5 ways people copy The Reasoner

Someone recently told me about how they love the way I run The Reasoner. A day after they told me that, that nameless-blogger took a lot of the techniques I use here on The Reasoner and applied it to her own blog, while telling her readers that she has come up with those ideas herself.

I have been blogging in various forms for more than 7 years, so it is interesting for me when someone who earns a living from their blog or someone who copies me comes along and starts claiming blog expertise as their skill.

Another person I talked to about this told me to go ahead and talk about the things that people copy from my site. It sounds weird, since I usually do not brag about myself. So, after about 15 days of hesitating and rewriting this repeatedly, and after pointing out only the things that are clearly copies from my site, I would like to present to you here 5 ways many people copy The Reasoner. Some people give credit, while others simple act as if they were born with these skills. This post is going to be the very definition of bragging on many levels, so brace yourselves!

5 Ways People Copy The Reasoner

1. Talk about typical and non-typical topics because of believing in them

   This is one of my greatest skills, and it is also one of my greatest weaknesses. The benefit? I can talk about things that can affect individuals and corporations, both typical and non-typical, both big and small, since I believe that both big and small things affect us all. The downside? Venturing off in different directions appears to be a form of “not having a clear focus” to many readers, and patience is something that is usually replaced by the need to find out things right away, even by myself.

   I like blogging about random topics and revolving them around certain themes. Take your own personal life as an example: when you live your life, you revolve everything in your life around your understanding of things, even if your understanding prompts you to be considerate of everyone else. Similarly, I believe that any blogging topic out there can be taken and applied to any kind of a belief you may have, or revolved around any topic.

   That is why I try to revolve the most random things around certain key elements, like reason.

   Many people seem to be doing the same thing, going from one topic to another, while not aiming at a certain thing. Many of such people are simply trying to get their post count up. Kudos to them!

2. Revolve the blog around readers

   I am not here to vent my emotions. I am here to vent my emotions into your thoughts and feelings. I am not desperate to be heard in the online word, so everything I write, I write to communicate something with you. Venting about something means to vent something off your chest; I am here to convey an understanding instead. Therefore, even though the topics are all mine, I want to show them to you so that you will understand the message I am trying to convey to you. That is why my blog revolves around both me and you.

   The downside of such an approach? Money. It is hard to make money when your blog revolves around bringing up topics that you think are good and practical for you and your readers. Otherwise, I can start talking about a 100 ways to make money through your blog every week, and I will start getting a lot of sponsors too. Maybe I can simply talk about one single way to make money every week to keep many parties happy, no?

   Many people think that saying “My blog is not possible without readers like you” is enough to show any kind of a bond or an appreciation, even when no other element on their blog appreciates readers. Most bloggers write about topics that please their advertisors or the companies, networks and groups they are affiliated with.

3. Respond to all comments, using a brain

   I have been trying to respond to all comments for several years now. Sometimes I respond to comments via e-mails, taking the discussion away from the blog and continuing it through e-mails. Most of the time, I will reply to each and every individual comment, not only to acknowledge a comment but to actually communicate with a person. I think communicating with all commentors on The Reasoner is something I can do blindfolded now.

   Why? Because I hate it when I write a long comment on someone else’s site, and they respond with only a “Thank you for your comment. ” Such comments simply tell me that a blogger feels obligated to reply to each comment, without actually communicating with me. Either do not reply, or stop using the same copy-paste responses to every comment you get. Maybe I should start a list outlining all the bloggers who look stupid trying to treat comment responses as an obligation.

4. I like keeping the number of posts on my site down

   I do not believe in outputting as many posts as possible in order to attract readers and advertisors and search engines. I want to attract others by the actual value that helps people, and not by promises that something may help people. That is why sometimes I can write 2 posts a day for months, and then I will slow down and write a post a week. What I write is more important to me than how much I write. People who write a lot of posts regularly usually tend to write things to lure in people. Some people who actually write a lot while giving value back to the readers are simply amazing. They exist, but they are hard to find. One place you can find them is in my bookmarks menu, though I remember their blog addresses by heart.

   In contrast, I try to keep my post count growth rate down. I got an offer last month to have a small ad placed on my site for $450 a month if I post an article everyday for at least 6 months, the way I have already been doing for a few months now. I declined the advertising offer, telling the advertisor to let me know if they would like to place an ad on my site if they did not have a posting schedule requirement. Since then, I have instead started posting less and running a poll asking you about the frequency of published posts you would like to see here. Why? I think it is a waste of my time to post a 100 posts in 2 months when only 5 of those posts get the message across. I feel the need to combine the ideas, thoughts, and pack a lot of punch into any post I write, so that each and every post gets attention and I get all my ideas and message across. Maybe I am currently quite satisfied eating 2 pieces of bread and drinking a glass of milk every day, using money earned in the offline world?

   For me, having a few nice posts is better than having a 100 useless posts that only aim to lure in people so that more money can be made. Money to go retire can be made easily by fooling people, but building legends, fortunes, relationships and brands takes a long time, and requires doing something realistic so that people in both the short and the long term, even when you are not around anymore, will say “Wow, he/she did help me! What a memory!” That is why I like working with companies which aim to build a brand through legacy, and to make money at the same time, and not companies which are only around to make money quickly. When you aim to build a brand or have a legacy, you tend to care more about other people, even if you love making money.

5. Value content over looks

   I believe that if one had to choose, content is more important than design. However, in reality, it seems that most human beings prefer something that appears nice instead of something that is ugly but has actual value. That is why even with design changes, my writing maintains a lot of the same philosophy of feelings in my content, even if the topics keep on changing. For me, content comes first, and if I have time, I work on the design slowly. Sure, looks can be important as Darren from ProBlogger argues, but without content, looks are usually used only to deceive people and to make some money. If someone can manage to have both quality content and a quality design on their blog, I think that person has a very nice diamond that they should utilize fully, quickly and carefully, to ensure that they are able to communicate with as many blog readers as possible and get their message across efficiently and effectively.

   Why? Maybe it is human nature, to be attracted to things that appeal to any of our senses, or our thoughts and feelings. It is important to present things nicely, since we are all like babies. You can get many babies to eat the toxic veggies if you act nice and talk in a friendly manner, but you will have a hard time getting the same babies to eat the veggies if you are dressed as a bigfoot and you keep growling at the top of your voice. The value you offer, the vegetables, are still the same, but for the baby, your presentation and your looks also becomes part of the content.

   Maybe I want us all to be non-typical babies?

So there you have it; a really nice bragging post. Among the thousand other things [haha], the above 5 are some of the common things that many bloggers try to copy from The Reasoner. Some give credit, some do not give credit, and some have come up with their own versions of similar ideas on their own.

Whatever the reason may be, I hope this list helps you improve some aspect of your blogging or life. I also hope that if you have any suggestions for any of these things, you can let me know so I can improve.