Well-written blogs are worth following religiously

I’ve started to religiously follow Ben Yoskovitz’s Instigator Blog. Not just because he’s an entrepreneur here in Montreal.

Nor because he’s a StandoutBoy.

I read his blog because it is well-written and chock-full of wisdom.

Now you might think it’s easy to write a good blog. In fact, it’s not. In the blogging world, there are many facets to good writing.

First, good bloggers write clearly and get their point across.

We’ve come to expect blogs to be personal, thus conversational in tone, but bad grammar and poor spelling do not equal good blogging.

Second, good bloggers write for their audience and not to them.

Good bloggers are authentic and passionate about the stories they tell - and they tell us the stories we want to hear. I can’t stress how important writing “for” your audience is.

Anyone new to blogging should read this article from A List Apart. It captures the essentials of good writing for blogs.

Let me know which blogs you follow religiously and why.

Re-edit: Yes, moving my dance blog

After a week of playing around with WordPress and thinking about the future of my dance blog, I’ve decided to transfer it to my personal domain. From now on, my dance blog can be found at blog.alainwong.com

Protecting blogs from spam

I know I know, this is suppose to be a dance blog. I just couldn’t help commenting on what these guys in Montreal are doing to help bloggers in the fight against spam.

Tonight I went to Democampmontreal3, and the team at Karabunga presented their new anti-spam web service, which seems to be doing a heck of a better job than Akismet at helping bloggers filter spam comments. Sign up for beta testing at Defensio.

It’s very exciting news coming straight from entrepreneurs in Montreal. Yeah!