Blogging it right!

Elenko's posted an entry referencing a Jakob Nielsen piece about the ten most common mistakes bloggers make. With all due respect, I say fuck that to both.

As far as I am concerned, the most valuable thing about blogging is precisely the fact that you do not need to observe any rules. Following Elenko's and Nielsen's rules might be productive if you are in the business of blogging, that is, to quote Nielsen, "writing for your future employer." It WILL increase your readership and it WILL bring in more 'valuable' people to your site. Oh, and by the way, could somebody please explain to me according to what standards does Nielsen assign value to various readers?

Both texts assume that there is only one reason for writing and ignore the fact that the vast majority of bloggers are not what we traditionally call experts in any sphere of life. Both assume that people read weblogs for 'information' or to educate themselves. That is definitely true sometimes. SOME people visit professional or specialized weblogs as a way of following latests trends, developments, or products. Not all of us, though. Both texts presume exactly that very same type of audience which is by no means insignificant but in no way exhausts a huge variety of blog-readers.

Certainly, there are basic design and style principles that simply make reading a text easier. And, sure, it is so much better to write frequently than not. Speaking from personal experience, however, the personal (as opposed to corporate) weblogs that I enjoy the most are the most inconsistent of all. I love seeing that a person cares about what they do professionally so much that they have to blog about it. I love reading about personal mishaps: I need to know that there is a breathing person behind the stories. I don't mind seeing drunk pictures taken with a crappy camera-phone: some of the best things in life happen too fast for you to be able to take your nice camera out. I read. I write. I work. I get disappointed. Sometimes I'm funny. Most of the time I'm boring. And, honestly, I do not need to package and sell it according to somebody else's rules. That seems to be Nielsen's job.

I don't know why for some reason people haven't been able to make sense of weblogs on their own terms. Weblogs work and grow not because they are like other websites or media. They flourish because they are unlike them. For that reason, it seems unnecessary to measure their sucess according to traditional media standards.