How to Write a Conversational Blog… And Why!
This blog entry was submitted for GL Hoffman’s blog What Would Dad Say as a guest entry. Since it hits so close to home here, I wanted to allow my regular readers an opportunity to comment – so I decided to submit it over here also for my readers to enjoy and comment on. I would love to see you go over to GL’s joint, too. Maybe tip him a quarter for a good cuppa Joe…
It’s not a generational thing. I use a cup of coffee as the icon to represent my blog specifically because of its tradition as conversational catalyst. As you can see above, younger people at the modern Café Babel in Seattle participate. Older participants at Manistee Bakery & Deli in Manistee, Michigan enjoy it. Starbucks practically recreates living rooms with couches and coffee tables at many outlets. Coffee shops go back further than I do – and I go back further than I ever have before!
So, what’s the attraction? Is it the coffee? Well, in part, but I’ve tasted some pretty rasty coffee at some of the old greasy spoon coffee shops where I’ve spent time with friends – yet we returned. Is it the ambience? Closer. Is it the friendship? Now we’re getting hot! Wait, I’m getting it…it’s the conversation between friends. Sometimes, it’s not coffee at all. Sometimes, it’s beer. Sometimes, it’s tea and sushi. But, it’s always conversation! And, it’s always friends. The long running TV comedy Cheers was fully based on it without ever depleting the topic pool. Seinfeld milked it forever and the meeting place was either Jerry’s apartment or the coffee shop. Friends went to Central Perk.
So, we’ve got two elements essential so far. You need friends and you need a conversation. But, bigger than the elephant in the room is the room itself. You need that traditional meeting place. That’s where the Conversational Blog comes in, a place where people keep returning to converse on different topics, to reminisce about their days and developments of their lives. To reflect. To encourage one another. And, what’s the beverage of choice that everyone sips from? The Blog Post itself. It is the daily special offered by the proprietor. Yet, though every blog has offerings and though many of them are extremely interesting, some of them yield very little conversation. Even some blogs with a huge amount of traffic! Why?
I have some ideas and part of the weight behind them is because there is so much conversation on my blog. I offer fewer ideas about generating traffic, because my traffic counts aren’t very high – though the people that do visit tend to read multiple entries. Also, I have to offer the true humility of a guy who’s only been blogging for two months. But, I get conversation and I think these may be some of the fundamental reasons behind that:
- Daily offerings are a surprise. I don’t know what I’m going to write about any more than the readers.
- I try to always enjoy the writing and have fun. Fun doesn’t preclude serious reflection and thought. Fun doesn’t preclude research. But, fun translates to a light touch, to brightness and to passion!
- I always include a piece of myself in the writing. Note this requirement, because I’ll return to the importance of this shortly.
- After publishing the post, I genuinely look forward to the responses. Some writers don’t invite response and are HUGELY successful, like The Magnificent Bastard and Seth Godin. They are brilliant and I love to read their blogs. I think about their blogs. But…we aren’t conversing. They have so much traffic, I don’t think they could and they don’t even allow comments. They are more like great leaders speaking to the masses and I have huge respect for what they do. It just isn’t what I do.
- When the responses start, I don’t stand behind the counter. I go to the table and sit down with the guests. I drink with them and listen to their stories. And, this is probably the most important part: I respond to each and every comment individually. My responses aren’t sound-bite knockoffs, they are often multiple paragraphs. I respond like I would were we face-to-face over a cup of coffee.
The key to understanding what to respond to is to realize what I learned working with mentally ill children, that every statement a person makes is autobiographical. What they say about my post is only peripherally related to my post. It is a statement of themselves, of their hearts, of their yearnings. So, I do them the justice of listening, absorbing and responding to their individual offering of themselves with myself.
My blog leaves me vulnerable. And, because of that, it leaves me surrounded by friends. I’ll always toast that!
What’s your take? I’m listening…
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Tags: Blogging, Conversation, People
Conrad -
It’s you – you look at both sides and are always agreeable. You’re funny and warm and everyone feels your friendship! You make it fun!
