I’ve searched near and far to look for blogs worth reading. From the hundreds and thousands of blogs that I’ve seen it seems that there are only a handful of people that are truly passionate about their blogs. I’ve done some research and made a simple sort of guide for you guys to follow if you want to spice up your blogs a bit.

1. Do you enjoy writing?
Everyone knows blogs are written. Many people write down stuff on their blogs but do they actually enjoy it? Do you like writing stuff down as a hobby and not because everyone else is doing it?

2. What is your message?
Okay, so you like to write. But what are you trying to tell people? Are you writing something to get your beliefs accross? Are you writing something to get your point out in the public?

3. Are you a good communicator?
Writing is not the only thing thats important. Are you letting your commentators get involved? Are you replying to their comments? Do you respond well when someone critisizes your work?

4. Are you better at writing or speaking?
So writing may not be the thing for you. If you would prefer to voice out your thoughts then podcasting or videocasting is the way to go. With a little bit of skill for using a camcorder or voice recorder you can make yourself heard in realtime. You can upload your video/sound files to DreamStudio for that matter and just post a link here in your blog.

5. Do you want to be the central voice in your website/community?
Do you think that more interaction would be more suited to you? Having a blog is more on one-way interaction. Your readers can post comments but the focus is still on your topic. If you want a more liberal type of posting then try considering posting in the forums aside from your blogs.

6. Are you a self-starter?
It takes a lot of initiative to start a blog. But do also consider that you need to plan what you want to post in a blog.

7. Are you disciplined?
Having a blog means you have to make some time to post something. Similarly you need to schedule when and what to post. While daily posting can be considered a good target for your posting, try to post as much as you can. Will you be able to post something new everyday?

8. Do you have time?
Do you really have time to look over your blog? Posting updates is one thing but moderating comments, adding links and new categories is another. Do you also make time to visit other blogs and post comments and trackbacks?

9. Are you thick-skinned?
Similar to being a good communicator, can you handle comments whether they’re good or bad?

10. Are you willing to be in the public spotlight?
Remember that blogging is public (unless you make some posts private) and that everyone can see you. You are exposed to the world and are you prepared for it? Are you careful enough not to contradict yourself? Is your integrity in tact when you blog? These are just a few things to be careful about when you blog about yourself, your livestyle and the people/things around you.

11. Do you have any technical ability?
This was really never a requirement to get a blog up and running but if you have the technical skills to know what makes a blog tick then its an advantage. There are times you might want to do some advanced stuff on your blog like adding Cluster Maps, counters and etc. If you don’t know how to do any of these then its time to befriend someone who knows how to.

12. Do you take yourself too seriously?
One of the more negative characteristics of bloggers is not having a sense of humor. Remember that smiling and posting something on the lighter side of life will do wonders for your blog and for yourself.

13. Do you have a blend of humility and Ego?
Having a sense of humor is the first step, but humility is another thing. If you can balance your humility and “Ego-ness” and add a dash of humor into it, blogging will be a whole new experience for you.

14. Are you willing to learn?
Blogging may be an act where you are trying to educate someone through your words but did you know that it could also let you learn things you have never thought of before? Take of this guide as an example, if it wasn’t for blogging about it, I wouldn’t have researched the other numerous blogs and sites that gave me helpful information that in turn would also help you, the reader.

15. Do you enjoy reading?
Aside from being a good writer is becoming a good reader. You’ll find out that you read more than you write and that reading has inspired you to write.

16. Are you an organized person?
Most of us fail in this category no matter how much we are organized, something is bound to screw up. There is no definite way on how to blog. Just blog what you think is best for you and just make sure you follow up on that schedule.

17. Are you a social person?
At one point, the comments and emails will come in. How you handle them is up to you but keep in mind that these readers are sending you emails and posting comments because your post is interesing. Whether it be a positive or negative post, they’re sending you a message because its interesting. So, please do give some time by replying to them back. A simple thank you would suffice.

18. Do you enjoy “virtual relationships”?
Now that your blog is getting the attention and you have a steady base of people who read and interact on it, how well do you respond to them? Have they become your friends? Have you considered meeting in real life to discuss about it? Remember that a blog is in the virtual world and are you sure you are doing the right thing making this virtual world part of your life?

