Brad DeLong, Berkeley economics professor and very popular blogger, on what makes a blog successful:
1. First-mover advantage. Brad’s was one of the first economics blogs.
2. Regularity of posts. Brad said he writes several posts during one hour in the evening to be posted at intervals the next day. At least that is the ideal, he said.
3. Communicate effectively on things people want to learn about.
Tyler Cowen and Aaron Swartz on this topic.
I learned this last week when Aaron Swartz and I stopped by Brad’s office. I had put the odds of him being there at 50 to 1. Speaking of supposedly-low-probability events, yesterday at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market someone recognized me from the photo on my book. The previous day I had said that would never happen.