Friday, April 20, 2007

How to win friends and influence people

Here we have ten tips on ''How to Write a Successful Blog''. For my money, I don't think a blog is really successful unless it is bringing in either money or sex. But, let's go through these and see if I'm doing anything that would seem to ensure me future success...

1. Stay on topic.

Nope. I started off with the plan to blog about being in grad school. Hence this would be an ''academic blog''. This plan soon changed for two reasons. 1. I discovered that the academic blog, with a few noteworthy exceptions, is basically an entity that combines the tedium of academic writing with the narcissism of blogging. Also, I have ADD, which my doctors tell me stands for ''Attention Deficit... oh, something or other.

2. Be informative

Probably a lot more than I used to be. I tend to store notes for myself here and I'm basically interested in everything. Also, I got mighty tired of blogging about how much I hate my job, so it's gotten more interesting. On the other hand, my series of notes for my exams was tedious, no doubt.

3. Old news is not news

I guess so... I tend to stay current, although I am naturally interested in history, so that shows up too.

4. Adhere to a schedule

Pretty good there. It's started me thinking that I should find a more profitable place to write, if I'm going to do it every day. Maybe an online magazine of some sort.

5. Clarity and simplicity

Hit or miss. Sometimes I'm as clear as a crystal stream. Other times, even I don't know what I'm writing about. Actually, this post might count among the later.

6. Keyword-rich

Huh?

7. Quantity matters

Well, that's good.

8. Frequency

Yep, no problem there either.

9. Spell checking and proof-reading

Oh, shut-up! Actually, does anyone remember the angry troll who kept posting on here that I had no business in grad school because I had misspelled the word 'pursuit' several months earlier?

10. RSS

WTF?

So, there you have it. Proof positive that I am not going to be very successful doing this. Alas, I'm not in it for the fame or the money or the sex. Actually, I have no idea what I'm doing here.

Update: Greg, weren't you suggesting some sort of online journal? 'Pretentious bastard monthly' or something? Does anyone know how to do that?

7 comments:

Greg von Winckel said...

Actually, I was thinking of registering www.angrypedant.com for that purpose... but I am so, so lazy.

It"s amazing that I have a Ph.D. at all.

Rufus said...

I was thinking that it might be nice to do something that was better organized and a bit more aesthetically pleasing. Also perhaps less me-oriented than a blog. On the other hand, I was also thinking of going less angry, but certainly more pedantic.

Anonymous said...

This is probably just me, but I rather enjoy the angry rants of pedants. Especially when I get to pick apart the spelling.

Rufus said...

Which isn't, in itself, pedantic?

Anonymous said...

Well, if it's good for the goose...

Anonymous said...

Birds of a feather, after all.

Rufus said...

C'est vrai.