Remember that a “good” or bookmark-worthy blog is, at best, a subjective concept. No one really knows what makes a blog tick. Sometimes, it is content; sometimes, it is the interaction it generates in its comment threads; sometimes, it is relevance to current issues; and, sometimes, it is a combination of a lot of things. But it is never about luck.

Imagine now that we’re about to create a blog. And, as human nature goes, we want this blog to be widely read. Popular, in other words. How do we go about it? First, we examine why we want to create the blog. Is that relevant? Sure it is because motivation determines how much time and effort we are willing to sink into this blog. Motivation also has a lot to do with the direction that the blog will take. So what’s the reason for creating the blog?

n      Self-satisfaction?

n      Validation?

n      Genuine interest in getting your message across?

n      Or are you just a heckler?

Self-satisfaction. If that’s all there is to it, blogging should be the easiest thing. As long as you are satisfied, that’s it.

Validation. Now this is a little tricky because we go into the human psyche. Let’s cite an example. I was watching “Man in the Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story” a few nights ago and I was amazed at the lengths that Michael Jackson would go to please his fans. It was like he needed their approval to feel complete. Is that what we seek for when we blog? Public approval? Would we feel that our blog is a failure unless the majority agrees with its content? If validation alone is our goal, then we cannot produce an HONEST blog because we will only publish things that we think will win approval.

Is there a message that we want to put across? To whom? See, there are people who create blogs just because all their friends have one. In short, it is only a matter of creating a presence online. On the other hand, there are people who have something to say that they feel should be said publicly. Alin ba tayo roon? Why is it important? Well, it has to do with the ability to produce content which I will elaborate on later.

There are also people who create blogs para lang mang-inis. Kung heckler ka lang, you won’t be able to make heads nor tails of the rest of things I will talk about. Kung validation lang ang hinahanap mo, di mo rin pakikinabangan yung mga sasabihin ko. Now, if you seek personal satisfaction via self-expression AND you feel you have a genuinely good message to put across, then we’re in business.

Now, we go into that all-important but often misunderstood aspect of blogging. Content. How to produce good content. First, how have to be comfortable about blogging. What do I mean by comfort? There are two things involved here. Comfort in the language used to blog with and comfort with the subject matter of the blog.

1. Language. English, Filipino or some other local dialect? Kung dyaryo ka at ang primary goal mo ay maibenta yung dyaryo mo, ang pipiliin mo ay kung alin yung makakapagbigay ng readership. Pero, bloggers tayo, eh. Hindi tayo dyaryo. So English, Filipino or some other local dialect? Eh saan ka ba mas komportable? That should be the utmost consideration because you will never be able to produce good content using a language you are not comfortable with in the first place.

2. Subject matter. How do you choose a subject matter you can feel comfortable blogging about? Well, it starts with what you are. Ako, I’m a wife, mother and lawyer among other things. So I blog about what I do, think and feel about as a wife, mother and lawyer. Much as I love photography, I am not that well-versed in its technical aspects. So I cannot write about photography. BUT I can take pretty decent photos. In short, good content is, in a way, simply the ability to effectively relay a message. Use a language you are comfortable with in writing about a subject matter you likewise feel comfortable with. After all, your blog is about you. It is an expression of YOU.

3. Skills. Now we get a little technical. Example. I am comfortable with English. Blame it on the educational system I grew up with but that’s the fact. I am comfortable with the subject of food and cooking. So, automatic na ba yun na may content na ako for a blog? Hindi eh. Kasi you have to translate the physical experience of cooking into written words. Not only that. You have to present that translation in an interesting and inviting manner. That ability to translate requires skill. Some call it being able to write well. So also, the ability to present content in an interesting and inviting manner requires skill too. So now I am talking about the blog content itself and how it is presented. You know, you may have the most wonderful content but if your web pages look like chicken scratch, sino gaganahan?

4. You may say, eh hindi ako magaling magsulat eh. Saka, hindi naman ako web designer. Paano ko magagawa lahat yun? Well, a skill is not something you are born with. Every skill, like the ability to write well and to create pleasant looking web pages, is learned and developed and honed. Consider it a challenge. Developing writing skills will not only yield a good blog; it will also help you sa kung ano man yung totoong trabaho mo. As to designing the pages, oh come on, if you can’t hardcode the templates, I’m sure you know how to use Google to search for free blog templates.

So we go into “good” content. What is “good” content? May universal standard ba yan? I don’t think there is. So whose definition of “good” content should we follow? Our definition or other people’s? Again, we go back to our personal motivations for blogging. Self-satisfaction or validation? If you’re blogging because you believe in yourself and the stuff you want to publish, set your own standards. If you blog to please others, well, that’s your funeral.

Whose content? Yours, of course. ‘Wag mangongopya. There are people who think it’s cool when they get away with it and I have only one response to that. Self-respect. Being a copycat is an admission of stupidity—the inability to be an individual and the confidence to express one’s individuality.

