You aspiring bloggers out there (and I've read many of you), need to know that your readers are not interested in getting just the news from you. If that was the case, then they'd just go into their favorite bookmarks, click up the news services and blogging would soon become a fallow field. No, the public doesn't want your news. They want a trip into the more interesting regions of your thinking. They want a slice of your world view. The people who surf the blogs by the millions want to know what you think. They want you to shape their opinions. They want you to give them the basis for their beliefs. Yes, that means often times you must expose yourself to the grief and abuse that will be dealt to you by those who disagree with you, but honestly writers, if you're just in it to make a few bucks by shuffling the alphabet around then you'd be much better off writing copy for grocery coupons or something else less dangerous.

So the next time you're tempted to fatten your blog by clipping and pasting a news story that can be had at a hundred other more professional sources, think for a moment and decide if that's really what you want and mean to do. By taking the day's top stories and coloring them with what you personally are thinking about them, you will create a following of like-minded people who will come to regard and respect you. Eventually, you will become used to the abuse that accompanies the expression of strong opinions, and you may even make a name for yourself. At the very least you should become recognized as not just another news source and that can make the proposition a whole lot more fun.