I'm an expert on nothing but five e-mails last week asked about blogs, basic advice. And I thought, "Hey, I could make this a feature." So this is basically what I wrote in the five e-mails.
How often should I publish?
As often as you want. But you should have some sort of regular time -- especially in the beginning. That's because you can be forgotten so easily.
Even today, I find great blogs and websites and I'll check back a day or two later and there's nothing up that I haven't read. So I'll think, "They're weekly. Cool, I'll drop by next week." I go back a week later and nothing. At this point, I'm close to forgetting you. Not out of hatred or anger but due to the fact that I have stopped checking and you've slipped my mind.
Don't make promises you can't keep.
We all do. But try not to. Even more than his rank sexism, I found Bob Somerby's constant promises off putting. He was (and still is) forever promising that he would do this or that in his next post -- or next week, he'll explore what Rachel Maddow said -- and he never did. And he never did.
It gets very annoying.
You will forget things. We all do.
And that's fine.
But if you're promising one thing after another and making no effort to keep those promises, you are going to tick people off.
And while you can tick people off with opinions and some will actually return (even hoping to be ticked off), you tick people off with broken promises and they just tend to split on you.
We're doing comics this edition. We're honestly tired of it in some ways. It's easier to do if we're all together in the same spot. And that's why we're making sure to do it this week. Readers want the comic round up.
Be true to you.
That led right into "Be True To You." But that means don't be a Katha Pollitt. Don't slam Sarah Palin at The Nation while, at the same time, telling your Journolist friends something different.
Don't whore.
But while not whoring, grasp that there is a relationship other than, "I write, you read."
The comics?
We've done it.
It can be time consuming.
We're honestly tired of it.
But readers enjoy this feature so we will try to drop it in from time to time.
E-mails aren't your blog or site.
Feedback is important, annoying, gratifying and so much more.
But if the feedback becomes all, you're not putting out any new content.
As your number of readers grow, you'll find less time for personal replies to every incoming e-mail. That's part of the trade off.
Make your own rules.
As you continue posting online, you'll quickly discover there are many roads to take to get to a certain point. Some will work for you, some will leave you waiting hours at a red light. Always trust your gut on which direction you should go.
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Illustration is Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Rounding up Lucy."