Time-Savers
Dave Pollard has some time-savers for bloggers. This article is (rightly) making its way around—I've seen it at least three times on weblogs I read, but oddly enough, I saw it first at the originating weblog. The tips that caught my eye follow.
Jay isn't going to like tip #1, which is to read less (the amount of weblogs he reads seems to be increasing logarithmically).
In tip #5, which is to browse faster, he almost seems to be arguing that you don't need to bother blogging headline news, since everybody else is. Instead, blogging something less well-known (or, failing that, having an original take on something well-known) might be a better approach to writing a better weblog.
Tip #8, which is to blog about first-hand accounts, is something relatively very few bloggers do: it's the main reason why blogging has yet to seem like journalism instead of what it currently seems like, which is either commentary or annotating links. In economic terms, annotation of links is closer to redistribution of "wealth", rather than first-hand accounts (factual or fictional) which produce. (Okay, it's a stretch to think of a better weblog as "wealth". Said in less smarty-pants terms, weblogs with original content are better than one that simply annotate links.)
Tip #11 speaks to me, since I have at least three weblogs with a fairly narrow subject matter. My favourite example of a weblog with a narrow focus, though, is Jish's Miata weblog. By far.
Tip #14 is the most important, but is also the hardest. The really great bloggers seem to take a day or two to think about news they've read and how they'll write about, and not only that, but seem to spend time editing before publishing. Not me: those few that see my entries immediately after they're published may have noticed either grammatical or spelling errors, or errors in judgement, whether it be ill-mannered reactions to a quote or reactions that are later retracted. I've taken measures to alleviate this: setting entries to default as Draft; for some posts, especially longer ones, some time is allowed between writing and publishing; and holding off on writing altogether so as to gather my thoughts. Weblogs are great because they allow for quick, unfettered reactions to things they see and read, but there are times when the initial reaction is not the one you want to be known for.
Dave Pollard, by setting down his 14 tips, is helping bloggers save time. I'm more interested in tips or "rules" that say what you're allowed to do than rules that tell you what to do or what you're not allowed to do, but Pollard's tips are useful because they are actually designed to help you write a better weblog.
