Sure, the old “how to” post is great. It’s a staple. We see so many of them, though, that sometimes we want a switch-up. One way to educate while being a little different is to write a “how not to” post. I write a lot of these. Why?
- It fits better with my sense of humor. It’s easy for me to write tongue-in-cheek when you’re trying to instruct people by telling them how to do things the wrong way as a sort of reverse-psychology.
- It gives a different side of a subject that a straightforward “positive” how to post misses.
- It’s constructive venting of a pet peeve without coming off as a complainer.
- It instantly stands out from the noise in an RSS reader.
- It attracts clicks because others will share the same peeve as you, and we all love to gang up on a bad example.
This post, you’ll notice, is not a “how not to” post. That would be too much recursive irony, which might accidentally open up a wormhole, and who knows where I’d end up if that happened?
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What I find interesting is that you have found that to be a sort of ‘Stylistic’ way of writing that fits your way of doing things.
That, to me, is the big win. Once a person find what fit’s their style writing becomes much simpler. and that’s when i’d suspect you begin to start attracting true followers – they follow you because you bring ‘you’ to the table.
Love how you have thought through the approach as well!
As always … thx for taking the time to put out good stuff.
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http://twitter.com/franswaa
“How not to” makes people want to check to make sure they are not goofing whereas “how to” can leave people thinking “I already know this”.
It’s funny how people are drawn to negatives and bad news more than positive sometimes. Why is it that newspapers always say “Meatball Massacre – 10 Dead”. Why can’t they say “99% of people survive freak spaghetti accident”?
@Frank – Glad you picked up on that. You’re right. Personal style in blogging is HUGE, because it’s the one thing you have that’s uniquely yours and causes you to stand out from the crowd.
@Chris – LOL, the spaghetti incident made me laugh. I think you have hit on the psychological trigger that attracts people to these headlines. Wonderful contribution to this discussion, thanks!
I agree with Chris Garrett.It´s always the negative news that get all the attention.I have done testing with my email newsletter, and the subject lines of the emails that sound negative are opened with a much higher percent.