The 4 C's of Blogging

I originally wrote the "4 C's of blogging" back in June of 2006.  I expanded upon them in my "Conversation By Design" presentation and most recently referenced them in an interview with Crains.  So I thought it might be a good idea to put together a post with the highlights for what it takes to create a great blog experience (in my opinion).  They are:

Anyway, that's what's worked for me.  And the tactics evolve—for example, I use Twitter these days for keeping up with my community.  So what works for you?

Comments

[Michael Melnick]

Thank you David for sharing these insights. I've been following L+E for over a year and I can say that you truly practice what you preach. I find this post very relevant as I myself am trying to find my own voice as a blogger and I was wondering if you could also share your personal experience in trying to market or promote L+E. How do you get new users to visit and participate in the conversation?

[DA]

Michael,

That's a great question. I'm actually horrible at promoting this blog and I've never had a "strategy". I did have a vision in that I wanted the blog to be visually stimulating and anything but boring.

Honestly, everything I know is in that "conversation by design" deck—and if I had to boil it down to one thing, I think its that I only write about stuff I care about.

And it's hard work. But an honor to have people willing to listen (and talk) to you.

[Darren Herman]

Dave, great post. What works for me is having most of my analysis on the front page of my website (http://www.darrenherman.com) and to have my personal news/updates and random tidbits on my ramblings page: http://dherman.tumblr.com. Works nicely as my community can subscribe to either or both RSS feeds to keep up.

I love your illustration and will probably post about it tomorrow

[Herb]

Great post.

Now that I've been taking my blog a bit more seriously I've noticed but not articulated many of the things you have here. Thanks again for once again taking something complex and putting it down here.

[Damian Rees]

This is really timely for me as I've only just started out with our blog. The most difficult thing you mention is 'finding your voice'. Anyone have any suggestions on how to help define this?

[Jon King]

The clarity of this is great. I'm sure I will read it about 7 times. One of the struggles I have is juggling all the balances... balance between to much opinion and knowing there is a corporate link behind me... balance in recommending the right (or wrong) products... balance in reveling to much about my family and personal life with "the world".

I read L&M often.... it's insightful, it's real and I can relate. Thanks David.

Jon

[Seni Thomas]

Great post; however, I think you can take the community building concept one further step and offer multiple interactions points and different levels of involvement to appeal to as wide a spectrum of readers of possible. I recently launched an educational blog (www.ad-vocate.com, temporarily senithomas.wordpress.com) to build a bridge between the professional world and students. In addition to the blog I built a Ning network where pros can answer student questions, mentor, recommend books, etc. Try building as many interaction points as possible. I recently wrote a post on this exact topic here: http://senithomas.wordpress.com/2007/10/06/the-stairway-to-heaven-communities/

[DA]

Seni,

I agree 100 percent about having additional community touch points. In fact when meeting with Dell I stressed that one of their biggest challenges will be facilitating the total customer experience across their numerous community initiatives.

I'm working on a related post about this.

[Erica]

I agree with Damian - finding the right tone of "voice" has been my biggest difficulty when constructing my blog.

I've posted the 4 C’s of blogging next to my personal computer at home and it has already helped to give me some clarity. Thanks David.

[See-ming Lee]

Interesting post.

1. I feel that there is a bit of a stretch to create buzz by forcing attributes into "words which starts with the same letter"--particularly with respect to "consistency"--I like your other three C's

2. Iconography used for consistency is interesting though. Not too crazy about that for the Clarity.

3. I would volunteer to design better icons for you :)

Cheers,
See-ming

[pharmacy-online]

i like blogs so much because Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art art blog, photographs photo blog, sketch blog, videos blog, music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting) and are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging which consists of blogs with very short posts.

http://pharmacy-online.tk

[Juan Pablo Tapia]

I think it's one of the best explanations about blogging. great post!

[Joy]

This is oh so true..thanks for sharing..it's a great help.

[Betty]

Had this state continued, the wages of labour would have augmented with all 96,000 a year, interest at the rate of eight per cent. and ?4,000 year for