Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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March 12, 2007

Mini-Session 10: 5 Things I Look for in a Blog

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 5:01 pm

Guest Speaker: Terry Starbucker

5 Things I Look For In a Blog –

  1. Fine Style – The look and the “feel” of a site on first glance sets the tone for the reading to come; if the presentation is messy, than the writing probably is too.
  2. Good Headline Writing – I like to be “grabbed” by pithy and oftentimes whimsical headlines that pull me into the post
  3. Positivity – Now I couldn’t call myself a “Half-Fuller” if I didn’t prefer a positive take on your subject matter, would I?
  4. Subject Matter Passion – Care about what you are writing about, put that on the page, and I’ll gobble it up
  5. Simplicity and Elegance of Prose – I can’t help it, I paid attention in English class – I love the proper and concise use of the language (including punctuation and spelling.

Thank you, Terry!
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Visit Terry’s blog, Ramblings from a Glass Half Full, to get and keep a positive view on people, life, business, and what things are about. –ME “Liz” Strauss
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Let’s open the Q&A . . .

I’ll go first. Terry, what is the one thing that will get you to keep coming back to a blog??


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Filed under Guest Writer, Successful Blog | 27 Comments »




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27 Comments to “Mini-Session 10: 5 Things I Look for in a Blog”

  1. March 12th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
    Terry Starbucker said

    Hi Liz, and good afternoon everyone! To your question, I’m not sure it’s just one thing that keeps me coming back, but if I had to pick one it would be #4 – subject matter passion. I want to “feel” it jumping from the page.

  2. March 12th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
    Terry Starbucker said

    Oh and Liz, can you add a “g” at the end of “spellin” on #5? :-)

  3. March 12th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Terry,
    I think I’m right with you — that and a blogger who dances. :)

    So many people don’t mention design/presentation. That’s the first thing to get me to stay. If my eyes find it work to look at a blog. No thank you.

  4. March 12th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
    Terry Starbucker said

    Absolutely – that’s my #1. If it’s too busy, I just get too distracted.

    And about that dancing…….I will do my best to demonstrate how a blogger dances at SOBCon – that should be worth the price of admission!

  5. March 12th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
    ME Strauss said

    What I notice is that so many blogs have the wrong things at the top of their sidebar. If you look you’ll see that there’s often invitations to leave their blog — links to other blogs, Amazon etc. Prime real estate is sometimes not even considered.

    The other thing I see a lot these days is blogs with tiny titles. I can hardly read them the typography is so small.

  6. March 12th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
    Terry Starbucker said

    You know, the sidebar is an interesting thing – you want to be nice to other bloggers and put a bunch of links there, then you want to put a few widgets there, and before you know it your stuff is two pages down. Just like my blog! I fell right into that. But you are right, we should be leading with our own material.

  7. March 12th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
    Chris Cree said

    Spelling?! Good grammar?!! Oh, no! I’m doomed. DOOMED!

  8. March 12th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
    Terry Starbucker said

    Sorry Chris! I’m sure you can pull yourself out of the grammar spiral soon. :-)

  9. March 12th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
    Aaron M. Potts said

    I’m big on presentation myself, although that being said, I’ve already admitted today that mine needs some work. :)

    If I had to call out one thing that would get me to read a blog, it would have to be the headlines. With the blogosphere exploding, there is SO much writing to wade through.

    I’m with Terry and I’ll take pithy and whimsical as a way to grab my attention. However, I hope that the post then delivers so I don’t feel cheated when I get there.

    I was reading MindValleyLabs earlier and they mentioned a linkbait effort entitled “8 Diseases That Give You Superhuman Powers”.

    I feel like I just got punched in the stomach. Why didn’t *I* think of that??? ;)

  10. March 12th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
    Terry Starbucker said

    Hi Aaron – I’m in the same boat having called my sidebar a bit of a mess! I’m also “once bitten, twice shy” about headlines – if they don’t deliver the first couple of times, I probably won’t come back.

