"Blogs as Clubhouses" Response

The article “Blogs as Clubhouses” discusses enthusiast blogs and offers some helpful tips for those looking to start one. The first tip concerns the focus of your blog to aid discovery. The author suggests picking a topic that is not too broad in order to avoid it from being “dominated by giants.” Moreover, the topic shouldn’t be too narrow either since it will be difficult to grow a decent fan base. The next tip involves how frequently you should be post.  “Don’t let too much time pass between posts or readers may et of the habit of visiting your site, but at the same time, don’t fall into the trap of posting drivel just to see another entry online.” In addition, the author says that the content of your blogs should be either useful or entertaining, and it’s a great blog if it contains both. The author also mentions the importance of writing style, suggesting that it should be friendly and conversational, and never in a way that seems to be demeaning or rude. Finally, the tip labeled “the most important” for enthusiast blogs regards personality. The author says that these blogs also serve as a showcase for the bloggers personality, and one that displays “strong tastes and well-crafted opinions” is more likely to benefit and succeed.

 Since we are going to create our own enthusiast blogs for this class, I thought this article was very useful with all the helpful tips. I joined the bloggersphere a few years ago, and for a while I maintained two different blogs. One of the blogs was mainly for displaying my creative writing pieces and seeking input from other writers in the blog community.  My other blog was more for free writing and a way for me to vent, expressing my thoughts and opinions about different current events. My blogs didn’t have a solid focus, which is why this clubhouse project will be a whole new blogging experience for me. One of the author’s tips involved posting regularly and to the point. I think that was my biggest challenge and still is. The last time I posted on the blog that I have outside of this class was probably in September. When school started and I got a job, I no longer had the free time to post, which caused me to lose some of my followers. I was thinking about shutting down the blog because of the fact I haven’t posted in forever, and I’ve had a case of writer’s block for the past 5 months. However, the author suggests sticking with it, “truly successful bloggers are those who weather these moments and build faithful readerships over time.” And so, I decided I’m going to stick with it. And who knows? Maybe this project will inspire me to keep an enthusiast blog too.