I just stumbled across The New Rules for Business Blogs, an e-book by Lithuanian blogger Linas Simonis, who blogs at Positioning Strategy. He rejects a lot of what I think of as conventional wisdom about blogging -- starting with the idea that a blogger should post every day. "It is a good idea to post at least once per month. Yes, a month, not a week. 12 posts per year." Quality instead of quantity. He asks you to imagine going on a vacation for three weeks with no internet access (eeek!), and returning to tens of thousands of items in your RSS reader. "Which posts will you read and which simply delete - those with one post from one blog, or those with twenty posts from one blog?"
He also rejects the idea that blog entries have to be short (especially if they are infrequent), and that you should find reasons to link to other blogs. "Posts containing only links are spam coming through RSS reader." Link only if the target blog can help you make your point.
All of this is food for thought as I consider starting my own blog. My motivations are one part "having something to say" and one part wanting to boost my writing/consulting business, which currently is represented only by an online brochure. I've been intimidated by the idea of needing to blog frequently, but I've finally realized that the only way I'll know if I can blog successfully is to actually start a blog.
While I get my act together, I'm glad to have the ability to blog at will here on Social Media Today. (You can too -- after you log in, you'll see a Create Post link in the grey navigation bar.)
Hat tip: Business and Blogging