Checklist for your posts

I'm going take a few moments to share with you the "content checklist" I've developed over the years. These are attributes I try to embed into each post on Brainshrub.com.

In the long run, the material that drives the highest amount traffic to this site are not the most ironic, partisan, sexy or timely: Instead, they are the ones that match the content checklist the closest.

Where's the funny?

Unless the subject involves children in pain, there is a nugget of humor in every situation. Find it.

Subtle humor is better than sarcasm because it rewards the reader for paying attention.

50/50 rule = Timeless vs relevance.

It's easy to rant about a particular politician, but a decade from now who's going to care?

Your posts should be relevant to what is going on in the world AND have a timeless quality so that years from now people will still identify with it.

One way to accomplish this is to reference one, or more, of these timeless qualities: Love, joy, social struggle, justice, birth, hope, triumph, child-rearing, community, sharing and grief.

Engage the senses.

In blogging, this does not only mean describing smells and touch with words - it also means using multi-media such as images, videos and sound clips.

It also describes how you lay out the page. See this post about that very topic.

New information.

Repeat after me: "If I have nothing new to add, it isn't worth blogging about."

This is the hardest part of blogging for many writers. What can you tell your readers that they can't find somewhere else?

One way to do this is to find a niche, and expand from there.

For example: it is better to become the to-go-to blog about an obscure district race, and grow your audience out from there, then be a "life and politics" blog that doesn't appeal to anyone.

Orwell neutral

You should strive to write so that even your ideological polar opposites are not turned off by your writing. This means abandoning empty phrases like "fascist", "communist", and using long words where simple ones will do.

Read Orwell's Politics and the English Language to understand what I'm talking about

No "I"s, Lots of "you"s

Get rid of as many references to yourself as possible.

Don't tell the reader what to think, your writing should be like a mirror where the reader sees herself.

Don't be cruel.

Always take the high-road. Even if the person you are writing about is a complete jackass, don't say so. Simply report the facts, insert a bit of humor and let the reader come to her own conclusion.

The above list is what I've observed works best for a political blog - but they are not law writen in cyber-stone. They are a good guide, however.

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