Although we may have different blogging philosophies, bloggers usually agree on a few general guidelines. PR guy Piaras Kelly has written a post titled “Tips on writing content for your blog”:
1. Use catchy titles: As I subscribe to more and more webfeeds, I tend to flicks through content a lot faster. Short, catchy, tabloid-style titles grab potential readers attention and will ensure that your posts have a better chance of being read.
2. Be unique: One of my favourite blogs is Gaping Void. Hugh MacLeod’s cartoons are great and instantly grab my attention. Try to make some aspect of your blog unique. for example, I now open each post with a quote which tends to reflect the entry.
3. Make sure to credit your sources: Don’t plagerise! Never use someone else’s content without crediting them. You can refer to them in your entry and offer your own opinion on the story rather than be a copycat.
I agree. Read the rest.
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September 14th, 2005 at 8:03 pm
I think one of the most important things is to keep it as interesting as possible.
When blogs first exploded during Rathergate, every one with any credibility had some value. All of the really big brand name ones were fascinating and exotic. That was then. Now everyone with an internet connection is blogging, and there are only so many ideas to go around, even for the big dogs.
Even some of the major players in the conservative blogosphere, as well written as their blogs are, get stale after a while. In an election year, the politicization of every little thing drives people. But most people don’t always want to read some hyper obsessive rant attack about how the New York Times said the sky was pale blue, when in reality it was powder blue. Nobody cares.
That’s not to say that people don’t crave a steady diet of politics. Popular talk radio programs like Limbaugh and Hannity need politics to survive. But you have got to be original, and you need to mix some humor in too. Again, constantly complaining about how the TV news is always wrong is just plain dull, even though it’s often true.
The most intersting blogs are the ones where people genuinely talk about what they like and dislike on a personal level. The bloggers that merely repackage what they saw on the Drudge Report in a effort to be make believe journalists are the worst.
Another thing that bloggers often do to limit their appeal is project themselves as all-knowing authority figures. Look, most bloggers are just regular people with opinions. You wrote something and put it on the internet… Big deal. Additionally, I can’t stand some of these bloggers who think everything is a crisis and an outrage. Lots of things fit these categories, but not everything. Some bloggers seriously need to get over themselves.
But more than anything else, the one thing that genuinely hacks me off about the blogosphere is these bloggers, and there are many, who think that the war in Iraq is akin to watching football on TV. It’s not. People are dying and it’s real, live combat. It’s serious business. The Milbloggers do the blogosphere’s best job of covering the war. Many of the others however act like “Dale Gribble” on Fox’s “King of the Hill.” They’re big, they’re bad, they’re tough… They’ll talk all about kicking ass and taking names while hiding behind their computer monitors in their basements. There is a difference between supporting the troops and secretly hoping for a war with Iran or North Korea, just so that they can continue to play soldier in their own heads.
Lastly, I think that the blogosphere has seen the height of its growth, and is now stabilizing. Just like with regular websites, there is only so much of a market for any given product or idea. And as the once fledgling voices of unbiased truth grow fatter and more complacent, many of the big name blogs will continue to shift from outlets of reason and moderation into dozens of dispensers of prepackaged party-line talking points. Again, regular people have regular lives and regular responsibilities that fill their lives. And regular people often have quite perceptive brains. If bloggers persist in harping on the glorious doings of their own political parties whether they actually make sense or not, the political blogosphere – conservative not liberal – will die. Liberals as a rule have no significant use for individual thought, balanced analysis and meaningful discussion to begin with, so the preceding does not apply to them.
September 21st, 2005 at 12:59 am
La Shawn,
I do want to clarify. None of the things I complained about in my other comment to this post apply in my opinion to LBC or TLA. I think you have always been a strong, honest blogger who genuinely approaches the issues of the day sincerely and level headed. There are other though - and I won’t name them - that I think are just worn out posers of the worst kind.