Why, thanks, Deb. For those of you who don’t know, Deb and I were in the same class in High School and we have some miles together since our last reunion – right, Deb??? – and for her to say this means a lot to me. Thanks, again!
I, for one, check out your blog every day because the conversation enriches my life. I tend not to make comments on blogs where the owner doesn’t respond. Great job, Conrad!
Jean Browman–Cheerful Monk’s last blog post..Are You Conducting Yourself Well?
Thanks, Jean. Much of the reward for me is gathering readers here who are responsible, respectful, serious about meaningful exchanges, people with good hearts. Like you! And I don’t see how anyone could hope to have those rewards without responding and trying to respond meaningfully.
You and I have been around the achievement track too many times to care about all the rest of the baloney.
By the way, if anyone reading this blog doesn’t go visit Jean’s blogs – and, now that I think of it, I may only have Cheerful Monk listed in the blogroll – you are missing out on a great place to visit and exchange.
Sorry about the formatting issue, Conrad. I have worked on it for some time now, and it is about the best I can do over there. Grrrrrrr….
Sorry buddy.
GL Hoffman’s last blog post..Guest Conrad Hake: How To Write a Conversation Blog and Why
I think it’s very readable over at your site, now. Not only do I appreciate you putting in that effort, I really appreciate you giving me the chance to take the podium over there in the way you did. That’s a marvelous, generous idea on your part.
What editing/posting software do you use? I use Windows Live Update and I was able to copy and paste from the Word entry into it, publish it here and it came out the way you see it. It works very well for me with what I do and, the word on the street is that it doesn’t generate WordPress complications the way that Word can.
For the other readers, we obviously are used to exchanging here, but I would encourage you to check out GL’s site,
What Would Dad Say: Frequently Wrong, Never in Doubt
It is what got me started with all this and I’m eternally grateful to GL for putting me on a path that will bring years of joy to me! His link is in the comment above.
Thanks, Conrad.
I’ll check out GL’s site in a minute, but first I want to comment about the daily surprise. I don’t care about that very much, I’m more interested in ongoing interactions. For instance, how is Carly doing finding nutritious food that doesn’t lead to the Freshman 15?
…. a brief pause while I checked out the food choices available at SDSU…I’m hopelessly curious. I’m also a contributor to the Center for Science in the Public Interest which publishes the Nutritional Action Newsletter. So this is a subject near and dear to my heart.
How did last week go for you? As I recall, you said it was very busy but things would let up a bit by Friday. Did you get it all done in time? How does this week look?
Jean Browman–Cheerful Monk’s last blog post..Are You Conducting Yourself Well?
The daily surprise is good for some people, me included. It helps to maintain a freshness. After the material is out there, then we sit around the coffee and discuss things it brings to our minds. So, I guess that I’d say the first part really serves up the latter for me.
Carly is doing well with her research. She is very good at this and will be very good and very thorough at whatever she ends up doing. She has found food combinations that will work well for her. I’ll see if I can get her to give us some follow up info.
Well, Frasier, oh I mean, Conrad; this is brilliant!
I can’t always squeeze in to the booth to sip & talk, but when I do, it’s always worth a second cup!
So happy to hear this: “a path that will bring years of joy to me!”
Doing what you love and loving what you do results in great heart rhythms – which means, you will have many years of doing this!
Bravo, Conrad!
Marianna’s last blog post..Classified Ads: Brain and Heart Wanted!
And, Marianna, you have that delightful balance of focus and light humor that I absolutely love! You are a delight to have around. We are developing a nice clientele, a place where everybody knows your name!
And, don’t forget our sister establishment whenever you care to visit – the Whine Bar. Special tonight: Politicians and Economy. Half-baked pork. For Dessert: Demagogues a la mode! Global warming? Why, everyone loves baked Alaska!
Don’t know if the Tetley Tea commercial ever aired there – the tag line – in a very thick British accent was, “Pity – only in Canada.”
Well, “Pity, that Conrad’s Convo-Coffee Shop & Whine Bar are only available in cyber-space!”
Franchising?