19. Are you a creative person?
This isn’t necessarily a must but its an advantage if you are. What sort of gimmicks, twists or surprises that you come up to keep your readers coming back?

20. Do you have “Stick-ability”?
A blog isn’t something that happens overnight. You have to work on it in order to attract readers to keep on going. Giving up half way isn’t the answer.

21. Are you consistent?
One of the problems of many blogs is they try to change their style and usually the readers are at a loss or confused. Though its not a rule to change styles of writing, doing this while the topics are hot will make your readers confused and maybe annoyed at the fact that you suddenly wanted a sudden change. Keep in mind that if you want to change something, do it gradually and make your readers know why and what you are doing.

22. Are you honest and transparent?
I have no right nor the business to tell you to be straight-forward in your blogs but do consider the consequences. Even if you setup up fences around you, people will soon find out certain “secrets”. Its up to you whether to disclose everything or not. Its probably better to be two-faced than to hide soemthing when you blog.

23. Are you willing to work hard?
Finally, you are gunning for success in your blogs. You want to be heard, you want to be popular, but are you willing to work hard? As I’ve mentioned, blogs aren’t an overnight success story. They need nurturing, attention and hard work. Now that this guide has been laid out, can you answer them all for yourself?

Note: Most of this material was referenced from Problogger.net.

Hi guys. We’re “happy” to announce that we’re formally launching the Happy Blog. What’s it about you ask? Well its for everything happy!

We encourage everyone to post their happy moments by contacting our happy blog poster. Please visit the happy blog to view the details.

Blogging tools are software that allows you to post into your blog without the need for logging in to them. These tools are specially useful when you manage multiple blogs like me (I have like more than 10 blogs) and don’t have the time to login on all of them at the same time.

Below are some tools that I recommend to use:

1. Flock (for Windows/Linux/Mac) - The social browser. Flock is actually Mozilla Firefox under the hood, but its major differences is incorporating it with easy access tools such as logging in and managing Photobucket and Flickr. Its other major feature is the ability to access blog accounts online that enables the user to post without having to login to the actual account. Download Flock here. Want details on how to blog with Flock? Click on this link.

2. Windows Live Writer (for Windows only) - Microsoft’s own entry and attempt to grab a share of the blogging market. It automatically integrates itself into Internet Explorer which is a nice feature. Originally intended for Windows Live Space users, they decided to make this available for many (if not all) blog accounts. Its a really good and full-featured blogging tool that I use but you have to install Microsoft’s proprietary “dotnet framework” files for it to work. You can download Windows Live Writer here and the necessary dotnet framework files here. You have to install the dotnet framework files first before you install Live Writer.

3. Qumana (for Windows/Mac) - A free blog editor thats based on simplicity and ease of use. It’s got the same full-featured functionality that Windows Live Writer has but its light on the system (I noticed that Windows Live Writer was hogging a bit of resources on the PC). Qumana is JAVA-based though and you may need to download the latest JAVA files for it to run. You can download Qumana here and if it requires you to download JAVA files for it to run, you can get the JAVA runtime environment here.

4. Scribefire plugin for Firefox (for Windows/Linux/Mac) - For those of you who don’t want to install anything, consider using Scribefire, a simple plugin that allows you to post to your blogs within Firefox. Its got the basic features but only has limited support to some blogs. You can download Scribefire here.

I don’t have recommendations but try each and every tool out to see what suits you best.

For detailed use of each tool, please refer to the howto’s located at the side navigation of my blog. Thanks!

Hello to all you Sanriotown Folks! As you’ve experienced, the blogs were down for a few days. What happened? Well, we had to change the default URL links and get rid of the S1, S2 and S3 things that made them confusing.

We’ve also updated the blog software but we’ve recieved complaints that the WYSIWYG Editor (Visual Editor) isn’t working. We’re currently working to fix this as soon as possible. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Everything else seems normal. For questions and inquiries please post at the forums at the blog section and I will personally try to get back to you. Thanks!

technorati tags:blogs, maintenance, sanrio blogs, sanriotown, update

Hi guys! We’ll be performing maintenance on the blogs this coming May 7 to May 9. We’re going to update some issues and fix some bugs. We apologize for the length of the disruption of service but please understand that we are doing this to serve you better. Mark your calendars so that you won’t be left out.