Le Web 3: Mainstream bloggers sometimes need prompting

One in 10 posts on new blogging service Vox are the result of prompts from owner Six Apart.

Mena Trott, co-founder of the blogging software provider best known for Movable Type, told the Le Web 3 conference here in Paris that the new service's Question of the Day feature encouraged users to write blog posts when their creativity was running on empty.

Launched in October, Vox is a mass-market blogging platform with media and social networking features.

Trott acknowledged a recent Pew Internet study which found 76% of bloggers do so to document their personal life for friends and family.

She communicated Six Apart's seven points to bear in mind vis-a-vis personal blogging:

1. Design matters - people do not necessarily won't total control over templates, but they care a lot about look and feel.
   
   
2. "There's no such thing as web service monogamy - customers use services from a range of competing service providers.
   
   
3. "Prompts are good" - giving bloggers specific inspiration encourages them to write.
   
   
4. "It's not just a woman thing" - 57% of Vox's uers are women versus 43% male.
   
   
5. "Pictures over words" - people are actually more likely to post pictures, photos or art than they are words. For every post, an extra 5,000 photos.
   
   
6. "Privacy is paramount" - seven out of 10 people say privacy is the most important thing to them, but only 20% of posts end up being private.
   
   
7. "Personal blogging is good for all of us" - the next wave of bloggers is the mainstream group. To embrace them is to embrace blogging itself.

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