Teach Me How to Fish!

I love reading blogs. As in, more than normal. Ok, ok, probably to a freakish extent. I’ve been told in the past my Google reader is out of control. Whatever, I am not one to shy away from reading material.

In the hundreds of blogs I’ve made my way through since blogging became mainstream, I’ve concluded that there are two types that are my favorite.

1. Daily, personal bloggers who share their lives online. I LOVE these. Who needs reality TV when you can simply refresh your favorite friends via url? I suppose I can equate the fact that I refer to these bffs bloggers by their first names to those close to me, as the same tendency I had when I was three to have imaginary friends.

But this post is not about imaginary friends.

2. My second favorite type of blog post, and the one that might be the epitome of the #winning kind of blog post is one that I refer to as “Teach Me How to Fish.” This is your classic “easy bake,” super tactical post where the author teaches you a new skill, or highlights information you couldn’t quite get a handle on before, via the blog post. Quick, digestible, easy to follow. 1, 2, 3, Go! Many of these blog posts start with something like: Six Tips, How-to, Five Ways To…

Now, for a couple of reasons these blog posts are entirely awesome and equally beneficial for the writer and reader:

1. We all know the line: “teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Teach-away! I want to start fishing!

2. If you can explain it, you really understand it. If you can write a blog post that crystallizes down “five ways” or “how-to” in whatever discipline it is in, the writer clarifies the ideas for himself, and can explain his expertise even better in the future to clients, etc.

3. Narratives, opinion posts, or summaries of events are good for timely, fresh reads. But good examples of these “teach me how to fish” blog posts will live on.

My suggestion: start teaching those in your field how to fish!