    Love that “8 Disease” headline. You think that one will deliver? :-)

  11. March 12th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
    Carolyn Manning said

    Terry, I must agree with you about proper use of the language. English is beautiful.

  12. March 12th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
    Terry Starbucker said

    Yes indeed Carolyn! I love it when the language “sings” to me.

  13. March 12th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
    Chris Cree said

    How do you detect passion in blogs? Or as a blogger how can we know if we’ve got the right level of passion in our writing?

  14. March 12th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
    Terry Starbucker said

    Great question Chris – it’s one of those “you know it when you see it” things. Maybe the best way is to give you an example. One of the first blogs I ever read was by Rosa Say, called Talking Story (http://www.sayleadershipcoaching.com/talkingstory/).

    She pulled me in from the get-go simply because she was able to put her passion for coaching right there on the page – she is unabashedly enthusiastic about her craft, but not “over the top”. The sincerity always comes through. The genuineness. That’s the key, really.

  15. March 12th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
    Chris Cree said

    Yeah. Sort of a passion without undue recklessnesses maybe?

  16. March 12th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
    Terry Starbucker said

    Exactly. A “realness” that you really can’t fake.

  17. March 12th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
    Chris Cree said

    Do you think then that makes it challenging for anonymous blogs to work?

  18. March 12th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
    Terry Starbucker said

    Or blogs under a pseudonym? :-)

    It might, but from personal experience it is “freeing” to remove yourself from your formal “tag” – I think it made my blog writing better, actually.

  19. March 12th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
    Chris Cree said

    In your case it helped give you a bit of a brand right from the get-go. Did you talk with Mike Wagner before you did that? Hmm…

  20. March 12th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
    Terry Starbucker said

    Hmmm is right! Yes, it did “brand” me a bit, and I could work from that – “Starbucker, the half-full guy”. Kind of a canvas I could paint on. Now, I’m still waiting for that masterpiece…….

  21. March 12th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
    Chris Cree said

    Oop! Gotta go. I hear I’m on.

  22. March 12th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
    Terry Starbucker said

    Go for it – bye everyone, and happy blogging!

  23. March 12th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
    Francie said

    Style and presentation are defintely key. I’ve seen way too many blogs that need one of those professional declutterers (is that a word?) to visit them.

    I like clean and simple. My blog may be even a little too streamlined, but I prefer that versus the alternative.

    Headlines are good. But, I’ve seen too many catchy headlines that don’t have any real pay-off in the story.

    I’d have to go with #4 passion and #5 simplicity as being the most important things for me in following a blog. (I paid attention in English class, too. Sometimes, that seems like a small club.)

    I do think all of those elements are very important, though. Thanks for spelling it out so clearly, Terry :)

  24. March 12th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
    Ellen Weber said

    Cool post – Thanks Terry, your site does this stuff so well – but it’s interesting to see it spelled out.

    Number 5 makes me think of the notion of “simple beyond complexity.” It takes good writing skills to say it well, dig for it deep and still inspire the reader.

    CS Lewis did what you call for here best – as I see it. You?

  25. March 13th, 2007 at 10:46 am
    PDF to Excel conversion and other stuff » 17 Mostly Useful Links that Will Increase Your Blogging Powers said

    [...] Terry Starbucker on What to Look for in a blog [...]

  26. December 22nd, 2007 at 4:20 pm
    5 Things I Look For in a Blog - What do You Look For? : TerryStarbucker.com said

    [...] Here are the 5 Things I Look For in a Blog: [...]

  27. August 24th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
    Jacks Blag said

    [...] http://www.successful-blog.com/1/mini-session-10-5-things-i-look-for-in-a-blog/ Terry Starbucker advocates style, concise and precise language, positivity and passion. I could not agree more with this sentiment. In additional I think a blog needs to be; Humorous: you have to be able to laugh at yourself and at the world. Dry writing puts me to sleep. And finally the content has to be easy to access. If someone cannot find what they need on your site quickly, they will move on to someone where they can get it. [...]

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