with you for a minute?  I’m a bit disappointed.  Though you would think that an increase in blog traffic would leave me excited, in reality it leaves me shaking my head.

Most of the time, my blog posts have substance.  Though a few, such as “A Waste of 3:41,” “Do you ChaCha?,” and “John Piper and Michael Jackson” were of no substantive value, the vast majority of my posts carry some weight.  In one way or another, they are written to effect change in you, the reader.

A change in action.

A change in thought.

A change in attitude.

A change in direction.

A change in leadership.

However, my latest post, “Caption this and win!,” though it gave me the chance to highlight one of our small groups, brag on one of our small group leaders, and have a laugh at her expense (sorry, Katrina!), it did not ask anything of the reader beyond posting a funny comment caption.  So what’s the problem with this?

This post received over 2.5x the number of hits as compared to my normal posts.

I’m not opposed to bloggers giving prizes away to promote traffic to their blog.  Really, I’m not.  But it bugs me that shallow content often receives more attention than weighty.  An “easy” (fluffy content) read seems to be preferred over a “difficult” (challenging content) read.

I’d like to say that I know the answer to this, but I don’t.  I’m just throwing it out there.

Have you found this to be true for you?  In your blog?  In your sermons?  In your teaching?  In your small groups?  In the daily conversations you have at work?  At home?  On vacation?

Maybe we as a culture prefer comfort over conversations of value.

What do you think?

 

What's this blog about?

My blog may seem random to you.  And if that’s what you think it is…you’re probably right.  In talking with successful bloggers, I’m often told that I should choose one or two things to blog about, and blog at least a couple of times a week about each of those topics.

But that’s not me.

And my blog is a snapshot of my life.

And I am dealing with much more than one or two things per week.

It’s about my life, how I process things, and what I’m dealing with.  It’s leadership, small groups, and parenting.  It’s theology and counseling.  It’s a devotional thought and a book review.  It’s sometimes about adoption or a post from a friend.  In short, it’s my life.  I’m trying to process all of life through the grid of Scripture, thinking through things theologically.  Sometimes I hit the mark…sometimes I miss it badly.  Hopefully you’ll see growth in my own life through my blog, but if you see me miss it, please give me some grace.  I’ve still got lots of growing and learning to do.

I guess I’ve been thinking about this because I want my blog to be effective for my readers.  If my blog ceases to be relevant and helpful for my readers, I need to rethink and restructure things.  If it ceases to be effective for me, I need to stop blogging.  I hope that it always will be a helpful source of information for readers, but one thing that I’m certain of right now is that it’s effective for me.  It really helps me to flesh out my thoughts and communicate them in a way that others can understand.  Writing forces me to shape my thoughts into some form of definable action on my part.  If I put them on “paper,” I’m more likely to act on them and live them out.

Thanks for all of you who put up with my rambling, often random blog.

 

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