Whenever I stretch myself enough to get out of the comfort zone, wonderful things are happening to me. As you already know, I am on a trip to Japan these days. Whenever I am on longer trips I usually stretch myself a lot out of the comfort zone, by projecting my activities into a complete realm of unknown. This trip is even more demanding as I barely know the language and find that getting over small tasks like eating and finding directions is quite a challenge for me. It surely gets me out of the comfort zone, that I can tell you.
The good news is that each time I’m getting out of the comfort zone I find new perspectives to old stuff. I start to look at things I already know from different angles. Of course, I already wrote about that in the travel as a personal development tool, so if you want to find out more you can read on. In today’s post I’ll share a refreshing perspective about my blog posts. In fact, this is a fresher perspective of all blog posts, not only mines.
Your Blog Post Is A Traveler
Once you hit the “Publish” button, something magic happens to your article: it starts to travel. It becomes independent and it engages on a journey of its own. Your blog post becomes a traveler. And everything you wrote into it will carry your message in a special way. Here’s how various components of your blog post will influence your traveler’s story.
Keywords And Tags
Your keywords and tags are the invisible structure of your blog post. In the blogging world, every traveler is defined by a series of invisible attributes and those are the keywords. No one really see those before seeing the traveler but most of the time the traveler is found because of those tags.
Every time you chose your keywords and tags think of what you would like your traveler to be found. Are those tags relevant for the traveler? Are they enhancing his story or another story? It will be easier to be found by other people?
Paragraphs And Images
Those are the visible appearance of your article. The other people will actually see and perceive your traveler based on these forms. It’s not about the actual message but mostly how it is presented, it’s the fine and subtle clothing that shapes your traveler’s body.
Is it properly dressed? Those paragraphs are aligned with the traveler type and gender? Is it fashionable? Remember to check your blog post structure every time you’re ready to publish, you’ll always find some small adjustments to make.
Links
Links are the hooks your traveler send to other traveler or other countries. These are pointers that your traveler holds for proving his friendship and / or his grudges (in case of linkbaiting). In other words, think at the links in your posts as some friendly pats on the back to other guys.
Are those pats polite? Are they understandable? The other guy will benefit from those links? In case you’re linking to your own post, you’re telling the right story? Keep in mind that your popularity might be judged by the number and quality of your pats on the backs sometimes.
Categories
Your blog post categories act like countries, in the sense of defined territories. Your traveler comes from those areas. It is defined by the categories in the same way we think at citizenship. In case you’re using only tags and not categories, this is even more important as they will shape its invisible structure too.
Are your countries correct? Your blog post is comfortable with its categories? Your traveler is having a real citizenship? It is this citizenship in sync with your blog post values? In case it’s not, your blog post will be hard to recognize?
Title
The title of your blog post is the exact address. If categories are the countries, the titles are the exact address where the traveler can be found. Most of the time, this address must be unique in order to keep your traveler’s house easy to find.
Are your titles easy to remember (that’s fundamental for an address, you know)? Are your titles unique? If not, your traveler might share a house with several other travelers which can make him a little difficult to spot.
Downloadables
If you have downloadables in your post, those are usually perceived like gifts. Every people on Earth loves gifts. They can be anything, from simple diagrams or mind maps to complicated plugins or complete ebooks. But your traveler is carrying a gift now, which will make him much more appealing.
Are your posts carrying gifts? Is not always mandatory but when you can add some gifts to your traveler, don’t hesitate, it will make his journey much more easier. A traveler with gifts is usually a very easy to recognize and can become famous in time.
The Words
That’s the real message, that’s what your traveler speaks. That’s your blog post story. If your traveler is telling a complicated story, people will stop listening. Even if he’s well dressed, from a famous country and with a respectable address, even if he’s carrying gifts and he’s friendly enough, if his story is boring, people won’t listen.
A traveler with a nice, entertaining message can come from a less popular country, can share an address with many other travelers (if his message stands out of course) can have no friends in the beginning and can be unfashionably dressed. You can take care of these later, but the message is crucial.
Is your traveler ready to tell YOUR story? Is your blog post in good shape, prepared to carry your message? If not, make this traveler happy to hit the road for you.
This Post Mind Map
Well, that’s a gift – I’m trying to bribe you, right – a mind map for this post.
The Anatomy Of A Blog Post (2958 downloads)Keep it closer to you and have a look from time to time. Or even make it into a habit and write your posts as if they’re set to travel the world. Round and round. 🙂
@Evelyn Lim I was pretty busy during the trip, as you already saw in the post about my first impressions, but this idea came so crystal clear in my mind than it actually took no more than 30 minutes to write it down. It would have been a shame to miss it 😉
You are certainly one dedicated blogger! I thought you’d be too busy having fun in Japan to be thinking of your readers. Obviously, I was wrong 🙂 You are still writing posting articles!
It is certainly true that a message about life can just come from even a very ordinary person or someone from a less developed country. Thanks for your gems!
