Blog Semester: Grade Your Content

Recently, I posted an article emphasizing the significance of posting good content. Prior to that, there were many other articles that talked about content. However, I realized that we have missed something important about good content.

In short, I forgot to mention about the value addition it does for the readers. A good post is something that actually helps people to learn and not just attract traffic. I hope you understand the difference between the two. Along with efforts to collect facts, the blogger should have spent much time thinking about the facts and his opinions on the topic.

Overall, a good post is something that has been fabricated with extensive research; intellectual thinking with ease to understand which ultimately adds real value to your blog and teaches something important. However, this isn’t a perfect definition. I am just pointing what we missed in our previous posts.

I felt pointing out the missing parts was quite necessary because lately the blogging quality seems to be just pathetic. Instead of focusing on traffic, I tried assessing the quality of many blogs and the results were quite disappointing. Here are some general observations:

Regurgitated Thoughts

This is a common trend among bloggers these days. Instead of bringing in new thoughts and sharing it with people, bloggers seems to dump repeated ideas that have been used by 50 other blogs. Sometimes more. Here is a tip for serious bloggers. If you really want to succeed as a blogger and want to attract regular traffic for a long period, develop your own content. Do not copy material. May be your reproduction might not be noticed initially. Slowly but surely, your readers would know that the content is not original.

Many Subscribers = Good Content?

1500 RSS readers doesn’t mean that the blog provides superlative content. That’s the generally tendency we have acquired these days. Whenever we see a blog with huge traffic and several subscribers, we assume that the site contains very useful information. Though it’s true in most of the cases, it’s not a rule. I know many sites that have over 700 subscribers but the quality is diminishing every week.

And what’s the reason for such an irresponsible behavior? This is what usually happens. You work hard to post the best quality content in order to attract traffic and compel readers to subscribe. However, after few months, you don’t feel the necessity to write genuine articles because you have enough subscribers with you.

Get Quick Clicks By List Posts

This is a simple way owned by bloggers to get huge amount of clicks. For instance, post articles like 102 ways to become a better blogger. This post will further have 102 links. So, your blog eventually gets numerous clicks. Yes, it is really a very good way to attract traffic. However, as a blogger my aim is to educate people and teach them some significant lessons everyday, not just attract traffic. I guess, most of the bloggers have lost the essence of blogging.

We do this to attract traffic, even if it means depleting the quality of our posts. What else does the list posts suggest? Is there any value addition done by such posts? You are providing an article that just has links to your other articles. Is this a post?

Test and Grade Your Content

There aren’t many measuring devices to gauge the quality of our content. Hence, I thought of coming up with a grading system. This isn’t to compare your quality with others. It can be considered as a tool for improvement. This grading system is highly depended on the nature of your comments.

• A+:
  The comments under you post include discussion among readers about the things mentioned in the post. People answer to other’s questions. They suggest ideas and appreciate views of other readers. They don’t totally agree, however don’t totally disagree as well. No or minimum “Good post” type comments.
• B:
  This grade is acquired when many people post comments under your article. Majority of them agrees with the writer. Mot many “Good post” comments.
• C:
  There are some comments with few discussing the idea. Others just suppot you in a sentence.
• D:
  Most of the comments are “Good Post” type.
• E:
  No or very few comments with “Good post.”

I guess this grading system is quite interesting. I had great fun coming up with such gauging system. Why not have a discussion and let each other know about their own grades. Let’s have some debate, suggestion, and rating here.