During the Write On Conference, there were suggestions on author branding that included making your online presence consistent with they type of author you are/type of books you write. This “theme” or “mood” should carry from one online endeavor to the next from websites, to blogs, to Twitter, etc. Basically anywhere you can customize, you should, but keep it consistent.
As you may have noticed, I took that to heart and have been working on customizing my blogs and twitter. The topic of creating an online presence came up often during live chats and I was amazed to learn there were industry professionals who declared they didn’t like LJ because it wasn’t as easy to customize and was restrictive. I’m not sure what they meant by this (though it’s not as easy, you can still sort of customize the look of your blog), but it got me thinking.
Are Blogger and other online blogging options better than LJ? Is LJ a moon being paled by the much brighter sons in the webosphere?
I happen to like LJ. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s the first blog site I joined and it’s like an old familiar security blanket, or if it’s because I get notifications of my friend’s posts in my email. Granted, I can get email notifications from some Blogger friends as well, but not as many offer this option. Besides, I have many more LJ friends than I do Blogger (or other journaling sites).
Yes, it’s easier to see the Blogger followers if a “follow” gadget is put on the blog so knowing the popularity of your blog is easier (though just because you have followers, doesn’t mean your blog is popular . . . the commenting is what counts), and I do have to agree that Blogger is much easier to customize (I was able to make my own background for Blogger and fairly easily put it up using the CSS feature, but I was also able to add a background to my LJ using the CSS, just not as easily and as completely as on Blogger).
Blogger also has a new Template feature for editing your blog which makes things a bit easier . . .
And yet, I still love my LJ and all the connections I have there (though I love the “look” of my Blogger more).
I’m wondering . . . how many of my LJ friends also have another blog they frequent . . . maybe even more than they do LJ?
What is your choice of platform for blogging?
Though I suppose it doesn’t matter what platform you use if you aren’t consistent with your postings and keep things interesting (this was mentioned quite a bit at the conference too). I’m going to work on the being more consistent thing . . . but I make no guarantees in the “interesting” category.
AND . . .There must be an easier way to keep in touch with my Blogger friends, so if someone out here can tell me how it’s done, I’d really appreciate it!
Blog on!
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