TypePad® for Dummies®

Chapter 18. Ten Blogging Etiquette Tips

In This Chapter

• Understanding the right and wrong ways to link to bloggers

• Trying not to take things personally

• Leaving comments freely at other blogs

• Protecting others' privacy

• Looking out for your readers

In the first chapter, we discuss the importance of participating in the blogosphere with courtesy and respect. In the strange world of cyberspace, we usually don't have the benefit of interpreting one another's facial expressions or other nonverbal communication. We have to determine others' intent based on what they say and how they conduct themselves. It's an interesting dynamic, and this makes it an exciting time to be a blogger — we're all out there learning as we go, doing our best to represent ourselves well based entirely on a cyberimpression!

The issue of blogging etiquette frequently comes up when bloggers get together to talk about tools of the trade. This can be especially frustrating to a new blogger, who may wonder how to decipher what the ground rules are. In truth, no firm ground rules exist. Most of us just do our best and exhibit the same commonsense courtesy we'd exhibit (and expect from others) in the real world. Additionally, you beginners shouldn't worry — there's a learning curve to this, and nearly all of us made some mistakes along the way.

However, you can follow a few widely accepted practices to be a well-mannered blogger, and this chapter shares ten of those practices with you. We're not so bold as to consider ourselves ...