Discussions
ATT Bloggers: What Makes Writing Good?
Posted by rileycentral • 4/13/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: blog, composition, increase readers, powerful writing, rss, writing strategies
Always trying to get better ... what do you guys think good writing on a blog consists of?
I'd appreciate you sharing what works for you. I think many people forget that blogs started as WRITING not widgets and mmol and sponsored posts etc. (btw I do all that stuff but I want to pay some attention to the writing again.) I'm planning on writing a post on this soon so when I do, I will post the link in this thread.
Thanks for your 2 cents.
User Comments
-
LOL. Typical response. You'd rather find out the latest and greatest widget to my $6 this month breating and innovating nothing. My guest blog on this will be published in the next few days. Remember that widgets ads and themes are nothing without content folks. Many people need to get their priorities straight.
I am still waiting BC folk ...-
Hm. As a professional writer with a background in Internet marketing, I had a long response to your initial post here forming in my head--until I moved on to the second one. Your nasty assumption about the interests of all of the hundreds of people posting here simply because they dared to have something better to do for a few hours than volunteer their assistance to you pretty much killed off any inclination I might have to share knowledge with you. I suspect I'm not alone. -
Tiffany summed up what I was thinking and said it a whooooooooole lot nicer than I would have.
-
Don't get offended, I'm not about offending. I'm about content. I do have opinions though and I don't hide them. If that doesn't work with you, then hey ... it's big internet. My most humble apologies for any comments you found as you said "nasty." My best to you.
-
-
Oops!...Time for Nards to tiptoe out. Have a good night.-
GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN, THE CREATURES ARE COMING!
-
-
I have a hard time reading posts that are written like essays. I like when the author injects themselves into their writing and gives me a small peek of who they are.
But I'm a big fan of personal and humor blogs, where the writing more often than not is informal and conversational.
That's my nickel!-
Good stuff there. Essays are boring i agree, but the right classic lit has a lot to offer the curious blogger on how to make writing engaging and.
-
-
I actually ignored this thread because of the first three characters. I have no idea what an "ATT Blogger" is, but I figured I wasn't blogging for ATT, just giving them my money every month for my wireless bill. Anyway, it could be that the low response so far contains a lesson in how the headline was written. Make sense?
By the way, I do frequently blog about language, though I am loath to draw any conclusions about what works for blogging in general, since different blogs are aimed at very different audiences.-
Hi Stoneman: LOL, looks like I blew it in my title. ATT just meant attention. Good point in your comment.
-
Well attention is usually ATTN:, but aren't we all bloggers anyway?
-
-
You know what I think? I think you have to find your own path with the writing. I like blogs that are grammatically sound, though I'm not anal about every little thing. And I like blogs that let me in on things--sometimes bloggers get too personal and assume I know things I don't. So I like a straightforward approach if information is being shared. Most of all, I like a good story. I'm still working out my own approach to the writing. Trained in print media for many years, I find myself doing things I wouldn't have done before (examples: downstyle instead of upstyle on the heads; using parentheses for editorial intrusions; trying not to rant even when I want to). I try so hard to not go too long, but I tend to do that--editors have slapped my knuckles for years over the same thing.
I think a lot about the writing style on my new blog especially. Every writer's org I'm in is debating this right now.
Oh, and two other things. I never source Wikipedia --that's a product of maintream editors too--and I always source the article or resource or expert if I'm quoting.
One more thing: flies really do come quicker to honey than to vinegar.
Hope this helps--Kay
Always an afterthought--I think if someone's doing a paid review, s/he should disclose that. It's an ethics thing.-
Good points here.
-
"Always an afterthought--I think if someone's doing a paid review, s/he should disclose that. It's an ethics thing."
Hi Kay. I think every post is a paid review either for attention or cash. But I get the general direction you are going. I disagree. If it's required by the payor then it's ethics, if it's not, it's ethical to leave that out, especially if you wrote a good article that stands on it's own.
Thanks for chiming in though. You make some of the better points so far. Good luck with your new blog. Would it be unethical for you to post a link to it here so we can check it out? -
I'm on Kay's side. Paid reviews need to be acknowledged, even if the things are pretty easy to spot anyway.
-
I'll go one step further and tick everyone off--paid reviews are unethical, period, unless you happen to be able to find someone to pay you to say EXACTLY what you would have said without pay. If the purpose is to sell or promote something, it's not a review. It's an ad masquerading as a blog post.
-
Well yeah, that's why people need to fess up.
-
-
Practice, Practice, Practice! You'll definitely get lots of that with a daily blog too. -
Setting aside the issues of grammar, punctuation and spelling my two cents worth is that writing for the web is different. The primary focus of any blogger should be on (1) creating high quality, interesting content, (2) targeted at a specific audience and (3) presented in a manner that makes it readily and easily available through search engines.
In fact, I just blogged about this today so maybe you would like to read my post.
onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2008/04/13/blogging-content-is-king/#more-416
BTW I didn't posts before because I did not know and still do not know what ATT is.-
Great points in this article for noobs and old timers. STUMBLED.
-
-
Thanks so much for the stumble. I appreciate it.
-
Clarity. -
Content is king. Proper grammar is crucial. I agree, I tend to shy away from sites with too many widgets and I find myself removing a widget once every couple of months.
Writing for the web is a different discipline than conventional writing. It is a good idea to learn the inverted pyramid style.
www.great-web-design-tips.com/web-usability/87.html
Blog readers tend to skim and not read attentively. If you can grab someone's ATT or ATTN in the first couple of lines, chances are they will read the rest. Otherwise, chances are they will move on without reading your content.
