Hello everybody.

Back from a short dormancy in the “blogospher,” I’m ready to post. As I was trying to come up with something I felt like blogging about, I logged into Blogger. I saw the Dashboard and it said next to my blog, “29 posts.” Well, that makes special post this 30. Not too much, I guess. But still a marker. Anyway, 30 is a significant number in my mind. I thought that to, errr, celebrate I would do a little post on my thoughts on blogging in general.

Basically, let me start out that I do like to blogging it can be crudely misused as well as the number one way to report news. I like to always go with the better stuff, so I thought it would be good to show some examples of truly great blogs.

My number one favorite blog as of right now is that of Wil Shipley from Delicious Monster. Wil is a Cocoa programmer full time and is the CEO of Delicious Monster. Let’s take a look here.

First and foremost: the design. Wil not too long ago had a Blogger blog with one of the default and in my opinion extremely ugly templates. Pardon my prose, but if you do use a default template than you are, well, a n00b. Sorry to be frank, but it is true. When I see a blog with the default template, I usually get away quick. Two main reasons. One. If you don’t have your own template, or at least some attempt to vary it up, it shows that blogging isn’t that impotant to you. Seriously. The time spent to design a custom template is well spent. When I show up at a site thats changed things around a bit, even just the colors or maybe just the placement, it shows me that you care. It shows me that you’re dedicated. It shows me that “Hey this guy might actually be a professional, maybe I should listen up.” Second. A custom blog sticks out. Really. It does. For example, if you’ve come to my site, you will notice that it’s got the page with different colors, designs, and pictures. It’s not even reorganized. Simply a photoshop file that I sliced up and uploaded to my server. See how much of a difference it makes? You might not enjoy the template (I would love to have suggestions), but if you stumble upon it in the future, I gurantee you will at least (vaguely perhaps) remember it. Something I can’t say of the many blogs that come out of the Blogger station unaltered. So in summary. Design. Create. Alter. Whatever. Just make it different. Seriously. It will make me enjoy the page more, know that you are serious, and most of all remember who you are.

So, like I said above, Wil’s site is truly well designed, proving that he is professional, which he is. Secondly, I’ll remember it. Lets take a look at what else makes this blog special. Scroll down to the (as of now) 3rd entry entitled “Pimp My Code, Part 7: Pimplette?” This is a frenquent thing Wil does. People either send in code, or he seraches the Apple code and then performs a “pimping.” I find these posts to be interesting, fun and most of all informative. I have learned some very good programming styles and concerns from reading these code enhancement articles. Now even if you’re not interested in code, here is something to point out. One very good way to attract repeat visitors is content. Even better than that is content they like again and again. Come up with something you enjoy doing. Then blog about that once a week or so. Create a post frequently that details this love or idea or whatever. This is a great traffic booster, and makes the casual glancer an evangelical reader (like me).

So again, defintely check out Wil’s blog.

Next. Guy Kawasaki. Mac Evangilist. Skilled Writer, Comedian, Entertainer.

His blog: Let the Good Times Roll.

What can I say. Guy is clearly a skilled writer. He has published many books. I own one and have two from the library right now. He’s also a very funny guy. His books are always scattered with very funny humor. Best of all, this humor flows over into his insightful blog posts. Guy is a venture capitalist. Basically, he takes other people’s money. Then, he chooses companies that may or may not stay afloat and throws those people’s money at them. Basically, a no risk job. Gamble with other people’s money and always get something. Anyway, his blog is filled with advice on speeches, demos, presentations, pitching, etc. Its a really informative blog. Defintely a great resource for any business major. Hold on. What could make this blog even better? Guy updates frequently. When I say frequently, I mean it. Once a day almost. Seriously, a dedicated blogger. Give him a look.

Here are some of my other favorite blog posts and brief descriptions. Keep in mind that some might not have custom templates and the such, but they do make up for it in the quality and quantity of content.

• Google Blog - Your Google news delivered to you free of charge. Find out about new features first.
• Mike Matas - Former co-founder of Delicious Monster. Now at Apple. Very good informative blog. Too bad its seemed to tail off in updates. Still worth a look though.
• Kevin Rose - Founder of Digg. Worked on G4TechTv. I’ve enjoyed my chats with him. Very innovative guy.
• Listal Development Blog - I’m gonna’ have to give at least one plug. This site is a true jem. One of my favorites. Too bad it never gets the coverage it deserves. Rare updates, but if you like listal, definitely put this in your rss.
• Webkit Blog - More of Mac programmer only thing, but if you like macs and like to program, stay up to date with the blog that takes you behind the workings of Safari and all of WebKit.
• TUAW - The Unoffical Apple Weblog. A true resource. Lots of info. Lots of programs. Lots of great stuff.
• Linux Help - For the Linux guy, a great blog. Lots of extremely detailed post on all topics of Linux.

Of course there are more, but those are the few that I like the best.

Stay tuned for more, and thanks for reading.
-Dustin