Sandcurves

Blogging appeals to one desire that almost everyone on the planet shares: the desire to be remembered.  Nobody wants to be forgotten, but there’s a difference between being remembered and not being forgotten.  There is some measure of peace knowing that our family and close friends will hold the memory of us in their hearts, but scores and scores of people want fame in addition to love — which is where blogging often comes in. 

Many bloggers, even those who write for the benefit or edification of others, want recognition for their efforts, want to be remembered as the authority on this or that subject, or as having the best blog in this or that niche.  The fact that the most important determinants of a blog’s success are traffic and SEO ranking — both of which, taken together, representing a metric for how popular, and therefore how memorable, a blog is — is a testament to the fact that blogs bring a least a small measure of fame to their writers. 

The question for a blogger becomes, then, “How do I write something memorable, something that will make people remember me?” 

To answer this question, many bloggers turn to practical advice, thinking that if they offer the most or the best advice, readers will flock to their site, and they will have made it.  Given that most blogs on the internet are “how-to” blogs, this makes sense, but isn’t necessarily the best way to your readers hearts, nor the surest way to what small piece of fame you can carve for yourself on the internet. 

Think about what blogs have been celebrated in popular culture.  The best example I know of is Julie & Julia, which started as a blog and was eventually adapted as a film for the big screen.  True, the blog’s author did offer some advice on cooking through Julia Child’s How to Master the Art of French Cooking as she worked through it over the course of a year; but the real success of the blog, and the quality that made it translatable into a major motion picture was the narrative dimension of the blog. 

People related to the personal and personable style of the blog, identified with the author and her trials, and wanted to know what would happen next.  It became less about the recipes than the story of the girl cooking through them. 

The same could be said for the blog Hyperbole and a Half, which never inspired a film, but which is remembered as one of the most successful, most memorable blogs on the internet.  Again, the characteristic thing about Hyperbole is the storytelling that goes on in it, as well as the humor and the pictures that are intertwined in the posts. 

If you want to reach people, and want to be remembered for your blog, appeal less to utilitarian concerns and more to crafting a good story around experience that everyone can relate to.  This doesn’t mean that you have to change your niche, or that you should completely scrap your blog and start over; rather, you should consider how you could incorporate stories, opinions, rants, humor, and other more basic, more human, kinds of communication.  Top ten lists do get old after a while, but people will always enjoy a good story. 

This is a guest post by Nadia Jones who blogs at online college about education, college, student, teacher, money saving, movie related topics. You can reach her at nadia.jones5 @ gmail.com. 

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