Questions For Bloggers


I’m finding this blogging thing to be a whole buttload of fun.

And despite our differences, we bloggers in truth have a buttload of things in common, primarily this: we started with nothing but an idea or a concept. We checked out the internet. We found Blogger — or another provider. We were smart enough to make Blogger work (except for me) — or the other provider.

We crafted our sites, checked out templates, rejected templates, changed our look, our style, started writing and hoped to be read by someone other than our Aunt Tilly. And, of course, we had to tell her where to go and give her the damn URL. “Look: everything begins with http. What part of that don’t you get?”

Okay, so we got disgusted with Aunt Tilly because of her computer incompetence and then began playing to the skills of the not-so-disassociated. Our friends at work. Our family. The computer guru for the company. Maybe a local newspaper. Or some Big Time Bloggers like Hugh Hewitt — who to this day has no idea I exist though I sent him 78 e-mails and 59 links to my pisshead blog — the bastard.

Do you remember the first time you saw your blog on the internet? On the actual INTERNET? Right there in front of your face? How satisfying was that?

“Hey. Check this out,” you thought. “This is something I MADE.”

How proud were you? I know I was beaucoup proud. Because you know what? Anyone with any semblance of internet or HTML talent already has their sophisticated website on the WWW. That ain’t you or me or otherwise our asses wouldn’t be on Blogger anyway.

So we learned how to make posts. Then we learned how to link the titles in our posts. Then we learned how to make links within the body of our posts — and I’ll tell you what: after that accomplishment I felt almost invincible. What a WORLD that opened up for me! My blog can actually look like some of the other Big Time blogs I frequent!

But wait; there’s more!

Remember making the discovery about photographs? You didn’t just have to go to the internet; oh no! Blogger now gave you the option of downloading items from your very own personal computer! That is so incredibly fabulous! How invincible were you now?

But wait; there’s more:

Can you remember your first comment? I can. Mine was a piece of spam from a realty company. Then I decided to turn on spam ID and that became an issue of the past.

My first real comment was from a now-known blog goddess, Mahndisa. To this day, I still don’t know how my blog got into the so-called internet mainstream.

Have I hooked you so far?

So I posit these questions:

  1. What makes you come back to a blog?
  2. Is it philosophy only?
  3. Is the “appearance” of the blog a factor?
  4. Do you want to check out the blog’s “blog-roll” — how important is a site’s blog-roll? When is it too much? 10 links? 20 links?
  5. Are photographs or graphics of any concern — or are you into text only?
  6. Do the links make any difference to you? Do they establish credibility?
  7. What do you prefer? Frequent posts daily? Posts every couple of days?
  8. One post a day?

Quite frankly, I prefer an active site. I like posting at least once a day though, due to issues beyond my immediate control, this does not always occur. If I can post once, twice, maybe three times a day (and I have the time!) I will.

It all depends on tidal pull, sunspots and prevailing trade winds.

Gimme your input! What do you think?

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5 thoughts on “Questions For Bloggers

  1. 10 28 05

    Hello Blo Zep:
    I am just about to go to bed and decided to have a visit. I think IDEAS and appearance make a difference in blogs, but also if there is discourse or if the author wants discourse. I appreciate you mentioning me in the article and am at a loss. You see, I just recently began getting visitors to even post comments on my site within the past couple of weeks. This is excluding Dell Gines, because he said stuff every now and then. So I came across your blog via fetching Jen’s. You had something of merit to say and I was curious about your perspective. That is what I like about the blogging universe; differences in opinion. I am just not one to hurl insults UNLESS I am beyond pissed off!!! Funny picture BTW! I was laughing quite hard when I was confronted with that image! :)I think I will take a break from this blog thing this weekend and go to the mountains or something:)

  2. Thanks guys, I really enjoy your support and comments; your blogs are wide, varied, but oh-so-necessary in my world.

    I’m a really old guy but still, this blog thing has really captured my interest, if for no other reason than this:

    It has opened up an entire new window on the thoughts, feelings, emotions and viewpoints of those who may be (gasp!) diametrically opposed to mine.

    And this, you see, only confirms what I believe anyway: the Right is right and the Left is gonzo.

    That is so judgmental; and so correct.

  3. Great pic. Because I’m old, blogs have got to be easy on the eyes – the simpler the design the better and I don’t like bright colored text on a black background.

    Other than that, I look first for the author’s politics (I really can’t be bothered reading leftist stuff no matter how intellectual – okay I’m a bigot) and then I look for the blogger’s character. I don’t care if a person is clever or not as long as they are sincere.

    I prefer reading blogs of ordinary folks like myself. The big guys like Instapundit etc are okay but they are not the pulse of America. Ordinary folk are.

  4. Patrick: you hit the nail on the head with your last comment, in my opinion. I enjoy reading the line level blogs like yours, Mahndisa’s, BWHs, Eddie’s, Jen’s, etc. That’s where the real writing these days occurs.

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