Blogging and quality control

Blogs, what would we do without them? Well we probably wouldn't be splashing our thoughts and personal lives over the internet as much (although Facebook and Twitter will also do that), but we also would have to search a lot less for good quality reading. Now I'm not saying that all blogs are bad (in fact, if you've continued to read my blog then I'm very grateful), but they have allowed anyone to publish themselves online, no matter how well they can or can't write. This has a major impact when you look at the quality of what we are reading online. 

 

Because I want to work in the editing and publishing industry it makes me very annoyed when I see books being published that really should have been through quality control first [1]. So when it comes to finding something good to read online I can get very frustrated when trawling through a lot of the rubbish out there. I was speaking to a journalist friend today who also gets upset about people publishing on blogs because they think that their writing is the best thing since sliced bread. She also feels that job opportunities are dwindling because blogs are taking over.

Of course there is a positive side to the prolificity of blogs, because somewhere, buried in the piles of slush are blogs that are worth reading. A friend of a friend wanted to write for a fashion magazine but couldn't get a job, so she decided to write a blog instead. She now collaborates with photographers from all over the world and her blog reads like a professional magazine. Quality blogs help you to get your name out into the big wide world so that, if employers like what they see, you can be headhunted.

I guess it all depends on whether or not you care to spend the time rooting through the garbage to find the gems inside.

[1] For example Eragon by Christopher Paolin was written when the author was sixteen - and it really shows. In fact, the only reason that it was published was because his parents decided to self-publish the book for him.

Image source: Quality control rejected

Blog blog blogging along

Blogs started out as places for people to post their thoughts on life, the universe and everything. They still do so, but I'm pretty sure that facebook has done it's best to shove the minutia of everyone's life in our face. So what are blogs used for these days? I use mine as a host for my book reviews, and I know that the site for the Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association is constructed in Wordpress, but what else is out there?

Well there are lots of blogging communities. They range from BlogHer (a women-only community) to MMO Social Network (where people share tips about making money). But according to Ink Rebels there are five types of blog:

1. Collaboration blogs: As the title suggests, this is one blog with a lot of authors. From what I can tell it's basically the same as a community blog.

2. How-to/tutorial blogs: I found these very useful because you can look at the comments to see if the tutorial is correct or worthwhile.

3. Travel/cultural blogs: These are full of people writing about their travel experiences. Because you can include pictures and videos from holidays, they're a lot more flexible than post cards. Plus other people can comment on their experiences of the same place and recommend it (or warn about it) to others.

4. Fashion/lifestyle blogs: Pretty much what the title says.

5. Personal blogs, which I've already talked about.

I already write for the collaborative blog A Writer Goes On A Journey, so I think that if I was forced at gunpoint to choose another blog to write I'd pick the community one because it feels like it would have more of a the direct connection with people than the other blog types do.

Image source: Blogging cloud