Marianna’s last blog post..Classified Ads: Brain and Heart Wanted!
GL’s blog is about meeting & conversation. Our bicycle group (Cyclones) rode once a week & usually ended up at a Spanish restaurant 20 miles from our homes. We called it “Our Clubhouse”. The Mexican food was marvelous but we couldn’t make it taste that well at home. That’s because the secret ingredient was lard.
bikehikebabe and Marianna: wait until you find that my secret ingredient for this blog is lard! LOL I know what you mean by the taste. Man, those refried beans can be out of this world!
And, Marianna, you are always welcome to open a franchise! I may just have you tend the bar. And how would that look? Why a guest post on my blog where you can imagine that is exactly what you were doing.
You up for it? You get to keep the tips!
I’m so glad you finally explained your genious to your group….or I could just say, “I told you so!” LOL
Now that I’m between bandages and not getting my eyelashes caught in the tape anymore, I plan to get going on the hole in the ground, etc……get ready.
Yo Mama
They have another name for it than genius, I’m sure.
For the rest of you, Mom just had some skin cancer removed from her nose – or, more accurately, they just took off her nose and called it good!
She’s getting ready to write a piece on her illustrious past. And, I promise you … this is going to be good!!
Conrad, I am not, I repeat not, being facetious. This post is brilliant and I doff my topi to you.
I love visiting your blog because it is conversational and despite the vast distance that separates us, I feel at home conversing as it were with you, and the others who visit your blog.
You have achieved in such a short time what bloggers will give their arms and legs to achieve.
Now, you can start another blog and become a professional adviser on how to become a successful blogger! I wish you luck. If you offer a free down load of an ebook, I shall be among the first to ask for a download.
rummuser’s last blog post..The Lahore Attack
Ramana, your opinion matters deeply to me, an opening freely given by me and a promise fulfilled by you. So, what you – and some other frequent patrons of this blog…and you better know who you are – have to say to me scores deeply. So, thank you sincerely for this supporting message.
Some events in your life just click into place, part of a puzzle completed, a picture emerging. Your comment on writing an eBook is one of those pieces for me. I don’t mind saying that you sat me back in my chair with that – because my wife gave me a book on writing and marketing an eBook as a Christmas stocking stuffer! She is so caught up in it that she is in the process of writing her own eBook.
I have been waiting for the call. And you may have just delivered it…
Interesting! What is the subject of Carol’s eBook?
Something about how to maintain your weight for 40 years.
Sign me up!
Conrad, cafes have been alternative social think tanks for creative expression back to the early days of percolating philosophy . Students and thinkers would sit down in a public place to air views, provoke thought and debate mysteries and hard core issues. When answers to not come readily, this can be a sign that no one answer exists or, the perspective sought is beyond the limits of the human mind. To open oneslef up differently adds meaning to existence.
Liara Covert’s last blog post..What is the point of astral?
Yes, Liara, the sidewalk cafes in Paris launched some of the finest philosophical explorations of the 20th Century. Sometimes, my experience has been that the answers were less important than sharing the journey.
I think your last sentence is a gem worth highlighting. “To open oneself up differently adds meaning to existence.”
How true!
In Tamilnadu, India there is this wonderful board outside restaurants–not chi-chi, but the commonman’s eateries that says ‘Meals Ready’. This announces that brunch, lunch, dinner is ready to be served.
So I take it that Conrad’s ‘Coffee Ready’ board is up.
Wonderful post that has encouraged me to keep pegging at my new blogspot daily musings from ‘Padmum’s Pen’.
Thanks.
Padmini Natarajan
Padmini Natarajan’s last blog post..The Master Tailor
Hi Conrad!
My wife Padmini ( Ramana’s sister) drew my attention to your blog, even as I was struggling with my 3000 piece Jig Saw puzzle, gererously gifted to us by my daughter. Whenever she finds anything very interesting, she shares it with me, since she knows that I am not a committed blogger or reader.
Neither of us is an ardent coffee drinker, but conversations are what we are looking for, all the time.
