Blog For The Fun Of It
I have been blogging on a regular basis now for just over 19 months, having decided that the world of weblogs is for me. Before that I time I had started a couple of blogs on Blogspot only to give up on them right away. When I finally decided to make a go of it in December 2005, I had no idea that I would enjoy blogging so much.
Reasons For Blogging
The only reason for blogging that makes sense to me is because the blogger enjoys it. Sure, if blogging helps you connect with people, bring in more business, raise brand awareness, etc., then blogging for those reasons is good too. Still, I cannot see the point of anyone blogging if they don’t enjoy doing it.
Blogging Rules: Says Who?
As I immerse myself ever deeper into the blogging waters, I have found that there are a lot of rules — written and implied — for bloggers. Personally, I think most rules should be decided by the blogger before he or she chooses to follow them or not.
Some of the rules I am talking about include:
- You must blog every day or at least five times per week. That’s your decision — let the self described A-List bloggers do what they want.
- You have to stick to one theme or a general theme when blogging. Repurpose your blog as often as you want.
- You must allow comments and all the better if you are a “no follow” blogger. “No follow” is okay, but some of the comments left by commentators is delete material. If using WordPress, make certain that you use Akismet to whack the spam.
- When tagged for a meme, you must respond. If required to furnish highly personal information about yourself, you are expected to comply. Please, some memes are entertaining while others should mercifully be allowed to die. If your heart isn’t in it, then don’t bother. If you do choose to respond, please be careful about sharing too much personal information about yourself — there are a lot of creepy people in cyberspace.
- If you aren’t part of a bunch of social communities, then you are missing out. Speaking of time wasters… I belong to a few social communities, but even some of these are dominated by the kiddie brigade. On the other hand, StumbleUpon rocks!
- You must have a blogroll and include everyone on it. Okay, give up all of the free advertising you want.
- Technorati is important and you must tag your posts. Technorati can be gamed like no other tool.
- Digg, De-li-ci-ous, Reddit, Furl, and so on are must haves. Some of the most poorly written articles get the most attention — ain’t that ter-rif-ic?
- WordPress is not God, but Blogspot is not Satan. Customization has its price — discontinued plug-ins and nasty updates are the bane of WordPress. Blogspot is limiting, but you can always bring it over to your own URL.
As you might guess, I have no idea who made up these rules or why everyone must follow them. Again, decide what you want your blog to be and stick with that. If you decide later on you want to repurpose your blog then that is your business.
Nothing More To Say? Then Shut It Down!
I like it when a blogger decides to quit blogging because they realize that they have nothing more to say. Or, at least on that topic.
When Miss Snark darkened her blog on May 20, 2007, I know that a lot of people were disappointed. Even though I am not a literary author, I enjoyed her blunt comments about the many manuscripts that graced her desk. I applaud Her Snarkiness as she quit while still ahead and long before her blog degenerated into something no longer worth the read.
Have I Covered Everything?
Probably not. Maybe I offended some people, but that wasn’t my intention. If you are a splogger, then you should be offended. For everyone else, do what you want to do with your blog because it is after all your blog.
Great advice, Matt. I keep thinking I should monetize my blog because I keep hearing how people are making money. But I’m really having fun doing what I want and am not ready to do that yet. I don’t follow rules very well, but I have a lot of fun.
Monetizing your blog is always your choice, Lillie. There are some blogs that overdo it, making it hard to figure out the real posts from the advertorials. I like Text Link Ads the best as their links are unobtrusive and they do all of the work for me.
great post, I agree, the rules shouldn’t be there, after all, a blog is simply a diary, and who makes rules for writing in a diary right?
You got that right, Eve. BTW, I like your site, especially the customization of WordPress themes, a needed service.
The list does just about sum it up … I was Stumble-searching under the ‘blogging’ tag earlier and it felt like every bit of advice was just the same over and over, and they all presupposed that everyone wants to be ProBlogger
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Hi Matt this is my second time landing on your blog,last time is about 60 days ago.Yup! I also cannot see the point of anyone blogging if they don’t enjoy doing it.We love blogging because we love sharing..That why you,me and others bloggers keep writing right.Add some more most of your post here make sense to me Matt and I spend around 30 minute to keep updated.It’s good to be loved.
ps-If you don’t mine,share with me why your PPP Direct is 99cent.Is it have any strategy behind that?
Thanks for your comments, laling.
Regarding, PPP the amount is 99 dollars not 99 cents. I could have easily posted 100 dollars, but I wanted to list an amount that stood out — looks like it worked!
Rules for blogging? More like guidelines. Rules when broken have serious consequences and usually a price to pay. Blog is more than a published personal diary. My blogging ethics are simply staying within the law and respect political, religious, cultural and social differences.
Guidelines are good, Vivienne. Otherwise, anarchy will prevail. Respecting one’s readership is essential to having a harmonious weblog.
“Repurpose your blog” - that is the one I would always remember. Often bloggers leave their niche, to write some off-posts - but they should comeback and write within their niche.
Thiru, there is definitely a problem brewing for bloggers who are all over the map when it comes to blogging. You can build “brand loyalty” with your readers but lose it if you switch to a subject they no longer care about.