Arnold Kling makes a point that bloggers would do well to remember: “People who have longstanding weblogs who want to keep their following will find that they have to behave like portals. That is, they will have to become very rich in links, and reduce their self-expression (or express themselves by the way in which they select links)…If you want to express yourself heavily (as I do), and you want a large following, then I think you will have to progressively narrow your scope. People will come to you for your area of expertise, not for stuff that they can find just as easily elsewhere.”
I think the popular blogs will have three key elements:
– personality: a reflection of the blogger’s mind
– links and/or comments: the blogger works as a filter on the information out there, and embellishes the linked stories with a unique perspective
– focus: the blogger should concentrate on one/few topics, and eschew everything else
