All the flattering comments lately (thank you!) have gotten me thinking. I appreciate your feedback more than you know, and you’ve all boosted my confidence about my writing as well as my subject matter. In that vein, I discovered an article this morning that distills my thoughts about what makes a good blog. I don’t fill all of them–far from it–but it’s making me stop and think about how I’m communicating, which is a very good thing.

From From 10 Ways To Be a Better Blogger in Tech Republic:

1. Define your purpose
2. Create visual appeal
3. Use the proper tools
4. Make it easy to navigate
5. Stay in one place
6. Engage your readers
7. Establish a blogging schedule
8. Proofread before publishing
9. Go syndicate yourself

My own thoughts on what I do:

1. When I started this, I wanted to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves, or who aren’t heard when they do. That’s leads me to do a lot of mental health issues, gender issues, body image issues and age-related issues. I try to choose topics that I can relate to personally, and that I hope will resonate for someone else. I do need to get back to more social conscience posts about the broader world, though.
2. I really like my design. I went through several before I settled on this one and I like the way it visually sums up my purpose. It may not be pleasing to someone else, but it subliminally inspires me to write.
3. I use WordPress, and swear by it. It’s hard to screw anything up. I really need to upgrade my install, though. One of these days. My son says I’m a web conservative, and he’s right. I don’t do change well.
4. This is a tough one. I like using categories and archives but the structure is awkward, forcing people to work their way through pages of posts on a topic to find something they’re interested in. I need to split up my broad categories better to aid in this.
5. This part is easy. I have my own domain, so the only move I’ve made was onto this server.
6. This is a tough one. It’s the main reason I use a recent comments section on the sidebar, with a link to the commented post. You’ve all been wonderful with your feedback and personal experiences and it’s important to me to answer each of you. It’s led to some great discussions, besides being gratifying to me.
7. I’m not good at this one. In the beginning I tried to do at least one post every day, but my available time has diminished with my new job, as well as varying with my state of mind. Some days a dozen ideas strike me, other days nothing in the news jump starts my brain. I need to get a frequency rhythm going.
8. Ack. My major downfall. I don’t see errors til they’re posted and I often do revisions, not just for spelling but for content, too. I’ll often come back to a post later in the day and add or delete thoughts. But as Ahistoricality commented to me once, blogging is a work in progress. That’s the way it works for me, though it may be frustrating to those reading.
9. No problem here. Wordpress does RSS feeds, and it’s gratifying to me to see in Bloglines how many people subscribe. I do a lot of reading that way myself, though I do make it a point to click through to the blog post directly so that the writers will know that I’m reading when they look at their stats.

Actually, this would make a great meme. How do you feel about these goals in your own blogging? What inspires you to write? How can I, as a reader, help you accomplish these goals? Why do you do what you do? If you feel so inclined, copy out the questions and post your answers.

If you decide to take up the topic, be sure to let me know in comments so I can read your thoughts on it.