A good blog is only good as long as there is an audience who continuously follows it (so please, follow my blog).
At the heart of blog writing lies a sense of community. That is why I think that in order to create a good blog, one must promote communal participation. According to Carroll, in order to do this you must post to your blog on a regular basis and feature other blogs. You must be open, and invite readers to look at sources, blogs, and other platforms from which you gather thoughts and inspirations from. The very platform of writing in the digital environment promotes a sense of community. As stated by Morris, “digital writing is communal writing,” and our thoughts are active and buzzing amongst our readers. We must form a relationship with the reader, because it is feedback from an audience that drives certain work. In fact, Rorabaugh says that “growth is determined by the encouragement and critique of the community.” Sometimes, we, the blog writers, need a little “tough love” in order to produce our best product.
In other words, as stated by Morris, “we create the choir as we preach and the choir creates us.” So, I ask all of you to come together and actively participate in the process of constructing my blog.
In order to create a good blog you must forge a relationship with the reader. How do you go about doing this? Transparency. As a blogger, you must open yourself up to your audience. Give them your background and any biases you might have so they can begin to understand where the roots of your writing are grounded. Carroll supports this idea by saying, “speak plainly and transparently, and therefore build trust.” Step out of your comfort zone, and walk the fine line of being too revealing and not revealing enough. Your audience will appreciate this, and in turn, you will be one step closer to creating a good blog.
Finally, a good blog must have a good design. According to Hosey, “we think of great design as art.” Therefore, a good blog must have an artistic component that is appealing to readers. After all, as stated by Hosey, “beauty is in the genes of the beholder.” We are all naturally drawn to beauty, thus if a blog is visually appealing it will draw the attention of more readers. My artistic ability needs work, so I will save you the pain of observing me attempt to be artistic and point you to some beautifully designed blogs below.
