{"id":5,"date":"2012-06-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/menelek2\/making-money-blogging-how-to-be-interesting\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T19:06:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T19:06:23","slug":"making-money-blogging-how-to-be-interesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/menelek2\/making-money-blogging-how-to-be-interesting\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Money Blogging: How to Be Interesting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBe interesting.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s good advice, but it\u2019s nothing new. You\u2019ve probably known from the beginning that being able to interest readers is a crucial part of growing a popular blog. It\u2019s pretty obvious that no one is going to stick around unless they find your blog interesting.<\/p>\n

But how are you supposed to do it exactly? How can you \u201cbe interesting?\u201d<\/p>\n

Far too much of what we write about attention and interest is abstract. We talk about differentiation, value, and triggers \u2014 all useful concepts, but you can\u2019t point to them. You can\u2019t hold out your hand and say, \u201cGive me some differentiation.\u201d As a result, it\u2019s hard to wrap your mind around what those things actually mean.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to change that. Over the past few weeks, I\u2019ve paid attention to the things that command attention, both of myself and others, and I\u2019ve made a list of 21 techniques that work. It\u2019s far from all of them I\u2019m sure, but it should be enough to get you started.<\/p>\n

1. Be wrong<\/strong>: The world is full of people trying to do the right things. It\u2019s become so common that many of us are bored by it. We long for someone that is willing to do the wrong thing, say the wrong thing, be the wrong thing. If you have the\u00a0courage to be that person, you\u2019ll find lots of people paying attention to you.<\/p>\n

2. Be right<\/strong>: You can also gain attention by being right\u2026 but only if you\u2019re more right than everyone else. Run a mile faster than anyone else, explain your\u00a0topic\u00a0more clearly than anyone else, be funnier than everyone else. Embody perfection, and people will take notice.<\/p>\n

3. Communicate what others can\u2019t<\/strong>: As writers, we take ideas from our heads and put them on the page. Sometimes we forget how difficult that is for some people and how valuable that makes us. Lots of people would give anything to be able to say what they mean. But they can\u2019t. So, they turn to songs, books, and art that communicate for them. Be a producer of those things, and you\u2019ll never lose their attention.<\/p>\n

4. Do something<\/strong>: Everybody online is trying to say something important, but very few are trying to do something important. If you want attention, dare not to just give advice to others, but to live that advice yourself. Then blog about it.<\/p>\n

5. Surprise people<\/strong>: Chip and Dan Heath, authors of\u00a0Made to Stick, say that one of the best ways to set yourself apart is to break people\u2019s \u201cguessing machines.\u201d Take a surprising position, making outlandish analogy, or otherwise do the opposite of what you normally do. As long as it\u2019s unexpected, people will stop and pay attention.<\/p>\n

6. Make people laugh<\/strong>: Bloggers are far too serious. We\u2019re so busy trying to teach that we forget to entertain. As a result, large portions of our readerships fall asleep. And what\u2019s the best way to wake people up? Humor. Public speakers have been using it for ages, and as long as it\u2019s appropriate for your audience, humor can wake your readers up and get them paying attention again.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0Offer\u00a0them an aspirin<\/strong>: Some of the best blog posts ever written are simple as an aspirin. Your reader has a headache, you have a cure, so you offer them that cure in the form of a blog post<\/a>. They pay attention\u2026 not because of how pretty or well crafted your blog post is, but because it cures their headache. Conclusion: try acting like a pharmacist, not a blogger, and you\u2019ll never lack for attention.<\/p>\n

8. Show a (half) naked woman<\/strong>: Ever noticed that a disproportionate number of advertisements feature a scantily clad woman? That\u2019s because it works. It draws the attention of not only men (as you\u2019d expect), but also women. For whatever reason, nearly everyone finds their attention drawn to it.\u00a0Here\u2019s proof\u00a0that it even works with blog posts.<\/p>\n

9. Tell them who they are<\/strong>: \u201cWho am I?\u201d is not just a question; it\u2019s a universal quest that most of us follow for our entire lives, continually defining and redefining ourselves, always insecure about whether who we are being is really us. As a blogger, you can (and should) harness that insecurity. Turn your blog into something that defines your readers, like\u00a0this one,\u00a0this one, and\u00a0this one.<\/p>\n

10. Predict the future<\/strong>: Every once in awhile, use your expertise to make a bizarre claim about the future. If you have any authority at all, people will take notice. Imagine if Brian wrote a convincing, well reasoned argument that online courses are the business model of the future. Oh wait\u2026\u00a0he did, and some of the biggest names in Internet marketing continue to talk about it.<\/p>\n