Format, substance and style. When I say format, I mean how content is organized on a web page. One, two or three columns? Depends on your content. Some content look best with just one column, others with two, others with three. Navigation is another thing. Unless ikaw lang ang babasa ng blog mo at alam mo exactly where to click to get to the next page, have a heart. Make navigation visible and easy to follow. May mga blogs na bago ka makarating sa archived page, isang katerbang click ang gagawin mo. Gimmick yan para dumami ang page views and create an impression na maraming pages and tinitingnan ng bawat visitor. Pero, and cheap mo naman kung kailang mo pang gumimik ng ganyan. Simple lang. Isipin mo how you would feel if you were reading someone else’s blog and you’re subjected to a cheap gimmick like that. Di ka ba maiinis? Babalik ka pa ba dun?

Substance is your content. The meat of your blog. The message. I think I’ve explained that already.

Style is a combination of a good format and creativity. Let’s say you already have a good format and the content is swell. How do you maximize the impact of the good format and content? That’s style. It has to do with where you place the photos, their sizes, how many there should be on the index page, etc. It also has to do with colors, fonts and the use of scripts. You may have the best format in terms of organizing content but if your font size is too small or the colors of the background and the font make the content difficult to read, patay pa rin.

So where do we concentrate? Substance or style? Personally, I’d go for substance. But I wouldn’t underestimate the importance of style either. It’s all a matter of finding the proper balance. To be blunt, wala ako ka-respe-respeto sa mga blog, o kahit sa mga tao, na puro style pero walang substance.

I have some screenshots here to illustrate different kinds of content for a blog. The first is the thematic blog. Yung may malinaw na theme. Streamlined content like a food blog. Or a poetry blog. Or a tech blog. Does your blog have to be “serious” to be considered good? If we’re to answer that question based on the success of this blog called Kwentong Tambay, then, the answer would be no. Kuwentong Tambay is irreverent and makes no bones about the fact that it is about humor. To be more precise, the ability to laugh at oneself. Not at others but at oneself.

Then there’s the diary-type blogs. In terms of numbers, ito na yung pinaka-marami. Sabi nung iba, kasi yan ang pinaka-madali? But is that really true? To rephrase  Batjay, the blogger behind Kwentong Tambay, the ability to write about mundane things and make them interesting is by itself a skill. So there are well-written diaries and badly-written diaries. Corny ba pag diary? Wala bang dating? Hindi ba socially relevant? Think of Anne Frank and, even more recently, the Iraqi blogger behind the phenomenal online diary called “Dear Raed”. Remember that history is simple a documentation of events. When you write in your diary, you’re writing history. So wag natin ismolin ang diary-type blogs. You never know, you may be an Anne Frank 50 years from now.

Now there is what we call group blogs or those where the writing is done by more than one person. I have two examples here. Blogkadahan is written by 33 people. There is a topic for every cycle. Pinoyblog, on the other hand, is a community. I won’t go into that anymore. Baka Pinoyblog lang abutin ng another hour.

Does a blog have to be text-rich? Well, if you’re after good page ranks with the search engines, yes. If you have a photo blog, just make sure that you put a lot of text in the ‘alt’ tag.

About visibility. Basically, it means getting good page ranks in search engines. Although nakakatulong yung membership sa communities and web rings, well at least in my case, my biggest referrers are the search engines, particularly, Google, Yahoo and MSN. See, when you build your audience, sa akin it’s a mistake to target only bloggers like myself. Napaka-limited. I want to reach the casual surfers, the ones who look for relevant information online… the researchers, the mothers looking for recipes… The blogging community is fluid. Bloggers come and go. But there will always be surfers. So your best bet is to make sure that you are visible in search engines. As in, when someone searches for, let’s say, Filipino cooking, andun ang blog mo sa page one ng search results. Easier said that done, right?

Okay, how to get good page rank... It’s a combination of things. Search bots are, well, not human. But you have to feed them. From your index page, you need to give them somewhere to go para pumasok sila sa archives mo. In short, you need well-positioned links on your index page leading to the archives. Example. A sitemap. What’s a sitemap? It’s a page with links to all the other pages in your site. In a blog that would be called the archive page. You need a link on your index page that goes directly to that sitemap or archive page so that from there the search bots can reach all your pages. There are a lot of info on that on the net. Just Google it. Maraming tips and tricks dyan.

Links exchange. Don’t beg for links. Don’t oblige other bloggers to link to yours either. If your blog is good, you will get linked whether you ask for it or not. I know that shameless plugging is already a common term on the net. It’s so common that it has created a perception of being non-offensive. Don’t do it. Ganun ka-simple. If you do, you’re no better than a spammer.

Comments and trackbacks. For those who already have blogs, you know that posting comments on other blogs or sending them trackback pings mean that links to your blog are automatically created. Fine, nandyan ang buhay ng blogs relative to competitiveness for good page ranks. Pero konting delicadeza naman. Let’s be mature enough to post only relevant comments. Same with trackbacks. Wag naman yung magka-link lang kahit walang kakwenta-kwenta o walang relevance, sige pa rin.