How to Rise to the Top of Political Blogs

  • August 9th, 2011

Article by Amy Brevard

So you’ve got something to say about politics. You feel your voice deserves to be heard. Perhaps you are a political expert, seeking an opportunity to share your opinions with a wider audience. Starting a political blog is the obvious answer. The pertinent question is: how can you rise to the top of thousands of political blogs on the Internet, and truly have the powerful impact you dream of? Here follows some tips on how to make your political blog stand out.

 

Whether you are an established political professional with years of knowledge under your belt, or a fifteen-year old student simply curious about politics, starting a political blog begins with choosing the right Blog builder. If you are serious about making your mark politically, you will want a blog with an impressively professional appearance. Steer away from “free” blog builders and invest a few dollars in choosing a blog that is technologically advanced and well staffed. Some of the free blog builders available are not updated regularly, have virus problems, a lack of flexibility, and little staff support. If you plan to continue your political blog with a long-term vision, you may regret choosing a free website, later on. Months into blogging, once your readership has grown, you may encounter growth problems, finding that your space is limited or what you want to do is impossible. Switching to a different blog builder at that point might result in losing readers and losing business. So start out on the right foot with a highly dependable and technologically astute blog builder. I like TypePad.

 

Alternatively, if your goal is to write an amateur political blog, perhaps to only share with a few friends and family, you may not care too much about communicating professionalism. In this case a free blog such as Myspace may suffice for your needs.

 

Once you find the blog builder that suits your plan, make it graphically pleasing. TypePad walks you through design options as you build your blog. Other blog websites may require you to brush up on your html knowledge, which, keep in mind, may take hours if you are not already familiar with it. Do not underrate the importance of graphic design on your political blog. This is the first thing your readers will see when visiting your political blog, and you want the effect to be both a reflection of your personality and political views. One glance at a political blog and I can identify, just from the design, if the blogger is a professional or an amateur. Rise to the top and make sure everyone knows that you value quality. If your readers see that your design is modern, they are more likely to believe you stay current with politics, and therefore they will respect your political views more.

 

Finally, start blogging. Be persistent in growing your readership base and catering to their needs with a variety of visual affects and video streams. Promote your blog and keep blogging even if at first it seems no one is noticing you. Remember, with a political blog, one person can make a difference.

Political Opinions on Political Blogs

  • May 19th, 2011

No matter what your political affiliation is, it probably isn’t represented by the mainstream media. By trying to please everyone, the media – like the political establishment it has come to serve – pleases no one. For most American people, until recently they just had to put up with this situation. Until the invention of political blogs, there was simply no good news analysis that did not try to tow a moderate party line. Thanks to politics blogs, however, that has all changed. No matter what ideological position you are coming from, you can find a political blog that is written for you.

I have been reading liberal political blogs for about three years now, and I feel like they have really enhanced my understanding of current events. We live in such a conservative society that much of the real news of what is going on is censored by the mainstream media.

In these free political forums, however, the news can finally be heard by the public that is hungry for it. Unfortunately, political blogs don’t have the budget to do some of the things that the more mainstream news outlets do. They cannot have correspondents all over the world, for example, ready to report any event that happens. What they can do, however, is access a wide range of different media and try to put together a more complete picture than any single publication does. News analysis is a valuable service, and one that is completely neglected by the mainstream media. Thanks to political blogs, we can get beyond the the facile analysis provided by most of the news pundit shows.

But some blogs are not based on facts. So it will be your job to know which political blogs are based on proof or spoofs.

Of course, the problem with personal blogs is that they do not have the same standards of proof as some of the media outlets do. While most political blogs are at least as dependable as Fox news, when they are compared to legitimate media outlets, many of them falls short. This is why you have to pick and choose carefully when you are reading blogs. Anyone can write anything they want on a political blog, and it is very hard for someone to call them on it. After all, free speech is a right, and posting on the Internet is simply an extension of that right. People have just as much right to blog political fiction as fact, and rumormongers abounds. As always, it is up to you to separate the wheat from the chaff.