Merlin Mann, with a list of nine things that make for a Good Blog:
8. Good blogs try. I’ve come to believe that creative life in the first-world comes down to those who try just a little bit harder. Then, there’s the other 98%. They’re still eating the free continental breakfast over at FriendFeed. A good blog is written by a blogger who thinks longer, works harder, and obsesses more. Ultimately, a good blogger tries. That’s why “good” is getting rare.
Excellent. Anyone with a blog (or without) to read his list and see what you think. If nothing else, it gets you thinking about the blogs you read and why they are good. Personally, my favourite blog in the world is Daring Fireball, which ticks every one of Merlin Mann’s boxes. I’m not alone, though – Daring Fireball writer John Gruber is one of the few successful independent professional bloggers out there, with good reason.
I can’t judge myself as to whether my blog fulfills any of those criteria, of course – and I can’t ask the few people that regularly read this blog because you’re a self-selecting bunch who only come back because you like what I write. Stands to reason: you must like my blog, or you wouldn’t be reading this.
As a sidenote, I came across a site called ‘Scribbles & Words’ (Design Better. Write Better.) the other day, who had an interesting post on Becoming Bloghardy – that is, keeping your blog going and enduring fatigue, writer’s block, etc. The irony? There haven’t been any new posts on Scribbles and Words for more than three months. Oh dear.