Blogging About Writing About Blogging…
Each of us blogs for our own reasons, which are as many and varied as we are. Some of us are relative newbies, having just gotten started in the past few months. Others are grizzled veterans, still remembering when blogs were etched in charcoal on dried papyrus and taken village to village by loin-clothed runners. And each of us has our own method and madness and style that, once settled upon, continues to grow and evolve as we do.
Much has been written by bloggers on why, how, when, and where we write. One benchmark piece that has withstood the test of time is Frank Paynter’s 2004 collection of opinions and ideas from three-dozen key-strokers on why they blog. In 2005, Frank followed up with a question answered by numerous folks on how they blog. Check out both of these resources — some good stuff there.
Also starting in 2005 and continuing into 2007, were Rebecca Blood’s interviews with more than a dozen notables in our corner of the happening universe. The series, titled Bloggers on Blogging, is a mother-lode of insightful commentary that is of interest to newbies and oldies alike. Incidentally, Rebecca Blood wrote the book — see The WEBLOG Handbook.
More recently, and the trigger for this post, is a piece by Maria Schneider on her Writers Digest blog, The Writer’s Perspective. While short of comprehensive, her list of 20 tips is an excellent starting place for a prospective blogger to learn, as well as an excellent refresher for the more experienced among us to reaffirm where and how we have chosen to deviate from logic and common sense.
On the subject of blogging, I could rattle on all day without saying anything of consequence. But rather than tire myself while boring you, I’ll just mention two quick items — one for the new or prospective blogger, one for the seasoned.
If you are new to blogging or just thinking about getting started, understand that there are some written and unwritten rules of conduct and etiquette. There is no enforcement group. The blog world is self-policing. You want readers and commenters? Then you play somewhat within the fuzzy boundaries of the rules. The best way to discover how to conduct yourself is to closely observe those you consider to be successful. There is no set way to blog. There is no right way or wrong way. Don’t be afraid of trying ideas. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. You will…
If you are among the veterans, the seasoned, even the ones who are beyond newbie but still not totally comfortable without the training wheels — three words. Pay It Forward. As an embryonic blogger, I was helped by a few folks who I came to respect, including the illustrious fp mentioned above. Frank may or not recognize anything in my work that was spawned by the wisdom he passed on to me. He may not wish to claim or be identified with it or me. But my interpretation of his advice is here, an integral part of the framework on which nobodyasked is stretched. I have tried to repay Frank by helping others thinking of jumping into the pool or already wet but not yet able to get a toehold on bottom. Pay It Forward…
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I’ve only been blogging for about three months but I do have one piece of advise. It’s not about etiquette or writing style. I saw it on a list on Blue Gal’s blog but I had already figured it out all on my own: if you want comments, then do away with the comment verification. Unless you’re having a lot of spam or trolls or whatever the fuzz word is. Otherwise, it’s a nuisance and an inconvenience.
Let’s see…033
@Pagan: In general I agree with that. Of course, getting rid of it will not bring comments. Content brings comments. However, to some the captcha thingy is a nuisance. It is to me. I started using it a couple or three months ago because I was being deluged every night by spambots. Since using the captcha, I’ve had one or two that somehow snuck through the defenses. The same folks seem to be commenting now that did before, so perhaps it has not been a disastrous move. And, luckily, it has not kept you away….
You are so right about Pay it forward. I have to say that nothing thrills a newbie than getting a link or a comment. It’s a wonderful way to create a sense of community. Great post, Winston.
Interesting and the 20 tips were good to consider. I think we can know something we are writing will lose readers and still do it if the most important thing to us is being true to our own ideas. If it’s building up a reader base, then don’t be controversial is probably wise as it by its very nature means half the readers won’t like it.
On the spam, I had to put up a little letter verification for awhile on my blog, then stopped it and they didn’t come back. I figured when they find me again, I’ll do it again for a month or two and see if they lost me again. It is a nuisance and some are hard to even read to get the letters right which means doing it a couple of times. Still I do understand why it can be needed as those spam can build up. What I never understand is people who have both verification and comment moderation; so even after figuring out the letters, the comment won’t be posted until they get around to looking at it which could be even days later.
Good point, Winston, about people commenting because they care to comment. Nothing could keep me away from your blog, luv, so in regards to that, it’s a moot point.
