I enjoyed everyone’s responses so much that I thought they were worth a post in themselves. So, I’ve done a summary, if you like, of what we feel are the top components of a good blog.
To see who said what and why…well read the article’s comments! In the meantime here’s what a great blog has:
- Quality content – interesting, well organised, well written, well presented
- Clear, intuitive navigation – don’t make me think!
- Good spelling, grammar, and sentence syntax – the odd typo is o.k…
- Proper formatting (paragraphs, effective use of white space, scaled photos etc.)
- Imagination, creativity
and talentand talent - A Contact Me link or form – Do not pass Go without it!
- Regularly updated posts
- Usability
- Easy access to past articles (archives, related posts, site-map…)
- Lets the personality of the blogger shine through
- A consistent and true “voice” – show your passion and feeling!
- Overall blog presentation – make visitors want to stay
- Good use of linking services, e.g Techorati
- Clean and fast loading pages
Few or no ads.Discretely placed ads that don’t obscure the content
Great stuff folks!
Technorati Tags: blog, content, linking services, Techorati
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I love this list…it should become blogging law
This is a great compilation of good blogging practices. Maybe a bloggers bible is in order. “15 Commandments”, hehe!!
Thanks Chris and Jannette! It’s credit to all of you, but it felt good putting it together. I realize that I read blogs that follow all of these.
And a Blogging Law isn’t a bad idea either
Yes… your praise feeds my hunger… Mmmmm…
Sigh, I’m hooked on this place now. Am I the only one thinking Chris, Brit, and myself need to get some sort of blogging poker night going?
Looking through the list once more… perhaps an honerable #16:
A few nifty plugins can’t hurt.
That Top Commenter list, though so simple, is also very effective.
Rirath – A few plugins certainly can’t hurt. in fact I’d say they are quite important. So we’ll call it an honourable #16.
I didn’t include them in the “must have” list because I know that those on wp.com can’t install plugins on their blogs in the way we can on our hosted wp. And I’ve no idea what the deal is on blogger. I think you can blog without plugins (just) but you are limited with what you are able to do to extend your blog.
Being able to extend my blog functionality beyond the basics is one reason I moved to hosting and I’m constantly amazed at the array of plugins being developed. It’s easy to become a “Plugin Junkie” though! I’ve been planning to do a post on the plugins I am using on Like It Is… one of these days
. Glad you like the Top Commenators – I think it’s a nice way to show case people who do comment often 
@ Rirath: Hmmmm… blogger poker… That’ll have to be looked into sometime. You’re right man, LOL. There’s a lot of camaraderie in this blog. That says a lot of good things about Like It Is.
Thanks Chris – I agree! We could all sign up on Poker Stars.net (play money)… Nothing like playing with play money.. heh! I do enjoy Poker though – my favourite is Texas Hold ‘em and still play in a $5 buy in a house poker league with friends every few weeks. I got a Poker table as a present last Christmas – I’m a bit of a poker nut I’m afraid…