What do you look for in a blog?

These pictures are all old ones.  Sorry!  Anyway I was reading a post on another blog that talked about the things that make a great blog (you can read it here (http://www.shemovedtotexas.com/makings-of-a-great-blog/) and I thought I would share with you guys the top three things that I look for in a blog (and that makes me more likely to hit the follow button).  So here they are:

#1  Pictures!!!  As anyone who has read my blog for long knows, I rarely ever make a post without pictures (which is why I'm using old ones in this post).  One of the biggest draws for me to a blog is pictures.  I get bored very quickly with long  wordy posts (especially if there are no paragraph breaks) that don't have any pictures.  I also prefer that  the pictures were taken by the blogger (or the blogger's friend, trainer or significant other), rather than taken from somewhere on the internet.  I don't want to see pictures of random horses or things that don't even belong to the blogger.  I want to see the horse(s) that inspired the blog in the first place.  They don't even have to be good photos!  I'm an avid amateur photographer, but even  I sometimes post crappy quality photos because they are cute and tell a story.  :)  I also don't mind when photos are reused, especially if they are old ones from the beginning of the blog or are really good quality, so long as they are not the same ones used over and over and over again.

#2  Information.  This is another big one for me!  I love for a blog to have all of the information easily accessible.  In fact, often, if I can't find information quickly I will leave a blog without even reading a post.  I like to know the name, age, breed, gender and date aquired of the horse I'm reading about and it's so annoying to have to dig through hundreds of  posts (or have to ask) for that information.  Even if it's just a snippet in the sidebar with the basic info,  that's good for me.  Bonus if they have their own page!  Oh and if there are a lot of horses regularly mentioned on the blog I like to know the info on those horses too (especially whether or not they even belong to the blogger).  I know a lot of blogs that have been up for a long time and have had loyal readers the whole time that feel like everyone should already know all of this, but if you're new to the blog you can feel a little lost trying to figure out who is who and what is what.  :)  Especially if there are a lot of people and horses mentioned, without explaining who they are.

#3  A good layout.  This one isn't as important as the first too, but it does really help to make a blog appealing and easy to navigate.  I've been playing around with and designing websites since I was a little kid (although I am definitely NOT a professional and still have a lot to learn), so I like for a  blog to have a well planned, neat, pretty layout.  I know some people are new to website design, html, blog  layouts, etc. but a blog with all of the information and pictures in a long column at the very bottom of the page is a huge turn off for me.  Scrolling for an hour to find the information at the bottom just gets old after a while (I'm noticing a trend in my preferences that's making me feel lazy lol).  It's not hard to learn more about blog layouts with Google and Youtube.  Even the Blogger template designer is really easy to learn to use.

Having said all of that some of my favorite blogs have none of the things I listed!  So if your blog doesn't have these three things, don't worry, because I will probably still read it anyway.  As she stated in the blog post I linked above, it doesn't matter if the world (or little old me) doesn't like your blog, just blog because it makes you happy!

After looking at the things she listed I also realize there are things I could do to improve my blog.  The big one being reliable content!  I get into these long spells where I just don't know what to write about.  It makes me so sad when I look at my blog archive and realize I only posted three or four times a month over the summer because this blog is a way for me to remember things and how can I remember them if I don't post?  I need to get better about that!  If I can't think of something to write about or nothing has really been going on then I need to dig around a bit until I find something fun to post about.  I know I would probably have more readers and get more comments if I posted more often.  I will try to do better.

As for comedy.... I'm not sure if I have any comedy in my blog.  I have a very sarcastic sense of humor and sometimes I don't know if that comes across in my writing (which is why I tend to overuse LOL and hehe).  So maybe I can get some feedback on that one?  Am I funny guys?  No, not funny looking!  Okay I tried!

P.S.  Also another thing is grammar and spelling, although that's probably more like a pet peeve and it won't necessarily stop me from reading a blog.  Besides I'm not perfect (I overuse LOL and exclamation points and I am horrible about properly placing commas), so how can I hold that against anyone else?  Although I am a little OCD about spelling....  :D