{"id":2393,"date":"2017-01-02T12:15:01","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T12:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis520817\/?page_id=2393"},"modified":"2018-12-14T12:19:58","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T17:19:58","slug":"about-blogs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5208sec001spring2020\/blogs\/about-blogs\/","title":{"rendered":"About Blogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

What Makes A Good Blog<\/h2>\n
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Focus, personality and reader comments are key to building an audience, say popular bloggers<\/h2>\n

By William Kraska Spring 2005<\/p>\n

The Internet contains nearly 3 million active blogs, according to one recent count, with topics ranging from politics to movies, to food, to the emotional ramblings of high-school teens.\u00a0With so many blogs, how does one become popular? What qualities will distinguish a blog from the massive congestion in the blogosphere?\u00a0Blogs become successful because of specificity and passion, according to Kevin Donahue, co-creator of Fanblogs, a college football blog described by Forbes.com as the best blog dedicated to a single sport.\u00a0\u201cRepeat visitors feel an ownership and loyalty to the blog. They will police comments, pointing out when someone is out of line.\u201d\u00a0\u201cHave a single focus about a topic you really enjoy, and put a little of yourself into it,\u201d he says. Fanblogs prospers because college football already has a loyal fan base. \u201cAnd that passion translates into a loyal readership.\u201d\u00a0Reader comments are a significant factor in blog popularity, according to several bloggers. Hart Brachen, creator of the snarky, ironic blog The Soxaholix says, \u201cPeople who leave comments build the community aspect that really helps a site become more than just one blogger writing into space. Comments let you know what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not, and inspire you to keep at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel Kasman, a writer for the popular film discussion blog MilkPlus, agrees. Posted comments will keep a blog \u201cfresh and full of discourse,\u201d he says.\u00a0Lockhart Steele, the managing editor of blog publisher Gawker Media, says that after a blog develops an audience, readers will submit tips and fact-check stories. They basically \u201cdo all of the work for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dedicated readers also keep a blog\u2019s integrity in check. \u201cRepeat visitors feel an ownership and loyalty to the blog,\u201d observes Fanblogs\u2019 Donahue. \u201cThey will police comments, pointing out when someone is out of line.\u201d\u00a0But before a blog is able to rely on its readers to help it succeed, a blogger must sometimes wait months, or even years, before a regular following develops. While some bloggers believe that they\u2019re going to attract regular commenters within days of launching their blogs, Holiday of Fanblogs says, \u201cit doesn\u2019t happen like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Modifying a quote from the movie \u201cField of Dreams,\u201d he says: \u201cIf you build it, they will come \u2026 slowly.\u201d<\/p>\n

ORIGINAL SOURCE:\u00a0Kraska, W. (2005). What Makes a Good Blog. Retrieved from http:\/\/journalism.nyu.edu\/publishing\/archives\/notablog\/story\/good_blog\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What Makes A Good Blog Focus, personality and reader comments are key to building an audience, say popular bloggers By William Kraska Spring 2005 The Internet contains nearly 3 million active blogs, according to one recent count, with topics ranging from politics to movies, to food, to the emotional ramblings of high-school teens.\u00a0With so many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21825,"featured_media":0,"parent":9,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"full-width-content","footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-2393","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5208sec001spring2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5208sec001spring2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5208sec001spring2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5208sec001spring2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5208sec001spring2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5208sec001spring2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4308,"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5208sec001spring2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2393\/revisions\/4308"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5208sec001spring2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5208sec001spring2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}