Bloggo My Oggo

Logic and evidence have their place, but let's be honest: articles are most fun when they're wildly, controversially opinionative. That might be why I enjoyed reading this article, which tries to list the qualities that make a good blog.

(btw, I found it via a Guy Kawasaki tweet – so I guess Twitter is useful after all, huh?)

Here's the list:

Merlin Mann's 9 Things To Do to Make a Good Blog (Paraphrased)

1. Have a personal voice

2. Show your obsessions

3. Show where your obsessions take you – the trail of attention, the evolution of your interests. Blogs are an ongoing narrative of this – a story!

4. Write in paragraphs: craft, not crap

5. Use style and format creatively

6. Be weird

7. Inspire – make other people want to start their own blog

8. Try harder

9. Know when to break your own rules

I think #3 might be the most interesting. I'd never quite thought of blogs as being like narratives in that way, before. It's a clever analysis, don't you think?

(Except for #7; it might be true, but it's not useful advice!)

Anyhow – listen up! Based on this list, I have a game for you. A game of death.

No, wait, not a game of death. This is the game: think about how many of these qualities your blog has. If you have 6 or more, you win! If you have all 9, you are lying. How many (& which) would you like to have?

(I'd be happy if I thought my own blog maybe had #1, #4, #6 and #8 so far, but I don't really know; either way, I'm sure I still need to try harder . . . )

Do you agree with the list? What qualities are truly important, do you think?