Tony Pierce, has written up a list of things to consider when blogging, and some actually hold some relavanence to the blog-osphere as a whole, others may seem more questionable. Anyhows here’s my take on it.
1. write every day.
I try some days are just too damn busy.
2. if you think youre a good writer, write twice a day.
If you have anything worth sharing just post it… some day someone may find it useful.. Care to guess how many times the Fukitol Pill shows up in the search queries reported by my web stats?
3. dont be afraid to do anything. infact if youre afraid of something, do it. then do it again. and again.
4. cuss like a sailor.
Is it really necessary? I think not.
5. dont tell your mom, your work, your friends, the people you want to date, or the people you want to work for about your blog. if they find out and you’d rather they didnt read it, ask them nicely to grant you your privacy.
Depends on your audience and wether or not you care what they think, or if you include them in your writings.
6. have comments. dont be upset if no one writes in your comments for a long time. eventually they’ll write in there. if people start acting mean in your comments, ask them to stop, they probably will.
Comment or not… the point is wether for business, a place to vent, or pleasure, have some fun right? Who cares if anyone reads it or not.
7. have an email address clearly displayed on your blog. sometimes people want to tell you that you rock in private.
Too many spam bots… use the moderation controls for your blog instead. Private comments can be better used.
8. dont worry very much about the design of your blog. image is a fakeout.
Just make sure it’s presentable, and the text is readable, 8 point fonts suck rocks!
9. use Blogger. it’s easy, it’s free; and because they are owned by Google, your blog will get spidered better, you will show up in more search results, and more people will end up at your blog. besides, all the other blogging software & alternatives pretty much suck.
Use Blogger…. I see more negative comments about Blogger being hosed up daily than I do any others… Give WordPress a shot, get your own host, there are many out there that’ll cost less than a couple of StarBucks coffee whaddever you call them things a month.
10. use spellcheck unless youre completely totally keeping it real. but even then you might want to use it if you think you wrote something really good.
Yeah yeah yeah, I know… doesn’t bother me much, but I often go back and re-edit for spelling after “published”, so shoot me! Still a good idea.
11. say exactly what you want to say no matter what it looks like on the screen. then say something else. then keep going. and when youre done, re-read it, and edit it and hit publish and forget about it.
12. link like crazy. link anyone who links you, link your favorites, link your friends. dont be a prude. linking is what seperates bloggers from apes. and especially link if you’re trying to prove a point and someone else said it first. it lends credibility even if youre full of shit.
Use trackbacks! same thing only more content and more inbound links, less leaching off your PR… the “nofollow” tag is a great way to still propogate pages and info.
13. if you havent written about sex, religion, and politics in a week youre probably playing it too safe, which means you probably fucked up on #5, in which case start a second blog and keep your big mouth shut about it this time.
Ummm…. #5
14. remember: nobody cares which N*Sync member you are, what State you are, which Party of Five kid you are, or which Weezer song you are. the second you put one of those things on your blog you need to delete your blog and try out for the marching band. similarilly, nobody gives a shit what the weather is like in your town, nobody wants you to change their cursor into a butterfly, nobody wants to vote on whether your blog is hot or not, and nobody gives a rat ass what song youre listening to. write something Real for you, about you, every day.
Be yourself and have fun, it’s only words….
15. dont be afraid if you think something has been said before. it has. and better. big whoop. say it anyway using your own words as honestly as you can. just let it out.
Agreed.
16. get Site Meter and make it available for everyone to see. if you’re embarrassed that not a lot of people are clicking over to your page, dont be embarrassed by the number, be embarrassed that you actually give a crap about hits to your gay blog. it really is just a blog. and hits really dont mean anything. you want Site Meter, though, to see who is linking you so you can thank them and so you can link them back. similarilly, use Technorati, but dont obsess. write.
No opinion, I just don’t care.
17. people like pictures. use them. save them to your own server. or use Blogger’s free service. if you dont know how to do it, learn. also get a Buzznet account. several things will happen once you start blogging, one of them is you will learn new things. thats a good thing.
Definately, just don’t go overboard to the point of slowing down the load time of your page, limit the number of posts per page if you’ve got a ton of pics, remember 70% of the US can’t get broadband!
18. before you hit Save as Draft or Publish Post, select all and copy your masterpiece. you are using a computer and the internet, shit can happen. no need to lose a good post.
That or get away from Windoze to a more stable OS, Linux for example.
19. push the envelope in what youre writing about and how youre saying it. be more and more honest. get to the root of things. start at the root of things and get deeper. dig. think out loud. keep typing. keep going. eventually you’ll find a little treasure chest. every time you blog this can happen if you let it.
20. change your style. mimic people. write beautiful lies. dream in public. kiss and tell. finger and tell. cry scream fight sing fuck and dont be afraid to be funny. the easiest thing to do is whine when you write. dont be lazy. audblog at least once a week.
21. write open letters. make lists. call people out on their bullshit. lead by example. invent and reinvent yourself. start by writing about what happened to you today. for example today i told a hot girl how wonderfully hot she is.
22. when in doubt review something. theres not enough reviews on blogs. review a movie you just saw, a tv show, a cd, a kiss you just got, a restaurant, a hike you just took, anything.
23. constantly write about the town that you live in.
24. out yourself. tell your secrets. you can always delete them later.
25. dont use your real name. dont write about your work unless you dont care about getting fired.
26. dont be afraid to come across as an asswipe. own your asswipeness.
27. nobody likes poems. dont put your poems on your blog. not even if theyre incredible. especially if theyre incredible. odds are theyre not incredible. bad poems are funny sometimes though, so fine, put your dumb poems on there. whatever.
28. tell us about your friends.
29. dont apologize about not blogging. nobody cares. just start blogging again.
Amen!
30. read tons of blogs and leave nice comments.
