The Implicit contract of the blogger

If you have ever studied creative writing, you have probably heard of the ‘implicit contract of the writer’.  Just as this implicit contract applies to works of fiction it applies to blog posts, and perhaps blogs as a whole.   I will describe how this contract applies to both person, journal like, blogs as well as technical, educational, ones.

For personal blogs this implicit contract could change with every post, following your emotion for that post. If you post a sad story, It will most likely make the reader sad.   If however your post is short there really is no implicit contract for that post, although there still is for the whole blog.  For a personal blog the contract for the whole blog would usually be a variation of the following:

1. I will give you a better understanding of myself, or at least a specific aspect of myself.

2. I will share similar experiences with you.

3. I will let you see part of my world, and what it is like to be me.

Technical blogs should set up the implicit contract in the first post.  It may though be second, following an introductory paragraph if the post will be longer.  It should explain what specifically a user will get from that post. So common promises might be:

1. You will learn how to do something new, how to do something in a new way, or how to do something better.

2. You will learn that I agree with you on  something and feel reassured, or perhaps proud “I was right”.

3. You will be kept up to date on a certain topic, or topics.

4. You will learn something  interesting, although not necessarily useful

The Implicit contract for a technical blog as a whole will come about naturally as  you create multiple posts.  Readers will expect you to keep posting more of what you have been posting.  This does not limit you to a narrow topic, if you create many post of varying topics readers will expect you to continue to doe so.  This applies not just to the topic, but to the type of posts you make as well.  If most your post are tutorials that is what readers will expect.  Most of them probably would not mind if you thew in a news article, but they would if that suddenly became your focus.

As you build your blog you will build a community of readers who like what they are reading.  So keep giving them what they want and keep them coming back.  Feel free to though in new types of post, just make sure you regularly feed your readers the post they are expecting you to.