The Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging Tom Johnson Idratherbewriting.com.
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Transcript of The Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging Tom Johnson Idratherbewriting.com.
The Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging
Tom JohnsonIdratherbewriting.com
Corporate
Independent
Social media Galaxy
Vision: Community Does 80% of Projects
Make employees
feel comfortable
Promot
e it
Make it easy
The Long Tail of Participation ―
C
on
trib
uti
on
s
+
― Participants +
1 writer x 50 hrs = 50 hours10 writers x 5 hrs each = 50 hours20 writers x 5 hrs each = 100 hours40 writers x 5 hrs each = 200 hours
How Blogs and Wikis Fit Together
Blog Wiki
Flickr
7 Deadly Sins
Flickr
7 Deadly Sins of BloggingFake.
Irrelevant.Boring.Unreadable.Irresponsible.Unfindable.Inattentive.
Flickr
Sin #1, Being Fake
The plan, as I told my agent, was to make this confession as a way of getting publishers off my back. It may sound ungracious, but I get asked so many times a week to read book and supply quotes for them that I’m getting a bit fed up. Not because I don’t like reading, nor because I don’t like being sent books, though mostly of course, I am sent proof copies rather than the finished article. No, what I’m fed up with (and it is my contention that I am SO not alone in this) is seeing my name on the fronts, backs and flaps of books saying things like “a beautifully paced, unforgettable thriller”, “a magnificent feat of imagination”, “a delicately realised and vividly felt journey through memory and desire”, etc etc. Yuckety, yuckety, yuck. Pukety, pukety puke.
Stephen Fry, “Don’t Quote Me”
In the history of writing, everything has a focus. It’s a contract you have with the reader. You stay within the bounds of the reader’s expectations, and if you do that, you can write surprises that seem to stray from your topic, and the reader stays with you. Because surprises are fun. But if there’s no contract because there is no focus, then there are no surprises. Every great piece of writing works this way.
Penelope Trunk, “Blogs without topics are a waste of time”
Sin #3, Being Boring
Flickr
Story +
Appeal +
–
–
Sin #4, Being Unreadable
Font size
Line length
Line height
Typeface
Paragraphs
Subheadings
Graphics
Background
White space
Invisibility
Blog and newsletter readers want meaty content, something that’s worth the time they take to read it.
But piling a mountain of words in front of readers doesn’t work too well. A page of solid black text looks like, well, work.
So in front of your 20-foot tall stack of words, you put a series of steps. You break your content into manageable pieces, separated by mini headlines or subheads. Each subhead is a step up the staircase.
Each time your reader comes to another subhead, she thinks, “Well, I’ll just read to that next little headline there.” Then she reads another section, and another.
Subheads break your copy into little potato-chip tasty bites. And we all know how hard it is to stop at just one potato chip.
Sonia Simone, Copyblogger
While decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a
blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is
considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement
must disclose the material connections they share with the seller
of the product or service.
Federal Trade Commission, Oct 5, 2009
Sin #6, Being Unfindable
Flickr
Em
ai
lFa
ceb
ookTw
itte
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Web users are growing ever-more search dominant. Search is how people discover new websites and find individual pages within websites and intranets. Unless you're listed on the first search engine results page (SERP), you might as well not exist. So, the first duty of writing for the Web is to write to be found.
Jakob Nielsen
Sin #7, Being Inattentive
Flickr
Tom JohnsonIdratherbewriting.com
