What makes a good blog?

Kai Merriott shares his thoughts on what he thinks makes a good blog.

As you may have noticed, this blogging lark is pretty new to us at Brightwave tower…at least in its current guise.

We've blogged before, obviously. But they've tended to be reproductions of articles or news stories. Any piece of writing created for another medium. It's all about 'maximising our efforts' as they say in the industry. Why write two articles when you can just write one?

But we've realised that the best blog posts have a particular style. And if you're looking to jump on the blogwagon, or if you already have a blog that nobody's reading, you might be wondering what they're for. Aren't there enough avenues through which people can voice their opinions?

Blogs are unique because they're personal.

Blogs are unique because they're personal. For years we've had to put up with dry web copy written by, I can only presume, robots.

Now we're afforded a glimpse into the people behind the faceless corporation. Eighties fashion might be back, but most people believe the cold, capitalist 'greed is good' attitude should stay in the bin with the dismantled Rubik's Cubes.

And everyone's at it. No more hiding behind shiny buildings and grumpy receptionists. Come on…let's see what you're really like!

So before venturing into this blogging business full-on, I did a bit of research (i.e. I went on the internet) to find out what makes a good blog. Here's a few of my thoughts:

• Even if you consider your corporate (or even personal) image to be fairly dry and stuffy, you shouldn't reflect this in your blogs. You don't need to be too "woo, yeah!" but it helps to inject a bit of personality into your posts.
• Blogs should have a free and easy writing style, and probably not be too dissimilar to your first draft. Edit, yes. But edit too much, and it's like boiling the goodness out a vegetable because you think it's not cooked enough.
• Blogging is not advertising. If you read too many blogverts, you're (as they say across the pond) outta there. Blogs are at their most interesting when you're hearing the author's voice.
• A blog is updated regularly. Anything more than a few times a day is probably overkill (we've all got work to do!), but if you notice the latest entry was made in 2006, you're probably going to abandon it, just like its cruel owner.

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