10 Things Readers Love About Personal Blogs

Because the majority of content about blogging on the web relates to those aspiring to make money from their blog, I wanted to explore a topic that the base community of blogging will find interesting — personal blogging.

More specifically, how bloggers with personal blogs can create the content their readers want.

1. A Fresh Point of View … Your Point of View

There are a lot of things readers consistently check blogs for, but perhaps one of the most common (in terms of personal blogs at least) is point of view. Once a reader find the blogger interesting or entertaining, they’ll start looking to them for advice, opinions, and their general point of view — or even specific point of view on certain topics. For more on this, consider reading A new point of view on an old point of interest

2. Entertaining Moments

For the most part, your readers are very much your audience — and like an audience, they’re looking to be entertained in some way or another.

Whether you provide advice on how to  eat well or share journal-style entries in which you share your thoughts on all sorts of topics, sharing moments from your own life is something every reader can appreciate and enjoy — because not only are readers curious about life (and learning from the experience of others), but they’re also curious about the blogger as a person.

3. Achievements

There’s a find line between self-promotion and sharing the news of your achievements, but I think as long as you’re, A) not writing in third person, and B) not hyping up the achievement, you’re safe to share you achievements with your readers.

Unless you have a readership with a 90% consistency of Mr. or Miss. Scrooge, your readers are probably excited to hear about any and all achievements you reach.

Definitely share the news — but remember to be modest and appreciative of your readers support.

4. Set Backs

Where there are achievements there are also set backs — and your readers want to know about those, too.

Avoid making the assumption that you shouldn’t post about your set backs or failures — while this might not be best for a company blog interested in building their brand and reputation online, this is definitely a great way to gain the support of your readers, build transparency and trust, and add dimension to your content.

The key here is to avoid complaining — rather, try to convey how the set back has impacted you as a person. What do you feel? How are you handling it? Any advice for others experiencing similar set backs?

5. Unexpected Twists and Turns in Your Life

There’s a single reason why we love going to movies, attending plays, reading books, and even listening to music — we love adventure.

Sharing your own adventure with your readers is a good way to keep it fresh. Perhaps you met someone inspiring or did something new for the first time — adventure comes in many forms.

Posting about the adventure in your life will not only add dimension, but it will also keep your readers entertained and excited to continue reading your blog.

6. Reoccurring Themes … Probably Found in Your Tags or Labels

Creating reoccurring themes throughout your blog is something that I personally find very interesting — partly because it makes more creative use of your tags or labels (depending on what blogging platform you’re using).

In addition to merely giving your readers topic-related tags to browse through, such as “saving money” or “art,” consider giving your readers a bit more by creating tags that reveal an opinion or theme you post about frequently.

For example, instead of merely including “saving money” and “art” consider “cheers to always spending money” and “logic runs the world, art changes it.”

Revealing your point of view in your tags is another way to add dimension and keep your readers interested.

7. Your Birthday and What You Did

If there’s anything a blogger and reader share in common, it’s that they both have a birthday — who doesn’t?

Using this common ground is a great way to connect with your readers. You don’t have to have a huge party or anything, just reveal how you spent your birthday — in addition to learning  what you think about certain topics, readers also like to know what you do.

8. The Average Day in the Life of You

Share what you do with your time during an average day. Again, people like to learn what others do, so revealing how you spend your time will enable readers to learn more about you.

One guideline here: try not to be boring (unless that’s the style of your blog).

9. Commentary On Current Events

Posting about current events in the political, technological, and entertainment industries can be a great way to share your point of view — just remember that certain subjects of interest are usually subject to debate, including political, religious, etc.

By no means is this to say you shouldn’t blog about these subjects, rather, just be prepared to hold your ground with your point of view and agree to disagree with your readers and comments.

10. Polls

Know of something else your readers really enjoy about your personal blog?