Was just talking to a friend who's started his blog less than a month ago.  He raised these issues, asking some questions :

• wish i could have my blog appraised for readability
• what's the optimization for number of words, pictures, links in a blog post

Did a quick search on 'rules for a blog post', 'ideal blog post', 'blog post optimization' on Google - came up with no answers whatsoever!  A few reads in this regard :

8 simple rules for dating my blog

Deconstructing the Blog

10 golden journal/blog rules

I have no answers really.   I know some bloggers are conscious of this and have just a portion of the post on the front page of their blogs with a link that says more.  I suspect the answers would differ by genre of blog, quality of words, pics and links, writing skills, reader reach and profiles.   Not sure whether the basic rule - 'less is more' - holds true for blogs. 

I think each of us makes up our own rules as we go along.  We explore, observe, connect, react, act.  Some do it more intuitively, others more analytically.  And somewhere, along the way, we begin to discover what 'works' for our own blog. 

My experience has been that its the content that really matters - whether its a long long post filled with links, or a more analytical post with the writer's own thoughts revealed, or a simple picture or quotation that connects at some level - any or all of these could engage readers in conversations or provoke them to share their own experiences.

Three questions i take with me to my cottage for the weekend :

• is there anything written anywhere about the optimal number of words, pix, links in a post ?
• what feedback mechanisms (comments, links to posts, technorati and other ratings, site trackers etc) can give us a better clue to this
• should we even be bothered about it at all - or continue blogging intuitively ?

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