Don’t Just Repeat Others; Write Original Content
(photo from the_amanda)
|
How often do you see the same content on blogs? Something happens, and every blogger with a keyboard writes up a post about it. But they’re all the same!
Look at Google’s launch of themes for your personalized homepage. How many posts filled your RSS reader with the exact same “news”? I saw at least 10 that all said “you can put a theme on your homepage.” The blogosphere has been crazily buzzing about this.
Please don’t think I’m against bloggers of all types posting news. That’s great. In fact, that’s what makes blogging so fun and powerful.
But find a new angle! Don’t just be another fence post; be the tree. You can all be in a line, talking about the same subject, but find something original and different to say about it.
Honestly, if you really think something is blog-worthy, but you can’t find something original to add, just link to someone else’s story on it. Your readers will see the item and you’ll build a relationship with the blogger you linked to. And you won’t be just another fence post.
[tags]blogging, writing, content, inspiration[/tags]
Get more legal tips
|
See also... |
Comments
2 Responses to “Don’t Just Repeat Others; Write Original Content”
-
Legal tips by email
Sign-up below to get email tips and exclusive discounts on videos, webinars, and future items.
All fields are required.
-
Receive updates
By email
By rss (full feed)
-
About Andrew Flusche
Lawyer, bicyclist, husband.
More about me...
Tumble Log
-
Popular Posts
March 24th, 2007
Great post, Andrew. I’ve been thinking about this alot lately. I’ve been doing some self evaluation to see if I’m just being another “post on the fence.” You hit the nail on the head by saying find a new angle. Take personal finance for instance, the main topic on my blog. In reality, personal finance blogs, books, articles, ect. pretty much repeat the same principles over again (save more than you spend, save 10%, don’t use credit cards, ect). The key is taking these basic principles and giving them a nice spin. I’ve tried doing that with my Financial lessons from the case book series. Is it hard? Yes, it can be very hard to add new life to old principles, but the effort is well worth it.
March 24th, 2007
Brett,
I don’t think your blog has been repetitive at all. Perhaps I should clarify the above post. I don’t think it’s bad to be somewhat repetitive over time, especially when you’re talking about core principles of the subject.
There’s an important temporal element to blogging. Even if you’re substantially repeating something that was written about a while ago, those posts are now archived away. It doesn’t seem objectionable. But when half the blogosophere wrote the same post today, it definitely gets annoying.
Thanks for commenting,
Andrew