A New Trend for Bloggers?
I’ve been reading blogs for many years. I started reading them when they were just “personal journals” – Yeah, that long.
Marketers and entrepreneurs soon caught on to the craze and ran with it—reinventing the blog, so to speak. I was kind of upset about this, at least for awhile. It was hard to find personal journals written by interesting people. It had been taken over by all of these “biz blogs.”
I’ve noticed something recently that I find intriguing. The big dogs—professional bloggers—are bringing the personal touch back. They aren’t just writing with a more personal tone and style, they’re actually sharing bits of their personal lives and showing us (the readers) that they are, in fact, real people. They share personal photos, speak of their children and spouse—they aren’t hiding behind a veil of mystery anymore.
I’m a big skeptic. You can claim to make X-amount of dollars a month (and no one can prove or disprove your claims) but I don’t believe half of the hype—at least I haven’t in the past, especially when I knew nothing about the person behind the blog who’s making these claims.
I have to admit, this new “trend” of letting the world get a glimpse of their personal lives—even if they only mention something catchy their five year old said, gives me more trust in what they do say. It shows me this is a real person who probably sits in the recliner and channel surfs, just like everyone else.
People can still lie (and they do) but in general, most people won’t risk lying online if there’s a chance their family will see it. Especially if they’re an honorable parent trying to raise good honest kids—why risk shattering their kids’ image of them by lying about money?
Let’s look at the Rich Jerk: To the best of my knowledge, no one can say for sure who this guy is—or if he’s even a guy. There’s speculation over who he could be—but no concrete evidence. If the speculations were true, I speculate it’d be all over the internet by now.
My point is—other than the guy being a jerk (and he is) if you’re ashamed to show your face and a bit of your personal life, what is it you’re hiding? And another thing—don’t waste my time because I won’t be purchasing your products unless I know who you are.
The majority of buyers make purchases from someone they trust. That’s why we shop at Wal Mart isn’t it? Or is it because they’ve ran other department stores out of business? Actually, I don’t know why we shop at Wal Mart, it’s just not the same since Sam died—but that’s another story. The majority of people shop there because they trust Wal Mart. Sam Walton never hid his humble beginnings.
The simple fact is if you show me the human behind the blog, I’m more likely to return AND purchase your products. Anyone can throw-up a blog and claim to be raking in six figures. If you can’t show me your real life human side, throwing up is how I feel about your blog.
So, whether it’s an old trend, a new trend or an old trend made new again, I for one feel more at ease with bloggers who show who they really are. There’s a lesson to be learned here—if you want to attract real people, be a real person, be someone the world can relate to.
Andrew Carnegie said, “No man becomes rich unless he enriches others”
Zig Ziglar said, “You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
I believe professional bloggers have come to learn these two valuable pieces of advice—I commend them for it, and for keeping it real.
Written by Patti Stafford from Patti StaffordPosted on December 2nd, 2009 and filed under Writing
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8 Responses to “A New Trend for Bloggers?”
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Six Figure Blogging
This goes along with the premise of Chris Brogans book, Trust Agents.
Although it is essential to emanate a personal style through your blogging approach, mixing that with elements of your personal life could be devastating for any blog. We typically cringe when this occurs.
If the blogger was already a known celebrity, these intimate offerings would be appealing to the reader. Unfortunately, some of us remain anonymous, and our readers like us that way.
It is possible to set a comfortable, personalized tone for your blog…without having to get personal.
Even if we believe to “know someone” – purchasing any kind of “online system” or “hot, new digital product” should always come with some element of consternation and skepticism. Internet Marketing has a tendency to over-promise and (seriously) under-deliver most of the time.
Excellent observation on your part of this trend and interesting article!
Source Blogger
“Determined to make you a better blogger”
Patti, totally awesome thought! I’ve noticed this same trend and agree that it’s a good one. I hope it’s authentic and long-lasting. People don’t follow blogs, movements, or products. They follow other people.
Jeff – I haven’t heard of that. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks.
Source Blogger – I think anonymous readers like anonymous bloggers–just my opinion. I’ll stick with following bloggers that have a face and a name (and not so many ads on their blogs).
Brandon – Thank you for your wonderful kind words. You’re correct, people follow people. Thanks for saying it in so few words—unlike my ramble above. LOL. Your blog is actually one of those that sparked this post
I’ve noticed the trend to make biz blogs more personal too. Including the design, the trend to have cartoon illustrations/ hand drawn blogs was a big step in this direction. Also, there are fewer blogs running just to be an ad farm. I’m glad to see less of those. I used to edit a web directory and get all those sent in as submissions. It was very disheartening as someone who once loved blogging just for the creativity and the new forum for bringing in new and traditional media. Thanks for your post. It is nice to find someone else who remembers the time of the personal blogs. I was (still am now and then) upset about the marketing craze when it hit blogging. I still hope they will find something else and latch on to it, leaving blogging for the creative people again. Though, if it came to that point I am sure the creative people would have moved on to whatever was new, likely something which would become the next craze for the marketing types. It is all a circle really. Just think of how great email lists, webrings and usenet used to be. Until they became spammed.
To paraphrase Laura, we’ve gone full circle. I think when most professional bloggers started earlier on; they thought keeping their personal lives out of their blogs would make it more professional. Now, people are realizing that the human factor is necessary in reaching out and bonding with readers.
I’ve always enjoyed posts where bloggers give me an insight into their personal lives and feel like they’ve shared something valuable; their true selves and what drives them.
I hope this trend continues..
Laura, I miss webrings. I know they’re still out there, but it’s not really the same is it?
David, I completely agree. I prefer a personal touch as well. I’m not a professional blogger, or one of the big dogs, but I am an open book and if you want to know about my life, a Google search pretty much brings it all to light.
There was a time I kept it private. Since I’ve invited people to see parts of my personal life, I’ve met a lot of awesome bloggers and writers. It’s been a positive career move on my part and made the Internet enjoyable again.
I hope this trend continues as well.