No, not me. I have toddlers, I have an adventurous wife, and today
I went to an indoor carnival that smelled like shoes then requested
songs from mariachis during lunch. I’m never, ever bored.
But apparently the rest of the world is bored to tears. According to
SEO Book’s Keyword Suggestion Tool, the word “bored” gets over 7,000
daily searches. To put that figure in perspective, “Brittany Spears”
gets a little more than 2,000 searches per day and “Haiti earthquake”
currently gets around 5,000 searches a day, and “Barack Obama” is dead
even with the word “bored.”
I know you’re asking “So what?” and already distracted with thoughts
about what pops up on Google when you search for “bored,” but bear with
me—I do have a point.
The point? Your blog is boring. And so is mine. But it doesn’t need to be!
As post-traditional media emerges as the realm of infinite niche-iness,
it’s easy to get comfortable as a blogger and completely forget about
your audience. After all—there must be someone out there that finds
you interesting, right? Solipsism is an easy sell, especially when
there’s the slightest chance that the gravity of your own personality
will draw others into orbit around Planet You. I like me, and I like
people that like me even more!
Unfortunately, there is a limit to the niche, unless we succumb to writing for only ourselves:
"Oh, blog, I love you soooo much..."
So how do we maintain the unique, personalized feel of our blogs and make what we’re writing meaningful to others?
Raymond Wlodkowski, a professor emeritus at Regis University in Denver,
believes we can enhance meaning through engagement and challenge, by
opening up opportunities for dialogue, and by mixing up our delivery
style, tone and medium.
Wehn soemhtnig unxecpecetd or difefnrt haeppns, boredom flies out the window. Those 7,000 searches every day for the word “bored” are not seeking more boredom, but an antidote to it. My fellow blogarinos, it’s time to mix it up!
Tell me what you’re doing to engage and challenge your readers, how
you’re fostering dialogue, and how you’re switching your style on your
blog for the sake of creating something meaningful to others. What cures your own boredom? What’s the most exciting blog you’ve ever read?
