With many of us cooped up inside due to lockdowns related to the pandemic, there have been a loss of income because of business shutdowns. This has pushed some people into the gig economy, with a number of unemployed workers blogging for a living. I've been making the rounds and leaving comments in order to help the platform grow and noticed some things along the way. They say you should never judge a book by it's cover, but at times, that's exactly what some people do. So I wanted share my observations about what has crossed my computer screen.

The Rule of Thumb

The first thing that catches my eye isn't the title, it's the thumbnail. As I'm scrolling down the list of blogs, something has to stand out, only then will I scan the title of the post to see if there is anything that interests me. Here's an example of a good one that got my attention: If Bitcoin Hits $100,000, So Will This Coin.

Did I click on it? You bet! I wanted to know what that other coin was! My post titles tend to evolve as I'm writing. The one you're seeing as the final one, was the third title chosen.

They begin with a working title (which I almost always change later):

How do you Analyze a Blog?
Under Lockdown and Blogging for a Living - Tips for a Better Blog
Blogging for a Living - Tips for Writing a Better Blog
Blogging for a Living - How to Write a Good Blog Post

On Google, any combination of the final title can produce a hit and a chance for a site visit. You can imagine all of the different ways those words can be combined during a Google search, giving your post a better chance of being found. This is just a little "light SEO" since I don't have as much time to dedicate to it as I used to. Following that is the first line and if you win those three battles, you've got my click. Next, you've gotta get me to read the thing and that's where a feature I've seen on LeoFinance comes into play.

Good Time

Alright, so you've got me to click in, good. Being a busy student, guess where my eyes go to next? Leo has a handy little feature that I wish would be rolled out on Hive, where in the upper right-hand corner, they list both the word count and how many minutes it will generally take to read the article. A couple of days ago, I was looking for posts to comment on and found one that passed the thumbnail, title and first line tests. However, once I clicked on through, I saw that it was 1800 words long. Since I had to go soon, that made it a deal breaker for me, so I had to leave without reading it.

Now that's not to say, I never read long blogs, I do, but it's usually written by someone with a history of putting out awesome content and it has to be in a field that really interests me. So if it's long, it needs to provide value for the reader. Also, I've got to have the time available to do so. When in a hurry, I'll bookmark the post, but to be honest, I rarely remember to go back and read them. So for me at least, it might be better to break these up into a series of smaller posts, but that's just my personal opinion. If a long blog post is well-written and informative, I consider the time spent on it to be "Good Time" and will come back for more from that blogger.

Let's say I find a great post written by a new writer. I'll check out their profile page and the FIRST thing I look for is their location. I'm looking to see if there's a connection I can make with them maybe from somewhere I've been or something I know. If I don't see one, it doesn't give me any frame of reference to deal with. I'd say at least give me your country, so I won't be asking somebody how much snow they got last Winter, only to find out they're from Fiji. Putting down your location as "Earth" or "The Milky Way" may be snarky, but not really useful.

Breaking English

I just read one of these broken English blogs, or attempted to. Here in America, we are known for being insular, speaking only English and not caring or wanting to know anything about the rest of the world. Part of it I think is geography, as we are oceans away from everybody else, with only two countries that directly border us. My sister has no idea where Australia is on a map. None. And no interest in finding out. It may as well be on the Moon as far as she's concerned. I'm the only member of my family with a passport, and they think it's weird that I have one.

It took months for me to get it for my trip to Germany in 2017 as I had no clue how or where to get one and didn't know anyone else who had one either. I say all of this to give you a little perspective that posts written in broken English are very noticeable here. So when I read that article knowing that it was not her native language, I was happy to see the effort placed in attempting to write a post in a foreign tongue in the first place. So don't let that dissuade you and if you can, find a friend who can help smooth over the rough spots for you so that your work can get the attention it deserves.

Research and Targeting

Research takes up a huge amount of time when putting together a post. Before starting, it's best to make sure the subject is relevant to your audience. There is no such thing as having nothing to write about. In fact, that in itself is something to write about and I get many ideas when I'm out leaving comments on other posts. Here's another tip for when you're stuck: Head on over to Twitter and type a question mark in the search box. This will give you a list of people tweeting questions they want answers for. Scroll down until you find something that piques your interest and answer it, then write a blog post about it. I do this all the time.

Think you have Nothing to Share? Think Again!

Years ago, I chatted with a guy from India, I think? who was worried that he had nothing at all to blog about. He lived in a little village and helped out in a small store. I said that he'd be surprised how many people over here wonder what life in a developing country is like. I offered that he could simply share what his daily life is like and also lives of the colorful characters that visit his store each day. I can still remember my astonishment in the Navy, watching Africans transporting items on their heads, while we clueless Americans kept dropping them whenever we tried it. This just goes to show that all around you occur little vignettes of life that can be captured and posted about in your blog.

What really sets good writing apart is when it reads like a conversation. You know, just you and I talking to each other over the back fence with a cool glass of iced tea in our hands. Some people have mastered the art of writing like they talk, but for those who haven't, here's something that might help. Turn on the recording app on your phone and talk out the post! This gives you a framework using natural speech that can then be transcribed as a blog post. You can use some of these tips to optimize your blog and keep visitors coming back again and again. What are some of the things that make a blog irresistible to you and which bloggers do you like to read?

Thank You So Much!

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