The New Secret To Blogging Success – Moving From "I" To "You"

The original intent of a Blog was as an online journal. It was place for you to read about me. All of that has changed.

Now, for a Blog to really be successful, the content has to be all about you. The content needs to be relevant to your life. If all of this is simply one big self-promotional platform where all that’s Blogged about is clients Twist Image is working with, events I will be speaking at, conferences I am attending, customer service beefs I have with products or services I have purchased, or what I think about a specific topic or news item, all is lost.

For a Blog to be successful, it needs to be about you.

Suddenly, everything we know about successful magazines and news channels rings true in this platform as well. While the old adage, "if it bleeds, it leads" from the newspaper industry may feel a little antiquated, it still has some resonance in what’s working for Blogs in 2008. The headline of a Blog posting has to be exciting and captivating. It has to pop. The content has to be short, spikey and highly valuable to the reader. Valuable to the reader means easy on the self-congratulatory content and heavy on the W.I.I.F.M.? (What’s In It For Me?) formula.

There has been in a shift. The successful Blogs have replaced "I" with "You."

Suddenly, having a Blog that acts more like a personal journal and less like journalism isn’t all that attractive anymore. What happened to spelling mistakes and poor grammar being a part of this new form of communication?

Do you think differently about a Blog with spelling mistakes, poor grammar or that’s too self-involved?

What kind of personal brand is that Blogger developing? 

It’s not a criticism on Blogging and it’s not a slight against traditional journalism. Blogging is evolving, changing and becoming its own media channel. The audience, the readers, the community have many choices, so they’re going (and commenting) where the most value is for them. If you’re wondering what it takes to run a successful Blog in 2008, it’s way more about providing insights and information that is going to change and help the reader be a better person – be it a personal or professional Blog.

This is a huge and often unspoken of shift in what works for Blogging. Anecdotally, you hear the same things I do, "all they do is Blog about themselves," or "it’s all about them," or "blah, blah, blah, me, me, me."

That was the original intent of Blogging. It has shifted. It has changed.

What do you think makes a successful Blog in this day and age?