Face blogs versus house blogs
Blogging is still a new art, and that means there are some exciting decisions you can make for yourself. One of the biggest is deciding who you’re writing for. I’m talking about something more fundamental than identifying a demographic: I’m talking about deciding whether you’re writing for yourself or your readers.
If you’re writing for your readers, then your blog is like your face. You use it to communicate with the outside world, through expressions, through speech, and through visual appeal. The better your face/blog looks – clean, color-coordinated cosmetic appeal, strong features (like a good nose, say, or a theme) – the more people will want to hear what you have to say. And, of course, the things you say are also important in both cases.
If you’re writing for yourself, your blog is more like your home. Inside your own home, you’re free to do just about anything you want (barring dangerous stuff like violence against others, or, you know, illegally downloading a Justin Timberlake single). You’re free to say whatever you wish in your own house, because people don’t have to come there. Though the internet is certainly a public space, you may consider your blog to be private in this sense: that no one who is offended by you is required to read your posts.
Most of the popular blogs are faces rather than houses. That’s how they become popular. But if you just want to blow off some steam to your friends, a house blog isn’t such a bad idea.
Where do you stand on this issue? Do you have a face blog or a house blog, and how did you make that decision?
Alex | December 6th, 2007 at 7:02 pm #
My blog is definitely falls into “face” category but that is because my blog is where I share what I know and not intended to be a place to vent my personal frustration but rather help others.
I think your blog presentation is predetermined based on what you are planning to do with it …
Alex
Amy Lenzo | December 6th, 2007 at 8:38 pm #
I think this is a really interesting question. My own answer is ‘both’.
My blog is a ‘face’ blog in that it’s very definitely written for people to read, but it’s also a ‘home’ in the sense that I am writing for myself. Not to blow off steam so much as to express myself creatively and share my sensibility.
It’s a professional blog in that I want it to convey who I am as an online designer, and a personal blog because I believe the parts of my psyche are not separate… my personal photographic art contributes to who I am as a designer, and vice versa. My sense of myself as a spiritual being effects my relationship with my clients and determines my values which result in professional integrity and personal authenticity.
So for me it’s all in there.
Amy Lenzo | December 11th, 2007 at 6:19 pm #
Exactly, Alex!