Tips from the founder of the blog England, England.

10 rules of a successful blogger from Vadim Lukomsky

premier league england

Sports.ru

Tips from the founder of the blog England, England.

Don't try to be like a classic journalist

“Every day the blogosphere is getting better, the print media is getting worse. Only an idiot can fail to notice this,” Kara Swisher (one of the most respected journalists in the world – founder of Re/code, ex-Wall Street Journal columnist, owner of a Wikipedia page, more than 1 million followers on Twitter). Adam Bate (started as a blogger – now works for Sky Sports, sometimes consults for Neville and Carragher before MNF) spoke of this, citing the inability of journalists to adapt to the changes brought about by new media and the underestimation of niche knowledge as the reason.

That is, if you write what you once read in the newspapers, you are clearly doing something wrong.

First, in terms of working with information. 20% of information, 80% of beautifully written water is the old media formula. Previously, the audience was forced to drink water, with the advent of the Internet they have access to 120% of the information (more than it is physically possible to process) – now the audience needs help in selecting important information and its high-quality explanation.

Secondly, in terms of presenting information. Even serious text needs links, pictures, videos that can refresh and complement it. Not needed – water.

Examples of this mistake are still emerging tour or match review blogs, where most of the text is a list of events, often even with minutes, diluted with terrible comparisons and boring retelling of Wikipedia biographies.

Write in plain language

Units are able to use difficult language constructions without killing the essence of the text (definitely not me). These people have already written a lot and are known for their talent. 99.9% – you are not one of them, so use the simplest possible language. Here are some helpful tips about how to learn to write clearly and without junk words.

Typical language mistakes of beginners are attempts to fit indecently many thoughts into one sentence, the use of phrases like “it is worth noting” (notice without warning about it), “in my opinion” (your text is your opinion), the abuse of the words “your”, “ yours”, etc. (if ownership is obvious, don't use it).

Choose the right topic

It is better to write about what you know well. In general, it is excellent if there is a demand for a topic and is not satisfied in the media. Noticing this discrepancy in audience needs and media content, blogger Michael Cox (Zonal Marking) set out to become the world's best football tactics writer (now writing for ESPN and The Guardian). I think the same motive Kieran O'Connor and Victor Smithexplaining football economics. There is also an exclusive Russian example – one of the most successful blogs in the history of the Tribuna about TV and commentators (their discussion is the weakness of our audience; in England there is no similar).

The most successful examples require strong immersion in a niche topic, often even special knowledge – yes, they can collect the maximum audience. But this is not the only way. If you like to watch Cardiff City matches, you know a lot about the team, this is also a topic. Following the rules, you will also collect a good audience.

No one is interested in your opinion – put up and adapt

Nobody thinks Chelsea won the 10th match in a row-I’ll go read what the blogger athletes is thinking about this. . People go to the site to read about Chelsea, and not read you about Chelsea. Only “I admire Comte, Pedro has recently well done, and I would invite someone else to the place of Caichille”, you will scare away those who do not agree with you, and those who want to know something that did not notice themselves. Most likely, you gradually scare off all.

Minimum – the opinion should be deeper, constructive and original. Ideally, it should only be part of the quality work with information.

Know your reader

The council has two values.

First: you need to be able to represent the average reader of the material – to understand what information for him would be completely new, what he could already hear what he knows for sure. New information should dominate the text, and we will throw out the clarifications in the spirit of “Wembley” – the largest stadium of England ”on the sports platform, although on another site the explanation would be appropriate.

Second: the blogger himself collects the audience (unlike the journalist who provides it with the media). Everything is slightly different on the rostrum (for which the site is not often said to the site) – a blogger is guaranteed a certain number of readers. But the general principle works – starting with 100 readers is cooler and easier than with 0, but only it depends on whether they will turn into 1000. Love, know and listen to the audience, react to comments and other types of feedback, but do not consider yourself smarter readers.

Stories, quotes and rare facts – your friends

Any thought is easier to convey, using a little -known story or quote. If Ronald Kuman managed to speculate about the weak/strengths of the 4-3-3 scheme, which you recall in the text, the arguments are acquired with a quote. All the same, they will remain disagreed with the thought, but even they will learn something new, useful, pushing to think.

Where to get? Ideally, to collect in an archive that is replenished in the process of reading books and texts. In practice, everything will not work out everything, all and sometimes you have to look for a story/quote for a particular case. Here, they didn’t come up with anything better than Google – do not forget about the tools of expanded search, the search by dates often helps.

Use talents

You program – write Football analysis program. You own photoshop – do it Blog with a chip of blog. Draw – Draw Something on the topic.Quite easily, niche knowledge is transformed into talents (about judging, economy, fashion). In a broad sense, talent can even be trolling skill.

read a lot

1. You replenish the baggage of stories / facts. 2. Get acquainted with new formats. 3. Feel the relevance of topics. 4. Looking for ideas for your own posts.

write a lot

10,000 hour rule nobody canceled. In addition to the craving for self-improvement, there is a more banal principle – write so that you are not forgotten.

make out

This includes choosing a headline, promotional image, promotional text, proper division of text into paragraphs (no too large or too small), selection of photos (and use of the correct size) within the text, division of text into subparagraphs (if necessary), use of bold, italic, underlining and quotes. The most important thing is the title and the announcement image, as they directly affect the number of readers (in theory, the announcement text too, but I don’t think that it is often read).

The title should tell exactly what the text is about. Conciseness and a big name / title are also pluses. If you use a quote as part of the title, choose a unique statement, not a cliché that can be said about any match/player/club. We fought with all our might, for the sake of the coach. The interview of the best player in the world is an example of a terrible headline. The quote is a cliché; if the player is so famous, it is better to use the last name and put it at the beginning, removing the word “interview”. The announcement picture is a bright photo of the hero of the text. If you have a choice, choose the most famous/relevant one.

3 texts that will help more than my stupid advice:

How to become a couch journalist and not screw up – instructions from Stanislav Rynkevich. I agree so strongly that I shamelessly stole half of the text.

Journalism at the intersection of sports and pop culture – a cool lecture by Vitaly Suvorov.

Write, cut – once again a link to the text about a simple language.