Your code is actually not too bad. Blogger’s can be a real pain. And I have actually failed to comment on a few blogs because of it. However, they were not the blogs of “friends” but arrived at rather randomly.
And I agree with newscoma - great post.
Thanks for the link Winston. Something I enjoyed re-reading recently was Alan Herrell’s pixelview, a number of brief interviews he did with many people from 2000 - 2002 generation of bloggers, designers, developers, and others.
Winston, I can always count on you to write things that make me think. And thinking is probably a good skill…one I should practice more often than I do. So thanks for this…and for all the great links.
PIF? All well and good the PIF motto,
and doubtless well-intentioned. However…
When I see your (and others’) blogrolls mit hundreds of entries, I cannot take them seriously. I’ve trimmed
my blogroll down to the thirty or so that I visit regularly. No way I could keep up with as many as you (purport to )do. And if I can’t read them regularly, I can’t guarantee their quality, which is my basis for recommending them.
So, what to do? Everyone’s opinions welcome.
@Stu: You’ll notice my blogroll est omnis divisa in partes tres. Quinque, actually. The collective has grown to the point that it is totally out of control, and I have never made any claim to reading all of those. I do check on the DailyBread group daily. Selected ones from each of the other subsets are also checked more or less daily, depending on time constraints. I scan those lists and try to hit most of the ones I really enjoy, so that over the course of a month, I probably have checked on most of them.
Having said all that, I seriously need to find the time to sift and cull my list to about thirty as you have done. That would make it manageable. By the way, appearance of a site in my blogroll listing does not constitute a recommendation. It is only an indication that at some point in time each of those sites were of interest to me for some reason, and I wanted to keep track of them for easy re-entry. In other words, the list exists primarily for my use. If you or other readers find it useful, that is a bonus…
… good advice, indeed….. no matter HOW long you have been carrying a blog….
Hello, again.
I’m exactly with you on the blog list issue. My list is for me to easily keep track of the places I enjoy visiting simply because I like the person and/or their blog and I like to know what they’re thinking about on a more or less daily basis.
I almost always leave a comment if I am among the first to arrive at that blog post. Sometimes when the post is already flooded with comments and I’m not especially inspired to comment, I don’t. It’s sort of like being a part of a large reception as apposed to a small, intimate gathering. I’m much more at home with the latter.
Great thread of comments, by the way!
Yes, your blogroll tells me that you have not visited some of the links for well over a year. For example, Haggiswursts blog was cyberpirated by a gay porn site a year ago, and is now nonexistant. He now blogs at http://haggischorizo.blogspot.com/ BTW.
So for a year you were inwittingly advertising a gay porn site
I think we should all check for linkrot at least monthly and qualitycheck what list. My list of occasional links is kept in Opera private for me, unpublishd.
YMMV.
We just have different opinions od the purpose of a blogroll. Folks, just weed through your own, trim it down size, and cut out the dross.
Stu
@Stu: You got something against gay porn sites?
Seriously, you are absolutely right and I will set a higher priority on cleaning up my site, starting with your friend Haggiswursts, as soon as I post this comment. I also tried keeping the list private but that just made it more work, Being basically a lazy cuss, I gave up on that idea…
I find meta-blogging to be uninteresting, for the most part. I don’t care why people blog, I’m just glad they do, and that it (blogging) is available to me. I don’t mean this to sound peckish at all, but, then, you know me well enough to know that.
As for my blogroll, I limit it to blogs I visit daily.
@Gerry: I tend to agree about the meta-blogging thing (that’s blogging about blogging for the still clean among us), although I remember as a potential and then a newbie blogger, I found such things quite useful in helping shape and define what I wanted to do. I touched the subject in this post primarily for two reasons: (1) another newbie might stumble across it and find it helpful, and (2) to document for my own future reference some of the resources I find instructive.
The most boring blogs for me are those that have a singular focus, those that do nothing but rehash what others have already done over and over, and those that dryly record the events of their day, diary style, as if we cared that the baby spit up pablum while mommy was putting on makeup.
The most interesting ones are the organically eclectic that include some creative original content. I try to fit into this latter group, lacing it with some tongue-in-cheek, borderline smartass, frequently self-deprecating humor. Whether or not I succeed is for readers to judge.
And this is about the most boring comment ever dropped on my blog…
Also I try to have links on the blogroll to places in really widely varying styles (whilst obviously still interesting me). I envy these people their styles, I seem to have mine stuck in a rut