How Do You Write a Blog?

I get to read a lot of blogs on chess.com. Some are great, others could use a little improvement. My own blog has been fairly successful but I know it doesn't appeal to everybody. That's not possible.

So this is a request for information from anybody who is interested in blogging—either as a blogger or a reader—to find out what you think makes a blog successful, and what you look for in other people's blogs.

It's not about Dozy's Inferno, though I'll certainly make use of anything you suggest.

Ideally we could get enough information from successful bloggers to give newer writers some ideas on how to attract readers to their own blog.

I'm not going to name any of the top bloggers or make observations or comparisons about what they do. All have readers who track them, and each of them writes in their own individual style.

Dozy's Inferno was born when somebody blogged a request for Christians who might want to join a group with like-minded people. Since I'd been using a grinning devil as an avatar I posted a response asking if a representative of the Opposition would be welcome, but my post was deleted. In retaliation I found a suitable background picture, a pretty little female demon, put them together in a new theme, and I was off and running.

Being a chess site I decided that all my posts would be about chess. It sounds obvious but not everybody wants to go down that path. That's OK too: we're all different.

The first thing I had to overcome was my lack of chess knowledge. My chess.com rating sounds fairly high but my Australian rating is currently only 1566 which is pretty average. Realistically it tells me that, while there are lots of things I know about chess, there are also lots of things I don't know.

Something I do manage quite well is to tell stories; I also have the kind of memory that manages to retain all kinds of interesting trivia. So the two went together to produce the kind of novelty items I write.

Most of my posts have a few chess games and, whenever possible, these are brevities. Why? Because if readers are going to take the time to play through a lengthy game they have a right to expect better analysis than I'm able to supply (unless, of course, I was to plagiarise somebody else's work).

So my formula is: keep it short, keep it entertaining, find interesting games or themes and, if possible, sneak in a little humour. It doesn't hurt to use a catchy title and an attractive graphic, either.

So much for the Inferno. Now for the nitty gritty, the real reason for this post: let's get some input from you.

• If you're a reader, what do you hope to find in a blog?

• If you're a blogger, what is it you are trying to achieve?

• Do you have some knowledge to pass on? Do you want to teach?

• Do you want to entertain?

• Do you just want to share some personal information?

• How important do you think it is to try to attract more readers?

Blogging gives us the opportunity to write about those things that interest us personally. We don't need to attract readers, but it can be gratifying when a post proves to be popular.

Please share your ideas—it might help somebody else get started.

What do I expect in a blog? 

A blog should be entertaining and easy to read. When the blog contains a huge analysis of a game then I would say :thats an article. What I like about your blogs are that they consist of entertaining stories of the real world and short examples of games.

See, what you do is you start by getting the ending and then work backwards. 

... oh, no.. wait..  that's how you write a mystery novel. 

Forget it.

Actually, as a VERY irregular & infrequent blogger, I find all I'm trying to do is making good on something worth writing down.  Other people's interest is excellent indeed, but at the same time (for me anyway) somewhat secondary to the pleasure I derive from the writing.

Who was it that asked "how do I know what I think till I see what I've said"?  Can't remember at the moment, but that says a lot about what I get, personally, out of writing (be it in blogs or elsewhere).

As a Twitter user, I start thinking "this could be a blog post" whenever I'm try to express something that can't be squeezed into 140 characters.

Hi Gert-Jan and DeepGreene, thanks for adding some thoughts.

This has been a disappointing topic -- I was hoping to get some input from other bloggers.  Maybe I needed to call it something like "Nude Blogging" to attract some attention. (Well, it worked with my Sex Appeal at the Chessboard...)

Thanks for the feedback on the Inferno, G-J. That's pretty much what I'm trying to achieve. If I was a chess master then perhaps I'd be writing at a different level, but you've got to go with what you've got, and I'm a pretty ordinary player.

DeepGreene, Like you I enjoy writing, and blogging gives me the chance to do it. After all, there's not much point writing just for yourself (that's a diary) so I try to interest as many readers as possible (I guess that's ego ).

Your thoughts about writing aren't so far away from those of C.S.Lewis (among a great number of other things he wrote the Narnia series). He said that he only wrote about things he enjoyed and in a way that he enjoyed.  Fortunately, he said, other people enjoyed reading the stuff.

Maybe you just need to give them more than 12 hours to respond. :-)

When I have most enjoyed blogging, it has been when I have a theme to my blogs. I used to do a lot of chess-improvement blogging (thebackrank.blogspot.com) where the intention is for me to track my own progress through my training plan. It gives me a way to log my progress. This was great for me as a writer, because it's not an entirely new project where I have to invent content. The writing is just a wrapper for something I'm already doing. And the goal is primarily personal, I'm recording my own journey for my own records so I'm not really worried about readership. To the extent the experience is enhanced by commenters, it's nice to get noticed.

My blog here at chess.com has essentially been "lessons from my own games". Since I go over my games and analyze them, if something struck me as demonstrating clearly a chess principle, I just drop the analysis into a blog post. Or if a particular game highlights a common problem I have, it's worth dropping it into a blog post. This is very useful because it maintains a log of interesting/instructive analysis I've done. This has been useful on some occasions where I'd like to give an example when answering a question in the forums and I have one in an old blog post.

Hi Loomis,

You were blogging regularly and well about the time I started, but we don't see as much from you any more, and that's a pity. It's good stuff. As I remember, you had a pretty good following at that time.

A number of the better bloggers obviously share your idea about themes  --  batgirl has her history, Blunderprone his tour of the tournaments, and so on.

"Lessons from my own games" is something I wouldn't try myself though I've occasionally posted my own games to illustrate a point. I'm more likely to post a losing game than a winning one, though there have been a few of those in the inferno.

For the reasons stated above I avoid in-depth analysis though, wherever possible, I prefer to use my own rather than plagiarise somebody else's.

Thanks for sharing.

Do any of you know how to write a blog?

i know how to write but how to write blog description

Write about anything but it has to be interesting.

I liked what I saw. I especially liked "Nature of Kazakhstan" because you created something that is very special to you and by doing that you made your piece interesting to me. I enjoyed looking at the photos of what is certainly quite a beautiful country. Good luck to you my friend. Peace!

is this a blog?

The Goat?

Best openings?

Best piece?

Favourite game?

Best match you saw?

Who the hell reads blogs? Almost no one has anything interesting to say. Just look at the forums!

Ask @VOB96