When I started to blog I didn't really spend much time on thinking about what it would mean to me. I actually have to admit that I started blogging not because I saw much sense in it but because it was for our English course. Yes, I know, this may be the wrong reason to start doing it BUT the positive thing is that I immediately took to it and now I'm nearly passionate about it.
Maybe it's because I love to write as a way of expressing myself or because it's a different way of telling the world outside about life, political topics, movies or bands I'm passionate about. Or another reason, and that is my favorite one: it's the special mixture of all of these reasons. In the end it doesn't matter why I do it, the only thing that's important is that, well, I really like it and therefore I don't see blogging as a kind of task I have to do for university but as a nice way of spending some of my time.
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| Source: publicize.com |
Yesterday was a strange day. It was one of those special days when I can't just switch my thoughts off and keep thinking and thinking about all and nothing and everything in between. During this strange process of thinking and not being able to stop for a moment I also came across blogging and started reflecting on what makes a good blog. Is it the layout that catches one's attention or is it the number how often somebody smiled when reading a blog that counts? Is it the fact that the reader wants to know more about the topic after reading a post or the feeling of being able to identify with the blogger because one has already experienced a similar situation or has felt the same way? I am not sure. Sometimes I come across a blog and am captivated by it from the very first words I read although I cannot explain this feeling logically.
And maybe that's it. Not everything has to be explained logically. There are no guidelines, no guarantee that if you stick to a few rules, your blog will be a good one. It's especially difficult because there isn't just one definition of "good". I think it can be compared to the quotation "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" - what's good for one person may not be for another one.
If you want to know what I consider a great blog I can tell you. Even though the layout doesn't really have to do a lot with the rest of the blog because it's the content that counts, you can't deny that the background, a nice font, pictures etc. are all ways of making a blog look nicer. And who doesn't want a blog with a beautiful layout? But now let's talk about the really essential part of a blog: The content. When I looked through several blogs from other English students I stumbled across a few that really fascinated me.
There was for instance this blog called Forty Million Minutes that caught my attention. I read the very first post "Can you spare five minutes?" and everything I can say is that I was impressed. The topic, the way it is written, I simply liked everything about it. This is the kind of post that grabs your attention from the beginning and doesn't let you go. You have to go on reading and ask yourself why you haven't thought about this topic for such a long time. After reading you immediately visit the pages that are given for further information and about organizations mentioned in the post because you want to know more about it. While reading the post you further realize that the person who wrote it must be really passionate about this topic because otherwise they wouldn't get you do all this. In my opinion this is the best thing that can happen.
What I realized after having looked through a number of blogs is that it doesn't really matter what the posts are about (of course up to a certain degree - I wouldn't be interested in the newest results of the Champions League, but who knows.. :-)) as long as the one who writes is passionate about it. For my blogging-future I therefore hope to be able to convey all my passion for a certain topic when writing a post. I want to be able to write something that captivates you, makes you want to know more about it or makes you get this feeling of having gone through exactly the same thing some time ago. I know this seems to be a great challenge to me but I am motivated and with thousands of ideas in my head - so I think these are not the worst conditions to start a new semester :-)
And maybe that's it. Not everything has to be explained logically. There are no guidelines, no guarantee that if you stick to a few rules, your blog will be a good one. It's especially difficult because there isn't just one definition of "good". I think it can be compared to the quotation "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" - what's good for one person may not be for another one.
If you want to know what I consider a great blog I can tell you. Even though the layout doesn't really have to do a lot with the rest of the blog because it's the content that counts, you can't deny that the background, a nice font, pictures etc. are all ways of making a blog look nicer. And who doesn't want a blog with a beautiful layout? But now let's talk about the really essential part of a blog: The content. When I looked through several blogs from other English students I stumbled across a few that really fascinated me.
There was for instance this blog called Forty Million Minutes that caught my attention. I read the very first post "Can you spare five minutes?" and everything I can say is that I was impressed. The topic, the way it is written, I simply liked everything about it. This is the kind of post that grabs your attention from the beginning and doesn't let you go. You have to go on reading and ask yourself why you haven't thought about this topic for such a long time. After reading you immediately visit the pages that are given for further information and about organizations mentioned in the post because you want to know more about it. While reading the post you further realize that the person who wrote it must be really passionate about this topic because otherwise they wouldn't get you do all this. In my opinion this is the best thing that can happen.
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| Source: smartrecruiters.com |
What I realized after having looked through a number of blogs is that it doesn't really matter what the posts are about (of course up to a certain degree - I wouldn't be interested in the newest results of the Champions League, but who knows.. :-)) as long as the one who writes is passionate about it. For my blogging-future I therefore hope to be able to convey all my passion for a certain topic when writing a post. I want to be able to write something that captivates you, makes you want to know more about it or makes you get this feeling of having gone through exactly the same thing some time ago. I know this seems to be a great challenge to me but I am motivated and with thousands of ideas in my head - so I think these are not the worst conditions to start a new semester :-)
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