This question was posed today on the Seoers.org forum, namely - What Makes A Good Blog?

Here I’m going to attempt to answer that question, which only yesterday, I was struggling to find an answer to myself, so here I’m going to just write what I think, to see if I myself, can make any sense out of this very good question.

A blog of course is one’s personal space for self expression, it is a place where you can convey your thoughts, ideas and other stuff to the rest of the world.

Now, as I look around the blogosphere, I see a lot of blog conformity. That is, a lot of individuals, myself included, trying to fit in my blog to a set way of doing things, which is perceived by the masses to be the right way of going about constructing my blog content and other tools, widgets, plugin’s etc.

My problem is or my forte, whichever way you want to look at it, being a bit of an artist, I’m quite an emotionally charged individual who is highly passionate about a lot of subjects, with interests in a large variety of subject matters and people in general.

Now, I can either go down the route of writing this blog, folowing all the rules and end up with a Ford Fiesta style of blog, about as boring as it’s possible to get or I can spice the blog up, so that it reads like a Ford Anglia with a Porsche engine in the boot.

The former of these choices and my potential readership is likely to go, ok, not bad, factual information, bit of a long winded guy, generally verbose, but darn boring after 10 minutes of reading, or unleashing my passions full pelt, casting all risk asunder I can by choice make this space a whole bellyful of laughs as I trunter on about this, that and everything else under the sun, or do I just go down the middle road and try to meet a balance somewhere down the centre?

I don’t think it is possible to say overall, what makes up a good blog.

What is a good blog in one persons eyes is terribly boring in another persons view and similarly, if I go the artistic, let’s rip model, some from the more straight laced blogoshere right, are going to be completely horrified and flabberghasted at my absurdity at wordsmithery, conveying my thoughts and emotions like a raving lunatic. Horses for courses as they say, each to their own.

It’s like asking, what makes good art?

Who can say? One mans Picasso is another mans Southpark and vice versa.

I guess the point is then, to write and design your blog exactly as you want it, sure, some people will love it and some people will loathe it.

Take for example one well known ‘crazy’ website very well known in the UK, LingsCars.com - Lings Cars

Do you like this website, or do you loathe it?

It’s certainly interesting, even if the person running it is about as mad as a March hatter, she certainly shifts a very, very high number of cars from that website, so much so, that most traditional car dealers cannot stand her creative and very different approach, as she beats them all hands down, at their own game.

Now, check out her blog.

Would you say that she could be found guilty of blog conformity, or does she sway to the side of being exactly the opposite, breaking every conventional rule in the book of professional supposed conduct? Lings Cars Welcome To My Blog

Bottom line is, that there is no completely correct or incorrect way to set up your blog, it is your personal space, do with it as you wish, be yourself, it is your blank canvas. If some don’t like it, so what, is that a big deal? By being true to yourself, just being who you are, you are much more likely given time, to attract your own readership - Some will come back because your opinions, thoughts and ideas irk them, some individuals will find your opinions fascinating, others will dislike whatever you do intensely, there is no right or wrong way, the main purpose is to have fun.

If you enjoy what you are putting together, who is to say whether it is good or bad? Is art subjective? What about blogging, is that subjective too? Some people like tea and dislike coffee. Others love coffee but not tea. Still others like coffee but only black with no milk. Others like their coffee with one sugar but not two. Does it matter?

I guess then I’ll strive for somewhere down that middle road, depending on my artiscally charged, passionate mood for the day.

Some days I’ll post seriously, other days I’ll charge to the left and let rip with exactly what I think and give it some welly with some choice words. It is not for me to judge other people’s thoughts and opinions on whether they like my blog or not, some days I make bad coffee and even worse cups of tea. The point is doing one’s best to write a good blog post for the day, if they don’t like or appreciate my ‘coffee’ oh well, what’s the big deal, I’ll make them another mugful and see if they like that one instead. (Hopefully they will lol)

The point is I guess to be yourself, have fun with your words, be an individual, it’s your blank canvas of thought and no-one elses - whether it is good, bad or downright ugly well, some people are going to like it, whilst others will simply click away to something more attune to their personal preferences.

It’s a subjective question - What makes a good blog? If it’s good in your eyes, that’s exactly what it is. (Blimey, 930 words already, I better stop twittering on)

If you have any thoughts on what makes a good blog, please do feel more than welcome to post up your replies below, I’d be interested to read your own ideas, thoughts and feelings about this question and hopefully, participate in some discussion, upon the issue.

If you think I’m writing tripe, tell me, or if you like my words, heap praise on me. Opinion, strong, white, black, sweet, milky whatever, it’s all good & all more than welcome!

Please tell me now what YOU think …