10 Questions with Corey of Diligent Design

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
Diligent Design is not a blog about making money online or about beating out Digg and search engines. Diligent Design is a blog for newbies, professionals, and internet enthusiasts who started blogging for a reason: to have fun. While there are definitely professional “on-topic” posts at the blog, I also try to include posts that really bring back the human element to blogging, such as “why bloggers are like rugs” or “how to kick a habit by blogging.” It’s all about the fun and the community.

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
Who Are You? or Designing Your Portfolio
I think this post shows a lot about my character just because it’s about making mistakes and getting frustrated with designer’s block and trying to overcome that. I feel like I constantly have these random attacks of “Murphy’s Law” (what can go wrong will go wrong!) and so this is just another example of my pushing through.

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
Aside from being super young (16) I also manage to find connections that other bloggers just don’t think about, and I try to write with the idea of really affecting someone in my readership. In essence, I “blog to move someone.” My favorite (and one of the blog’s most popular) post which got annihilated in the server crash was “Why Bloggers Are Like Pregnant Women.” It was fun to write and it really got people thinking.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
The word was being thrown around on television a lot about celebrity blogs and myspace blogs and so I setup a LiveJournal account and started talking about my 8th grade life. It really was quite fascinating, especially when me and my friends had a war over AIM. The community ate that up. After realizing that people actually enjoy the way I write, I figured, why not try self-hosting?

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
Everybody is into “niche blogging” and “making money online” and my personal favorite, “digg worthy posts.” I’m getting pretty sick of lists that don’t really innovate! Of posts that are nothing but ad fodder. What happened to blogging for fun and connection and the profit was just kind of on the side?

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
Feedburner, definitely. RSS and XML and other associated acronyms confuse the heck out of me, and it’s nice to just copy and paste and let people connect with Diligent Design.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog, who would it be and why?
Douglas Adams (author of HitchHiker’s Guide to the Universe) because I absolutely love his writing style and how he subtly critiques the world around us. I’d really love to see what he thinks about blogging or what connections he might make.

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
It’s definitely taught me to be patient. I remember I would start internet projects and think that they would go off in a weekend. (I was like 12, but still) I learned that things take time, even something as simple as trying to put up a favicon.

Another thing I learned, which goes hand in hand with patience, is how to talk to and deal with people. Asking for interviews can be kind of scary, but at the same time, in real life I’ve got to meet new people and I’ve got to deal with people who will criticize me and handle it smoothly, because of the groups I belong to and the commitments I’ve made, as an honor student and a band officer and just a good kid.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
When people review your blog, consider their opinions! I know way too many defensive webmasters.

Also, take the time to use Google, because aside from slowly taking over the world, they actually do give you search results. Lookup CSS references and grammar references and wikipedia and whatever else interests you. You wouldn’t believe how annoying it is to have a PM box full of requests to fix little problems with CSS on a free template.

Finally, remember that it doesn’t matter if you’re an expert or if you’re 13 or 53, it’s about how you write, and what you bring to the table. If you’ve got super awesome writing skills, use them. For example, I can define antidisestablishmentarianism. I don’t need to, but I can do it.

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
Atomic Robo definitely. It used to be a story blog, I think? Now it’s a comic. All I know is I woke up one day and checked it at random and there was a hilarious post about frogs, and I just kept coming back for more. I don’t actually read the comic, but the post themselves are really entertaining. I think it’s just one of those blogs where the writing style hooks you, even if you aren’t part of the group.

Categories: Art & Music, Blogging, Ten Questions