Set Boundaries

I found this great page 47 key tips from the World’s best Bloggers.

It was interesting to see that most of them talked about establishing boundaries for the content of your blog.

Here is what some of them had to say:

Meg from Megnut – ‘Set boundaries. Think about how much of yourself you’re comfortable sharing. You don’t have to ‘tell all’. Just decide which parts of your life you’re willing to share, and try to find a balance that works for you.’

Fraser from Blogjam – ‘Don’t write about work, and avoid writing about people you know in general. You’ll end up offending someone.’

Glenn from InstaPundit – ‘Starting off, pick some topics that you know more about than most other people – your profession, your locality, or whatever – and make those a major part of your blog. ‘

Robyn from Aint too Proud to Blog – ‘Remember that even though you think you’re writing to just friends and family, your words will have a global audience. You never know just who is reading your blog, and where they may be located when reading it.’

Hash from iMakeContent – ‘The blog should do what you say it’s going to do. You want people to come back, to become regular readers, so you need to live up to whatever you promise. If you’ve set up a tech blog, your readers might be surprised if you start writing long accounts of why your marriage/team/country is going down the drain. Of course, in the process you might pick up some new readers and decide to relaunch the blog. ‘

Rannie from Photojunkie – ‘Before you begin blogging, figure out your boundaries. Decide how much or how little you are comfortable with disclosing. It’s easier to change your boundaries once you have started blogging, but harder to put up those boundaries after you have crossed the line and posted something that you didn’t think anyone else would see.

I’m not really hearing any of them say don’t blog about personal things – rather the message is to consider what you will and will not share on your blog.

Its also useful to define your blog to some extent (at least in your own mind) and keep within the boundaries you’ve set yourself.

My last word on the topic is be careful. I’ve heard cases of people loosing jobs because their bosses found their blog – other have had similar experiences of pastors finding comments about sermons. Be prepared for people you know to find what you write.