The Power of Being The Unexpected – Ways to Be Unique #1

Here’s another series! In Ways to Be Unique, I explore the several (maybe many?) ways to be unique as a blogger, and to stand out, in an overcrowded niche, and an even more overcrowded blogosphere, in general.

The Expected Is Nothing Surprising. It’s Normal

Would You Like Yoghurt With Your Tea, Sir?

You shop on Amazon, and order an expensive item, such as a PDA. It gets delivered to you in about a week. You expected it to come, and it came, right? Nothing out of the ordinary, here.

Normal, right?

What if…

A monster, eh? Image: sonewfangled

What if that PDA did not come, even after weeks pass? It isn’t expected, is it? You’ll probably be alarmed, and you’ll probably contact the people at Amazon, to clear things up. I mean, you can’t just let go of such an expensive item, can you?

The unexpected, what happened to you in this scenario, got you thinking, and got you working too, to get that PDA.

It got you acting. If everything had been normal, you’d not have done anything. But, because this is something you did not expect, it prompted you to do something about it.

How Being The Unexpected Concerns Your Readers

If you’re just like everyone else, normal, readers’ won’t see anything different. You’re just another white ball in a sea of white. Readers read your content, toss it in the ‘read’ folder, and pass on. That’s it.

After having read and seen hundreds of similar articles, readers, when they land on your blog, they expect your content to be the same too. What’s expected.

Being the unexpected is similar to being different. By being different, you make yourself a black ball among a sea of white, instantly becoming a magnet for readers, who are like iron chips.

Not-so-normal content gets the reader active. It breaks the monotony, that they’ve been through. Readers are bound to add you to their feed readers, anxious for what you have to offer.

So, let’s take a lesson in being different, shall we?

Would You Like Yoghurt With Your Tea, Sir?

Yes, that seems gross. Guess what it is. Unexpected. You would have expected to see normal things like bread, or honey, but yoghurt is something new, something not normal.

Bring on something drastic. Something out of this world.

I agree, there are rules, to maintain order. But these rules keep everything normal. Break them!

Now, I’m not talking about breaking rules about basic ethics, here!
Think out of the box. Try a different approach to a post. Go over how other fellow bloggers have touched a topic. Don’t do what they’ve done. Do something drastic. Come on, make us excited!

For one, try making your titles this way. Include a twist. Word it differently.

There are a gazillion ways to be different, unexpected. Find them, apply them!

But,

there’s a dark side to it too.

You have to stay within the dividing line, which separates truth from false. Don’t cross over.

You know too that if you start telling lies, the outcome will not be good.

Don’t make a promise and then renege. I mean, in your efforts to be ‘unexpected’, don’t promise readers something in the title of your post, and then not give them that. It’s just not cricket!

So,

What’s your take on this? You’re welcome to say your heart out!

Thanks to badjonni for the cover image of this post