MANILA, Philippines – Are you a blogger or a “blah-ger?”

The problem with many blogs is that they tend to publish long, boring entries that have little relevance or points of interest to readers. For the longest time, bloggers felt that long, rambling entries were the way to go, earning bloggers a reputation for being self-centered and irrelevant.

Thanks to microblogging sites such as Twitter and Plurk, short, concise entries are now the norm. However, the decreased length of what you’ve written still doesn’t ensure that your microblog entries are interesting.

If you want to extend your blog’s reach and get more hits, try following these tips for blogging on the go and making your site more interesting.

Words are your weapons of mass seduction

One of the cardinal rules in microblogging is to KISS—keep it short and simple. Eliminate the words you don’t really need and cut out the unnecessary descriptions.

Learn how to play with words. Read more books and see how some of the best writers use a single phrase to describe something that would normally take others a paragraph to convey.

A picture says a thousand words

Another important thing to remember is that bloggers are not necessarily writers and don’t need to be. Use videos, audio clips and photos to liven up the content of your blog; use tools such as your mobile phone or mini-recorders to share multimedia content on your site. It saves you from writing endlessly as well.

Get an Internet-capable multimedia phone

You can’t blog on the go if you’re always tied to your desktop computer. Get yourself a device that allows you to snap photos and record audio/video; it helps if your mobile phone is Wi-Fi capable. You can also use a small netbook that you can stash in your bag and pull out in a second.

Share content

Ninety percent of Twitter’s content is allegedly recycled. If you don’t have time to come up with original content, then share funny photos or links with your readers instead of remaining completely silent. In Twitter, you can re-tweet links or upload small files through TwitPic. But remember to always keep your blog going.

Create a niche

If you’re doing micro or mobile blogging, it’s best to stick to a certain topic (or at least content related to that topic) instead of being a generalist. That way, it’s easier for you to sort through and source material, and for people to pass on content to you. If you’re into food, fashion or photography, write about what you know; don’t fool yourself into thinking that people want to read about everything you say about the world at large.

Email the author at biancaconsunji@yahoo.com