What Matt Coddington taught me about blogging

A blog on "5 Blogging Methods That Work" was sent to me by my roommate, Ben, who supports me in my nerdiness and, in fact, feeds it quite well. For example, I sit and watch him play Final Fantasy XII (or MXIVIIII or something) and then I play Rez, a sweet and addictive game with a cover design that looks to be circa 1970.

Back to this article. Let's see if I can pull it all together. Here's the list of the top 5, and my comments:

1. Breaking a Post Down into a List -- done and done. This is a list, duh.

2. The "What [person/group/experience] Taught Me About [topic]" Strategy -- (check out the title of this post.)

3. Link-farm Posts -- This is not what it sounds like. I don't even know what it sounds like, but it does sound confusing. This would be where I give a shout out to Matt Coddington, for coming up with such a spectacular blog about blogging. Good work, Matt. But I've got more good blogs I regularly read to share with you. I'll try to figure out how to post them in the sidebar or something.

4. Make All of Your Posts Personal -- Alright, it's time for PSS (personal story sharing). This is where I relate a personal experience to whatever it is I'm blogging about. For instance, I'm currently writing about efficient ways to make a blog attractive, which rather reminds me of how I like to buy things on clearance. Actually there's no relation there, but that was part of my surprise story segue (yaaay!) ...

I've bought many a clearance item, some of them better decisions than others. For example, some of the better things I've found at something near 75% off include: adorable jewelery, some navy corduroys, shiny things. Some less-than-quality clearance shelf buys that, admittedly, were the result of sheer excitement at the low cost, include: hideous jewelery, clothes I've never worn, a dead puppy. Hey, it was on clearance.

Was that personal enough? This section also recommends offering personal opinion and advice. My advice to you? Think twice before you buy that Conair Quick Braid automatic hair braider, even if it is only $5. I'm proud to say I didn't give in to this one, but I've been tempted more than once.

5. Interlink Everything -- I'll just continue to use the "I have a problem with clearance items" story to give examples of this one...
Seriously guys, I'm beginning to learn my lesson here. I now know that items go on clearance for a reason, because they are A) designed to fit the bodies of strangely disproportionate people; B) are butt-ugly; C)are defective or harmful to people like me - like that Tetris game I bought and quickly became addicted to this summer (it's broken now); D)are kind of cool, but you'll never, EVER use it. Think the HEBE Ceramic Heater that "quickly warms feet and ankles" in your car, among other things. Here's a link to an obscure Russian website that features this amazing product, which I actually purchased over 2 years ago for a meager amount at Target, though I don't know how or why. It's still in the package.

So, according to this Coddington fellow, I should be all set with a successful blog. I've got all his suggested elements. What, you say it was ridiculously all over the place, came to no conclusion and contained nothing noteworthy or entertaining? Well, you read this far ...