Seriously thoughtful Writing a blog

[Logseman]

I've given some thought to the idea of going back to writing a blog lately. However, due to the failure of my various previous enterprises, which have been, in chronological order: a "whatever-crosses-your-head" blog, another one where I tried to post my short stories and plot stubs, an anime review blog and, lastly, a blog where I translated English articles from an Economics page, I'm a bit confused about what I should write about. Or if I should do it anyways.

I'm well aware that blogs must have a topic, and that you must update them regularly in order for them to be interesting and read (which is, indeed, my objective, as I believe I have something to say in the first place). In the first month it doesn't take effort to do so, but once the hype has passed, it makes you feel lazy.

Any tips on topics, how to overcome the end-of-hype syndrome, and any idea would be most welcome.

[HarryT]

My honest opinion - and I mean no offence in saying this - is that if you have to ask the question, then you probably shouldn't be doing it. A blog should be about something you feel passionate about, and only you know what that is.

[GeoffC]

Harry has said all that needs to be said.

[vivaldirules]

Many people just need an outlet for their thoughts even if it is completely unseen and then the blog is simply a journal. If that's what you need, don't worry about it - just start writing and you will figure it out along the way. But if you really want people to read your blog, as you've indicated, why not spend time just finding out and thinking about what it is they need or want that you have to offer? And then ask yourself now what you'll do if you get bored with it later (whether or not you've been providing them something useful).

[mores]

What do you want to do?
Write about something, or maybe create a blog that attracts an audience and maybe get some money through ads and sponsors?

Why did the other blogs "fail"?

Regarding the regularity of postings, there are ways to "write ahead", so that if you're on a roll, you can write 3 or 4 posts and advanvce-date them.

[Logseman]

Making it more particular, I remember in particular my defunct anime reviews blog. While I started making some definitions that I later never used xD, looking for loads of pictures that were irrelevant and stuff, when I started to review them it was fun. I reviewed about 20 works, watching them from tip to toe, and I started having sporadical comments and so on, but then I got tired. I intended to make a review every week, but watching ca. 520 minutes for a usual 26-eps flick (changing episodes and misclicking and, well, being human, would round it up to 540 minutes, that is, 9 hours) in a sole week proved to beat my time management abilities, which are not too big to start with. And that doesn't count finding the series, downloading it beforehand, and, well, gathering my thoughts and writing the review.

[mores]

You should write about something that you do on a regular basis, that is fun and that you consider "leisure". If you have to watch Anime to feed your blog, it'll be work.
If you play 50h of iPhone games per week, you should have no trouble spending an hour or two per week on a nice iPhone games blog.

Mind you, there are already enough iPhone blogs out there

Just saying, write about something you do anyways.

[Logseman]

Originally Posted by mores

You should write about something that you do on a regular basis, that is fun and that you consider "leisure". If you have to watch Anime to feed your blog, it'll be work.
If you play 50h of iPhone games per week, you should have no trouble spending an hour or two per week on a nice iPhone games blog.

Mind you, there are already enough iPhone blogs out there

Just saying, write about something you do anyways.

The catch is, I'm a hardened Otaku (my avatar being the first example :P), and I have an extensive collection of Manga, and many nights lost due to anime watching. It was quite surprising to see how I started losing interest in a thing I had been loving since I started my teen age. In fact, after that blog I stopped watching anime altogether for a long season.

[Nancy Fulda]

This is a really interesting thread for me, since I've been merrily blogging away since, oh, about 2005.

Honestly, I think my posts were more interesting back when I was just writing whatever I felt like, whenever I felt like it, you know? These days it's all writing tips and publication news and posts I wrote because I felt pressure to produce something for my followers that week.

I'm trying to get back to the spill-your-heart-and-soul-on-paper type of blog writing I did back when my kids were littler, but it's hard. The internet is a giant fishbowl, and the more connected I become to everyone that's on it, the less comfortable I feel blogging about the things that interest me most.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Just do it. Some will hate you some will love you. It only takes one comment to make your day. I feel that way about posting my photo-journals on another site and then someone makes a comment that just makes me all giddy for a day.

Don't do what I've done with my blog which is to ignore into oblivion. I need to post more often. The best advice is to blog about what you love, and have a topic.

[removed link - moderation]

[anjirlly]

One option might be to collaborate with other like minded, good writers. Two examples:
1) Effect Measure, an extremely high-quality blog about flu pandemics written by a team of public epidemiologists under the pseudonym Paul Revere.
2) Let's Go Ride a Bike, which has two authors who post material.

[Janet Merza]

I think the joy of blogging is that you are in complete control - there are no deadlines, no editors nagging, no-one (except you) telling you that you 'ought' to be doing it....It's the most selfish thing anyone can do and hurrah for the internet that it gives us this outlet for all the things we want to say but never had the means of getting it out there...(I guess I'm from an older generation than most of you and can remember the bad old days - no landline, let alone mobile, only one TV in a house and then only if you were really lucky etc etc).
If you don't enjoy blogging, don't do it - if you do enjoy it, never mind if no-one reads it except you.....I haven't got a counter on my site (link removed - moderation) for exactly that reason!