The name of my post was “The worst blogging advise you’ll see everywhere.” What is the worst blogging advise? It’s ironically providing clearcut rules about what to do and not to do with blogging.

My advise is to follow your heart and do what you think is right. If I’ve set a different impression – it was not my intent.

Warmest Regards! And have fun blogging!

But what they write and say *anywhere* can and will be held against them (think George Allen and the ‘macaca’ incident). And quite a few of them blog, as do CEOs, investment bankers, breastfeeding mothers, university professors (too few, in my opinion), lovesick teenagers and geeky programmers. And all of them choose to make personal issues, feelings, impressions and opinions a part of their blogging to different degrees, from virtually 0% to 100%. Whether you like it more or less personal depends very much on your preference as a reader. How do you define the value of the blog, as a reader? Does the blogger even care about what her readers want (some don’t, in my opinion)?

I’m a huge fan of Brian’s site and his advice.

In fact, you and Brian add commentary that I absolutely agree with!!!

1. There is no One True Blogging Philosophy. AMEN! Take the left column… newspapers do it the same, radio does it the same, politicians do it the same. That’s exactly why I am advising AGAINST any single philosophy… blogging provides you the freedom to do whatever you would like!

2. Brian’s feedback is key… “only to the extent that it adds to the beneficial experience of the reader.” If my blog is on cancer, it can be an explicit account of my illness, my schedule, my medicine, my feelings. So it can be 100% personal. If my blog is about programming search algorithms in Python, I can probably skip the post on taking my dog to the vet… “Knowing where that line resides is a bit of an art”.

Brian nailed it! Thanks for the post and the reference, and I absolutely appreciate the .

Cornelius: Politicians can’t blog because anything they put down in words will be held against them. It’s the same reason why they never really say anything on camera… and the same reason why folks are cynical of them.

Copywriters are usually fantastic bloggers. I didn’t say they could not be… I said if a blogger doesn’t want to ever engage personally, they may as well become a copy writer instead of blogging.

I really hope I’m not being a blogelitist… it’s exactly what I was trying to write against.

In any case, great conversation!!!

I don’t understand what you mean…

IMHO, the worst advise that continues to be perpetuated on the blogosphere to new bloggers is to avoid personal posts and stay on topic. Ugh! Those are the blogs I never visit. Those are the blogs that have hit capacity and aren’t growing.

I don’t know if he is adverse to my so-called philosophy, since he reads my blog.

Personal touch is crucial, but only to the extent that it adds to the beneficial experience of the reader. Knowing where that line resides is a bit of an art.