I do a fair amount of reading about blogs. The structure of blogs, blog writing style, how to have a successful blog, and so on. I think anyone who has been blogging for any length of time, I’m going on 5 years now (more than 3 in this current incarnation), would like to see their work widely read by thousands of adoring fans. I certainly would.
Having gone out and done extensive research through reading successful blogs, to reading articles about successful blogs, I think I have uncovered the key. Not having much interest in radically transforming my style from where it currently is I decided to use my own blog as a negative example to illustrate the five keys to a successful blog.
- Broad Topic Area
American theater is a good broad topic area to bring in a wide array of readers. You have many elements to touch upon that could resonate with theater makers and theater goers alike as well as the casual observer. My blog not only limits its discussions to design elements, it further concerns itself with lighting design alone. While that alone still provides a broad enough area as designers, technicians, and appreciators of light might enjoy the blog, my readership is further constricted through an approach that looks at the philosophic underpinnings of the aesthetic concerns in a certain flavor of design.There is the occasional deviation from this. The most popular post on my blog from web searches shows pictures from a production of Wizard of Oz that I lit. That and my semi-regular posts about money management and the business of freelancing are quite popular. The rest of it is rooted in an analytic tradition borne from my early exposure to, and love of, late modern continental philosophy.
Not only should the ideal reader of my blog have a love of lighting design for live performance, they should also have a love of continental philosophy. The combination makes it too theatery for the philosophers and too philosophic for the theater types.
- Accessible Language
Derived from the first point, this blog is written in a formal academic style. Not as extreme as some blogs out there, but it is far more to that end of the spectrum than it is rooted in colloquial English. Simple words, unless the blog is about linguistics, help to boost popularity. I prefer larger or more obscure words in an effort to be precise. Thus there is an inherent structural impediment to this blog’s success and popularity. The casual reader does not want to work for their information. They would prefer their information presented simply and easily even to the point of not being precise, accurate or true. Lists with an arbitrary number of steps to achieve a goal are a wonderful way to meet this desire.This simplicity plays right into the anti-intellectualism that runs rampant in American culture. Experts are shunned for folksy folk who are just like us. The irony that we would not trust ourselves to do whatever task we are entrusting this non-expert to do is largely missed. Their down-home, just like me, style implies that anyone can do what they do. Perhaps if they are just like me they are an expert, because, well, I know stuff.
- Write about your Mistakes
I write about perfection or at least the attempt to attain it. Warts and all blogging brings with it an anti-intellectual ideology that anyone who can sign up with blogspot can become an expert on kitten pictures or international finance with no experience or qualifications. People with less than a year experience write about freelancing. Only recently do I feel on the verge of qualified to talk about such things. I have been freelancing for five years.Writing as an expert about a topic for which you are not an expert gives you room to make mistakes. Those mistakes become the basis of new blog posts about how you will do better in the future. My personal favorites are financial advisory blogs that get the math wrong or frugality blogs whose authors continually fall off the wagon and spend their money on unnecessary wasteful expenses.
- Use Humor
With the exception of this post, and even here it is dry sarcasm (really more sardonic than sarcastic) rather than humor, I would prefer to stick with a clear and rigorous discussion of the topic at hand. Joking about is a great tactic to endear your readers to you and bring them back. With this blog I have chosen to engage in some rather severe critical thinking about topics of interest to me and projects I am working on. I leave the humor to Facebook. - Light Colored inviting design
No.
Employing a tactic of many successful bloggers I will close with a few questions, thus inviting you to join in the discussion in comments. Was this useful? What is your experience with blogging?
I left a comment at Facebook in the hope that it might bring some people over here to read the full text. As I said there, your use of #4 here (which, for your audience, probably does not need to be defined) really lifts your speculations so that I want to read more. Humor comes in all forms and a bright, smart self-revelation is funny because I can relate to it and that draws me in. I think you do that here.
I do not blog — cannot do it at all — and find the blogs I am drawn to, whether serious or not, are personal in the way that this entry is. You often talk about how you design. I am interested in that. I like your entries where you discuss your thinking about lighting more than the opinion pieces which, like most of us who are still willing to learn, will change.
While watching someone’s opinions change may be an interesting arc for some (maybe you?), it is, how do I say this?, a long-term view and my memory is such that I probably won’t remember what you thought five years ago. I do know some of your views have changed, but the specifics are usually lost to me. As life happens, we adapt. You have lived longer than when you started blogging so your views are different today (I hope.) But I assume that’s not what the stated intent of your blog is, is it? Yet, I think your writing cannot all be a face to the world, meaning even if you tried to present a facade of who you are, who you are still would come through.
I think there is something brave about the blog you write. Was this post useful to me? Probably not, in the sense that I think you intend. I don’t blog. I think that’s why this is brave. I think you are explaining to us and yourself why you have made the choices you have about your blog.
So if your question does not mean to me what you intend and if you do not edit out comments with which you disagree, then a lively and useful discussion might have room to come to life here and I think that is very courageous. Do you censor comments or do you allow all voices (for me it would probably include the lunatics as well) room to speak? Does the discussion just go where it goes — a place for people to freely speak? and more.
Sorry to take up so much space. As I tried to write this, it turned out that your questions triggered a bunch of questions for me. Thanks again.
Hello Lucas,
Yes, this is useful, because in many ways it’s a reflection of my own sensibilities towards my blog. Being an academic I also have the tendency to write in that style, and in my attempts to understand myself as an actor and teacher of acting I do try to have a reflective and philosophical undertone to my posts.
For a while I can remember feeling as if I needed to compete with the NYC-oriented blogs, but I think in the past year I’ve gotten over that, so much so that I do no more than glance at them from time to time. My experience now with blogging is that I need to be true to my own experience and find the value in that for myself and for the art form in general. If there is one thing I so admire about your writing, it’s that you’ve stayed true to yourself and have never had much really to say about the NYC scene in general. So now I concentrate on my own experiences and situation, and let it go at that.
Which brings me to #6 on the list – “Write about the latest trends in the field.” Be on top of all the latest rumors, gossip and information. That way you’ll get pinged everywhere and more people will read your little spin on the matter. I’ll never be widely read because I can’t keep up with the flow of information and rumors about NYC theatre, and of course I don’t even live there. So why try? So many others deal with that so well, so I’ll stick with what I’ve got. Thanks for asking. -twl
I can’t believe I forgot #6. Thank you for correcting my lapse.
I’ve never been a scenester. It’s not my thing. I’ve been in plenty of “scenes” and have never really gone there. That kind of groupthink myopia does little to nothing for me. As a result I tend to sit on the sidelines. Not paying undue attention to the vicissitudes of the “theater scene” has certainly had an impact on my career and not necessarily positively. But it is a choice I have made.
Part of why that thinking doesn’t interest me is that there is such a short cultural memory for that sort of thing it will practically be over before you click “post.” I would rather spend my energy looking at large conceptual ideas that will still be relevant years and decades from now.
Dear Lucas,
I just wanted to say that even though I totally dropped the ball on your article, I still enjoy your blog very much! I hope things are well with you and that your genius visual resume is helping.., Jane
Thank you for the well wishes. I am glad you are enjoying the blog.