I guess returning the favor is the key phrase. If you love reading comments on your blog, then surely the blogs you have visited are also eager to hear from you. It takes only a few minutes to post a comment. Just be sure that what you are commenting is relevant to the topic or else your comment will just annoy the blogger and end up being deleted.

And lastly, don’t forget to post a comment on the blogs of readers who commented on you blog, too. It is the best way of returning the favor. Just be sure that the blogs are legitimate and relevant, may I say just skip the spammer?

Reading comments is always gratifying for me. I love reading “relevant” comments on my blog. I remember during my first few days of blogging, it always disappoints me to see that my posts have no comments yet and so when I received my first comment – I was practically ecstatic. I immediately answered the comment of my reader.

Commenting back is a nice way of saying you appreciate their visit to your blog. Also, I think answering questions of your readers is a good way of making them a follower of your blog, not only that you even have the opportunity to meet new friends.

So don’t forget to reply back to comments, okey…

One thing is for sure – personal blogs should reflect the blogger’s personality.  But, since you are sharing it with others, at least be considerate in choosing designs and plugins. Be friendly, choose designs and colors that are not offensive.

Organize your blog! Categorize your topics accordingly. And so if visitors want to read further on certain topics they can easily check out your categories. Use of plugins like recent post and related post is also helpful. If creating links to other site or topic, be sure that your links will open the correct page and are not broken.

For me, I have this notion that blogs are more on a personal matter.
Upon searching the acceptable meaning of blog, it says that – Blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

Although there are several types of blog like Corporate blogs, Blogs by Genre (travel blogs, fashion blogs, etc.), by media type and by device type, Personal blog is still in number one.

So, I guess it follows that post on blogs would be nice if they are from first hand experience of the blogger. In ordinary conversation, frequent use of “I” is a turn –off, it makes you appear too self-centered but in blogging using “I” is ok, it makes your post have a more personal approach (e.g. I went to a paradise place called Bolinao last weekend…)  . I guess that is the essence of blogging, sharing your own experiences in life to the netizens of the blogosphere.

Using plugins is advisable, but please don’t clutter your blog with too much plugins. Choose carefully the Plugins that will be useful and relevant to your site like the Akismet which filters spam. Plugins like gravatars and  CG – Flashy titles enhances the visual appearance of your blogs.

Other useful Plugins are the recent posts and popular posts. Recent Comments helps encourage topic discussion. But what I think is one of the most powerful plugin is the related posts. Why? Because when a reader searched for a topic and found your post, surely that reader would be looking for more information and when your related post is easily visible, it encourages them to read around longer.