Stand Up ComedyWhat makes a comedian funny?  It’s all about their timing and delivery.  The same can be said about a good blogger.  You have to have both, not one or the other.

You can be ahead of the curve and break a huge story and still have something that no one reads because the writing was poor, the tone wrong, or you posted it in the wrong place.  You can also do all of those three perfectly but if everyone got tired of your topic a week ago, game over.

What makes a blogger exceptional is when they can hit both of these qualities flawlessly.  It’s something that new bloggers frequently fail to understand.  Being fairly new to the blogging world this has been one of my biggest pitfalls.

Delivery, that’s the easy part.  Learn to write.  If you don’t know how to write take some classes, buy a For Dummies book, practice.  Find your voice and go with it.

Timing, that’s the hard part.  How do you know when the time is right?  How do you know if the proverbial iron is hot and it’s time to strike?  You don’t… really.  You just have to make a good guess.

That’s not to say it’s random.  If you have a blog we know you can at least read.  So use what you have.  Look around the interwebs for a while and see what everyone is talking about… see what they are tired of talking about.  You can get a pretty good estimate of what people will flock to just by reading what they are already flocking to.

That’s the big secret.  Know your audience, know what they vote for, know what they talk about, know what they like, think, dream about.  Once you know these things you can follow the ebb and flow of what is hot and what is not - and will be able to predict, fairly accurately, what people will read.

Posted Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 10:11 am
Filed Under Category: Blogging
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Responses to “All I know about blogging I learned from watching Stand-Up”

Kate

Great article! Timing is absolutely crucial to not only blogging, but business in general. And you hit the nail on the head with delivery - especially when it comes to tone. I’ve seen too many people get in trouble with copy that is supposed to be cheeky, but comes across as pompous.

It’s sometimes not what you say, but how you say it…

Jordan Pearce

Excellent observation. My quickie posts that are snarky replies to current Internet uproar reeled in traffic! Who knew.

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