One. Keep it short. No one reads anymore. They skim.
Two. Don't preach. People don't want to be condescended to.
Three. If you're going to be "deep" in a philosophical sort of way, keep it short, make it enterntaining, and give a specific narrative to hook the reader.
Four. Your readers are creatures of habit. If you write about watches and radios and change the topic, you will annoy many of them.
Five. Don't get personal with trolls. Delete their comments and ignore them.
Six. Don't post just to post. Only post if it means something to you.
Seven. Don't cater to malcontents. They'll always complain.
Eight. Don't take insults personally. Hurling insults from the safety of one's computer is odious and cowardly.
Nine. Don't expect to get rich off ads. You'll make enough to cover your blog subscription fees and a few things you review so that you'll be lucky if you break even.
Ten. Celebrate the friends you make on your blog. We live in a society where adults and parents just get too busy to make friends. Take your friends where you can find them.
I'm guilty of some of those, especially 1 but also 2-8 to varying degrees and at different times. The internet 'tis a strange new world.
Posted by: jonnybardo | February 18, 2014 at 01:20 PM
Very good observations. There are just too many things vying for our attention these days. The clutter is thick. Life is short. Too short to read more than a handful of blogs. I never read fiction anymore.
Posted by: Ed S. | February 18, 2014 at 05:24 PM
Hear, hear! I completely agree, Jeff.
A guy wrote to me yesterday and complain about his free Feedburner email daily digest subscription to my blog's RSS feed.
He complained that, on days when I post more than one topic, the subject line of the email doesn't show each individual topic so he doesn't have to open the email to discover them.
I was traveling yesterday, for a charity, so didn't get to his email. This morning he writes, "Due to a lack of response from my email, I am immediately unsubscribing from your email digest!"
Only in the Internet age do people complain about a free service, that they independently subscribe to and do not (in any way) financially support. Like you, Jeff, the few sponsorships I have merely pay for the monthly price of my website server, malware protection and back-up service. Any change left over might go towards a review radio, etc.
It takes thick skin to ignore the occasional troll and embrace the encouragement and enthusiasm from readers/friends.
We do this stuff out of passion and for the friendships we form over topics that create a sense of true online community.
'Nuff said!
Posted by: Thomas | February 21, 2014 at 04:37 AM