I must admit, I never thought of a blog as a substitute for conversation, although my response to comments on my blog has always been lengthy, despite Padmini’s objection.
I am happy that there is at least one more person, who shares my perception that listening, and responding is an important aspect of blogging.
I hope to see more such interesting posts from you.
Natarajan
Hi Padmini,
I tried to type a comment in your blog about tailors. It disappeared because I didn’t have the right credentials. It was about my tailored garments I had made in Thailand. Funny story. Great clothes.
Padmini, the ‘Coffee Ready’ board is always up for you! If the proprietor is asleep, awaken him – gently – and he will gladly brew you a fresh cup.
After partaking of your wonderful writing skills, I will need to get right over to ‘Padmum’s Pen’ and check it out. And thanks for bringing your mate! I’ll serve him shortly…
By the way, before I go, upcoming are some upgrades to the infamous Whine Bar. It has a quite a boisterous gang of revelers and you are invited. Stay tuned!
Prof Natarajan, welcome! Blogging by its nature is self-expression and each blogger has different priorities. It seems the key is finding your own voice and your own path. My path, like yours, is all about the conversation and conversation requires two-way communication, meaningful communication. Otherwise, it would not be rewarding to me and I would simply not continue.
I don’t see the blog as necessarily a substitute for conversation, though. I feel it can be real conversation among people unable to sit together physically. I believe it requires the elements outlined in this post and the results are manifesting with this marvelous group gathering here.
For example, I feel that bikehikebabe has paid my blog its highest compliment by feeling totally comfortable with coming here and leaving a message for Padmini. Via email, she has sent me some materials and ideas that will appear in places she doesn’t yet suspect, places still existing only in the corners of my mind.
We may not be able to solve the world’s problems here, but encouraged people of good will sure seem to plant a lot of good seeds.
Hi, Padmini, me again!
I likewise was unable to enter a comment into your blog.
So, I offer it to you here:
Padmini,
I knew this would be a marvelous experience! In America, we, too, have lost so much of our treasured past, the small shops, the family mechanic, the family barber, the personal tailor, the small coffee shops. They are important in more ways than just nostalgia, they are important ties that bind together communities.
Your writing brings these memories to life in such vivid detail. I mourn the loss of true craftsmen, masters of their trades. Very little is made by hand, these days. Even less personal care is put into the making. We reap what a factory sews.
Trying to figure out a way to cut and paste these comments over to my blog. Just wonnerful, wonnerful (Lawrence J Welk voice).
GL Hoffman’s last blog post..Guest Dawn Bugni W/Common Sense Job Search Approaches
Conrad,
It seems to me that some of us bloggers are craftsmen. I know I put a lot of personal care into my blogs, and it’s hard to believe you don’t too.
Jean Browman–Cheerful Monk’s last blog post..Are You Conducting Yourself Well?
PS It’s one o’clock in the morning and it will be a couple of hours before I get to bed. But I just had to work on a cartoon I want for a future post. It still needs some tidying up, but it’s at http://www.flickr.com/photos/8185675@N07/3330506034/
No one says we craftsmen have to be good, we just have to care about the process and be willing to put in the hours because we care.
Jean Browman–Cheerful Monk’s last blog post..Are You Conducting Yourself Well?
Thanks for your recent posting about How to Write a Conversational Blog. I have been toying with ideas for months on what kind of blog to start, and have yet to start one. Your comments made me realize that I don’t have to do anything “special” to begin, just keep doing what I do all the time in emails, and now just expand that universe through a blog.
I will let you know when it’s up, which should now be sooner rather than later.
Thanks for your encouragement which have enabled me to break down my own road-blocks.
And yes, I’ve signed up to receive your blog-posts going forward.
Anne
Thank you, Anne. Your comment here tells me that you will do just fine. Enjoy yourself and share that enjoyment with your readers!
When you get your blog under way, please let me know where you have it so I can visit and enjoy with you. And, if there is anything I, or any of our very nice little community, can do, please let us know. Many of these readers have truly excellent blogs.
Welcome to the adventure!
I dont usually comment, but after reading through so much info I had to say thanks.