I’ve been a promiscuous blogger! Hope you enjoy the following posts:

Dharmafly

• Twitter: the Simplest Little Big Complicated Website in the World

Freelance Advisor

• Go Freelance: the  Complete Guide to Starting Freelancing
• Thank God I’m Freelance

Freelance Supermarket

• Use Twitter to Find Work, Make Contacts and Develop Your Reputation: 12 Tips
• Social Networking: Good for You, Good for Your Career

Blogging is hard work. It’s not a quick, easy way to build web traffic. It’s time consuming and easy to get wrong. So should web developers and social media consultants be less keen to offer them to clients?

Andy Budd recently blogged about social media consultants, and his post got me thinking.

As Andy points out, many corporate blogs are dull, unpopular and don’t reward the effort expended on them. Some organisations are never going to be able to blog well. If everyone’s too busy – or too bored – to blog, what’s the point in having one?

Should web developers and social media consultants think twice before loading another organisation up with a blog? Perhaps there should be a test to prove commitment to the blog before you’re allowed to have one.

Of course, the question of whether blogs are suitable for an organisation applies to other social media tools. And I think that’s the point – not all social media tools suit all organisations.

It reminds of me of pet ownership. Everyone wants a pet, but nobody wants to pick up the poop, or walk it. Well, you want to walk it at first, when it’s fun. But then it’s cold, or raining, or Top Gear is on, and you don’t want to walk it any more. Who is going to keep blogging when Top Gear is on?

(Picture courtesy of normalityrelief via Flickr)

So here it is – my second guide to writing for the web.

Writing for Bloggers – A Quick Guide on Style, Substance and Strategy

This guide focuses on blogging, and things bloggers can do to improve their writing. It’s a very short guide, intended to cover the basics and remove obstacles in the paths of new bloggers.

If you would like the white label version to give your clients, email me and I’ll send you a copy. Please distribute freely – I want to encourage people to blog.

Thanks to the following for their input: (who responded to my request for readers on Twitter)

• Emma Nicol of Door 22 Creative (a graphic design agency) who has done an amazing job designing the document
  
• Donald Strachan
• Anca Foster
• Jane Dallaway
• Catherine Pope
• Amy Harrison

Our white paper – Blogging for Business – is already gaining an audience.

Raj Anand of Kwiqq put it up on edocr.com – a very useful site that offers free documents – and we’ve already had 955 hits!

If you’re in business of any kind I highly recommend edocr.com; there are tonnes of useful documents available and they’re all free to download.