It’s now time to announce the “Best Blog­ging Advice” con­test winners!

First of all, I’d like to thank each of you for giv­ing valu­able advice about blog­ging. Trust me on that, I’m gonna use them!

I received advice from: Shionge from So Shiok…!, Blue­fish from Between Canada And Den­mark, Gra­ham from One Man’s Travel, Kheng­siong from Prin­ci­ple Of Uncer­tainty, Bar­bara from Home In France, Ulquiorra from Deep Sar­casm, Damo­space, Pocket Cul­ture, Kyh from Times Jour­nal, Johnada, Spy­der from My Spy­der­web, Durano Lawayan from The Spit­ting Ves­sel, Ghing from My Blog­ging Expe­ri­ence, Free­lance Web Design, Scar­let from As Good As It Gets, Seraphine from Encore Seraphine and Beaver­bosh.

Pick­ing the win­ners was hard since a lot of great advices were given. I choose the blog­gers who scored the most points, as I spec­i­fied, and then the best advices. So:

• In the World Cat­e­gory, the win­ner is… Ghing from My Blog­ging Experience!
• In the Canada cat­e­gory, the prize goes to… Johnada, who is recov­er­ing from his bicy­cling expe­ri­ence in Toronto!
• The sec­ond prize goes to… Kyh, author of Times Jour­nal.
• Finally, the third prize goes to Durano Lawayan, author of The Spit­ting Ves­sel.

I loved Kyh and Durano’s advices:

a) Respect Your Read­ers — be truth­ful about what you write; make sure your thoughts are well orga­nized and log­i­cally flows through­out the post. Edit your post before pub­lish­ing for gram­mar, syn­tax, spelling, facts, and punc­tu­a­tion marks. Avoid using pro­fan­i­ties and slang. Write with feel­ing and empathy,choosing words that would aptly describe these with­out sound­ing so pretentious.

b) Be Open to those that Post a Com­ment — Wel­come other blog­gers’ opin­ions and ideas even if they con­tra­dict with yours. Agree to dis­agree with­out being dis­agree­able. There is no sense in gen­er­at­ing opin­ions if all you want are praises for what you have writ­ten or pho­tos you have posted. Most peo­ple base their opin­ions on what they have expe­ri­enced or accepted as their beliefs or val­ues. Respect these too, since chances are, your expe­ri­ences are dif­fer­ent from theirs. Allow them to express their perspectives.

c) Be Car­ing and Kind to other Blog­gers — When post­ing a com­ment on other blog­gers’ sites, con­sider the feel­ings behind the post. Focus on what in your own per­spec­tive is good about it and com­ment on that. You may also ven­ture to com­ment on what the feel­ing of the author is in writ­ing the post, but qual­ify that this is just how it dawns on you. Be gen­tle with crit­i­cism or dis­agree­ments, write it as a sug­ges­tion for improve­ment. Be gen­er­ous with praise but don’t overdo it as it may sound contrived.

d) Rec­i­p­ro­cate — When blog­gers post a com­ment, acknowl­edge and respond, if pos­si­ble, before you write the next post. Then, go to that blogger’s site and post a com­ment too. Try to build an open line of com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Reci­procity is also respect for those that read your posts and make a com­ment. Avoid unthink­ing com­ments like “great blog”, “Way to go”, or “Let’s exchange links” pleeeeeease!!

e) Treat Every Blog­ger as an Equal — There is no place for dis­crim­i­na­tion in the blo­gos­phere. There are things each one of us can do bet­ter than any­body else, regard­less of what it might be; and there are things oth­ers can do bet­ter than your­self. There are things you know that oth­ers don’t; and there are things oth­ers know that you don’t. So it does not make you bet­ter than they are, nor are they bet­ter than you. That makes us all equal.

Durano Lawayan

My advice? Be gen­uine. Be humor­ous at times. And pic­tures! Pho­tos and pic­tures draw atten­tion more than words. Travel sto­ries would always appeal to most of us. Intu­itive lay­out that is neat and clean at first sight. And most impor­tantly, blog from the heart! Blog­gers won’t last long if they don’t blog with passion!

Kyh

These advices made sense to me and are really close to what I think as well. Thanks for your input!

Among the great blog­gers I men­tioned here today, I’d like to intro­duce you guys to Kyh. His blog, TiMes JoUr­NaL, has: 1) the nicest header I have ever seen (and he drew it!) 2) the best pic­tures 3) great travel sto­ries. Kyh, who has been blog­ging since 2005, is from Malaysia. He loves world his­tory, cul­ture, trav­el­ing and obvi­ously, pho­tog­ra­phy. Still a stu­dent, he blogs about Malaysia, cul­tural events, his life and what I like best about him is he is this kind of blog­ger who only posts when he has some­thing to share. For great pic­tures and travel sto­ries, check out his Gone Rural and his Penang Her­itage Trail series!

First prizes win­ners, email me your banner/ ad and I’ll put in in my side­bar over the week end. You can con­tact me with this form. And see you tomor­row for the last post of the “How To Blog” series!

Related arti­cles:

1. “Your Best Blog­ging Advice” Contest!
2. All About Blog­ging: 5 Ways to Pro­mote your Blog
3. Blog­ging Eti­quette (10÷10)
4. All About Blog­ging: Build­ing a Community
5. All About Blog­ging: 5 Blogs Turn-Offs or Why I Stopped Read­ing Your Blog