June 6, 2005

What Makes A Successful Blog?

Liz wrote this at 11:11 pm

That is the question this site is going to set out to answer. It’s a tricky one for many reasons. For one thing it depends on how you define success; we all do that differently. If that weren’t enough, it depends equally as much on how we define “blog.” Just as there are a multitude of definitions for success, there are also many ways to define blogging.

For the purposes of this site I’m going to use the most basic of definitions for these terms to give us the maximum flexibility in discussing all that makes a blog successful.

The generally accepted dictionary definition of success is, “an event that accomplishes its intended purpose.” Easy enough. Know your purpose and you’ll know how to define success for you. We’ll talk quite a bit about defining your goals and purpose here.

A Blog, or Weblog, is defined in the Wikipedia thusly:

“A weblog (usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled web log) is both a web application used for entering, modifying and displaying periodic posts (normally in reverse chronological order) as well as the totality of content constituted by these posts.”

The key terms in there, at least for our purposes, are “Web application” and “content”. For me a blog at it’s most basic is an enabler of content, a mechanism through which you publish something. It could be photos, video, artwork, poetry, news, stories—anything. Content, that is what’s key when it comes to blogging.

Here at Successful Blog we’ll talk about content, blogging applications, personal blogging, business blogging, blog design, writing, photo blogging, and much. much more. I hope to provide you with many tips, techniques and pointers that you can apply to your blogs and your blogging experience. As well, I hope you’ll share what’s worked for you and that we’ll all learn something new.

Welcome to Successful Blog, I hope you like it here.

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12 Comments to “What Makes A Successful Blog?”

  1. October 23rd, 2005 at 11:44 pm
    Who’s ME Strauss and What’s She Doing Here? » Successful Blog said

    [...] What can you expect? One way that Scrivs and I look exactly alike is in what we have to say about success and blogs. We agree there are as many definitions for those two words as there are people to give them. I could have written what Scrivs wrote in his post What Makes a Successful Blog? The generally accepted dictionary definition of success is, an event that accomplishes its intended purpose. Easy enough. Know your purpose and you’ll know how to define success for you. We’ll talk quite a bit about defining your goals and purpose here. [...]

  2. May 10th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
    Ruth said

    Lizz,

    I really like your explanations about creating a successful blog.

    While I was trying to find an explanation about successful blogs myself, I realized that I was looking in all the wrong places, going for the complicated, of course :)

    So, I shall link your blog posting to my own marketing site. Gosh, Good stuff here,

    I have several blogs, some are just writing blogs, others are marketing / business blogs. But, I now have a good way to measure my success, and create a successful blog.

    All I have to do is define the purpose of each of my blogs.

    Ruth,
    Fellow blogger who hasn’t quite got it down as good as you :)

  3. May 10th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Ruth,
    Thank you for this major compliment. Actually, I inherited this page from the famous Paul Scrivens, CEO of 9rules. He’s a sharp guy. It’s one of the 7 or so pages he wrote. Got to give credit where credit is due. :)

  4. August 21st, 2006 at 3:13 am
    Gregg said

    I am new to blogging and I was trying to go through plethora of information from various ebooks and sites. However, when I came across your page for new bloggers, I found what I was really looking for. Thank you for putting up the information in a nice logical manner.

  5. August 21st, 2006 at 5:27 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Gregg,
    Welcome to Successful Blog and to blogging,
    I try to think of what I needed when I started and put those things around so that other folks have an easier time of it. (Not that it was so hard for me.)

    If you’re new, you should visit our Tuesday Night comment night and meet some of the folks who hang out here personally. We throw lots of comments about everything back and forth through the comment box. Our whole purpose is to talk and to get to know each other. New people are welcome. We love getting to know them and helping them out.

    Liz

  6. August 22nd, 2006 at 12:46 am
    Linda said

    Hi, I’m new to blogging. Just got a domain name last night, and they downloaded Wordpress for me. Now, i am looking at the schemes deciding on two columns or three, thinking about ads, etc.
    I’m ecited, but a little over-whelmed. Wondering if I should have gone with blogspot instead of getting domain site. But, too late now!

    Thanks for your site; it’s been helpful for someone starting out (like me).
    Linda

  7. August 22nd, 2006 at 5:03 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Linda!
    Welcome to Successful Blog and welcome to blogging. I remember my first days with my first blog. It was a lot like my first days with my son. I kept looking at it with wonder.

    You made the right choice going with your own domain. It seems like a lot now, but you’ll be surprise how quickly you pick it all up. If this were so hard to do, 50 Million people wouldn’t be able to do it.

    I hope you have already found this New Blogger page

    http://www.successful-blog.com/new-blogger-page/

    I also hope you will stop by Open Comments Night tonight to meet some of the folks who hang out around here. They’ll be able to answer questions you might have — in betwen our silly comments about cartoon charatcters and each other. We enjoy meeting new bloggers and helping you become part of the group. So do come if you can. (After 7 or so Chicago time.)

    Also, do feel free to email me at lizsun 2 at gmail dot com if you need me to point you to some specific information. :)

  8. August 22nd, 2006 at 6:03 am
    Ruth said

    Linda,
    It’s a good thing you chose wordpress with your own domain instead of blogspot.

    So many people, myself included, have had a blogspot shut down for now reason.

    It is so frustrating when that happens. You spend hours posting good content, and then one day it is gone…and someone else has opened under your blogspot name.

    Ruth,
    Good Luck,
    You will love working with your blog

  9. August 22nd, 2006 at 6:38 am
    ME Strauss said

    Ruth,
    What an awful thing to have happen to you! To follow my own analogy, that’s like losing a child. It’s evil. Grrr. How sanely you speak of it.

  10. August 22nd, 2006 at 7:18 am
    Ruth said

    Liz,
    About losing my blog! I may speak sanely ( I really like how you write :) … but I cried. I really did. I was posting on this blog for over a year when it was shut down. I posted manually, every 2 or 3 days to this blog. And, it was on a subject that is so close to my heart…animal sanctuary and safety.

    Ruth,

  11. August 22nd, 2006 at 7:29 am
    ME Strauss said

    Ruth,
    I would have cried as well. I do my rough draft for my blogspot blog on Word and print it out every other month for that reason. But it soooo large and I have sentimental tie to blogspot because it started there.

    I hurt for your loss. i think you would like that blog.

  12. November 4th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
    ignitenow.com.au » One small step for A man said

    [...] I would call myself an internet person. I work as the CEO of Intazaar, I’m a co-founder here at IgniteNow!, and the chief blogger and yet this post is my very first blog.  Like most of us, I’m not sure what to write about in my first blog. I’m a little nervous that what I say is boring or bland and that no one will come back. So I thought is pop up a browser and do a bit of reading ( Google Search [Best Result]) After doing this reading  figure the following makes sense for making a sucesfful blog, especially in a site like MySpace. Point One: Be yourself! I can’t spell. You know after reading a few blogs, sometimes I wonder if what I’m reading really what the person who wrote it is. I mean I’m an awful speller and my grammar is no better. I write as I speak, mispronunciations and all. Point Two: Don’t be boring Point Tree: Don’t stop, if you blog once in a blue moon people will stop coming. Point Four: Make sure you get out there, in the real world so that you can come back and have something to blog about!   What does this all have to do with IgniteNow! IG! is about the Internet and technology. We are an think tank come realization factory. Which means we help people realize the potential of their business model, product or service. Blogging for us is a tool to run commentary on the ICT industry, on cool products and services and the Internet. So come back and enjoy! November 4, 2006 | In Uncategorized | [...]

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