Using the Principles of Dale Carnegie to Create a Great Blog!

Posted on March 24, 2007 at 5:18 pm

I wasn’t planning on posting anything else today and decided to do some reading, which I sorely need to do more of! As I was looking for something to read, I came across Dale Carnegie’s Golden Book in my brothers room and started reading his rules on how to win friends, influence people, make yourself happy, cultivating good habits, etc. and I realized that there are a couple of principles that match really well with bloggers and blogging (well at least for me!).

Here are some of the principles and advice written in the Golden Book that struck a chord with me:

1. Do the very best you can – If you are new to blogging (as I am), then don’t get frustrated if no one is reading your blog. Keep writing and keep posting good content and eventually by the grace of the Google search bot, you will be found!

2. Analyze your own mistakes and criticize yourself – Don’t let others tell you what’s wrong with your blog. Read, learn and figure out what is good on your blog and what no one cares about. You have to spend some extra time learning from other blogs what is good content and what not to write about. Use the free tools provided by Google, such as Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools, to get insights into exactly what people are reading and then write more about that topic.

3. Clear your desk of all papers except those relating to the immediate problem at hand – This is really true! A cluttered desk can make blogging hard, especially if you have IM windows open, email on, etc. Try to relax, think about one topic and what you want to write, and then write the post.

4. Except ingratitude - Don’t be discouraged by rude comments that poke fun at your post or downplay it’s quality. Your work is your own unique view and everyone may not agree with it, but some people will. Or you can have a blog like mine with ZERO comments and not have to worry anything at all! Please comment someone!

5. Do no imitate others – Do not copy other people’s blogs word for word! If you find something interesting on another blog or web site, paraphrase it and write that your content was originally grabbed from somewhere else. A blog is only useful to someone if it can provide information not already somewhere else. Or at least the same information with your unique opinion.

6. Try to profit from your losses – If you find your content is not being read by anyone other than yourself, find out why and turn it into something someone would want to read. Easier said than done, but I don’t think anything Dale Carnegie suggests is easy! Or maybe something just happened to you in your life that wasn’t so great (lost of BF or GF, got a disease), but you were able to get through it…you can post about your ordeal and how you overcame it and what you had to do to get through it. This can help someone else who might be in the same situation!

7. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view – If you want your blog to do well, it needs to have content that other will want to read. Use Google Zeitgeist (http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html), Technorati’s Popular (http://technorati.com/pop/), or Search.com Top 1000 searches (http://www.search.com/top?tag) to figure out what people are looking for. Is the topic you are writing anywhere near the top? If not, don’t worry because these are just the top searches and there are millions of other popular searches, but you may need to find out what keywords people are using and use those judiciously in your blog.

8. Dramatize your ideas – Spice up your blog with some interesting news or ideas! Write with enthusiasm! Just like listening to a person with a monotone voice will not be conducive to learning, a straight forward blog may not be read for very long. Change things up, use video, pictures, audio, etc.

9. Smile – I liked this one because it’s probably best to only post if you’re in a good mood! Unless your post is about your OneCare software deleting your entire Outlook mailbox, then it’s OK to write an ugly post! I noticed when I’m in a good mood, I am able to write more and more clearly. I’ve tried to write some posts after a fight or late at night when I’m dead tired and those…well…let’s just say didn’t come out very nice!

10. Learn to relax at your work - Writing a blog should not be an arduous task! If you find it time consuming or troublesome, then take a break and relax! You don’t have to be constantly blogging! Writing good content is better than posting 10 useless tidbits. And the best time for thinking of blog ideas might be when you are with friends or family doing something fun!

» Filed Under Blogging

Comments

4 Responses to “Using the Principles of Dale Carnegie to Create a Great Blog!”

neo said on : March 25th, 2007 at 8:13 am

Quite insightful!

But, I have a doubt. Your suggestions seem to be geared towards increasing the readership of the blog. IMHO, one should be very clear in the objective of his/her blog. For some people, its just an online platform to scribble their thought process. They don’t really care whether the readership is increasing or not. Its about the love for writing!

And here it is, a comment on your blog

AK said on : March 25th, 2007 at 12:58 pm

Thanks Neo for the comment! Yes, this post was geared towards how to increase readership to your blog. It’s funny though because I wrote it as a “scribble” of my thoughts after I talked to some friends earlier in the night who were trying to get more people to read their blogs…then I ran across this Dale Carnegie book and so I thought I’d throw something short together to help people who are looking to do that.

If it increases my readership (which I doubt), that’s great! But really I wrote it to help others who want to increase their readership.