Yippee! My blog has hit the 5000 view mark! How many of us can boast of such an accomplishment? There are hundreds of pointers available on the internet on what a blog should be. So, we have decided to do another short survey, scrutiny, deconstruction and what-not, and come up with a list of things that you should avoid in blog writing.
Caution: Negativity will put off your reader. In fact, what we are about to divulge may put you off too, but what has to be said, has to be said, we believe.
- Remember that Uncle or Aunt, all of us have at home or in the neighbourhood, who would repeat the same advice over and over until you could recite it back word-for-word? Well, you do not want your content writing to take the same turn.Unpointer 1 (taking a leaf from Lewis Carroll): Repetition and un-originality will bore your readers.
- Ever tried to read Jurgen Habermas? We did! Sigh! We realized we were not cut out for Philosophy and Philosophy was not cut out for us. Unpointer 2: Do not write for yourself, think of your reader. Your reader needs to be dazzled by your language, but not so dazzled, that they become blind and start groping after the first few paragraphs and then promptly go zzzzz….
- Remember Baby Boomers, Generation X, Y and Generation Jones? If not please do look up Google/Wikipedia; you probably belong to one of these American terms for people born in different decades, some straddling different decades. We, for one, know that we are definitely Gen Y. So the point is? Unpointer 3: Not keeping up-to-date, being unaware of movements, causes, etc. occurring out there in the world. Picking up a newspaper and reading only the news reports on accidents, politics, comics and leaving out the editorial page is a definite no-no.
- Sigh! We were watching a re-run of Maine Pyar Kiya last week. Where a few decades ago, we had our hearts in our mouth for the innocent young love, the muscled body of Salman Khan, the sad plight of the lead actors towards the end, now we had tears down our face for laughing out loud. And, it was not because the movie was boring, or comic, but because we had grown up, our tastes had changed, our values or perception of family values and relationships had changed. Unpointer 4: Evolve as you write, do not hash up and serve the same old cliché. Let your perspective and opinion change according to current thought.
- When we wanted to publicize our site, we stood up on the rooftops and danced naked in the rain. Haha… got your there! We didn’t; but that gets us to unpointer 5: Promote, promote and promote. The internet memory is like 30 seconds to fame – capricious and volatile. So, keep your contacts alive, put something out there as frequently as possible, but do not compromise on quality. Now, dancing naked in the rain would not have brought us the kind of contacts and contracts we needed, would it?
- The other day we bought these pretty, gauzy window curtains from Fab India. They were light, let in the light, and gave us a measure of privacy. Why are we gushing about the curtains? Unpointer 6: Your website should be as transparent as our fabulous curtain. It should give information about your firm, your work and your team members, if possible.
- Sometimes when you look up Wikipedia, do you feel as if there is not enough information or as if what is written there is not exactly the truth? That is because the Wikipedia is put together by people like you and I. Hence, the point – unpointer 7: Do not put unclear or wrong information out there. Check your sources before you publish your work, and be prepared to be accountable for whatever you have written.
Now that we have got this off our collective chests, we are off to take some hard earned rest. 🙂
