Problogger Diary

Just like you never leave the table till the last person has finished eating, blogging too has, over the years, developed its own eti- quette and mannerisms that one should keep in mind when speaking to the world. Think of the blog as your newspaper that a whole bunch of people are giving their time to. You wouldn’t want to inadvertently put them off now, would you?

1.Own Up To Mistakes.
Bloggers are an unforgiving lot, especially those who’ve been around for a few years. You’ve got to be particular about any claims you make and make sure that you’ve got your bases covered and your facts right. It’s always advisable to stray from purposeless claim making, especially if it’s about some sensitive issue. But if you do end up making a mistake, own-up and own-up fast. Mistakes are quick to be noticed and quick to be criticized. They can seriously damage your reputation as a blogger and affect the number of visitors you get at your blog.

2. You Need Street-Cred.
As with most things these days, you need to have some reputation to make a mark. And that reputation needs to be built. The easy way to build your reputation is by becoming a expert in any par- ticular area that you are specially interested in. This is easy. Choose any topic of interest and research it on the Internet for six months and you will know more about it than most people. Reputation as a consistent blogger with an informed and well articulated point of view will more or less guarantee a loyal group of frequent readers. You also need good rep to ensure that what you say is ‘bought’ by your readers. Otherwise, you’re just another chap with a big mouth.

3. Don’t Be Away Too Long.
Long spells of no updates are not recommended. If you must be away , or are unable to update for a reasonably long period (even two weeks is long in the blogging world these days), let your read- ers know that you are going to be away. You can’t expect visitors in the same numbers when you haven’t updated for a while. Consistency also pays in building your reputation as someone who can be trusted to have content regularly. The longer you stay away the more you risk losing readers.

4. Be Inspired, Don’t Copy.
One of the biggest turns offs to blog readers is plagiarized content or using somebody else’s material and passing it off as your own. You have to have your own style when blogging. Developing your own style and voice in your writing will take time. There are no shortcuts. Now this style can be ‘inspired’ from the writing style of somebody else, but it cannot be a direct rip-off. You just can’t afford to be seen as a copy-cat. If you want to use somebody else’s material be sure to cite the source and provide a link back to the site from where you got the information. If you want to directly use the text of what is said on the other cite enclose it in quotes “…” and preface it with something like “xyz.com reports” or “according to xyz.com” and so on.

5. Be Controversial, but careful.
Being controversial is sometimes a sign of independence. Of course, many times it’s an attempt to get popular quickly and cheaply. If you decide to be controversial—for whatever reason: to increase the pop- ularity of your blog, because you strongly feel about something or any other reason—do not lose your sense of civility. It’s true that your blog is like your own kingdom and what you say on it is entire- ly within your right to expression. However, if you have voices of dis- sent on your blog you should, as a matter of courtesy, allow them to be aired. Don’t just allow positive comments. Be ready to handle both the praise and criticism. Of course you may choose to edit or delete comments that are full of four letter words and foul lan- guage. Allowing both praise and criticism on your blog will send clear signals to your readers. You will jump up in their esteem as a serious blogger who is willing to allow discussion both sides of an issue. Otherwise, you risk losing their respect and being labeled as a propaganda swilling, pompous, self-adulatory windbag! Professional blogging usually means that you are becoming an authority on some specific topic area. This will mean that at times you will need to take the extra effort to do stuff which you may consider tedious, boring and not cool. For example as part of your blog you may be required to review different graphic designer soft- ware tools. It maybe that you have a preference for one particular tool and really dislike another. You will need to be objective and be able to articulate why you dislike a particular and learn to sepa- rate the “facts from the fiction” of your personal likes and dislikes. That is not to say you should not express your likes and dislikes. One of the advantages of being a popular blogger is the level of authority that you can command with your reader population. If you can clearly state why you dislike something it will get your fans thinking along those lines and they may agree with you. Of course they may also disagree.

6.To allow comments or not.
Allowing or disallowing people from commenting on your blog will depend on a number of factors including: its popularity and your personal preferences. Some blogs do not allow comments, as they are more in the information posts. In very popular blogs, comments are often disabled as the number of comments for each single post can exceed be in 100s and the blog author may not have the time to moderate all the comments. Some disable comments but provide the option of Trackback links. The trackback link will enable you to write your own blog post referring to another blog and post a link back to your post on the other blog.

7. Don’t steal bandwidth.
If you are going to use an image off a blog, save it on to your own image hosting site. It’s rude to copy the image source and link it directly to your own blog.

8. Attribution.
Always return credit where possible. If you are going to copy a text, or use an image, please return the credit and link back to where you found the material.

9. Be polite. Follow the Golden Rule.
This virtual world we’ve built allows us a bit of anonymity. We may feel like we can write anything we want because we aren’t face to face with the other person. Remember that words are tools to express your thoughts and feelings. They can be used to hurt and to help. Remember that tone is a hard thing to express with words only. Without your body language to back it up, your comment may be misconstrued.

I tell you these things not to frighten you into never commenting or joining in the discussion of a blog, but to remind you to think before you type.

10. Don’t be afraid to have an opinion.
It doesn’t hurt to belong to one side of the fence. In fact, it might make your blog more interesting. If you’re afraid of criticism, you might need to think twice about keeping a blog.

Posted by Problogger Diary at Thursday, April 02, 2009