Photo by Kieran Lynam

Humour is one of the most-efficient types of communication used to broadcast a message. This applies to any media, blogs being no exception. It can literally turn a regular post into a heavily stumbled-upon article.

I recently published two guest posts where humour was used to discuss, one about how to make money blogging, and the other about social media. To my total surprise, the resulting traffic to the texts was astonishing. The articles can be found here:

10 Reasons Why Bloggers Hate Blogging

Bonsai Blogging: How to Fail with Social Media

Why was I surprised? Well, when I first started brainstorming these two articles, I wasn’t planning on using humour. During the writing process, however, I thought up a few jokes to plug in here and there, and at one point, I had so many hilarious ideas that I had to rewrite the entire post. It was worth it, though.

Prudence

While being very effective, writing a humorous text can also be incredibly challenging. One problem you can face is misinterpretation, and this is exactly what I feared with 10 Reasons Why Bloggers Hate Blogging. Once I was done writing it, I sat on the post for about two months, wondering if I should publish it or not. I was afraid some jokes would potentially offend new bloggers. Well, guess what? New bloggers were the ones who thanked me the most for writing it. Just look at the comments it got and you’ll see for yourself!

Humour Gets Prime Time

At first you might think that humour would be difficult to apply to your niche. But wrong you are. Will you agree the following two statements are true?

• People like to be informed: In this day and age, we are exposed to information like no other generation has experienced before. Thanks to technology and the Internet, we consume impressive amounts of information, from all over the globe.
• People like to laugh: Stand-up comedians are popular these days, and their shows often sell out almost everywhere they go. Just check out the number of sitcoms on television you’ll see how laughing—and laughing hard—is on the rise. Some of this years most popular, big-screen films were comedies, as well. Producers know this market is profitable because it easily reaches a broader audience.

Combined together, information and humour are a perfect pair for pleasing a wide range of readers. And be ready to receive a truckload of social-media users. Stumblers and diggers in particular rave for humorous posts. If you can combine vital information or tips with humour, you’ll be a happy camper when you check out your blog-traffic stats.

If you wish to give humourous blogging a try, here are five principles you could apply to your next post:

Satire

Take normal behaviour and demonstrate its negative facet by using mockery and derision. This is a very powerful form of humour that has high-reaching potential for bloggers. Both 10 Reasons & Bonsai Blogging were satires. It’s also an interesting way to start brainstorming for ideas. Take a topic, shake it up, turn it upside down and try looking at the dark side. Then, let the words pour out of your brain.

Humorous Text VS Humorous Sentence

Writing a funny post doesn’t necessarily mean writing a stand-up comedy. You can use humour from top to bottom, just like I did with 10 Reasons, but inserting a few jokes here and there does an excellent job too. It entertains your readers and lightens up your topic. Don’t hesitate to end a heavy loaded paragraph with a smile.

Invent Funny Quotes

This is an excellent way to stand out from the crowd. Inventing funny quotes is not that hard. Describe a situation, usually something everyone are familiar with, and throw in a funny, personal observation that reflects a certain reality. You can even twist a famous quote and make it yours. Here’s an example using one of my favourite quote from Leo Durocher:

“Show me a good loser and I’ll show you an idiot.”

And my twisted version would go like this:

“Show me a successful blogger and I’ll show you an unsuccessful writer.”

Describe Something Differently

Invent a definition for something that does not exist. In my post Bonsai Blogging, I came up with a definition for the term “Bonsai Blogging”. It goes like this:

Bonsai Blogging is the art of miniaturizing traffic by blogging into an isolated container. This method has proven to be efficient for stopping growth, allowing you to fail with dignity.

Avoid Cursing

One of the most funniest and popular sitcom of all time, Seinfeld, never used cursing in 179 episodes, with the exception of 1 show where Jerry was offending a little boy’s parents by cursing in a restaurant. Yes, cursing can be very funny, but it’s far from being a requirement to make people laugh. It could also offend some of your readers and even compel them to unsubscribe.

Summary

It may take a few tries before you are satisfied with your first humorous post, but trust me, it’s always worth a try. Give it a shot and try to get it submitted on StumbleUpon by a power submitter, you should get good results. Do you have other writing tips you would like to share?

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