Why Do You Keep Coming Back to Read a Blog? Part 1

Trying not to be a broken record.

Have you ever read a blog and thought “Wow, I like that” or “I need to come back and see how [issue] got resolved.” Yep, me too. I have my favorites from my early blogging days…some I still read and some I wanted to keep going back to but I forgot the url. What is it about a blog that keeps me coming back for more?

Some of the blogs are the “tells it like it is” variety like Anissa. I could do with more kutzpah over at my corner of the blogosphere. I tend towards the “giving the reader some information but holding other information back” style of blogging. Are you that type of blogger? I hold back information to protect my children and their privacy…you can blog to your heart’s content about diapering your 1-year-old, but that level of disclosure is not cool with a kid, a preteen, and a teen.

After reading some blogs, I get a mental picture of who the blogger is and what their family is like. I am drawn in my the photos, but also by the writing style of the blogger. The more detailed the picture the more I am likely to come back again again. Example: Pioneer Woman and Trenches. These ladies have been blogging for years. Both tell detailed stories about kids and sports and animals and farm life and homeschooling. I read a post and want to come back the next day to find out how the issue was resolved.

I want to be able to present the true me to my readers — hey, don’t laugh I’m just starting out…I do have a few readers. I want someone passing by my blog to stop and read a while. A regular group of returning readers would be fab. Want to come back and see what I am doing. Grab my button in the right column and place it on your sidebar/blogroll! If you have a button, I add yours to my sidebar, too! Just leave a comment with a link.

But, just how much should I reveal on my blog? How much do you tell? Are you an open book? Could a reader read your blog and find out every single solitary facet of your life? Or, do you hold back and tell only details that pertain to the post you are writing. I’m not an open book, but know that I do need to allow my readers to get to know me. What makes a reader come back to a blog time and again?

Tune in tomorrow to read my blogging criteria. Hey, I need to get you to come back to my blog don’t I?