Be honest, be yourself
Written by Kevin Muldoon from System0 on August 3, 2007
I touched upon this subject a little in my ‘Top 10 mistakes new bloggers make‘ post in June and in my ‘John Chow‘ post yesterday . Specifically I spoke about how a lot of new bloggers are just repeating what other bloggers are saying and that many are scared to voice their own opinion as they don’t want to rock the boat. The blogosphere is huge and with more and more blogs springing up every day it gets that little bit harder to make you and your blog stand out from the crowd which is why it’s so important for bloggers to be true to themselves, their blog and their readers.
Be honest, be yourself
- Don’t try to be someone your not. If you don’t have a lot of experience in something then say so, your readers will appreciate your honesty.
- Find the right post topics for your blog. Think about what posts you enjoyed writing for your blog, don’t cover topics you feel you need to cover if you find them hard to write about. If blogging is becoming a constant pain in the ass your blogging about the wrong thing!
- If you disagree with something, say so. If you agree with something, explain why. Give reasons for your views and don’t just echo what other bloggers are saying.
- Let your personality shine through in your posts. Every blogger has a personality trait that will endear them to their readers. Some bloggers are naturally funny, some are very knowledgable about a subject whilst others are just plain helpful.
There’s only so long you can try and be someone else so give yourself a head start and be honest with yourself and your blog readers. 
B. Durant | August 3rd, 2007 at 5:39 am #
Great insight! And what’s even better is that much of it carries over into other parts of life. So often people aspire to be someone else that they forget who they are.
Marc Eilbeck | August 3rd, 2007 at 6:03 am #
good follow up post from yesturday. nice one
Tejvan Pettinger | August 3rd, 2007 at 6:46 am #
“Every blogger has a personality trait that will endear them to their readers. Some bloggers are natrually funny”
is your trait the odd humorous spelling mistake
?
good post though.
SELaplana | August 3rd, 2007 at 7:17 am #
i was actually blogging as if i am someone and it is really hard to maintain that personality, especially that what I portray is a blogger who’s arrogant.
After 2 years of blogging like that, i finally decided to quit and start the new one. The honest one.
i already posted this story on my July 2007 posts
Kevin | August 3rd, 2007 at 7:20 am #
Tejvan - One spelling mistake in the post and you bring it up…oooohhh your a tough man to please Tejvan haha :):):)
Glen Allsopp | August 3rd, 2007 at 8:15 am #
A ‘touch’ man to please? Sorry I couldnt resist
Anyways, regarding the post. I think theres far too many john chow wannabes and people who are writing about how to make money online just because john chow makes money doing just that
be unique and original and your readers will be able to tell
Kevin | August 3rd, 2007 at 8:22 am #
JC was in a position to benefit from making money online type posts because he had thousands of subscribers and high traffic. Most new bloggers would be better targeting a niche that isn’t as saturated eg. sports blog, favourite tv show or whatever. Theres probably much more money in targeted blogs like that compared to blogs like BloggingTips
Erik Karey | August 3rd, 2007 at 9:45 am #
I think if you start a blog to copy someone and just end up doing what you think will make your profit instead of what you are good at and in your own style chances are the blog will fail anyways.
Eventually you will hit a block in terms of things to write about if you aren’t knowledgeable on the subject and many people will see that you aren’t comfortable with your topic.
The Buxr Widget | August 3rd, 2007 at 1:24 pm #
Part of the problem is that everyone is blogging about the same stories.. or they are regurgitating information they read elsewhere.. It all boils down to unique content.