The great thing about a blog is that it's whatever you want it to be. The hard thing about a blog is that it's whatever you want it to be. And with a zillion blogs out there, no blog should try to be everything. So bloggers need to define themselves, and remind themselves of the definition (or change it) periodically. What better time for such things than New Year's day?
So here's my definition, in the form of some resolutions:
1. This blog is and always will be nothing but me. No other authors, ever.
2. No ads, ever (other than for myself, of course). Now, I love the commercial world and the freedom and material comfort it's brought us. But at least aesthetically it's nice to get a break from ads every once in awhile, and I don't want any temptation to build my audience for the ad money. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with having a big audience (and not that I would know how that feels anyway), but sometimes what you have to write about to get that audience gets you off of what you should be writing about (see 3).
3. Write what I know. You have to have a sizeable ego to blog, because you have to think that people would want to read your daily thoughts. There's a tendency for that ego to get out of hand, and to think that people want to read all of your daily thoughts.
A. Some things I know: Business, law, film, jurisdictional competition, law and economics, regulation vs. private ordering, securities regulation in particular, unincorporated firms, legal profession.
B. Things I don't know but have an opinion about: Politics, sports. Stay away from these unless they relate to category A. Of course, this last election got me and a lot of others off track.
C. What I marginally know: Where I am and what I'm reading. I may have no expertise, but sometimes I may have slightly useful observations (or pictures!). But I need to be careful here about spilling into category B.
4. Be a destination, not a route. This means, write coherent essays that are more than just pointers.
Blogging has been evolving at light speed. It will be interesting to see what 2005 brings.
PS: Some different resolutions for a different kind of blog, thanks to Conglomerate.
PPS: And a nice response by Conglomerate. As for why I don't have a co-author -- it's simply because the blog is so personal to me. A co-blogger might improve the content from many perspectives, but detract from this point. I might change my mind, though.
You have written some very good and thought provoking resolutions. You are right, we have very different concepts of what a blog should do and become as internet communications. That is one of the great strengths of blogging.
A blog can be anything that the author conceives and imagines. The goals and aspirations of every blogger are different, and that is a very powerful thing indeed. That inherent variety in blogs and styles is one of their finest features.
Like you, I am also the only blog author on my blog too. We have that in common, for sure. :-)
Posted by: Wayne Hurlbert | January 02, 2005 at 02:42 PM