David Korona

In my last entry I went into details about how the design community deserves something better than linkbait and image lists, yet there wasn’t a lot of detail for alternatives. The following are just a few of the substitutes I’ve recently come up with.

The death of the boring blog post doesn’t have to start with the post layout (it doesn’t hurt to add a little flare every so often though). However, better blog content can start right at the root with simply, better blogging.

Some authors may have already fallen into the habit of pumping out lists to increase their website’s content count and traffic as this seems to be the consensus on getting your e-fame the fastest. With numerous websites playing this same old song it’s really a no brainer why newer blogs join in.

Blogs that mostly publish this type of content are looking for a quick traffic boost, not building loyal readership. Although it does take more time and effort to build up a loyal readership, it is also a lot more worthwhile for the future of the website. A blogger who is quick to pick up on what clicks with their audience can cause their blog to become explosively popular which will build up those lasting visitors earlier. It really all comes down to just how dedicated you are to producing quality content. But since you already read the last article, you already knew that, right?

So how can we snap out of the habit of producing poor content and into producing quality content? After being exposed to poor, list and image regurgitated content for so long it might be a tough habit to break but what I’m going to go over in each of the next sections will aid you well. Plus I’ll explain how list content is actually an ineffective means of using the content altogether.

Let’s take a look at some of the current poor blogging methods and I’ll show you just what I mean.

Artist Before Artwork

There are tons of posts on design blogs that are nothing more than a short list of images of anything from websites, artwork, photography, fonts or some other product created within our field. The authors of these posts usually try to disguise their lack of actual research by declaring the contents to be ‘inspirational’.

You know these posts as exciting examples of minimalistic design, breathtaking HDR photos, the amazing artwork of some iconic character and so on.

These types of lists are always artwork centric, meaning they focus on the artwork rather than the artist. In doing so, the author of these posts fails to understand just how much more content they could potentially have.

Instead of focusing on a huge range of, for example, minimalistic web designs they could focus on a few designers who have experience designing minimalistic websites. This will provide much more insight into the techniques and methods of this group of particular designers; rather than just simply throwing one image of an artist’s work into a sea of similar images.

Not only does this give your visitors a better understanding of a certain style; it can also get your visitors to become even more enthusiastic about the designers who produce these wonderful pieces; thus actually helping out the designers further.

When an author provides a whole background check on any one, or several types of, designers and showcases a few of their best pieces all in one article that author is providing a greater tribute to those artists.

The possibilities of doing artist, rather than artwork, focused articles are completely up to you. It could become an interview, a tribute to those who influence you, exposing artists who are relatively new or unknown and deserve some spotlight or an idea all your own.

An example, for myself, would be to write an article describing how Eric Jordan, the head honcho over at 2Advanced Studios, has been an influence to my designs. It would be a much more heartfelt, appropriate and respectable acknowledgment to show what about Eric Jordan’s work makes me so gaga via precise examples. If I instead threw a bunch of 2Advanced’s best work in with twenty other flash designs I found in a gallery, combined them in a single blog post and called it a day, it would be disrespectful to say the least.

So how about some samples? Here are some instances of blogs that have been doing these types of “artist first” articles to give you a better idea of what is possible.

• Inspiration Category from Psdtuts+ – It doesn’t get much more artist focused than an interview with the actual artist. Each interview includes terrific visual examples of the artist’s work plus sometimes a few extras. Interviews like these can be found within most areas of the Envato Network.
• Ask The Expert from Design Informer – These are some great articles that Design Informer has recently started. Take an expert, focus on something they do great and let the helpful insights rollout.

Through Your Own Experience

You know these types of articles by their titles. Articles which are full of tips, apps, tutorials which are 150% guaranteed to make you a ninja, pirate, rockstar, space monkey in your selected career. You can smell the discharge of these posts from the keyword heavy titles alone. Articles such as these are usually just rehashed ideas from other designs blogs, particularly the most recent popular posts, done over again in point form.

My major beef with this type of article is the ton of hype from the onset and no actual work to back it up; it’s just a list of ideas related to some current flavor of the month topic.

These types of articles seriously come across as cheesy self help books; “Twenty-five Nuclear Proof Methods to Turn Your Life Around by Yesterday as Taught to Me by 400 Year Old Tree.” I could make the title longer but I think you get the point.

Where is the actual real world experience to fuel these insights from the author? I would rather have one solid example of how the author came to a certain conclusion based on their own experiences than a hundred tips they found on various other blogs. A single, fresh, tutorial from an author showing how they solved a clients unique problem is much more beneficial to the reader than a list of useless tutorials from a Google search.

