Yesterday Sneak was delighted to meet ace blogger Cory Doctorow, one quarter of weblog powerhouse Boing Boing. And of course Doctorow was keen to offer his top tips on successful blogging:
1. Never use clever headlines. They're not helpful or self-explanatory when viewing long lists of blog entries in an RSS aggregator. To which Sneak can only respond that 'clever' is a relative term.
2. Keep your writing simple. Observe Bruce Sterling's principle of attention conservation by setting out exactly what each blog entry is about, as quickly and clearly as possible, so that readers don't waste their time. Again, Sneak feels compelled to protest that simple is always a value judgement, never an absolute.
3. "One of the great strengths of Boing Boing, but also its weakness," said Doctorow, "is that we are endlessly self-indulgent." Ah. At last. Some advice that Sneak can take to heart without any argument.

29 Sep 2004