Is Your Blog a Resource?
November 16, 2007 | By Lorelle VanFossen | Filed Under Blogging, Features, Marketing
Is your blog a resource? Do visitors come to your blog because you are the source of the information they need?
Lately, I’ve been looking for resource material for a variety of articles I’m working on. Lists of where to find what information, the best related information on a subject, and collated information with links and the answers I need.
It got me thinking about whether or not my blog is a resource, and what defines a blog as a resource?
I consider my blog a resource as it is stuffed with non-personal, educational and technical articles. That’s a fair definition as a resource, don’t you think?
I know sites like the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress Users, are resources, sources for information on how to use WordPress, which is definitely more technical than my blog, so does mine still qualify?
Look around at the blogs you consider “resources”, sources for the information you need in your blogging, business, or life in general. What are the characteristics that define them as “sources”?
Is it their unique and original content? Is it how the content makes you think, possibly even to reconsider a position? Is it because the content is mostly technical? Can some editorial commentary content be permitted and still be a “resource”? Does the blog cover only one subject or a very narrow niche? Or does it cover a wide range of unrelated topics? Or is a resource just a place where you find the answers, and there are no rules to the definition?
Look at your own blog. Is it a resource? Is it a source for information on the web? If you want it to be considered a source, how would it have to change?
What defines a resource in today’s blogging world? Is it one thing, or many?
About the author: The author of Lorelle on WordPress, as well as several other blogs, Lorelle VanFossen has been blogging in one fashion or another for over 14 years, covering travel, nature and travel photography, web design, web theory and development, blogging, and WordPress extensively as web technologies developed. Lorelle is also the author of the fast-selling book, Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging, available in the new Blog Herald Bookstore.
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My personal blog isn’t a resource, but I intend to make my turtle blog one. I found that most of my readers enjoyed turtle posts, so I hope to provide them a place where they can learn more about turtles :)
My blog is becoming a resource bit by bit. Time will settle it, and my blog will contain hundreds of successful articles and tips and tricks.
But I need to learn from bigger blogs how to grow up a successful blog.
Lorelle: Great question. When I initially set out to start my BeyondBehaviors.Com blog, my goal was to use it as a classroom/school crisis resource. For the most part, I believe that it still serves that role. However, as you are aware (since I owe the transformation to your article), I’ve recently decided to refocus my blog’s focus as it was becoming too serious and depressing because the contents were mostly about traumatic stress and crisis.
I’ve begun the slow process to reinvigorate my blog and hopefully as I share more about myself (my failures and successes) that my blog will be an inspiration (and resource) to others who have gone through or are going through similar challenges in their lives.
A resource blog doesn’t just have to be about the answers we are looking for. It has become a trusted source and therefore we have got to know the blogger behind it.
So news posts or personal views etc are also what we are looking for, because we as bloggers look for interaction if it was just plain educational articles and nothing else, then it would lack personality and therefore interaction.
My two cents…
My blog is based on a popular TV show (The4400Guide.com), and was set up as a guide for fans of the show. I try to make it as resourceful as possible, and keep the readers informed.
If the blog is not resourceful, then you can only call it a journal I suppose? Thanks for asking!
I’ve been told that people trust me for finding info about living and working in Turkey and I get so many emails asking me questions.
I fill it not only with some of the latest happenings which affect living in Turkey (internet bans), but also with many resources to refer to when in need (job-seeking teachers, how to get around the country, how to search for and move into an apartment).
People know they can get what they need to solve a problem on my blog and that it’s not fluff. I have lots of years experience of living and working in Turkey, so I have mounds of expertise to share.
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