5 Things that every blogger appreciates

As bloggers, we are constantly writing content to benefit our readers. We search for the most asked questions and try to provide answers. We censor what we say because we don’t want to offend anyone. And we even adapt based on our readers’ feedback. It’s almost always about the reader… But what about the person typing away at the keys? Have you ever wondered what every blogger appreciates?

Bloggers seem like machines, with some churning out content every day, while others take more time. Have you ever wondered just how all of these posts are created and produced? I know for a fact that there are times when I just cannot think of a topic to write about. Or I feel uninspired despite only posting 4 times a week. What about the bloggers that post daily but never seem to run out of fuel or ideas!

As I have transitioned out of the newbie phase, there are a few things that I can look back on and smile. I know that each of our journeys is unique and people value different things, but there is a list of things that I’m willing to bet that we would all agree on.

Every blogger appreciates feedback

Do you have your favourite bloggers, whose content you read religiously? Having published over 135 posts in the past few months, the one thing that I am most appreciative of is the feedback that I have received. Now, when we talk about feedback, you don’t have to write an entire synopsis of the post. But it is important to know whether a certain topic is a hit or a miss. In fact, this may just be the most crucial thing any blogger can receive from a reader.

Feedback doesn’t always have to be agreement though. There are many bloggers who write to start a discussion and love it when people debate the topic. As bloggers, we are taught to write for our readers and mainly base our content on what people are searching for, what is happening in our lives, or what is happening in the world. I generally use Answer the Public to get my ideas because the feedback I get from readers doesn’t quite give me an indication of what I should write more of. I mean, I could write about paint drying and enjoy the process, but who would actually read that? So, dear reader, your feedback is very important for the process and I truly appreciate it.

You can never go wrong with kindness

Hey, did you know that bloggers are human too? Shocking right? Just kidding, we all know that isn’t the case. We are machine through and through, even Vision can’t compare! But on a serious note, I cannot stress just how important kindness is. Not just to bloggers, but to everyone really. I can only speak for myself and express just how grateful I am that in my eight-month journey, not once have I had a rude comment. Some people aren’t as lucky.

I know I said it’s important to give feedback, and that you don’t have to agree with everything that people post – that remains true. Debating a topic is not the same as criticising or insulting the writer. All of you lovely readers have always shown kindness to me, and for that I am grateful.

Criticism is the disapproval of people, not for having faults, but for having faults different from yours.

Anonymous

Support is really important to us

Have you ever heard bloggers or vloggers mention just how little interest friends and family show in their hobby? It’s a thing, and it’s normal – we get it. Just because we are related to someone, it doesn’t mean that they need to show interest in every single thing we do. But when it comes to our readers, it does hurt a little if we keep on producing content that gets no feedback.

When I first started blogging, I was very surprised and encouraged by the level of support that the blogging community has. I had basically given up my passion for writing for over a decade, so coming back to it and making my content public was very daunting. Words cannot even describe the impact that each comment, like, and follow had on my writing! To make it as comprehensible as possible, the support is what has me here to this day. Every writer is on a different path and does so for different reasons. Regardless of the reasons, what makes us continue to make our content public is the support from other writers and readers. So for everyone reading this post, thank you. I really appreciate you!

Every blogger appreciates respect

I thought long and hard before including this point to the list for several reasons. Firstly, what is considered to be respectful varies depending on which part of the world you’re in. Secondly, not every post is published with good intentions as some people do like to stir the waters. So here’s the thing, if you are going to leave a comment, use your discretion. But when it comes to etiquette, there is definitely a standard. And I can say with certainty that every blogger appreciates it when readers are respectful.

In the blogging world, there are so many things that bloggers find disrespectful that you may not even think of. One of these is advertising on someone else’s blog without any permission. This usually comes in the form of dropping a link to your own post or writing a whole blog post in the comment section. Just the other day, I had to go through my comments and delete some links to supplements and articles about the end of the world. I wish I was kidding, but I’m not. It takes time and effort to grow a brand and having someone try to leverage off your hard work without permission can be frustrating.

Every blogger appreciates real views

This one is a bit debatable because a lot of bloggers are guilty of giving fake views. The issue with this is that it negatively impacts the writer’s bounce rate which in turn affects it’s ranking on Google. I will write a separate post on this, but I just had to express how much the real view mean to me. You know the kind that keeps a reader on your page for longer than a minute and they read more than just your title? That’s the kind of view I appreciate. It’s very common in the blogging world to just drop likes on other people’s posts without really reading it. Please don’t do that… it doesn’t help in the long run!

So what does this all mean?

The point of this post was not just to highlight the things that bloggers want our readers to know, but also to improve the culture in the blogging community. This leads to my questions:

If you are a blogger too, what do you appreciate? How has your journey been with regards to any of the points mentioned above?