Lessons in Blogging: Blogging Integrity; and Why Niche-Blogging Must be Encouraged

A few months ago, I sent a blog entry to a friend whom I had quoted in the entry. In that quoted piece, I had used a picture of her, which was a few years old, and some of what I had written probably no longer applied in 2010.

I had written the post in 2006, and was referring to it in 2010. On the picture, she wondered whether I could not change it.

I said no.

This is what I wrote:

I don't know how exactly to call it, but blogging has an implicit "integrity:" abt it--which is to say that it is rare to go back and change a post (dating, in this case to 2006!) and picture...significantly minimises the "blogging integrity" of it. Even if there are typos, keeping it as is makes it "authentic".

I have checked online to see whether I could find any similar definitions, but none was forthcoming. So please take it as my coining of a new term!;-)

Practising "blogging integrity" is, in essence, retaining a blog-post(with mistakes and all) [even] for posterity.

If you're familiar with history, it's like keeping a primary source, thus increasing its authenticity. Any tinkering makes it a secondary source. In other words, it no longer retains the authenticity it held when you wrote it. There was a mood that set the tone for your writing of that post, including what informed you to use a particular post.

Any change of that post you wrote a few years ago(no matter how politically-incorrect, replete with typos, or narrow-minded it was) years down the line is in essence a breach of blogging integrity.

Keep on with your niche-blogging!

Niche-blogging is pretty self-explanatory: it is blogging about a particular industry -- a kind of esoteric blogging if you will.

The only bug-bear I have with this kind of blogging is that it is mostly profit-oriented. I personally think it does not have to be!

I am your quintessential niche-blogger blogging for free!

I maintain a photo-blog (Accra Pictures by Day and Night) on http://accradailyphoto.com, and also own Critiquing Regional Integration, which can be accessed on http://critiquing-regionalism.org.

Comparing this blog with those other two is like comparing chalk, cheese, and polar bears: they're all mostly white, but very different in style!;-))

The reason why I am even writing about it at all is because the other day, I wrote a post entitled "
Understanding the Relationship between the AU, Africa's RECs and the African Economic Community(AEC)".

By the time I had come to work the next day, I had had visitors from Belgium; the UK; other parts of Europe having accessed that blog. Here's just a snapshot of some of the countries that have been visiting my regional integration blog:

Within hours, I found my blog entry here: http://www.acp-eu-trade.org/. This is no other than a very reputable and respected website on ACP-EU affairs!

Just when I thought no-one was noticing, someone, somewhere picked up my "niche-blogging" post and spread it far and wide!

Goes to show that in blogging, don't ever think no-one is watching, or reading. If you are sufficiently passionate about a topic, just go ahead and write, write, and write some more.

Get some good trackers, like FEEDIT live, whilst you are at it!