"You are my blogging hero!" The wise words of my friend Susan. "I want to be a good blogger like you." Since she is also my financial advisor and hasn't steered me wrong so far, I will hereby become her blogging advisor, and dispense some blogging advice for her and anyone else who cares to listen. Here then are some of my
Do's and Do Not Do's of Blogging:

Do interest me. Tell me something new, something amazing. Talk about the things you love. Be stimulating and engaging, make me laugh. If you can do that, even inconsistently, I'll keep coming back to read your blog.
Do Not rant. Half the blogs out there are called "The Rantings of an Insane 14 Year Old Psychopathic Crazy Nut" or some such. But all ranters do is spew negative vibes out into the blogosphere. It's the textual equivalent of a farting in a crowded room- sure, you feel release, but everyone else is disgusted.
Do Not ramble. The other half of blogs are called "The Ramblings of a Boring 41 Year Old Monotonous Insomnia-Curer", and all they do is ramble on and on about who-knows-what. Even if I could figure out what they're talking about, I still won't care. If you have nothing to say, don't say anything.
Do try and be concise. This helps cut down on the rambling, and makes your blog easy to read. My friend Blarg doesn't believe in scrolling, so if he has to scroll to read your blog, you've lost him. Lots of people are like that, though perhaps not as extreme. (Blarg also doesn't believe in updating his website, either). If you're an interesting writer, though, you can get away with longer posts from time to time.
Do try and interact with your readers. They won't necessarily all interact back, but it makes it more fun for everyone when they do. The ABCs of Abominations didn't quite make it to Z, but it was still fun.
Do Not sweat it when no one responds. It can be a little disheartening to write a Homie Bear poem that I think is the funniest poem ever and then only my wife comments. But oh well, right? Not everyone is going to like what you write, and that's okay, as long as you like what you write.
Do try and learn a few basic html or CSS tricks. When I started blogging I didn't know a single word of < html >. But just from tinkering around I eventually was able to make this nice clean template, and gabrielle's layout is my latest experiment. Try to do something to change your stock blogger template to something slightly unique. Or, get someone to help you. It'll help you to stand out from the other 150 million bloggers. And make sure it's readable! Nothing is worse on my 31-year-old eyes than white text on a black background. Please don't add java doolies and auto-play mp3s and all the other doodads that are just tacky and slow down the page loading time.

There's lots more I could tell you, and feel free to ask (any of you out there), but ultimately the most important thing is your content. Try to update semi-regularly- don't go two weeks without posting, unless you're traveling or Blarg. Keep at it, and your writing will improve- you may even grow beyond making a billion silly poo puns to rediscovering a whole side of your creative self you forgot was there. That's what happened to me, anyway. Have fun!