Evelyn Lim’s last blog post..Confessions Of A Shopaholic Ego
@nutuba I know the feeling of a dormant article waking up, I felt many times 🙂
@Angela thanks for the nice words and I’m really look forward to come to Hawaii this year.
@BunnygotBlog you are so right, there are some many types of traveling out there, in physical countries like I do it right now, back in time by reading as you do it, or just by the power of our thoughts.
Jonathan | EnlightenYourDay.com: traveling is one of the best ways to discover yourself. I already wrote that in travel as a personal development tool post, you might want to check that too.
@Stephe – The Rat Race Trap: thanks for the nice words. Ultimately, a blog is about writing, I can only agree with that, but writing in a little more structured way can create miracles. In your blog traffic and not only there 🙂
@Daniel thanks for the nice words, it’s easier to find unexpected analogies when you’re doing (more or less) unexpected traveling 😉
@Joe well, thank you for the link love and I must say I do enjoy 31DBBB challenge very much 🙂
@Jonathan – Advanced Life Skills: yeah, the keywords are extremely important, and not from a SEO perspective only. As your blog grows you will want to keep a certain identity beyond the actual posts, and that would be easier to create and maintain using keywords.
@Kikolani Thanks for your comment. MindManager has an option to directly print your mind map as a PDF. I don’t know about the viewer but the software that allow mind map creation (that would be MindManager) can do that. As a matter of fact, I will be running some promotions here pretty soon involving MindManager… 🙂
Hi Dragos, This is a fascinating analogy. You’re right — once our blog post is out there, it’s REALLY out there. At the point of release, we have no more control over it.
Case in point: An article I wrote last year, which hadn’t received any hits for weeks or perhaps months, suddenly received 70+ hits in two days last week. I have no idea why. I guess that article was tired of just sitting and wanted to move on. 🙂
nutuba’s last blog post..The Fluffy Dozen
As blogging evolves, and more interesting, intelligent people join in, it’s a good idea to have some important guideposts along the way. Thanks, Dragos, and happy travels! 🙂
Angela’s last blog post..2012: A Perfect Storm?
Hi Dragos,
I hope all is well and you are enjoying every moment in Japan.
This analogy of travel and our blog I have recognized for sometime.
In researching some of the history I feel very close not only because of my own interest but how people created bonds with others. How important we all are to each other.
Something a person may have accomplished two hundred years effects many of us today. It is a never ending trail.
Recently I read a biography of a doctor who studied in France. He visited a school in Paris for the blind he came back to the States with a dream to build such a school in Boston. He succeed his mission with the help of many other devoted men. Of whom I have also started to read as much as I can about. I love to read how lives are entwined.
I guess what I am saying with one thought or words of encouragement we can touch someone’s life in a positive way sometimes it is an exchange that isn’t expected.
So rather traveling on a jet or back in time in a book. It is a rebirth- when you least expect it.
BunnygotBlog’s last blog post..Helen Keller
I enjoyed your creative thoughts on these two subjects. When I was traveling, away from everything and everyone that had inflence in my life, that I found my own voice in its purest form.
Cheers
Jonathan
Jonathan | EnlightenYourDay.com’s last blog post..Yes, I love all things Social Media.
Dragos, Wonderful metaphor! I love it. Like Jonathan, I tend to just write. I need to pay more attention to the trip! Thanks for sharing this.
Stephen – Rat Race Trap’s last blog post..25 Ways To Enrich Your Brain Experience
Dragos —
As Kristi noted above, you’ve managed to create an analogy for a blog post we wouldn’t expect. Interesting exercise.
Congratulations! This blog has been linked to as a part of the ProBlogger 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge.
Joe’s last blog post..31 Bloggers Participating in the ProBlogger 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge
Great analogy about blog posts. I liked the mind map of it as well… that really summed up the article visually, which was nice. Is there any chance it can be printed out on PDF? I wasn’t sure how to open it, so I downloaded some MindJet software. Definitely a great tool to visual the elements of postings.
~ Kristi
Kikolani’s last blog post..Twitter Lingo & Tips For New Twitter & Facebook Users
What an appropriate analogy Dragos,
You have me wondering how well I do in these areas. I should probably do more keyword research and other SEO optimization, but mostly I just write. This illustration really helped me to visualize an of these aspects and their relationship to one another.
Jonathan – Advanced Life Skills’s last blog post..30 Ways to Quickly Improve Your Life
@smashill when you’re actually traveling – especially long distance – the perception of life as a journey is even stronger. I’m pretty enjoying myself in Japan although this ws only the 2nd full day here. I think I have at least 3-4 posts about this trip lined up already 🙂
@Darran usually, people are hit by what I write, glad I’m just “tickled” you with this one 🙂
Nice image of a blog post. It’s pretty philosphical to think of the life as a journey, but it actually is and you never know where the road is taking you, as you only pick the general direction and everything else works out along the way.
Nice to hear you are well in Japan, hope you have some fun there! 🙂
A very unique and creative way to describe posts. It tickled me and it would be a good lesson for those completely new to blogging.
Darran’s last blog post..Learning from Successful Bloggers