The Insanity of NaBloPoMo

With the introduction of the NaBloPoMo Randomizer, you can now just click to view different blogs who are participating in National Blog Posting Month.  Needless to say, I have spent a bit of time surfing through many of the blogger's sites and doing a bit of reading and it got me to thinking about what I look for in a blog.  I have several blogs that I read on a daily basis and some I just check periodically (mainly because the blogger may not update often) and have found one or two more thus far in my random surfing that I have added to my Favorites list.  So, what do I look for in a blog?

1) Pictures.  I don't need pictures everyday, but I'm nosy and I like seeing pictures of people and their homes and anything that they photograph.  It also helps break up the monotony of longer posts.  Mainly though, I just like looking at how other people live and where they live and what they do.

2)  A common thread.  Generally (but not always.  See rule #3) I like to see something I have in common with a blogger.  For me that could be kids, animals, knitting, reading, Christianity etc. This rule is obviously very subjective to the reader and the reader's interests.

3) Humor.  I could have absolutely nothing in common with you but if you amuse me or I find you funny, I'm sold.  A blogger does not have to be out and out hysterical, but just has to appeal to my particular brand of humor.  There is no right or wrong with humor, but if your sense of it matches mine, you have a reader for life.

4) Easy to read.  If the font is too small, or is difficult to read on the background, I'm out of there.  Blog reading is for fun and as soon as it becomes work, I'm no longer interested.   

 5) Grammar, grammar, grammar and spelling too.  I will be the first one to admit to missing typos on my blog at times, or forgetting to run a word through Spellcheck,  but typos and grammar/spelling issues are two different things.  If I go to a blog and find every other word misspelled, I am probably not going to hang around.  Spellchecker is your friend; use it.

6)  Music sends me screaming into the sunset.  I hate music that automatically plays on blogs.  It drives me batty and mostly because I am often listening to music on the computer when I'm surfing.  There is nothing I hate more than some other tune coming on over what I'm playing.  Some people probably love musical blogs.  I'm just not one of them.

7) An overuse of profanity.  I will, at times, use a "damn" or "hell" but when bloggers use profanity incessantly, it bothers me.  Not because I am Miss Clean Mouth all the time, but just because if there is no need for it to make a point and the writer is just using it to use it, for me, it is a turn off.  I'm the same way with movies.  Profanity doesn't offend me, unless it is used just for the hell of using it.

I think that is all for my own personal blog rules and everyone's rules are different.

What do you look for in a blog?  What turns you off?  What makes you return again and again?