Read them from Mark Bernsein’s article at A List Apart. via dive into mark.
They explain alot on the success of Dave Winer, Glenn Reynolds, Andrew Sullivan, and Shelley Powers actually. The exemplify all of the principals below. hmmmm… how do I standup to the ten tips?
- Write for a reason – lost that when I shut down PhillyFuture and PhillyStories.
- Write often – don’t do that.
- Write tight – Ok… got that down.
- Make good friends – Definately great friends š
- Find good enemies – Who want’s to be my ‘enemy’? Anyone wanna pick a fight with me? Bring it on! Actually – the responsibility is on me to post on topics that people feel so passionate about they want to argue. I freakout at website to website arguing so I kinda avoid it. I much rather argue in private e-mail arguments. So I’m at a loss here.
- Let the story unfold – errrr… see 1. and 2.
- Stand up, speak out – ok. I do that.
- Be sexy – Well my longer pieces in my sidebar are personal, but generally I don’t post about my personal life here cause it’s personal. Ahh that was a fun sentence.
- Use your archives – Check.
- Relax! – Check.
I think it all starts on point 1. How do I reclaim that? Certainly not with my past failed experiments. When you write for a reason, you will want to post frequently, and you will care so much about the topic that your posts will find supporters and enemies on their own. You’re bound to use your personal history to embellish your posts as well. So it all starts there.
#1 is even harder than it sounds. In order to write for a reason, you have to live for a reason — in other words, have a passionate drive for something. Further on down the ALA article is the crux of the issue: “If you don’t really care, don’t write.” The bloggers you mention all have something they care about passionately. For Dave, it’s software development at UserLand. For Glenn and Andrew, it’s politics. For Shelley, well, it’s whatever Shelley is interested in at the time; luckily for us she has a wide range of interests.
I tried to do something similar by focusing on music, and specifically my attempts to expand it into a career for myself. The focus comes and goes, of course — it’s hard for me to not delve into the usual geekery and metablogging that’s so often the norm in this medium, with this post being an excellent example of the latter.
So Karl, what do you care about most? That’s what you should write.
Easy question to answer if the question is *who* I care about the most… my wife š But she wouldn’t appreciate me talking about her here š
So.. the question is *what* I care about the most. I can’t answer that. It’s a list of things. Saddly it’s hard to find out where they all intersect. I think I’ve posted a few times on finding a larger purpose, and I’ve yet to find one. Or maybe it’s that I’ve yet to commit to one?