There are some habits that I think will be very helpful if you want to be a good blogger, including:
- Don’t worry about the number of visits or comments, no matter how small they are; in the end, you are not blogging for fame (right?), and as long as things are like this, you must free yourself from the pathological fear of few visitors and few comments.
The most important thing is to praise your knowledge only, and as long as you are not culturally responsible for the entire nation, do not burden yourself with a burden you cannot bear, and say what you are good at and know and do not exceed your limit, and believe me, in this is the best of this world and the hereafter.
By the way, I have seen blogs that have a very large number of visitors (and even subscribers) while the comments do not compare to the number of readers at all! It seems that this is a scourge in the Arab mind (shall I say the same in the Islamic mind?). - Keep a bullet point for every good idea you can write about in your blog, even if you only have a few lines ready in your mind, or even if there is only the title!
Because when you browse through the drafts of unfinished articles on the blog, there will be a ready basis for the new article, instead of searching for a topic to write about. I keep more than twenty drafts in my blog so far, which I wrote at different times and write in from time to time whenever I can do so and have something to say about it. I started writing this article a while ago and completed it just before publishing it. - Write only what you are completely convinced of, and only be convinced by what is proven by evidence and proof. God Almighty said ( Say, “Produce your proof, if you should be truthful “), so it is proven that there is no truth without proof.
Know that the scourge of opinion is whims, so you should stay away from preconceived biases and accept whatever evidence and proof lead you to. - Accept criticism and review with an open heart, and this is a branch of the previous point; conviction is an indivisible whole, and it is not acceptable for you to follow evidence at the beginning and then contradict the more correct and stronger evidence that proves the error of your view later!
- Accepting criticism does not only apply to what is politely said to you, but you must accept all criticism even if it is said amidst insults and sarcasm. You can of course refrain from listening to the person who directed these insults at you, but the important thing is not to let these criticisms slip away and not to turn a blind eye to them and ignore them because the only loser in this case is you.
I have done this before, I was advised with what was correct in itself, but the way of advice was very bad, and I tried hard to forget it, except that two words from him continued to embitter my life and I was never able to forget them. So all I did was simply correct what the critic criticized me for, then I deleted all correspondence that took place between me and him and I resolved never to discuss it with him again (after all, he is not the only one who can benefit me for me to be forced to bear it). - Correct your statements that you are convinced are wrong and alert people to that; your statements are part of your work, and your bad work can only be corrected by your good work. Since you were responsible for making people adopt a certain point of view, you must show them its error after you have changed from it to another point of view as part of intellectual honesty.
- Try to avoid personalizing things in your criticism, and make your speech as much as possible per the prophetic guidance based on the principle ( What is wrong with some people? ). People can accept criticism no matter how difficult it is if it is not related to criticizing them personally, because then it will turn into wasted dignity, and even if the person you are criticizing is of a high degree of intellectual balance such that he accepts your criticism and corrects what you criticized if you are right, his dignity will make him stop communicating with you despite his conviction in what you said.
- Market your articles well, and you can make extensive use of social media networks in this matter. As for me, when I write an article, I publish its link on Twitter, and on Facebook, I publish it on:
– My page.
– The blog page.
– Whatever is suitable for publication from more than ninety groups that my friends have added me to on Facebook! - Always maintain good communication with your readers; it is not appropriate for someone to comment and then wait for you to respond to his comment only to be surprised by your complete neglect of him! Even if you have an excuse, the reader who reads and comments has the right to respond to him if he asks you or opens a forum for discussion that enriches the original topic, and at least you can respond with a few words that remove the suspicion of arrogance from you.
I noticed how many blogs I followed that their owners deal with the reader as if he is nothing but a sink, so I left them to others who love interaction and communication. Remember that there are many alternatives these days, so do not be deceived by yourself and your knowledge, no matter how much they increase. - Keep writing in the correct language and use punctuation and diacritics where needed; this will make your idea clearer and give your topic a solid feel.
- Try to avoid being too sophisticated in your language, and know that the more you master the Arabic language and its sciences and the more eloquent you are, the simpler and less affected your speech will be. Abdullah ibn al-Muqaffa, may God have mercy on him, said about this matter:
Eloquence is what an ignorant person, when he hears it, thinks he can do it well.
Keep the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in mind; you will find it the pinnacle of eloquence and clarity, and at the same time the pinnacle of simplicity (and remember that these words, which are easily understood by the simple, were said more than four hundred and a thousand years ago!).
In the end, I learned most of the above points from my own mistakes that I made before I entered the world of blogging and started with my beloved personal blog.
