Advice for When Your Blog Feels Like an Online Diary

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I was scrolling Threads recently when someone asked whether blogging is even worth it anymore. A lot of people jumped in. Tips, encouragement, the usual. But one comment stuck with me – someone said she felt like her blog was just an online diary and couldn’t figure out how to make it feel like more than that.

When you’re putting something personal on the internet, it can feel a bit like you’re just… typing into nothing or it feels like it suddenly gets a little too personal. You end up sharing for the sake of sharing. And then wondering why no one’s reading.

Which I totally get. But here’s what I replied to her.

“One thing you could think about is ‘what’s 1 thing that others could take away from this post?’

Might be a lesson YOU learnt, a tip you tried, a resource you used … then frame it so the main point of the post is to offer a bit of guidance, while weaving in your own reflections and humour.

Coming at each post from a slightly different way might help with that feeling that you’re just sharing your diary.”

By reframing the content just a little bit, we’re able to turn a post that was once feeling like it was too personal or just like you were opening up your pink, fuzzy diary with a padlock from the 90s and starting with ‘Dear diary…’

So what does a tweak look like in real life? How can you take something that you do actually want to talk about and turn it into something that someone might actually read?

Here are a few examples:

Your Original Blog Post: My day as a solo mum
Change it to: 3 things that helped me get through the day as a solo mum or I’m a solo mum and here are 3 things I swear by to get through the day

Another example:

Your Original Blog Post: Day trip to [insert city here]
Change it to: 5 things to do on a day trip to [city] or Must-Sees when you visit [city]

Another example:

Your Original Blog Post: I finished university this week
Change it to: 5 things I’ve reflected on as I finish up my University degree or Advice for first-year uni students from someone about to graduate

Obviously, you’d tidy these up a little bit and make sure you’ve done your keyword research first, but I hope you can see what we’ve done here. We’ve turned it into a post that was all about you, and still kept those storytelling elements in there, but reframed it for our audience.

Now, instead of you readers seeing something that only applies to you, they see that post and think ‘oh wow I’d love to know what she did because I am struggling!’ or ‘I’m in the same position’ or ‘I’m about to plan my trip to [city]’.

Your story is so so important, and it’s great to share it, but we need to remember that our blogs are about other people, too. And if we can help them out, then they’re going to keep coming back for all our tips, encouragement, and stories.

This isn’t about writing dry how-to content or pretending you’re some expert rattling off tips. You can still be funny. You can still be real. You can still say “honestly, I was a mess and this is what got me through.”

You don’t need to change how you write, or change WHAT you’re writing (not really); you’re just packaging up your story and your experience in a way that’s a little less ‘diary entry’ and little more ‘here’s my story and how it could help you’.

Next time you feel like your blog post is just like sharing your diary, ask: “What’s one thing that someone else could take away from this post?” and weave that in.