11. Unleash your inner dork<\/strong>: Many blog posts are like miniature textbooks; they\u2019re instructive, well-organized, and put you to sleep with their lack of enthusiasm. If you want to become famous on the web, stop trying to sound like an all-knowing teacher and unleash the \u201cinner dork\u201d inside of you \u2014 the part of you that\u2019s so enamored with your topic that everyone else thinks it\u2019s funny\u2026 but they pay attention anyway.\u00a0More on dorkyness here.<\/p>\n

12. Be courageous<\/strong>: Most of the videos on YouTube are there to make you laugh, but amongst them, you\u2019ll find that has attracted the attention of over 9 million people. The fact is, pretty much everyone has felt the foot of adversity on their neck, but very few of us respond to it with courage and grace. Be one of those people, and you\u2019ll find the world watching.<\/p>\n

13. Be startlingly honest<\/strong>: Every once in awhile, tell the truth. Be so honest that you\u2019re scared to click the \u201cPost\u201d button. Be so honest that no one knows what to say in the comments section. Be so honest that\u00a0your lawyer tells you to stop. You\u2019ll feel better\u2026 and people will talk about you.<\/p>\n

14. Be irreverent<\/strong>: Want to stir people up? Make fun of their god, their politics, their family \u2014 anything they hold dear. Yes, they\u2019ll be offended, but lots of other people will think it\u2019s hilarious. If you can\u2019t stomach being hated by a portion of the world and loved by another, then you don\u2019t deserve to have a blog.<\/p>\n

15. Tell a good story<\/strong>: This one has been drilled into us so many times that I almost didn\u2019t include it\u2026 except for one thing: people still don\u2019t get it. Yes, stories support your points, make solid openers, and teach people while entertaining them, but a good story can make you a legend. I\u2019m not talking about the little anecdotes that pepper the blogosphere. I\u2019m talking about the story that haunts you on your deathbed. Forget about all the others. Tell me that one.<\/p>\n

16. Break an important piece of news<\/strong>: Every time Google does something new, thousands of bloggers write about it. That\u2019s great for Google, but where\u2019s the real benefit for the bloggers? The first one to break the story is the only one that matters. It gets all of the traffic, links, and authority. Everyone else is just an echo.<\/p>\n

17. Disprove the proven<\/strong>: For a long time, everyone thought you had to be the best to be successful. Then Chris Anderson came along and turned the world upside down with\u00a0The Long Tail. He disproved what a lot of people held to be true, and it made him (even more) famous. Granted, it\u2019s hard to engineer a breakthrough, but if you run across one, people will talk about you for years.<\/p>\n

18. Pick the perfect picture<\/strong>: Want to make a good post better? Pick a picture that expresses exactly what you mean, and put it at the top of your post. Yes, it takes time, but the extra traffic is more than worth it.<\/p>\n

19. Master the metaphor<\/strong>: Metaphors are the paths we create to lead our readers to our ideas. Create one strong enough, and it will become a highway of attention, leading readers to your blog more quickly than any other technique here (except maybe the last one.\u00a0More on metaphors here.<\/p>\n

20. Create a work of art<\/strong>: Many bloggers crank out posts the way slaughterhouses crank out chickens. They\u2019re ugly things, fit for nothing but consumption. If you want to surprise people, stop and put some actual effort into your blog posts, creating a work of art. You\u2019ll be surprised by how many people remember it long after it\u2019s been swept off your front page.<\/p>\n

21. Put your readers first<\/strong>: Yes, you\u2019re the blogger. Yes, you\u2019re the one with talent. Yes, you\u2019re the one working your tail off. But it doesn\u2019t matter. The one and only thing of consequence is your reader. You can rail against this fact for as long as you like, but as long you do, you\u2019ll never be interesting.<\/p>\n

by\u00a0Jonathan Morrow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBe interesting.\u201d It\u2019s good advice, but it\u2019s nothing new. You\u2019ve probably known from the beginning that being able to interest readers is a crucial part of growing a popular blog. It\u2019s pretty obvious that no one is going to stick around unless they find your blog interesting. But how are you supposed to do it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":644,"featured_media":18,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5,6,7,8,9],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-empower-network","tag-blog-daily","tag-blogging-system","tag-empower-network","tag-make-money-blogging","tag-making-money-blogging","tag-online-marketing","tag-system-empower"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/menelek2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/menelek2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/menelek2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/menelek2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/644"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/menelek2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/menelek2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/menelek2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions\/35"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/menelek2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/menelek2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/menelek2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/menelek2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}