Attack of the Newbie Bloggers Pt. 2
Published April 1st, 2009 | 
One of the things I love about new blogs is that lovely sensation of either being surprised by how good it is or that warm, fuzzy feeling from being proven right by having my jaundiced view of the blogosphere reaffirmed. Well, this blog I stumbled upon this morning falls squarely in the latter category.
investmint.com created by Jayma P. Bernz bills itself as a finance blog — and it is. But what struck me most about it was that the articles posted felt so familiar, so basic, so generic — like I’d read them a thousand times before. Take the most recent post, “Would You Like to Trim Your Utility Bills?” The article only provides the most obvious tips — things like, “unplug your appliances,” “keep the thermostat at 68 degrees,” etc. Not terribly insightful stuff. Similarly, other articles on financial matters seemed recycled from other articles Mr. Bernz has written for those free article sites.
There are two kinds of mediocre blogs: Those created by bloggers who don’t know what they are doing, who stumble along until they find their footing or fail and quit, and those bloggers who think they know what they’re doing — slick-looking blogs that appear almost overnight, with bland, cookie-cutter articles and zero personality that most readers will pass by without note. The kind of blog that Google tends to frown upon.
I’d say that invesmint.com falls into this category. It looks nice enough and Mr. Bernz can string together a coherent sentence or two (which is more than I can say of many blogs), but it simply lacks depth. Here’s what I’m suggesting to Mr. Bernz: If you have real expertise, write about that. If you’re going to talk about 401ks and stocks and mutual funds talk about it from your own point of view. How do you invest and why. What qualifies you to give this advice? Do you have a lot of investments? If so, I’d like to know if you’re making money in this economy because if you’re losing money, you probably don’t know anymore about finance than the rest of us. Inject your own persona into your writing. Bring your own ideas and insights into the discussion. That’s what blogging is all about. Regardless of your niche, you have to connect with readers on a personal level. Providing good information isn’t enough, especially when it’s information you can find in a hundred different places. You have to give users a reason to get that information from you.
One Response to Attack of the Newbie Bloggers Pt. 2
I must say I agree wholeheartedly with what you say. We all like our posts to be read but far too many bloggers sole intention is to write articles filled with keywords that will attract the search engines. Blogging, in my humble opinion, should be about expressing yourself if you can’t be creative in what you write, what’s the point?