Superficial Blogging – Are you adding value or just scratching the surface?

I occasionally review the few posts here to try to identify areas in my writing that need work. I also try to identify the style of writing that I’m using in certain posts and I try to gauge how effective a particular style is for a particular subject. The recent addition of the Popularity Contest plugin and widget help identify posts that go over well with readers, which is essential in determining the style I want to develop. Using these methods and tools, I was able to identify that I have been engaging in a practice I call superficial blogging.

What is superficial blogging?

As the words suggest, in essence, superficial blogging is a form of blogging where you barely scratch the surface of a subject. Posts that typify superficial blogging are like this one, or this one. Both examples clearly fail to offer something of value to the reader; however, how value could be added differs for each of them. The main point with these two posts is that I failed to really delve into the topic and share with the reader what was really on my mind, thus engaging in superficial blogging.

Posting links to other articles without added value is useless!

In the first example, I simply linked to an article featured on Digg with a one line response. There are 2 fatal flaws with doing this.

1. I’m making the reader visit 2 sites to get the point of the post.
2. I’ve added nothing of value to the discussion or given any reason for the reader to click through.

It’s no surprise that this example is one of the least popular posts on this site. The fact is, I was being lazy. I was engaging in a practice that so many bloggers fall into, just publishing something so that there isn’t a long uncomfortable silence. In hind sight, it would have been better to share what I really think about the subject or post nothing at all.

Now, this is not to say that such posts as a whole are all bad. Nevertheless, if you’re going to take the time to link out to another site’s article, at least take the time to skip the middleman (Digg in this case) and directly link to the originating site and if at all possible, try to share at least a paragraph or two explaining why your readers should bother to visit that other site.

Creating a buzz does not mean causing Zzzzzzzzz

In the second example I made the mistake of trying to create a buzz with boring copy, thus the only buzz I got from the readers was snoring. Here are a couple fatal mistakes I made on this one.

1. I didn’t take the time to really check out the product/service I was trying to promote.
2. The copy I used to promote this product/service was boring, gave little detail and used a very bad example.

So, how do these two examples relate to superficial blogging. Simple, by being lazy and not delving into the subject beyond the surface value, I robbed my readers of a few minutes of their lives they could have been spending in a more enjoyable or productive way.

I share this here because I know I’m not the only one who engages in the practice of superficial blogging. In fact, I see blogs every day who fall into this trap. The consequences of this is that those blogs never really get off the ground, and eventually fade away into obscurity. However, sites that do not actively practice superficial blogging, that actually dig into subjects and share something of value tend to stick around longer and build a strong following.

With all this being said, the occasional superficial post isn’t a cardinal sin. Thinking about it, I actually engaged in this practice earlier today with this post. Sorry, no refunds on wasted time. Occasionally, you can get away with this. As long as you don’t make a habit of it, like I did back in August and September.

You’ve read my two cents. Now have your say!
Do you engage in superficial blogging?
Do you “fluff” posts to add value, or do you share what you really think?

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