Continuing with the question of interestingness, I’m trying to think of the characteristics that would make a blog post interesting. Obviously, it needs to be interesting to me, but what I’ve found from years on Twitter is that what is interesting to me is not always interesting to other people.
In a blog post, it seems to me that some of the characteristics that might make a post interesting are
- Originality: simply reposting other people’s work is boring. These days, others are likely to have already seen them anyway, so what’s the point?
- Connection: links are good, as long as they are accompanied by original work. People are interested in ideas that are connected to the ideas they have been reading about recently.
- Real world element: my sister posts recipes and fiber arts designs. A connection to the physical world makes the post relevant to what the reader does away from the Internet.
- Pictures: people like to look at pictures, and they can also help with understanding of an idea.
- Not too short: if it’s too short, it can go into a tweet.
- Not too long: if it’s more than a page or two, people won’t read the whole thing, unless it’s truly awesome.
I’ll update this list with anything else I can think of in the next few days. Feel free to add anything else in the comments. My next task seems to me to be crafting a blog post that combines all of these elements.