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This week’s review is of Lani Giesen’s post: A personal blog is art ^[2], at Blogging Personal ^[3].

Blogging Personal is about personal blogging, a subject many people still consider nothing more than an online diary, and consequently oftentimes scorn.  However, given that Technorati currently tracks in excess of 112 million blogs, many of which are personal, it is time someone addressed the issues and misconceptions associated with personal blogs, and Blogging Personal is doing it beautifully.

The content is well written and thought out, and the blog itself has an obvious and clear goal.  As the blog is still fairly young (launched January 2008) it is impressive; and it already has a decent following.  If you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favour and check it out.

I cannot fault the writing but for the occasional typo (spell check woman! ) and the post is so neatly divided into sections that it makes it a pleasure to read.  But I would recommend one thing; more care with the lead (or lede) – the introductory section of the story.

Why is a lead important?

The first paragraph or two should tell the story; who, what, where, when, why, and how.  This is important because if you don’t win the reader in the lead, they go away – you need to give them a reason to continue reading.

More importantly, in this case, where you need to entice more readers, you need to show them, in the lead, what they can expect.  Show, don’t tell, and Lani does this particularly well. 

Much like the term link bait ^[4], the idea of a lead is to hook the reader.

Writing the perfect lead

• Does the lead give your readers specific information, or is the language too general and vague?
• Is the lead too long?  Could you include some of the information later on?
• Why is this story different/better/more useful than any other out there?
• Go back and check your lead; don’t settle for “it’s good enough”
• Make every word serve a purpose
• Do you have the necessary information to back up everything you say in the lead?
• Always ask yourself: Would you continue reading?

The only change I would make with Lani’s post is to take the first paragraph and make it the second paragraph – reworded a tad to fit.

I wish you so many good things Lani!  Keep going, you’re doing great!

A Personal Blog is Art: Edited 

A personal blog is Art. And personal blogging is an artform.

Some people might have an immediate negative reaction to that statement: The idea “Art” has a lot of baggage. It might seem elitist, it might seem like hubris, it might even seem daunting, but for any of you struggling to make connections between some of the advice written for bloggers and the work (Yes, work!) you do, I think that you’ll come closer to something you can hold on to by considering yourself an artist. Or, at a minimum, an apprentice artist.

This is my answer to the question I posed: What is a personal blog? ^[5] and I expect it comes as no surprise.

Reading through all the responses to my question, there were a number of common threads. One of the strongest was how indefinable a personal blog actually is, that it was unique to each individual, to each blog, subjective and without limitation. I agree.

I’d love to hear what anyone else has to say about Blogging Personal, or any ideas on how Lani could make it greater still.

Many thanks to Tricia and Lani for letting me take a look at their blogs; this experiment has been interesting and informative for me, and hopefully for you too!