To me, the most important element of a blog is the same as it is in fiction: voice.

As for post length, I like it varied. I must admit that the really thoughtful blogs full of long, thoughtful posts are often ones I skim. (I feel bad about it though!)

See, that’s what I do half the time also Gwenda - I read the shorter ones and sometimes skip longer entries. It’s almost like my brain is wired for “internet = short”, which is something I need to change. One of the things driving me crazy about blogger is that if my writing space was wider, my entries would not appear so long to the reader. I’m especially running into length concerns with the genre recommendation lists I’m doing right now. I don’t think the entries are long, but they look long because of the template. But honestly - I can’t deal with fixing it right now, so I’m just trying to be aware of it when I write.

Very good point made about the length of a posting.  I normally make my rounds through Bloglines, and that, depending upon the setting (from headlines only to excerpts to full posting) decides whether I even visit the site or read it all right there.  If a posting is very long, I also find myself skipping through it unless it’s of particular interest or particularly well written.  Probably rude of me, but I guess as the weblog world grows, we have less time to spend in each port.  One thing I tried but fell out of habit in doing is continuing a long post via a click.  That way, new visitors aren’t overwhelmed with the appearance of a biggie and can get a quick glance at the diversity of a weblog, usually reading through several posts to get the flavor instead of getting turned off if the first one up for the day is an epistle.

I’m an advocate of long posts. I don’t read them all as I skim through, but I don’t read all of everything in the mainstream media either. If something is interesting, people will read it - of course you never know This whole blog thing is about being able to find your specific interests.

A very interesting conversation. We as bloggers in a particular group can aid each other by referencing other sites, sharing links and posts when suitable for your site.
I also try to add something new to see what the comment will be and to generally spice it up a bit. My main interest is Thriller/Mystery but if I read something about chicklit or SF I will post it.
Really just anything I find of interest, some work others hmm not so much.

Links people links. Steve

Steve’s right. While we selfish types might chafe at “giving our traffic away,” the truth is that linking often and linking well is the smart way to blog. Readers will return again and again to a blog that can be counted on to point out interesting news and views throughout the blogosphere. And linking to other blogs will often ice that cake by provoking reciprocal links. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain by linking, whether in our posts or sidebars.