A big annoyance to me is the roll-over ad. I don't visit blogs with those, even if I do like the content. -
Thx--new blog is theusreport.com
But I'm stickin' to my guns on paid reviews. Print media is required to do it; so are TV commercials that use actors. To me, the great thing about blogging is the direct to reader dialog. I wouldn't want to think someone would be indirect by getting paid and plugging a product if I didn't know about it. I can't agree with ya on this statement either: "I think every post is a paid review either for attention or cash." Can't spend attention.
I figure ATT is Attention. Got mine.-
This thread turned into really bad energy. All i wanted to know were your writing tips. i have an MA in English, i don't need them, I was just curious. Now, Kay continues with the sponsored "ethics?" I never asked that. Anyway ... I won't be revisiting it thanks you guys who actually listened to my initial question. Catch you in another thread.
-
I'm sorry...I'm sorry. I KNOW I should leave this alone. But in all the insanity that's gone on around this place, I'm not sure I've ever seen anything more entertaining than someone who announces that he won't be back to a thread and then comes back to edit his credentials.
-
Well said. I am not sure why the credentials are important. These are discussions after all. With discussions they sometimes have a life of there own. This is an amusing thread.
-
-
Riley, I looked back over this thread, your original question which was very broad. I honestly tried to offer constructive input. The ethics point is, in my opinion, part of good writing. I've mentioned this at different times on other threads here. My intentions were only to offer sincere thoughts, and it's regrettable they were interpreted differently. Meant to add: I don't have an MA in English and I never will.
-
What makes writing good? Simple. Words strung together coherently.
Problem solved.
(I'm thoughtful like that, natch.)
-
Excellent. I can agree with that solution.
Ethics. I'm not sure why it is an ethical requirement to disclose when you are paid for a post. A journalist doesn't disclose that he is paid to write a report. To me, it is more important for a reader to be critical about what he is reading. It is unethical not to get paid for your blog posts, because you are investing time and effort that could be spent better.
So Mr MA in English, I am curious about any writing tips you have for us? -
FlamingPoodle, we were talking specifically about paid reviews. While there are a few bloggers who maintain their integrity and will only positively review products and services they can honestly endorse, many have said point blank in forums like this that they're willing to endorse any product for the paycheck. An advertisement masquerading as a review is simply a lie--a blogger telling his or her audience that he's tried something out and it's a good thing when the truth is that he's saying what he's been paid to say. If you wouldn't call up a friend or family member and recommend a product, you shouldn't be recommending it to your readers.
-
I was talking specifically about paid reviews too. The onus is not on the reviewer, who is doing his job, to let you know his motives. The onus is on you as the reader to use your head and figure out what the motives are.
-
Hm. Just a difference in ethics, I guess. I think lying is wrong. I think misleading people for profit is wrong.
-
It could be wrong, but it could still be good writing.
I agree with you that a journalist has to be ethical. You can't corner a few hungry kids in a rich suburb in Africa and take pictures so that it looks like they are needy. I don't think it's the same for a paid review. Usually, you will see the person is doing paid reviews by other notices on the site. Or you might know the product, and leave a comment. It's about communication. Those who get duped, deserve to get duped.
Anyway, the point is I'm curious to hear Rileycentral's MA in English writing tips.
-
-
I wrote the requisite "How to Improve your Writing" post a while ago:
www.teflspin.com/2008/04/10-ways-to-improve-your-writing_07.html
Obviously, many other things to consider as well. Eliminating as many cliches as possible is important IMO. Impossible to do away with them completely. But keeping an eye out for over-used phrases and sentences and then trying to change them somewhat can help.
I want to be drawn in and hypnotized by people's words so that I focus on what they are saying. I want to forget everything else for the time I invest in reading their thoughts. -
Riley mentions bad energy. I'm just not feeling it. No personal attacks, just disagreements on real issues among people who know what they're talking about.
-
I felt some bad energy right off the bat, when Riley jumped to conclusions about the interests and priorities of everyone on Blog Catalog because no one dropped what they were doing and came running to answer his first post fast enough for his tastes.
-
-
I'm interested in any type of writing that isn't mundane (: As long as it's well written and not droning on about something boring, I'm glad to read it!
I agree with Flamingpoodle, you shouldn't have to announce that you're making money from a post. As long as it's something you want to read, it shouldn't matter. If you're not interested in the subject, you're not forced to read the entry.
Although, writers shouldn't push a subject or product that they wouldn't use themselves.
-katelyn
*waves* Hi Damien!-
This attitude just reinforces my belief that once has to be extremely wary of information on blogs of people one does not know. Newspapers and magazines, as Kay points out, have to include the disclaimer, "paid advertising supplement" or something along those lines. Bloggers can do whatever they want, including write ad copy that masquerades as real opinion. Fortunately many bloggers do not do that.
-
-
Guess I should clarify. Getting paid to post is fine; no problems with that. But if you're getting paid to push a product or service specifically, it just doesn't fit my model. Unless you're blogging or writing for a corporate site that makes it obvious.
But this is a wide world and each to his or her own.
I'm still trying to figure out why the guy got mad at me.-
Kay, he came in mad. Look at his second post in this thread (his response to his own initial post)
-
Kay, you called a behavior unethical, but he seems to have felt you were calling him unethical.
He also seems to have felt it was not germane to his thread. Some people get territorial with threads they start and don't take kindly to topics that they don't think belong, even if they do belong.
-
-
This topic has gotten horribly off topic.
Riley, You had a good subject... perhaps try to give this topic another try. Despite their rough welcome many members are actually more forgiving than you would think.
For now I am locking this topic. Let's hope we can try this again later with less "bad energy" from all sides.
Add Your Comment
This discussion has been locked.
