Why I like blogs

by Ed Bowsher on 11 June 2009  |  1 comment
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Blogs are great! Let me tell you why.....

When I first heard about blogs, I couldn't see how they differed from normal articles in a newspaper or on a website. A few years on, I can see there are real differences and I've become a big blog fan.

There are no hard and fast rules on what constitutes a blog, but for me, the best blogs are short, punchy and opinionated. Also, many of the best ones are written by one person alone. I really like that - if there's a single author I feel that I'm developing a personal relationship with the blogger. It's a bit like the relationship you might have with your favourite radio presenter.

We're following that model  at lovemoney.com. Most of our writers have their own blogs and they are unfiltered by anyone else. All of our conventional articles are edited by someone, normally the acting editor, Donna Werbner. But when it comes to blog posts, the writer sticks it on the site unedited and you could be the first person to read the post.

Of course, many blogs are spare bedroom jobs. Then It's just one person knocking out posts and he or she has no assistance whatsoever. So, obviously, there's no editing either.

I think the concept of freedom for the writer is especially appealing for journalists. The nightmare scenario for a hack is an editor who unfailingly makes your articles worse every time he touches your work. Obviously that doesn't happen at lovemoney.com, but I experienced it for a short time elsewhere, and it was no fun.

Anyway, this is a post is a prequel to a post called My favourite blogs. I hope you'll like some of my recommendations in that post.