SEOenthusiast

Today we’ve got a guest post from a good friend of mine, Dr. Erika Pryor. Erika and I met a couple months ago through Twitter and our respective blogs, and have since become fast friends. I’ve had the pleasure of guest hosting on her radio show, and now I’m trying to return the favor (although a guest post isn’t nearly as cool as radio).

Erika is an Independent Digital Communication consultant who works with a variety of business professionals and small businesses on digital identity, social media, blogging, content development and more. She blogs at “Erika Pryor At Large.” She is also host and content director of Internet radio show, Digital 411 — heard exclusively on TalktainmentRadio.com, recorded live 10am EST, Saturday mornings. It’s a “soft tech” radio show exploring what’s happening on the social web from the user’s perspective.

And now, I give up the floor to Erika…

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I’m pretty stoked to be guest posting on the Agent SEO blog. Since I know enough to be dangerous when it comes to SEO — but I’m lethal when it comes to the social media side of things I couldn’t resist the opportunity to share my love of social media with Jake’s readers. So, thanks Jake for the invite. (And I figured you wouldn’t mind having one less blog article to think about while starting your new “suit and tie” gig!)

So, let’s get to it. Why opinion blogging has to be more than just attitude on paper? I’m not sure what lingo you prefer, opinion or personality bloggers, but whichever they are I don’t much care for them — that is until recently. In a rare admission I declare here that I was a bit of a blogger snob. (This won’t surprise people who actually know me IRL!) I still am. I’m typically interested in reading blogs to learn something new, and frequently the content I found on personality blogger sties was a little contrived. I felt as though they were just spitting out some attitude on paper to incite throngs of readers to react in disparate opposition to one another.

BORING!

I mean really, isn’t that what traditional media already does? As bloggers — we have to continue to be a little outside the mainstream in order to keep mainstream media on their toes. Right? We’ll I wasn’t exactly sure.

So, like a good blogger, I experimented with on my platform. I wrote a few pieces relatively close together less on the informative side, and more on the sharp opinion side. Here are some of the titles to titillate you “Now we’re concerned about mediocrity: My response to Why Rebecca Black is Every one’s Fault,” and “Why Face time is essential to your niche community.” As the top rated posts on my blog during the month of March, I realized why opinion bloggers are making inroads with readers.

First, the ones that are doing well are doing so because they are honest. For example, a personality blogger that did help change my opinion on things. Sarah Storer of The Naked Red Head. She’s all about some honesty. What I appreciate about her work is that she’s brutally honest. She has this whole theory of soul puking which you have to check out. None the less, opinion can function well when it’s an authentic or honest take on something.

Next, I think personality blogging can really work well to expand the voice of a blog. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been writing on the same topics for a while and have gotten a little bored. In thinking about how to expand the range of topics I write about with alienating my readers, I’ve found some success with including more sharp opinion pieces. This can be a way to expand your topic family without going off the deep end.

Finally, to be a good personality blogger, you need to have more than one platform. Okay, this might seem a little strange, but consider each social media and traditional media channel has it’s own personality with audiences that have expectations. This is really another great way to expand your audience and reach because you’re revealing different aspects of your personality and using the medium to help shape that growth. That seems like a pretty smart way to operate.

So, what do you think about personality bloggers? Any good or horrific sites you’d like to share?

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Thanks for the post Erika! It came at a time of great need, with my wedding coming up, school, job change, etc. However, the job is going well so far, although I may never be able to get used to the suit and tie.

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