What Makes a Great Blog?

PokerStars is announcing ANOTHER contest within a contest. For all registrants of PokerStars Blogger Championship, we are giving out a cool PokerStars Fleece for the following contest:In your own words (any length you think is appropriate), tell PokerStars what makes a good blog. If you have a poker blog or one that has this as a major topic, please add relevance to poker in your topic.

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What makes a good poker blog?  Certainly, there are many things.  Is it great writing?  Truly, there are some very talented writers out there with a flair for creating prose that brings you right into their thought processes.  Is it great content?  Again, there are some talented poker players out there whose results are envied across the blogosphere.  Granted, there are even some who represent a combination of both great writing and great content.  But still, there exists one required ingredient, which for me truly differentiates a blog from being merely a good one to one that is a great one.

A willingness to put your true thoughts and feelings online for the world to see.

When you read someone’s poker blog, often times you can really get a sense for who that person is in real life.  Prior to our first big get-together in Vegas back in December of 2004, few bloggers had ever met each other face-to-face.  When we finally all came together to meet, every one felt as though we had met before.  In effect, we had.

The great bloggers leave a piece of themselves in their writing.  That piece is there to be given to the readers to do with as they please.  When a blogger is honest and forthcoming in their writing, the readers pick up on it and latch to it in earnest.  It’s how friends are made.  Certainly, there is no requirement to do so when you create and maintain a blog.  But for those that do, for those that take that small risk and put a piece of themselves out in the wild for the world to consume, they are the bloggers that earn themselves the respect, the camaraderie and the friendship of so many others.

A great blog can only be created by a great blogger.

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Off to Vegas tomorrow, I’ll be in touch.