Why Do People Read Blogs?

In one other post, I mentioned a survey highlighting the trust that people place in blogs. With the amount of information available today, why do blogs take precedence over all the others sources out there? I believe that one reason is the inherent nature of blogs which focus on “real” people’s opinions. The premise here is that blogs (at least those of a personal – as opposed to business – nature) have no hidden agenda.

With this in mind, any blogger should write with the purpose of voicing out his opinion. Readers flock to blogs because they want to know what their contemporaries are thinking. They want to know whether their own thoughts and ideas are reflected by others.

That is why, when you write each and every post for your blog, you should be writing about your own thoughts. Of course, with all the information that we are exposed to today, we can’t really say that our own thoughts are not influenced by others as well. Yet the fact remains that these words still come from ourselves. They are only shaped by what external factors, yet the creation is still ours – something we can call our own.

Keep this in mind when writing down your posts. Pretend that you are writing to tell friends what you think. Do away with pretenses and go straight to the point. Never mind that longer posts look more impressive. I believe in the idea that if you can get your point across in 250 words, do so. Wasting resources on a 1000-word post when ¼ of that would do just as well is pointless.

Originally posted on August 14, 2007 @ 1:46 am