It’s Monday and Dr. Tanya is back with her weekly Blogging Insights prompt. She provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote.
This week’s quote is from Michael Coniff. I Googled Michael Coniff and there are quite a few, but I think this quote probably came from the Michael Coniff who is a writer and producer.
“Blogs are whatever we make them. Defining ‘Blog’ is a fool’s errand.”
I think this quote is accurate, but I also think, if one is going to take a stab at defining what a blog is, the better question is how to define a good blog. So I’m going to give my opinion about what attributes make a good blog.
- Posts should be well written, with a minimum number of typos, misspellings, and usage, grammatical, and punctuation errors. Proofreading is a must!
- Post should engage the reader by being compelling, interesting, and, if appropriate, witty.
- Posts should inform or educate, but in an entertaining way.
- Posts should be easy to read. No post should require a reader to go to the dictionary or thesaurus to understand what the writer is saying.
- Posts should tell a story, even if it’s non-fiction, because stories get the reader engaged.
- Posts should have some visuals, like photos, videos, drawings, or something that illustrates or amplifies the text.
- Variety is the spice of life, they say. I believe that a good blog demonstrates variety in the posts, from prose to poetry, fiction to non-fiction, serious or humorous, or anything that keeps the reader from getting bored by the same old stuff post after post.
- Bloggers should post on a consistent basis, whether daily, weekly, or even monthly. Unfortunately, when it comes to blogging, out of sight, out of mind.
- And finally, the best posts, in my opinion, are those that demonstrate that the blogger has a passion for writing.
What do you think constitute a good blog?
This, That, and the Other 
I agree with you Fandango, these are all attributes of a good blog.
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Agreed, except if a blog is all fiction or poetry (or both), with few to no opinion essays, I might follow if the writing resonates with me. On the other hand, all opinion all the time can get tedious…
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Variety!!!
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Do you think my blog ticks most of those boxes as a mainly photographic blog?
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Your photography is excellent and engaging and you rarely have typos, and you even host a monthly prompt. And, by the way, your comments on my posts are a hoot!
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Thanks Fandango 😃😃
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I’m glad you finally got it together with visuals. I used to read your stuff and I just itched wanted to add a few pictures. I’ve tried not adding visuals, but even when there just aren’t any pictures that seem to fit I can work with colors.
Why you may ask? Because it breaks up the page. Page design is an oft-neglected part of blogging. A well-presented blog encourages readship. White space, font size, kerning and leading plus sensible PUNCTUATION make a difference.
AS for typos? Well, some of us are better than others. Sadly it isn’t a skill you can learn. Good proofreaders are born, not made. Also, the best proofreaders are SLOW readers. Those of us who zip through a lot of text quickly are rarely better than mediocre proofers — and that’s on a good day. On a bad day, I can fail to notice entire words or phrases missing from text. Nobody has ever praised my proofing skills, not in all the years I’ve worked. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it your best effort. Nothing should go to publication that hasn’t be read a couple of times to hunt down typos, misspelling, incorrect words and awkwardness.
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Note the typos in this post about typos. I think I could read it 100 times and STILL miss things.
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I cringe at the word ‘blog’, a contraction of the word ‘weblog’, a log of whatever on the web. Reminds me of bog, blog, shit. OK, it’s easy to say, everyone uses it, and it’s here to stay. I don’t like it, but put up with it. Not often will I choose to use the word. But that’s just me. ……I know I know Fan, fussy…….
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The only time I see the word “weblog” is in spam comments I receive.
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That is an excellent guideline for a good blog.
You’ve taken the quote to the next level.
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Thanks, Tanya.
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Most welcome ☺️
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all of the above, you’ve said it perfectly Fandango! A blog should have all of the things in it you mentioned!
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