Taking Risks on Your Blog
I feel like you all had a strong reaction to my last post about Your Blog As A Concept, so I thought I’d expand on one of the topics I covered: taking risks.
There are elements of a blog that are going to seperate you from other bloggers. One post that is going to get someone to click. To stay. To read more. To comment. Someone will read a title and find it interesting. But what will get them to STAY? It’s typically not going to be the common blog post about mowing the lawn, or heading to the beach, or how difficult work is. What does risky blogging look like? Here are a few examples of my favorites:
- A new mother on co-sleeping and your sex life.
- A 14-year-old girl obsessed with couture and who takes pictures of herself dressing up like the Royal Tenenbaums. (And who was subsequently befriended by Anna Wintour. You know. The editor-in-chief of Vogue.)
- A blogger telling a PR person who didn’t bother to do any research about her blog to f@#k off. To which she received 1170 comments.
- A writer who took a stand against writing for free.
Put yourself out there. Be honest with yourself and your readers. But more, be honest about what you want to accomplish. Be the author who is control of your blog and your writing. A blog is a place you can experiment because you can always delete.
(Image: WarholianPics)
Blogging 101 
Thanks Hayley. This is very affirming!
nadasamih1984
October 10, 2011 at 2:11 pm
Great – I’m so glad. Not easy to try new things, but so worth it in the end.
Hayley Krischer
October 11, 2011 at 12:27 am
Thanks for the shout out of my Renegade Writer post! And that Bloggess one you linked to — hilarious. PR people are the lifeblood of the journalism business? Please. I’ve been freelancing full time for 14 years and I have asked to be removed from EVERY SINGLE PR list that reps have put me on. I’ll come up with my own ideas, thank you. Been doing it since 1997, don’t plan to stop now.
Linda Formichelli
October 10, 2011 at 2:30 pm
Your blog post can teach all of us, including my students, a great lesson in speaking how you feel even if it’s not exactly what people want to hear. And fascinating about being removed from PR lists. No interest in working with any of them? I’ve found a few that seem worthwhile. But otherwise agree, the pitches I get are really out there.
Hayley Krischer
October 11, 2011 at 12:27 am
I’m already ahead of you.
Harnew
October 10, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Yes, I see that from your site, futuristically yours, that you are ahead… of all of us? Slightly confused, but thanks for the like. I think.
Hayley Krischer
October 11, 2011 at 12:32 am