How to successfully maintain a blog.

At first I was going to call this "How to maintain a successful blog", but who am I to say that my blog is actually successful? Anyway, I noticed that there are people out there who like the idea of blogging, but refrain from doing so for certain reasons. Also, there are others who started a blog and, well, abandoned it in its wee beginning. So, based on my amateur experience of 3 months worth of blogging, I've compiled a list of useful tips which I think should all be necessary for being a good blogger.

• Be devoted. Before you start blogging, make sure you really want to keep doing this in the long run, because a lot of blogs tend to have "Epic Phail" written all over them after a couple of entries followed by abandonment. It really doesn't take much of your time, 15-30 minutes a day should be plenty of time. You don't even have to blog every single day, but avoid long intervals.
• Know your blog. A lot of people are afraid to start blogging or abandon their blog early because they don't know what to write about. This can go one of two ways, in my opinion - either dedicate your blog to something specific, like for example video games or football, or have very general blog, like mine. Having a specific blog is easy, especially if you're really into the subject. I'll give tips about general blogs in the following points.
• Be easily inspired and expand simple ideas. Knowing what to write about shouldn't be a daily nerve-racking experience as you stare in front of the computer screen. Let random thoughts that come to your mind during the day be your source of inspiration. It can be about virtually anything. Usually however, literally writing down a random thought wouldn't take up more than a sentence or two. So take that thought, analyse it, build up on it and form an expanded topic from it.
• Don't just write about your daily experiences everyday. Come on, your personal life isn't that interesting, we all know that. It isn't any different from any life of your peers, so no one wants to read predictable and redundant stuff. Especially when every single day is the same. If, however, you battled a T-Rex using a light sabre handcrafted by Chuck Norris while he was arm-wrestling Bigfoot, then yeah, you might want to choose that day to write about what you did in the past 24 hours.
• Don't use the same old formula for your posts. Let me use my own blog as an example. Entries I write include random discussable thoughts, reviews on music albums, movies and books, and personal experiences. This also applies for specific blogs. Don't just write about your favourite team's game results. Write about the team history one day, statistics about a player another day, find a random interview the next, and so on. In both types of blogs (specific and general), throw in a different entry format for every day.
• Exploit the use of multimedia. This is the Internet. Use that to your advantage and include video clips, pictures, and audio clips in blog entries. Spice it up a bit, no one wants to just see entry after entry of non-stop text.
• Acknowledge the reader. The reason you're blogging in the first place is so that others can read what you have to say. Without them, you're wasting your time. Sure you're getting your thoughts out but it's much more effective when you know others are actually paying attention to what you're saying. Write about topics which can be discussed, criticised, used for reference, etc. If the reader suggests subjects to talk about, take them into consideration for your next entry. Reply to comments with your own comments.
• Promote your blog. Do a bit of advertising, get the word out. Don't spam the hell out of everyone, just post a link on your Facebook/Myspace/Hi5 profile, inform your readers of updates, and ask your friends to tell others about it. With a bit of time, your fan base will grow. Also, get in touch with other bloggers, they'll surely help you out.

Well that's it from me, I think I just about covered everything you need to know when it comes to starting your own blog. For those about to blog, I salute you. Good luck, and adios.