Are you personal on your blog?

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Shawn Gossman

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Research shows that being personal will motivate readers to actually read what you have to say. Being personal is talking to your readers rather than at them. You want to use words like "you", "your" and "we". The idea is writing in a way as if you are talking face to face with them.

How do you all feel about this? Do you feel it is important to be personal on your blog?
 
I totally agree with you Shawn. Being personal and using I and you often while posting leaves and positive affect on reader. Nobody wants to read a Wikipedia-type boring and hackneyed article. They want some real meat.

I prefer to write like I am confronting 'em face to face, and I can see the benefit of it. It has increased the engagement on my blog. I get average 40 comments per blog now :)

Definitely, personal style works wonders :)
 
Indeed it will increase comments :) If a person is being talked to directly or at least they feel that vibe, they are usually going to talk back. However, if its just a presentation like you get in college, they might be like college students and fall asleep lol.
 
I'm occasionally personal on my blog. I like including my readers in my article instead of secluding them. I find being personal helps a lot since people like socializing. This increases the chances of getting a comment on your blog motivating you to continue to write articles.
 
Shawn Gossman said:
Research shows that being personal will motivate readers to actually read what you have to say. Being personal is talking to your readers rather than at them. You want to use words like "you", "your" and "we". The idea is writing in a way as if you are talking face to face with them.

How do you all feel about this? Do you feel it is important to be personal on your blog?
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I think this is really important; being as personal as possible. This is the main reason I felt so upset when my editor (and boss back then) told me I should stop refering to the user with a ''YOU''. That made my writing even harder! Plus, I don't think that's the best approach when you're creating content for a software/video game web site. This ''small'' restriction completely changed the tone of my reviews. I'm no longer working for him, btw.
 
I am not TOO personal on my blog because I already have a personal blog for stuff like that, but I might mention things like going on holiday or other things going on in my life, but not too much as people have come to my main blog looking for ways to make money, if they want to read about me moaning about the state of the country then they know where my personal blog is. :)
 
dean they are not talking about things that are personal to you, they are saying that to be personal on your blog means writing in a way that you are talking with readers. It is my idea which may or may not be true
 
You have to be personal to your blog in order for it being able to flourish and connect with your audience in more affable manner. Don't try to be another Wikipedia or your blog is destined to fail.
 
Yeah, on the blog it's very personal and informal, but on our main website it's very formal and professional. Two different writing styles for different audiences and topics.
 
I misunderstood the title of this thread initially. Yes, I typically write with "you" and "we" and words like that. Unless perhaps it was a touchy subject, and/or I didn't want to sound presumptuous. In that case I might say something like, "some percentage of people prefer to do this...".

But as far as giving out too much personal information about myself online, I prefer to keep some of that to myself. I don't like how some conversations could be taken out of context, or perhaps a thread I was chiming in on might for some reason gain search engine rankings and show up besides searches for my real name.
 
I don't think either of the sites that I'm working on could be successful without being personal. You want to take the reader along as you investigate the topic of the blog.
 
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