Blogging... My Take on the Do's and Don'ts

I have been consistently blogging since August 2005 and over that time I have developed my own likes and dislikes about the blogging world and what makes a good blog.  Here is my take on the whole thing...

Do...

• have a unique voice!  We all have one.  Don't blog about what you think your readers want.  That's like an author writing for their fans or an artist basing their creativity on what they think someone will buy.  Yuck!   I don't want to read a blog where I can't see a blogger's unique voice.   I want to really be able to tell who that person is and what they stand for by the way they express themselves.

• use Feedburner!   For goodness sakes, if you're going to blog burn your feed!   I've run across so many great blogs lately that either haven't burned their feed or don't have all of their available subscribe settings turned on within Feedburner.  When I find a really great blog, one that's worth having delivered to my email inbox, and can't find an option to subscribe via email, I get a little frustrated.  Sometimes I'll ask the author to make that option available and sometimes I'll just burn their feed myself and subscribe to it that way.  Make it easy on your readers to keep up with you!

• make your blog pleasing to the eye.   Clean up your sidebars... using pleasing colors... post pictures... make it easy to navigate.   I hope those things are self-explanatory, if not, leave me a comment and I'll elaborate.   Let's just say that you can have the best content in the world but if your blog hurts my eyes and I see that you don't care enough to organize your sidebars, then I won't be back!


Don't...

• follow the crowd!  Ok, so the mommy bloggers are all the rage now.   There's a million and one blogs all about couponing and weekly deals.   If you seen one, you've pretty much seen them all.   I have a few that I follow... why?... because I can see their unique voice!

• compare your blog to others.  This comes back to that unique voice.  Your blog, it's look and content, should reflect you.   One of my all time favorite bloggers, TidyMom, has a blog that reflects who she is.  She bakes, she cooks, she's tidy... and I don't do any of those things well!  Which is why I love her soooo much.  I get to peek into a life that is totally opposite of mine.   I get inspiration from her to be my unique self, here on my blog and out in the world.

• blog just to make money.   Blech.  I don't know about you but I can tell which blogs are only out there to make some cash.   There's nothing wrong with getting paid for your work on your blog but there's a fine line that needs to be walked with this.

So be creative, express yourself, blog about who you are and what you stand for.... just be you and be real... and make it easy for those of us who like your blog to follow you.