May
19th

• Random.
  I don’t follow niche/magazine-type blogs as religiously as I follow personal blogs because it’s always the same kind of content. I’m subscribe to tons but find myself skimming over most of them especially with 800+ new posts in my reader. Don’t get me wrong, I love niche blogs (you can’t compare the two) because they are super informative and are usually interesting but personal blogs are just plain awesome and they’re always random so you never know what’s going to show up next. That’s how I like it. If you need some randomness to spice up your day, check out The Great Demigoddess herself!
• Personality.
  I think some niche blogs feel cold and distant but I love the warm and fuzzy feeling you get from reading personal blogs where you actually get the chance to know more about the person behind it. You feel more connected to the writer which gets you addicted and before you realize it, you’re coming back for another toke of their personalities… it’s kinda like how Pam is my daily dose of Mary-Jane but even better! Haha I kid! Seriously though, drugs are for eff-ing losers that’s why fun personal blogs are my drug.
• Freedom.
  Personal bloggers can go as crazy as they want which helps with my previous point! Also, because my blog is personal, I can write about whatever I want, whenever I want without feeling too bad about alienating my readers since they should know that my blog isn’t catered to a specific topic. I know that I do alienate some readers and I’m sorry but I could really care less about traffic… I still love you guys though and I thank you for coming by occasionally— it brings a tear to my allergy-swollen eyes. ♥

Feb
9th

Remember back in the day when meeting people online was sad and taboo? When someone I didn’t know messaged me on ICQ, I’d feel so guilty talking to them… it was like a betrayal against my morals if I were to reply. A crime against humanity. Thankfully I got over that and now I see the internet and the people you meet on it as a whole world of invaluable opportunity for business and personal interests.

Some of my friends ask me why I don’t use Facebook and why my wall is sometimes turned off. Facebook is super low priority since the majority of my time on the internet is spent working, reading blogs, social networking [with people I can’t directly contact], blogging and my other personal projects, so there’s barely enough time in there for FB! I’m not saying Facebook is horrible… I’m just saying Facebook is boring compared to what’s really out there on the internet.

Unless you’re one of those weirdos with no life who lurk people’s profiles, what’s the point in doing that when their profiles will always contain the same information? I can login to Google Reader and read blogs that are constantly updated. Just for the record, I don’t blog on Facebook nor do I directly promote TwentyFourCarat.net on there because I’m not really comfortable with the idea of everyone I know reading my blog and most of my friends don’t blog or even know what social networking is.

If you spend all your time online on only Facebook, your just missing out! Why are you conversing with your friends on your walls when you can just call them out to eat kimchi and korean pancakes and talk about when was the last time you feasted on a poutine on your real time? Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that if your not a web geek like me but I try not to go online for long periods of time because the death of my eyes, wrist and back (from sitting in front of the computer too much) is inching closer so I have to make good use of time I do.

There’s only one way to get me to use it more often… if Twitter was integrated with it! I would love it if everyone I knew used it. I’m a Twitter addict!

What do you spend the majority of your time doing on the internet?

Jan
16th

It’s easy to get traffic to your blog but it’s definitely not easy to keep readers from coming back. Here are some tips:

• Write short entries (something I’m not too good at) or use paragraph breaks if you have to write a lot. Nothing is more intimidating than one long paragraph jumbled all together and unless I’m reading my Terry Brooks books, I don’t want to be reading a novel of your blog.
• Everyone loves looking at pictures but but don’t overwhelm the reader with too many. Show a couple and upload the rest somewhere else like Flickr . Choose pictures that are relevant to your entry but try to avoid using boring stock photography that everyone has seen before or open up Photoshop and compile an original and interesting collage instead. This also helps with breaking up text if you tend to write long ones like I do. Example: Image on the right is totally relevant to this entry.
• List-style blog entries. Everyone loves lists because they are easy to read.
• I’ve said this before but this is one of the reasons why I return to a lot blogs— HUMOR AND A BIT OF SARCASM GOES A LONG WAY.
• If you hardly update or if you just don’t spend a lot of time on you blog, don’t stick a gazillion advertisements and paid posts all over the place because it’s gets obvious when making money is your only objective and not the quality of your blog. Instead use your blog as a vessel to other projects so you can maintain quality and promote yourself at the same time. If you already have an established audience for your blog, use it to spread the word.
• If you care about traffic and statistics (and if you lead a boring life like me), at least write some interesting and engaging entries. You may run a “personal” blog but face it, no one really wants to read about your day-to-day activities in every single post. I remember finding my little sister’s diary when I was little and every entry began with a “today I woke up and brushed my teeth…”and fortunately for her, I stopped reading it because it made me fall asleep. The term “personal” blog is very vague which gives you a chance to write about any topic you want under the sun and you’ll eventually find out what your readers are coming back for; then write more of that. I use to think I didn’t care about traffic but I’ve come to realize that I was in denial all those years. I think that most bloggers are narcissistic; we blog because we want people to read therefore we care about traffic. I don’t want my blog to ever become as big as say, Dooce’s(imagine the pressure!) but I want enough readers because it motivates me to write which I do have now.BUT if you are 100% sure you don’t care, then go ahead and write about what kind of toothpaste you used this morning.

