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If you allow yourself to begin posting entries based on what you think someone else wants you to write, you are missing the point of having a weblog. Even more destructive is the number game. It is always flattering to discover that someone else likes reading what you write, but it you begin to focus on gaining the largest audience you can, you will destroy whatever pleasure you may otherwise derive from your work.
Your weblog is your playground. Keep it fun for yourself. Pretend that your audience thinks you are the most fascinating person alive, and use whatever tools you have to let them know exactly what you think about current foreign policy, your favorite brand of tofu, or your new haircut.
As you read and analyze others' work, cultivate a sense of camaraderie with the webloggers you are learning from. Do not become competitive; let others inspire you to become better that you are now.
The weblog possesses an unmatched ability to create targeted serendipity by presenting its self-selected audience with the news and trivia that is predictably interesting and useful. But the very idea of serendipity demands that the discoveries so provided be to some extent unexpected. When news stories are rigorously selected to align with predetermined worldview, human filters become little more than propaganda machines.
Ultimately, the purpose of your weblog is whatever you want it to be: most weblogs achieve several purposes simultaneously. The mix will depend on your circumstances and your personality. Still, it is helpful to take an inventory of your five favorite weblogs and ask yourself what each of them is trying to do.
The weblog audience is no longer forced to rely on the writer's synopsis of the source material--or on their own past reading: the hyperlink allows the weblog audience to read and evaluate for themselves the meaning of those source material cited. Based on that reading, it is a simple matter to decide wheter the weblogger's commentary is insightful, obvious, or worthless.
Webloggers interested in political matters--on both left and the right--seem more to exist in echo chambers of their own making, linking and reading only weblogs and other publications that reflect back their own points of view.
Whether your intended audience is large of small, public or private, you now have some extra motivation for writing as frequently and as well as you can. Knowing that someone is reading your side, you will unconsciously seek to express yourself a little more clearly and will likely be anxious to maintain a fairly steady publication schedule. Whatever your purpose and area of interest, you have a forum in which to speak your piece. Congratulations! You are now a weblogger.
A weblog is a coffeehouse conversation in text, with references as required.
