Thanks, Aleisteir! Glad to hear you like my blog! :)

My recent post My Blogging Boredom Dilemma and Solution

Yay! I'd love to hear how you like it!

My recent post My Blogging Boredom Dilemma and Solution

Thanks, John! :)

My recent post How NOT to Design a Blog

Hey Liane,

It's good to hear that I'm not the only one getting attacked by boredom! ;) Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy blogging!
Sarah

My recent post So, You Want to Guest Post on My Blog? Forget It!

Hey John,

Don't worry, I'm not going to stop writing articles altogether. I'm going to be guest posting on other blogs, but I'll link to them from here. To my readers, it will be the same as it has always been, but it will be even better for me!

Good luck with your blog!
Sarah

My recent post Blogging is too hard. I give up.

Hi Deha,

Knowing that my blog is helping people is the most rewarding thing about doing this blog. I'm so glad to hear you've been enjoying it!

Don't give up blogging! That's the best advice I can give. I truly believe that blogging can be enjoyable for anyone, as long as you're blogging the right way. But there's no rule for what's "right" when it comes to blogging—it totally depends on the person. But you know you enjoy blogging, and that's a good thing. Just keep at it and I'm sure you'll figure things out. ;)

My recent post So, You Want to Guest Post on My Blog? Forget It!

Hey Flora,

Good for you! Blogging is supposed to be fun, not a miserable chore. Many "pro" bloggers push the need to stick to the rules, but we know better, don't we? ;)

It's better to take a long time to write something amazing than to force out a multitude of crummy posts just for the sake of getting something out there.

Thanks for stopping by!
Sarah

My recent post Blogging is too hard. I give up.

I enjoy hearing your two cents! I think you're right in that it depends on the reader and their preference for long or short articles, but some like long and some like short, so I don't think there can be a rule.

When I think of a long article, I'm thinking 1000+ words. I think 2000 is overdoing it, and could probably be compressed. That's why proofreading is so important: to find what's already been said, what doesn't need to be said, and anything else that should be removed. Most long articles are nothing more than fluff, but if they contain real substance, long articles don't scare me.

Granted, I skip through most articles. Most aren't worth my time. That's why I get so excited when I find a blog that contains consistently good articles. But I'm just picky. And opinionated. I can't help it.

Yes, I've been quiet lately. I got bogged down, bored, and busy with other things in the real world. But I just published a new post yesterday. And I'm working on some guest posts and a new blog. I'm on a roll. :) Hopefully I can keep this up!

My recent post My Blogging Boredom Dilemma and Solution

Hey Daniel,

I don't agree that long always equals boring. Yes, if the writer is being repetitive, or using too many words to explain something when they could use only a few, long is indeed boring. But it isn't the fact that an article is long that makes it boring. What makes it boring is that it's boring, no matter how long or short. The only advantage of short articles, in that case, is that the boredom doesn't last as long.

I firmly believe that it's important to be clear, specific, and informative. I think we can all agree with that. If a blogger loses me half-way through an article (or after the first two sentences, as it usually is), it's entirely their fault, not mine. They failed to keep me interested.

Writing can contain good information and be boring at the same time. What makes writing interesting to me usually isn't the information, rather the writer's personality. I like to be able to connect with the writer, even if I have never known them. The problem, then, is not length, but the quality of the writing. Most people simply do not know how to write. Yes, they may be able to form intelligible sentences, and maybe put commas in the right places, but most don't know how to make writing interesting. I can usually tell the direction of an article just by reading the first paragraph: whether it's going to knock my socks off, or if I'll be snoring by the end. But I don't care how long an article is. If it's well-written, I'm going to be hooked all the way through.

I think the most important thing for any blogger to do is discover their style. If you don't know your style, writing is most difficult, and the result is usually boring. Looking back at my old writing, it's obvious that I didn't know what my writing style was, but the more I wrote, the closer I came to discovering it. I think what really helped my writing was reading the book, On Writing Well by William Zinsser. I don't normally read how-to-write books, and recommend them even less frequently, but this one has been a necessity.

All of this, of course, is just my opinion.

Wow, what a long comment! How ironic. ;)

My recent post So, You Want to Guest Post on My Blog? Forget It!

Hi Marisa!

I too love getting replies to my comments. It's disappointing when I go to the work of leaving a comment and nobody seems to notice. Ironically, I'm horrible at replying to comments, especially now that I've been away from my blog for a while and I'm behind. :-/

I don't think following every person who follows you is a must, and it's something I definitely don't do. Certainly, if I find a follower interesting, I'll follow them back. But I don't follow people just because they follow me. I follow them for only one reason—I'm interested in what they have to say.

No doubt, readers appreciate when you follow back. It's easy to keep up with your readers when you have a small blog, but after a while, keeping track of everyone, I think, can be a burden, at least for me. I think there's a need to keep a balance between maintaining a community and creating great content, because they go hand in hand.

My recent post So, You Want to Guest Post on My Blog? Forget It!