Dec
10th

This is somewhat related to my previous entry, Recipe for Successful Personal Blogging. Here are more of my biggest peeves related to blogs (design/function-wise):

• “Continue reading” or “read more” links are annoying! I only use it from time to time, for example if an entry contains a lot of images but it annoys the hell out of me when blogs use this link for all their entries. I know it’s a matter of personal preference but I like having all content laid out in front of me so I can just scroll rather than click (I’m lazy). Screw the excerpt… give me the whole thing! If you run a popular blog and loading time is an issue for you since you don’t want new visitors to wait, then that’s understandable… *whiny voice* but I still find it extremely annoying and I find that I don’t visit blogs with that horrible link unless it’s super-omfg-awesomeness like Smashing Magazine.
• Blogs with only one entry on the index page. Same comment as above: give it all to me at once! This works for information blogs but definitely not for personal blogs because their latest entry maybe zZzzz; I’d leave right away without checking out the archives if quality entries do exist. Shame.
• Clutter is overwhelming and intimidating. When I visit blogs with 2-3 sidebars filled with content, links, advertisements and everything you can imagine, I tend to get overwhelmed and end up leaving because I don’t have time to dig through that mess! Note, the culprits are usually design/tech/business/etc. blogs. The key is to use keywords, list main/popular categories, the top blogs in your blogroll and then put everything else on a separate page. I know you want the visitor to see all you have to offer [and all the ads you want them to click] but don’t scare them away by showing them too much! Tease them and they’ll come crawling back for more. That sounded dirty, didn’t it? But whatever, when Big Bird says it’s true, then it’s true.
• Tiny fonts and tight line-spacing… WTF are you thinking?! I know I said this a billion times but this is one of my biggest peeves; you need to make your writing legible for your visitors! If I go blind reading your blog, I might just sue you… but then I don’t think I’d be there in the first place. The culprits are usually blogs who still think it’s 2003. Remember that trend when all personal blogs was doing that 8pt Arial + tight line-spacing thing (this is where I look away and hang my head in shame).
• Billions of pictures? Please use thumbnails! Or resize them. Or organize them in a way so they don’t turn the face of your scrollbar into a microscopic grain of sand. Or reduce the number of entries that appear at once. Or this is a case when you should use the annoying “continue reading” link.

I can list a billion more but I’m going to “tease” you guys so you come crawling back for more next time. Kidding. I use to be guilty of some of these but I’m still learning.

What do you guys like in the design of a blog and what annoys you?

Nov
22nd

The Coolest Blog powered by WordPress competition got me thinking: WHAT THE HELL IS COOL? The competition in itself is extremely vague because everyone’s definition of cool is different. Is it the design that makes it cool? The blogger’s personality? The writing style?

Nicely designed blogs are super cool but to me, a “COOL” blog to me is more about the blogger.

Funny, witty, makes me laugh my ass off and accidently bang my head against my keyboard. Tiff, Helga and Jen are THE cool.

Strong, in-your-face personalities that will probably intimidate-the-hell-out-of-you-in-real-life-yet-you-can’t-help-but-admire-them. First person that comes to mind? PINK a.k.a. the Asian-Kendra-Wilkinson (I hope she doesn’t kill me for writing that). But seriously, I love K-Dub (except when she tries to rap ).

People who inspires me to look good: beauty/fashion blogs! As an added bonus, these blogs usually come with extremely sexy people and since when was sexy not cool? J, J(es), K(im) and L just to name a few out of a gazillion I read daily.

Design blogs where the writer really interacts with their readers and gives off a “nice” vibe. I lurk a million design blogs, too intimidated to comment but I think John and Jacob‘s are the only ones I ever hesitantly left a comment or two on. I’m not saying the rest of them aren’t nice, I’m just saying that they all intimidate me because they’re so damn talented! Maybe if I actually had a design blog of my own and not one of these personal blogs with a lot of LOLZ and HAHAHAZ, I would comment on more of them.

Sorry, I know I missed a gazillion cool blogs out there but it’s 4am and I gotta sleep. I guess if you want a list of cool blogs, check out my blogroll (which I still have to update… sorry!).

…Wait, I guess I’m wrong. Cool is apparently in Iowa.