1. Try to post daily, but not too many times a day. The greater number of posts you put up in a day, the shorter each post must become.
2. Do not expect people to read your blog because you think your ideas are brilliant. If your readership isn’t increasing, it’s probably because you don’t have anything to say regardless of your insistence otherwise.
3. Be personal, but maintain privacy. There are plenty of freaks out there who have no need to know the most intimate details of your life.
4. Be honest. Do not exaggerate or conceal the facts. You will be caught.
5. Under no circumstance should you use emoticons. Ever.
6. Blog for yourself, and not for others. This is the only way to make sure that your blog is truly yours, and not some projection of what others want you to become.
7. Make a point to check your sitemeter only once a day, if at all. Blog statistics are addictive like crack cocaine, but much less socially acceptable.
8. Respond to commenters with infrequency. If you aren’t careful, your blog will become a place where others determine the subject of discussion. If people start coming to your blog for the comments rather than the main post, you may as well delete your blog entirely.
9. Avoid with all due diligence the temptation to employ arbitrary and excessive rhetorical flourishes.
10. Do not seek attention for your blog by posting frivolous comments on other blogs only to generate readership. All such commenters are to be hanged at dusk.
11. Do not send out email updates that you have posted something new. If people want to track your blog, they can use rss feeds.
12. Do not beg for comments. Do not whine for attention. Do not promote your blog. If your blog is worthy, others will pass it along.
13. Some people’s comments should never see the light of day. Idiots are the lepers of the blogosphere. Treat them as such.
14. Realize that many things you find funny are quite unfunny to others. Of course, you must also realize that some people do not have any sense of humor and will cry foul at the faintest hint of sarcasm, wit, or satire. Disregard them.
15. Only on the rarest of occasions should you allow another person an editorial privilege before publishing a post. Own your own words.
16. Blogs are the new porn. Your spouse will feel like there is another woman in your life if you spend too much time reading them.
17. Most bloggers tell more than they know. Be the exception. Always tell less.
18. Do not announce your absences from blogging. It is nobody’s business why you aren’t posting.
19. Do not post your own sermon outlines or notes. Your own congregation can barely get through your sermon without falling asleep. Don’t suppose that your blogging brethren are any more interested than they.
20. If your blog is controversial, embrace it. Do not attempt, however, to make your blog controversial for controversy’s sake. People like watching train wrecks, but will never favor a man who tries to wreck the train.
The Baptist Blogger 
I have broken the following rules on more than one occasion: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18
I feel like such a rebel. :)
… and I only read your blog for the comments … the main posts are rather boring. ;)
… and one more smiley for the hell of it. :)
And I just said “hell” to be controversial for controversy’s sake, so I guess I just broke number 20 too. I’m on a roll.
And with the above, maybe I hit #13 as well. Ha!
Just when I thought I was getting tired of your blog …
Nice BSC.
I must copy, paste and then print.
Thanks,
Tim
Ben,
This post seals it. You have been voted: TOP BLOG HOODLUM of the year:-)
cb
I agree with all but three of these…the three I personally indulge in.
Seriously, though, a lot of what you’ve said here boils down to issues of pride and ego.
re:
#20- I always like Gomez Addams’ facilitation of train wrecks.
#18- That’s what people do who do not appreciate their readers.
#13- Agree.
#12- Agree, agree, agree. Did I mention “agree”?
#8- The hallmark of a good post is that the commenters can interact with each other about the subject of the post and the administrator can enjoy the exchanges.
#5- ;^)
Dorcas, you’re hilarious!
There should, however, be a 21, should there not?
21. Do not butcher the English language. If you do not know basic rules of grammar and spelling you will be considered unredeemable. Bahahah!
Paul:
Perhaps you meant “irredeemable.”
Bahahah!
BSC
Marty –
I’m actually going to have to disagree with you and Ben on #8. It doesn’t work all the time that way. It depends upon the reason a person is blogging. Which also factors in to #12 as to begging for comments. You and Ben treat blogs like online news articles upon which people can comment. I treat mine more like a conversation starter at a dinner table. I want people to talk to me, not just the subject matter, and then I can interact back. If people only read the posts without the comments, they are only getting the “topic” and not the discussion, which is my favorite part. So when no one comments it makes me feel like I am at the dinner table, that I tossed out a topic for conversation, and everyone completely ignored me. Thus … it impels someone like myself toward the tendency to go comment begging … pathetic I know, but it is the result of being a social rather than a political or journalist blogger. Nevertheless, I will do my best to no longer violate #12, since it seems to annoy you so. :)
Also, with moderated comments it is hard to feel like I can interact with others in the comment string, because I never know if and when my comment will get through. It could be instantaneous, in a few hours, days or never. So comment moderation doesn’t really facilitate commenters being able to interact with each other on a timely basis. So I’m not sure Ben’s blog could ever achieve the good post hallmark status you indicate as to freedom of interaction. In fact this is the first time it ever occurred to me to talk to someone else in a comment string here, beside Ben himself.
Paul –
The list so far seems to be mostly for the pastor bloggers … I’m afraid to ask what the rules for church member bloggers are! :)
I object to #19. At my age, things that put me to sleep make up most of the blogs.
At least it works out that way.
Linda Richmonder…Dorcas Hawker:Virtual dinner tables make for virtual hunger.
We at Baptist Blogger like Coffee Talk much more.
BSC
wow…must be a slow sbc news cycle…is Paige on vacation or something?
Why am I always the last to find the good things? The last to enter the blogosphere, the last to know where the great blogs are. Whine whine whine.
I’m with Dorcas. Only I’m so new I can only vouch for breaking 4 or 5. Hopefully I can break the rest by the end of the year.
BTW, I mainly comment to generate traffic to my site. And so that I can beg them to comment.
Rule 10 Violation – The Jonah Syndrome Will Now Be Shutdown
#21 Do not leave comments that go on and on and on and on.
Rule # ??
Never ask a blogger if he is from Texas. If he is he will tell you. If not, don’t embarass him.
I’m random.
Thanks for the rules. I always feel guilty when I have readers who are waiting for my next post and I have no time. Gosh, I thought I HAD to apologize for my absence, because I feel like I am letting people down. Sort of makes me feel like I have been playing hooky. Um, thanks! I think I am going to take the rest of the week off and I won’t feel guilty. Oh and I like the humor. I find it is when the most serious of things is happening in one’s life that a little humor makes it seem just a little less serious and easier to take. You are a real tart in that area.
Great list. I’m new to blogging, so your advice has helped me get a better feel about what to do and what not to do.
I learned a lot…thnx man!
now I need to correct!
Hey.. I like n.7 ^_^
hehehe
You saved my favorites for last, though many of them were right in my wheelhouse.
19. Do not post your own sermon outlines or notes. Your own congregation can barely get through your sermon without falling asleep. Don’t suppose that your blogging brethren are any more interested than they.
20. If your blog is controversial, embrace it. Do not attempt, however, to make your blog controversial for controversy’s sake. People like watching train wrecks, but will never favor a man who tries to wreck the train.