down the avenue: Passion & Authority are Key Renee Blodgett is out with a post on some of Robert Scoble’s ideas on blogging in general and specifically on the concept of “pitching a blogger.”
Two things according to Scoble make a good blog — passion and authority. I’d have to say that I tend to agree. I’d also add that incorporated in passion and authority are the key concepts of honesty, community and integrity. Always tell the truth to the best of your ability, site your sources and network with others who also blog about what you follow, and own up to your mistakes when you are wrong. Scoble has also talked about the art of a good apology in the past. Scoble happens to do all of these very well.
With regards to authority it is extremely important to become an expert in your chosen field of blogging and to constantly be learning. Follow those who also blog about things that matter to you. Use things like technorati and pubsub to track news on things that you want to follow and blog about. Obviously use RSS to leverage your ability to follow multiple sources.
With regards to passion, in the end this is perhaps the most powerful tool a blogger can have. Passion that can be felt and that is transferred from a writer to a reader is truly an amazing elixir. When people can feel your passion through what you write it adds enormous credibility to what you are saying. People who are passionate about their blogs do tend to post more but the drive of their passion oftentimes allow them to create some rich original content that cannot be found anywhere else on the web. Occasionally, it is this material that can spread like wildfire in the blogosphere and do things really revolutionary.