If you want to talk about apps, take an app, take it apart and write a review. What did you like about the app? What didn’t you like about the app? I don’t care if it was downloaded the most, that’s not a valid reason for me to use it; tell me why you think it’s useful. Clear out the cobwebs in your melon and get those gears moving.

Of all the list type of articles, if you haven’t noticed by now, regurgitated lists of old ideas, with no character of their own are definitely tops on my ignore list. It’s very plain and simple to understand that going over one item at a time, in detail, is much more interesting than throwing out a bunch of items into the dark and letting your audience walk blindly into the void.

Come up with your own solutions. Let me hear your own experiences. Tell me why you recommend something. For some examples, these websites have got you covered in the fresh and insightful department.

• Portfolio & Blog of Soh Tanaka – Soh Tanaka is one innovative developer. The link above is to his blog’s tutorial section, each tutorial is very well presented and fresh. I use a few of his jQuery scripts on this website.
• Product Reviews From FreelanceSwitch – FreelanceSwitch has plenty of simple, easy to read reviews that I find useful. Although I prefer a review done by a group of experts, a review by one expert is good too. If loving blogs from the Envato Network is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

A Matter of Opinion

What’s the difference between a matter of opinion and speaking through your own experiences? Teaching your audience through an experience in your life is different than stating an opinion based on your thoughts.

The types of articles I am focusing on for this section are mainly those that try to point out trends based off of the latest design gallery submissions. There is not a lot of detail as to if the trend is positive or negative, just a lot of bottom kissing.

Articles like these tend to persuade designers into doing what’s currently hot and not doing something timeless. The authors take an element of a design, for instance a large footer and explain why every design should have it because all the cool kids are doing it. The author will then proceed to list a bunch of images that show big footers from all the cool kids.

I could write a whole other article solely about how trends are a waste of time, but that’s for another day. The point I’m going for now is that anybody can go to a design gallery and point out how everyone is copying everyone else. How about some actual insight as to if the actual element is good for the design, if the element was required, if the element was utilized properly?

Another aspect of trend lists are predictions for the next year, such as what the next big thing on the web will be. I’m all for someone stating their opinion on how they feel about the future of any technology, however, if you’re going to state that opinion at least make an attempt to raise a few eyebrows. Don’t tell me mobile optimized websites, HTML 5 or CSS 3 will be the next hot thing for the web in 2010 because it’s an insult.

Instead, go out on a limb and tell me what you think the future holds for a product or an application or a social network or heck even your own website. Tell me what you think and not what everyone else knows.

Be the person who’s willing to say what everyone is thinking but too afraid to blog. People are going to be critical of you, but so what? People will criticize you no matter what you say; so be bold about it!

Now without further ado, here come those examples.

• Bold Web Predictions for 2010 from David Walsh Blog – David Walsh was bold, he blogged about some predictions on what 2010 held for websites like Digg, Twitter and Facebook. Some might agree and some might disagree, but Walsh’s opinion is his and his alone.
• Call to Action Buttons: Examples and Best Practices – When Smashing Magazine puts together an Examples and Best Practices post, I’m always interested. They take an element of design, go over the do’s and don’ts and back them up with solid examples.
• Smashing Magazine Killed The Community (Or Maybe It Was Me) – The article that pulled no punches. It doesn’t get much more opinionated than this.

Users United

This article has, for the most part, been targeted at authors who publish poor content within the blog and hopefully the winds of change will clear out this mess quickly. The power to make real changes is, and always will be, in the hands of the user.

The comment box is all a visitor needs to let a blog know what they really think of their content; be sure to let them know. If the blog owner refuses to change their habits, take it a step further and unsubscribe to website’s RSS or stop visiting the website or don’t follow them on Twitter; take your pick. Nagging the author doesn’t do much good, it’s the more subtle things that make a noticeable impact.

If you are really disappointed about the content on a blog, write about what your opinions in your own blog. Just makes sure your thoughts aren’t in a negative “you suck” way, instead provide constructive criticism.

A admirable blog will always acknowledge its critics and do it positively as they understand they wouldn’t exist without their reliable readers. These admirable websites will make an attempt to better their content; give them some flexibility to let the change occur. If the blog was just paying you lip service, more and more of their readers will pick up on it, which makes the blog look even worse.

In my own Twitter habits, I have started sharing articles only if I have read them and find them beneficial; they’re also definitely not simple lists. A effortless list will get no press from me and perhaps if other users did the same, this type of content would soon become a craze of ancient times.

You’re the one holding the hammer, slam that last nail in coffin and start shoveling on the dirt. It’s time to say good riddance to boring blog content.