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If you have a blog, you want it to be a good blog. No one wants to have a blog that is known for being second-rate. But how do you begin to improve your blog? Here are some steps to take:

1. Read other blogs every day, and not the same old blogs, either. Use Technorati or Google blog search to find blog posts on topics of interest. Just as the writer has to read novels in order to learn how to write a good novel, you have to read blogs in order to learn how to write a good one. Especially read blogs on the same or similar topics to your own.

2. When you find a blog you admire, add it to your blogroll. If you blog at Blogger, there is a new blogroll widget which gives the latest blog title of each blog on the blogroll. Also blog about the most interesting posts at your favorite blogs, including links to the original post. When you read a good blog post at an admired blog, leave a comment.

3. Cultivate commenters on your blog. One good way is to visit the blog of each commenter and leave a comment there, thanking them for their comment. Blogging is, or should be, an interactive process, and interacting with other bloggers will help you get ideas for making your own blog posts better.

4. Narrow the focus of your blog. That is, if you blog about politics and Doctor Who fandom and the weird things your dog does and Russian cooking and needlepoint projects all in the same blog, it is a lot harder to have a good blog. Find one or two good primary topics for your blog. If you need to, start a second blog for another topic.

5. Find your flaw. Every blogger- every writer- has a flaw. Perhaps you can't spell very well. Or maybe you tend to ramble in long blog posts that are not really to the point. Maybe it's that you are too embarrassed to say what you really feel- or that you are NOT embarrassed to rant, rave and insult. Once you have found your flaw as a blogger, decide what you can do to improve in that area.

6. Allow yourself to be imperfect. Writing in a blog is more like newspaper writing than like writing a book. It's more important to be timely than to be perfect. Perfectionism will make it harder for you to get any blogging done, and it won't necessarily make your blog better.

7. Have fun with your blog. It shouldn't be a chore. Find ways to make your blogging enjoyable to you, and you will make it more enjoyable to your readers as well.

8. Know why you blog. If there is a business purpose to your blog, don't lose sight of that business purpose. If it is a Christian blog, does it show Christ's love to the world? The purpose for your blogging activity, if you don't lose sight of it, will help you to improve your blog in the direction it needs to go to fulfil that purpose.

Learn more about this author, Nissa Annakindt.
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