Dave Pollard on the art and science of Weblogging.

	March 14, 2008

Friday Flashback: What Blog Readers (and Writers) Want More Of Buried at the bottom of my right sidebar is a list of what, from my experience, blog readers want more of, and what I, as a blog writer, want more of (from readers). It was initially my most popular post, and still draws a fair bit of mail. It's reproduced below, left. The graphic below right is from another popular article I wrote back four years ago, on the Blogging Process. Blog readers want to see more: - original research,surveys,ideas etc. - original,well-crafted fiction - great finds: resources,blogs,essays, artistic works - news not found anywhere else - category killers: aggregators that capture the best of many blogs/feeds, so they need not be read individually - clever, concise political opinion consistent with their own views - benchmarks,quantitative analysis - personal stories,experiences,lessons learned - first-hand accounts - live reports from events - insight:leading-edge thinking & novel perspectives - short educational pieces - relevant "aha" graphics - great photos - useful tools and checklists - précis, summaries, reviews and other time-savers - fun stuff: quizzes, self-evaluations, other interactive content Blog writers want to see more: - constructive criticism, reaction, feedback - 'thank you' comments, and why readers liked their post - requests for future posts on specific subjects - foundation articles: posts that writers can build on, on their own blogs - reading lists/aggregations of material on specific, leading-edge subjects that writers can use as resource material - wonderful examples of writing of a particular genre, that they can learn from - comments that engender lively discussion - guidance on how to write in the strange world of weblogs Since I wrote the 'what blog readers/bloggers want more of' piece, I haven't changed my mind much. What my readers love best, and what I love in other blogs, pretty much stays the same. My blogging process has been streamlined since I began writing, though, because my readers now do much of this work (the stuff in the red and blue boxes) for me. They point me to news and blog articles they know will be of interest to me, so I only need to check out an ever-changing short list of blogs that are 'on a roll'. I confess my blogroll is hopelessly outdated -- there are over 100 dead links on it, and another 100 newer blogs I check out from time to time that are not yet on it. I read all my e-mails and blog comments (which are sent to me by e-mail) though I acknowledge I rarely reply to them. I just don't find them effective conversational media, so I prefer to engage my readers in IM or Skype conversations. I'm hoping to get back one day to being part of a real blogging community. Maybe with Gaia. 9:28:23 PM  trackback []  comment []

© Copyright 2008 Dave Pollard. Last update: 14/03/2008; 9:28:56 PM.