Writing Educational Articles from the First Person Perspective

I’ve been busy working behind the scenes now that my site is self-hosted, and I’m feeling guilty because I haven’t posted in a few days. But actually, I wrote a post yesterday – I just didn’t get around to finishing it until today.

I’ve been trying to refine what perspective I want my blog to take. I don’t mean in terms of overall topic – I hashed that out pretty thoroughly in November and am at peace with the result. But I’ve written a variety of posts over the past several months and occasionally I’ve written informational articles that move away from opinion strictly to inform. And I’ve really enjoyed writing those, but am wondering how they are received. Here’s what’s got me questioning them:

I want my post to be personal, at least most of the time – even when I’m sharing information. Because those are the blogs I enjoy reading, the ones from the first-person perspective. I find I even learn better when someone takes the “I” perspective (here’s what I learned that I want to share with you… here’s why I think you want/need to know this). It makes you feel connected to the writer; like there’s someone there you want to reach out to and talk with. And for some reason that style of writing holds my interest better. Company or aggregate blogs don’t hold much interest for me unless I’m looking for specific information. There are certainly fantastic blogs out there that don’t take the first person perspective – they’re just not my preference.

So going back to my educational/informational articles, I’m wondering what other people enjoy reading. Do you also like the first-person perspective when learning about a topic? Or do you find it distracting, and want posts and articles that don’t have the first-person voice? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments…