The structure gives value to a blog

It’s now that I’m starting to understand what gives value to a blog.

I’ve been a blog reader my whole life. They’re one of my favorite sources of knowledge. In fact, the process of reading a blog is so familiar to me that its details have become invisible. I ignore a blog’s structure—I just jump from one article to another, reading the work of authors I like.

However, for years now, I’ve also been a writer of a blog, the Gestalt’s Garden. This role requires me to pay attention to the details. When do I create value for my readers? What kind of content is valuable? And the question that will be the central theme of this article: Why is a blog’s structure valuable?

In this article, I’ll explain why a blog’s structure is a fundamental part of its value proposition.

The basic structures of a blog

As a writer, I find it hard to answer the question: “Why is a blog’s structure valuable?” It’s the reader who decides what’s valuable. So, I’ll flip the question around and put myself in the reader’s shoes: “What structure do the blogs I love the most have in common?”

As a reader, the minimum element I need a blog to have is a chronological archive of all its articles. It’s a simple structure, but it allows me to systematically explore all the content and ensures I don’t miss anything.

The next element I value most is internal links—when the author uses a hyperlink to reference another article that’s connected in some way.

Finally, I also often appreciate the use of tags—when the author intentionally groups together articles that cover the same topic. However, I don’t usually find these as valuable as the other two.

Structured sections create even more value

The elements I mentioned above are the basics. In fact, it’s quite rare to find a blog that doesn’t use them. Similarly, there are less common structural elements—like categories or backlinks—but as a reader, I don’t usually find them as interesting.

However, there’s one element (much less common) that I value the most: structured sections¹.

When I discovered Bob Doto’s blog, the first thing I read was one of his articles about the Zettelkasten method. Normally, I would’ve started exploring the blog using the archive, internal links, and tags. But Bob Doto offers a much more efficient tool: a section where he structures all his content on the Zettelkasten method. In this section, he explains where to start reading, and what the main topics are, and generally offers a guided, educational, and contextualized way to read his work.

In other words, a structured section is a page that organizes and contextualizes a blog’s content so that readers can consume it efficiently.

Another example of a blog with a structured section is the Zettelkasten method overview at zettelkasten.de. And outside the world of Zettelkasten, the blog Fitness Revolucionario also uses structured sections. In fact, these sections are so valuable that the main page of Fitness Revolucionario is itself a structured section.

Conclusion: A blog is a book for the reader

A few weeks ago, I finished reading Bob Doto’s book: A System for Writing. The book is primarily focused on the Zettelkasten method. But Doto also shares his personal vision of what a blog is: “…the website of a blog functions as a container for the subject matter, similar to a long document.”² In my own words, a blog acts as a book for the reader.

A blog is not simply a collection of articles. When a reader reads a blog, they read it as if it were a book. In this sense, the articles act as chapters, subchapters, or footnotes of that book.

This was a revelation for me.

A blog—a truly good blog—is a book for the reader. That’s why tools like the archive, links, tags, and structured sections are valuable for the reader. They are valuable because they allow the reader to go deeper into the blog’s ideas as if it were a book.

Create a blog that can be read like a book.

And you, what makes a blog valuable for you?

You can reply in the comments or directly to this email. In either case, I’ll write you back :-)

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