The Weblog medium is a personal medium. Nearly all bloggers — even professional bloggers and corporate bloggers — write with some kind of a personal voice. Of course, diary-style blogs are all personality; their purpose is not to deliver news or comment on it. But even newsy blogs are often written in the first person when delivering commentary (“Greenspan’s predictions might turn out to be justified, but I think it’s more likely that somebody spiked his drink.”).

Those that maintain a more objective formality (no “I”) still offer opinion. Blogs are rarely purely journalistic efforts. Even stiff blogs publish entries that read more like opinion columns than newspaper articles. So, in the wide range of editorial attitudes from intimate to professionally opinionated, you must decide what your voice will be. This isn’t a time for angst; your best bet is to write naturally. Your blog should showcase the real you. That could mean writing in sentence fragments, stream-of-consciousness
rhapsodies, polished prose, verse, chatspeak, or whatever writing style you’d use in an e-mail to your best friend.

Your blog’s voice, or blog’s style, can be anything you like. Rosie O’Donnell writes in a unique verse shorthand. If you’re launching a topical blog, your selection of voice is also an editorial decision. Will you balance your entries toward objective filtering of news or your personal commentary? Will you link to stories about which you can be critical?

Is unabashed enthusiasm your style? Do you want to project an acerbic persona or a gentler voice that readers trust to recommend items of interest around the Web? Serious or funny? Deep or superficial?
One editorial attitude that particularly characterizes blogs is called snark. Snark can be sarcasm, ill temper, scathing criticism, cynicism, or any combination of grouchy attributes.

Snarky writing is like a badge of honor for many bloggers, but more than that it represents a certain know-it-all informality of the genre. An unrelentingly snarky voice can be tiresome, but you should feel that snark is always available when you feel strongly about something — especially when you feel strongly critical. The entire idea of “finding a voice” might not appeal to some readers. It’s a bit nebulous. If defining a personal style isn’t important to you, it’s not important, period. Your blog might develop a distinct tone over time, or you might start out effortlessly being exactly yourself (not the easiest trick in writing) and stay that way. Nothing in this section is a requirement.