A successful blog is more than just design. But you knew that already, right? As someone who’s not only been blogging since 2001 but who’s also been designing/developing blogs for nearly just as long, it’s been fascinating to observe how unbalanced blogging strategies can be when it comes to being successful.

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When I started blogging, Thomas Nelson was a public company. Our stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange (Symbol: TNM). When I announced to the lawyers what I was going to do, they got very nervous. They were afraid I might say something that would get us in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission. When I told them that I also wanted to encourage our employees to blog, they about had a heart attack.

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A little over a year ago, we announced the Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers program. The purpose of the program was to provide free books to bloggers in exchange for a 200-word review of the book. We don’t require positive reviews. We want bloggers to be honest in their assessment of the books they read.

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Last fall, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued new guidelines that require bloggers to “disclose material connections” for product or service endorsements. In fact, according to The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), “People who blog, tweet or use Facebook to post opinions about consumer products could be fined $11,000 for repeat violations of new federal disclosure rules.”

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This last August I visited Atlanta to interview Andy Stanley about his new book. While I was on the North Point Community Church campus, I called John Saddington, who is on Andy’s staff, and invited him to a spur-of-the-moment lunch. To my delight he was available.

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I have decided to take my blog down. But just for the Christmas holidays. For the past few months, John Saddington at MilkEngine.com and I have been working on a new design. I am really excited about it!

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On Friday morning of last week, my friend Anne Jackson (aka, “@Flowerdust”) challenged me to a 48-hour Twitter fast. At first, I said, “no.” But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I thought it would give me some insight into Twitter and the role it plays in my life.

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In case you missed them, here are the posts that generated the most reader engagement last month as measured by PostRank.com:

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There’s nothing worse than writing something you think is important, posting it on your blog, and then waiting for comments … and waiting … and waiting. Conversely, there are few things more rewarding than having people comment on your post and engaging directly with your readers. More than any single factor, I think it is the one thing that has kept me blogging for all these years.

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