Why Reading Others' Articles Is An Investment For Your Own Blog

in #steemit6 years ago

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When it comes to choosing blogging as a career, you just simply can't help but be utterly grateful for all the wonderful people who genuinely take their time to read your articles and tell you how much value it brought to them.

But even after all the genuine interactions with your readers, you also can't ignore the fact that more often than not, some people just comment for the sake of it and not necessarily because they liked your article.

If that wasn't enough, the good ol' spam never seems to leave your sight. It downright sucks to have these kinda people comment on your posts. Look, I get it, some people just don't wanna go through the entire article, but then why even choose blogging as a career in the first place?

The whole point of blogging or any sort of career related to writing, is to learn, relate and share with other people. Moreover, it's not like anyone is forcing you to read a certain kind of article. You are free to discover and read from your own interests and preferences.

Reading As An Investment

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Your time is one of the most important resource you ever had and ever will have, and that's why it's necessarily to invest it wisely in the right people, in the right direction, and in the right place.

The time you spend reading someone's article is an investment too because an article that contains value, gives you knowledge, which is a service that you can use, even if it's just theoretical.

Just blindly commenting "good post" or "nice post" is not only mediocre, but frankly, is totally valueless. All you're doing when you write this is letting the author know that you didn't really read their article which makes your comment practically useless for them.

On the other hand, people who truly read the articles are much more likely to make a connection with the author, because genuinely reading the article allows them to write an equally genuine and meaningful reply, by which they are also increasing their own chances of being found by other alike bloggers.

The Better You Read, The Better You Write

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It's no secret that the better you read, the better you write and therefore the better you earn. Notice how I said "the better you read" and not "the more you read". You could go on and read for hours and hours in a day and still end up writing mediocre content.

The biggest factor is the kind of content you read and invest your time into. No matter how much you read, it won't do any good if the quality of that article is poor. Read those articles which you can learn something from and use into your own work with creative differences.

In a career like blogging where you constantly have to interact with new people in order to make your own blog be discovered and explored by others, it's super important to learn from the elites. In case of Steemit, whales and dolphins. Learn their behavioral patterns and observe their interactions with the community.

The better you write, the more valuable and genuine audience you can gather. Occasionally, you may even gather the attention of the elites and that's why quality should be your main priority. It doesn't matter if you have loads of content. If it's not worth reading, no one will invest their time in your blog. Simple and straight.

Reading Helps Develop New Ideas

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Not only is active reading really healthy for your mental health, but is also profitable for your professional blogging career, because it helps you develop new ideas for your upcoming articles.

The best part is, it doesn't necessarily have to be anything complicated or sophisticated. Many of us here, including myself, like to share our life stories with their audience in order to relate with them and share a mutual understanding.

Reading about someone else's life gives you a great opportunity to share your own experiences as well. It gives you the ability to empathize with others' words and make a connection with your own audience who have felt the same way you have.

In long term, that's exactly what matters the most. To build an audience that understands you and are drawn to your blog over and over, and can't wait for you to post another article because they can relate and learn so much from your words that they never feel like you will ever take them for granted.

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You hit the nail on the head right here. Reading other people's work is an investment in your own writing. Try reading what interests you, and look for someone new to read once in a while. That's how you grow as a writer and a blogger. I've been doing this for 12 years. In that time, I've written thousands of posts. I still like to read a well-written masterpiece. Keep up the good work.

Thank you :D

I do believe in following your own interests. Trying to be someone else just because they are earning more than you is probably one of the biggest mistakes you can possibly do. The reason those people are earning more in the first place is because they followed their own curiosity and didn't let money shape the person they are, and that's exactly how we all should be.

I agree with the premise of your post. By engaging, you are also networking with other people on the platform.

I think one of the main problems here is that everyone wants to be a creator and not a consumer since there is money involved. With bid bots running around, it gave people another way to play solitaire in the system, but my experience has shown me that having diehard followers beat spending time to bid any day.

I think most of us appreciate interaction from other people, or even critique of our works. Maybe I'm wrong?

For people like me, I am more interested in being entertained by the content I'm exposed to. Although, I do enjoy blogging casually.

Totally agree with you. BidBots sure are fast and easy, but that's exactly why they can't offer real satisfaction. Having a genuine audience, on the other hand, that really cares about you and what you have to say, is what really matters in the long run.

Besides, BidBots can't really give you new ideas through a deep conversation, can they?

Not yet anyways. The technology isn't there yet. lol

@ayushjalan,

There are so many gems in this piece that I could spend hours giving you my supporting opinions!

But I will limit it to these:

  • Time and the freedom to spend it as we choose is the only real wealth. Money is just an amount of "stored personal time", an economic tool for deployment in the future - the means for where, when and how we can live our lives.

  • All good writers are voracious readers.

  • Either honor the writer with a relevant comment that reflects your thoughts about the post or just upvote and shut up.

  • Spam and begging - even through an attempt of "coercion through guilt" reciprocal voting/following, is annoying and quite frankly, in bad taste.

  • RE: Reading, Commenting and New Ideas:

https://steemit.com/steemit/@jaichai/a-word-or-two-about-commenting#@vimukthi/re-jaichai-a-word-or-two-about-commenting-20180626t223029744z

https://steemit.com/science/@jaichai/kicking-around-ideas-with-vimukthi-a-scary-smart-and-awesome-dude?sort=author_reputation

Excellent post. Resteemed.

Namaste, my friend.

JaiChai

Yup. Totally agree. How we choose to spend our time is the real wealth. Look at any successful person who has ever lived and you'll find the same thing: how they were wise to spend their time. They knew the value of it and how to invest it not in mediocrity, but in greatness.

Thank you for such an amazing comment! Really appreciate it :)

"The better you read, the better you write."

That's an interesting concept to me. I've always been both a reader and a writer, so I just assume the two go hand in hand. However, I guess it's probably possible to be a good reader and a poor writer. I'm not sure though. As a former English teacher, I know that reading ability is linked to vocabulary, and vocabulary has a lot to do with writing ability, but I believe there is also an aspect of organization that has nothing to do with reading ability which makes some writers stand out from others.

There's also a unique way of looking at the world that some poor readers are able to convey through their limited writing skills. Hmmm...

I realize this is largely away from your point of reading quality materials to create quality content...but your blog made me ponder. :-)

Thanks for posting!

That's an interesting thought and I agree to some point. Even though writing and reading do go hand in hand, one isn't a necessity for the other. You can still write well enough if you are able to express yourself without any resistance.

But it's also true that reading enhances your writing abilities. I think the point I'm trying to make here is, you can still write good without reading on a regular basis, but you can write a whole lot better when you actually do read!

Yes, I can 100% agree with that! :-)

Very interesting concept. up voted, followed and resteemed.

Thank you so much :)

Yes this is all very true. I tend to learn a lot here reading other post and get ideas that have lead me to make a lot of my post. Also you learn tricks and styles. If you enjoyed reading it then chances are others do so you can try to learn to have the same follow and feel to your work.

Rightly said. The more people you discover with quality work, the more are your chances of applying some of their styles and tricks to improve the quality of your own blog. It's all about learning from other like-minded people :)

Rightly said you r inviting other people to visit ur blog. Great word @ayushjalan

Thank you :)

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The more you read..the more you write. Reading helps you in gaining some i sight on any subject. And further you can write it upon...a good post @ayushjalan

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Interesting perspective @ayushjalan , and well written. Regards

Thank you so much :D

You're welcome....

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