I read somewhere that the most widely read and influential blogs are ones that get written five days a week. This is kind of an odd thing because few single -person blogs could be very good that often. I mean how often do you have anything pithy to say. On the other hand, perhaps people get addicted to a voice, or an ongoing situation, or a political opinion or the idea they are participating in a blogger's life. Especially if it's a writer they read, an actor they enjoy, a pundit they admire.
Some blogs invite the sharing of stories like Laura Lippman's The Memory Project.
The blogs I like most are single-person blogs with varied subject matter. Or ones that are so honest they blow you off the page. Or ones where the writer is so nice, you want to spend time with him/her. Or ones that do a great job in reviewing books and movies. Or ones that serve as the town crier for the business.
One thing I dislike about multi-person blogs is that I often think it's Suzie when its Bob. So please follow the British model and say "Suzie here" right off the bat. Don't make me scroll down the side bar and figure out what day it is.
What do you like most in a blog? Do you think "more" is better.
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I don't know. Blogs now, for me, are mostly a way of keeping in touch with friends. I avoid any that are too heavy-handed marketing self-promo, or that lack personality (and that can be the group blogs, because some seem to have strict rules about what can or cannot be posted).
Definitely. For me the one must read blog in the crime fiction area is Murderati, which is 7 days a week--and the people there do a great job keeping it interesting. I also like bookgasm for pointers to books I might be interested in and Ed Gorman's blog which gives some pretty interesting information on some of the classic crime fiction writers. My own reason for blogging (since I only update every few weeks) is to act as a clearing house of information for my readers. I never realized I had readers until I dumped my Hardluckwriter blog a year or so ago, and then I started getting emails from people wanting to know when I was going to have something new out. So I started my Smallcrimes-novel blog.
I probably read almost every blog on crimespot at least once or twice a month. It gives me a good sense of so many things--what people are doing, writing, reading, seeing, thinking. Ed's is great, I agree. One of my favorites. For information, I love the Rap Sheet. But it's the diversity of voice and thoughts that intrigues me more than any one blog.
I go for voice mostly, but honesty is a huge one too. That's why I like Lee Goldberg, Tess G. and Sandra S. so much and that's what I strive for most on my blog. I'm not always going to have something pithy to say, but I'm always going to be honest.
More is sometimes better. I guess a lot depends on how I'm reading a particular blog. If I'm getting aggregated content (as with CrimeSpot or an LJ account), I'll usually just read whatever is arbitrarily recent. That's my keeping-tabs style of reading. If I'm going to the site itself rather than using the feed (Boing Boing or Making Light), frequent updates condition me to keep coming back.
Honest rates high. Also generosity. I love people that recommend other writer's books.
It may be worth noting that I get more comments, from a greater number of people, in the LiveJournal I keep for Random Stuff Happening in my life, as compared to my main blog. As far as I know, most of the readers are people I've met in real life (college friends and such), and I have made absolutely no effort to attract other readers to that LJ (though I also haven't bothered locking it to random readers).
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