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Blogging etiquette – Is there such a thing?

Head in a book (I did ask if it was OK to use this here) posted on twitter that it felt a bit naff, so I asked her why, as I often leave a comment on a blog letting people know how much I enjoyed a lost or that they had a fab blog.

It got me thinking, is there such a thing as blogging etiquette?

For me the first rule of blogging is there are no rules to blogging. It is not often that I put on my blogging police uniform (I have been known to in the past), but I try not to let my favorite pastime have rules and regulations. So I tried to think back to all those years ago when I started blogging and realised that I wasn’t on twitter or had a network of people to ask if things were naff or not. There wasn’t such a defined community back then, it was pretty much in it’s infancy.

I commented on any blog that I enjoyed and I kept commenting. I still often do, even if it is just a loved that post or I have nothing to add, but love your blog. But…… there is so much less commenting going on than when I started blogging. People seem to engage in different ways.

So my top tip for anyone blogging today, would be not to worry about what others think. The brilliance of internet land is that no one is going to find you and laugh you in to a corner for doing the wrong thing because there is no wrong thing.

Other tips would be:

Always link to any post that has inspired you to write one – I often read something in the beginning and it spurred me on to a blog post.
Comment, comment and comment some more
Make it easy for people to contact you – have an email address on your blog
You tweet – have your twitter address in an easy to see location
Comment some more, find the persons twitter id, blog facebook page or even instagram account and comment on those. Having a blog for me is all about engagement.
Find your community – I adore reading the Fresh Five for new to me blogs to read on the Tots 100.
What would be your top tip or do you think there is such a thing as blogging etiquette in 2013.

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Please don’t blog every day on November – NaBloPoMo

NaBloPoMo – what do those innocent looking letters mean?
NaBloPoMo – National Blog Posting Month.

National Blog Posting Month, or NaBloPoMo, is a month long writing exercise intended to occur annually in November. The first NaBloPoMo occurred in November of 2006, and was the brainchild of an American blogger. It was inspired by National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which also happens every November. Now I have no issue with NaNoWriMo which was founded in 1999 by authors in the San Francisco Bay Area who wanted to motivate themselves into producing more written work. This challenge requires authors to produce a 50,000 word novel within one month.

But writing a blog, is not writing a novel.

I have to say for me blogging is about quality not quantity and I often find myself just bypassing blogs that I normally enjoy on a regular basis during the month of November. A large part of me feels that if you do not have something to say on every other day of the year what makes November special? It is a dark, dank and often dismal month in the UK and I look forward to reading blogs filled with all sorts of inspirational writing, making, baking and tales of everyday life.

Please don’t get me started on writing prompts. Who need a daily prompt of what to write about? Get a journal people and spare the readers.

Oh and yes, before anyone says it is a free world and I don;t have to read if I don’t want to, well I know that and I won’t be.

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