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?

Written by Kris Larson from Carthage
Posted on December 6th, 2007 and filed under Blogging
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