Who is the Target of Your Blogging Affection?

Different people get into blogging, professional or otherwise, for a number of different reasons. There had to have been some kind of impetus that got you started with blogging in the first place and this initial “spark” could come from a variety of sources. It doesn’t matter what is the actual subject matter of your blog posts, because the consideration and discussion is much the same across all niches and genres.

When you sit down at your computer keyboard and start composing a blog post, who do you have in mind? Who is it that got you to sit down there in the first place and who is it that will benefit the most from your blogging? Where do you derive your motivation and what is it that keeps you going? In general, you can say that most bloggers, at least initially, fall into one (or more) of three categories. Depending on their perspective, the resulting blog posts can be quite different.

Blogging for Yourself: A Therapeutic Outlet

This is largely where the concept of a web log (or “blog”) got started. When the first blogs emerged on the Internet, they served mostly as public diaries. Sure, there were a few emo kids out there who felt a need to express themselves, but a good number of early bloggers just wanted a way to maintain a public journal. The reverse chronological configuration of a blog served as the perfect platform for such a purpose.

I can certainly appreciate that sentiment. There is something inherently therapeutic about putting your thoughts and feelings into words, and this is a lesson that I actually learned in my psychology class during university. By taking on an introspective view, if only for a few minutes a day, you can better understand how you approach the world (and how you can improve your outlook on life). In part, Beyond the Rhetoric serves this purpose for me as well, because I try hard to practice what I preach. Some of the posts contain great advice for me.

Writing for Google: Gotta Get Money

At another end of the spectrum are bloggers who don’t write for themselves at all, composing blog posts that are meant to get ranked in the search engines and generate a good level of online income. Some of you may recognize these blogs as spam blogs (or “splogs”), because the content found within is of little value to both the writer and the reader. Instead, the posts are there to make money.

Typical characteristics of these blogs include a great deal of keyword stuffing, in-your-face advertising, and incredibly superficial (and impersonal) information. As you can tell, these bloggers aren’t aiming to be particularly useful nor are they attempting to muddle their way through a therapeutic process. They just want to get ranked in the search engines.

Serving Your Audience: It’s About the Readers

These are the bloggers whose primary goal is to make a difference, actually being useful to their readers. While some of the posts may be mildly self-serving, the main purpose is to provide a service to the online community, helping them in one way or another. For example, a blogger may produce a tutorial on a certain aspect of WordPress, effectively providing a free service to the rest of the WordPress community.

Most audience-minded bloggers are aiming to actually be useful, informative, or entertaining. They write for their readers first and Google (a distant) second. These blogs may also partake in some advertising to supplement (or generate) their online incomes.

Your Motivation Affects Your Voice

Who are you writing for? As you can imagine, writing for yourself, writing for Google, and writing for your readers can produce three very different kinds of content. The blogger who writes for himself will use a lot of self-serving language and may make a number of esoteric references that make no sense to anyone other than the blogger himself. The SEO-minded writer will produce an article stuffed with keywords, primarily aiming to get in the good graces of search engines. The audience-centric blogger likely produces the most useful and coherent blog posts of all, proving a valuable service to the rest of the Internet.

What kind of blogger are you? Myself, I’d probably say that I’m some combination of the three. There’s nothing wrong with helping yourself or working to increase traffic, but don’t forget about the altruistic possibilities that allow you to contribute to society. Be useful.