• Quote indirectly and link
  If you feel the need to quote other bloggers, don’t take the easy route and copypaste a blockquote unless there is something very specific about the original wording that you want to preserve. Rather, rephrase the quote indirectly and link it to the source.

If you quote somebody, quote them directly. And link to them, of course. By quoting directly you give the reader to se your point respond to theirs side by side. It's harder to respond to an actual argument rather than to a paraphrase, because you still have to interpret what they said, but you will now be held accountable for both your interpretation and your response. Quote directly and respond precisely.

Finally, I agree with Stephen - He said it well! 

• Format long documents for print
  If you have an essay with long paragraphs and an argument that needs careful development, rather make a PDF and provide a short summary of it on your blog with a link to the document.

If you have to format your long documents for print then your web page design is broken. PDF doesn't do anything you can't do in HTML, except it needs a special reader and and bloats the files like crazy. Design your pages for readability and forget the special PDF and print formats - those are for people who can't design.

Hmm, I disagree, as I said earlier - if you have 15 pages of block texts then it MUST be printable for me.  That's just how I read.

• Never delete anything
  In blogger culture deleting something after people have read it or commented is a cardinal sin. Don’t do it, rather post a correction on the original entry.

Delete spam, trolls, vile insults from right-wing attack dogs, and other garbage. Correct your spelling mistakes, fix your broken links, repair lost or gibbled images. Change your content, too, but be honest with your readers - if you update something significant, leave a note. Did you say something really stupid? You can delete it if you want to - if people want the original, there's Google Cache. Remember, it's your website - keep your website clean and accurate and don't let the commenters tell you what you can't do.

I agree with Stephen here on most of it.  The only thing I don't like about his comment is the addition of the words "right-wing".  I have seen attack dogs on all wings. I would have left that out.

• Troll the blogosphere for secondary conversation
  If your blog entry is successful then other bloggers will blog about it. Use tools like Google Blog Search and Technorati to track what other bloggers are saying about your blog entry and update your blog with links to those conversations if they add to yours.

If you think of what other people write on their own sites as secondary then you have some serious rethinking to do. These other writers have taken the time to read what you've written and to expound in some length (usually much more than you can do in a comment). If you have a pimary audience, this is it. If you are engaged in a conversation, this is the conversation. Yes, use these tools to find ut what people are saying, not because you're tracking but because you genuinely want to listen to what others say about your comments.

Is it possible to agree with both of them?  Well, It's my blog so YES.  I can agree with both. :) 

• Be active in your own conversations
  Don’t sit and watch the comments streaming in and do nothing, get in there! Unlike traditional journalists, the blogger’s role is to steer and be part of the conversations they start.

The blogger's role is to blog. If it feels to you that this includes responding to comments, do that. If you'd rather make sure your responses are highlighted and indexed, respond in a new blog post. But don't let anyone convince you that you have to be some kind o chatterbug to be a good blogger. Respond if you have something to say and be a good listener otherwise.

I agree with both of them here.  Sometimes a comment will spark an entirely new conversation.  If you have 92 comments on a post and never a reply from yourself - you may give the impression that you don't care about the opinion or time of the commenter but you should reply for the sake of replying. 

• Create buzz everywhere
  Make sure there are lots of inbound links to your post. Find other blogs that are discussing the same issue, or your blog entry, and post comments with links to updated content or highlighting some of the perspectives put forward by your commenters.

People who do this sort of thing are called link spammers. Yes, in every community there's a group of people who do this, who link to each other endlessly, as though it builds some sort of blog juice. People like that demonstrate only that they don't know how the rankings work. Link as appropriate and be selective. The purpose of linking isn't to make your site popular, the purpose of linking is to refer people to other sites. If you don't understand this, you don't understand the web.

I say it depends on the purpose of your blog - if you are blogging for dollars - which is a totally reputable career then follow Vincent's Idea.  If you are blogging just for the heck of getting the words out of your head then follow Stephen's advice - I don't think either is wrong just totally different motivations.  

You see - it's like two points of view at work here. Overall, what we have is Vincent Maher who, despite writing in a new medium, still can't let go of those old media roots. To them, it's still all about accumulating as many readers as possible, about keeping them on your site, about pandering to your audience - about everything, in other words, except saying something meaningful and being honest to yourself.

I've seen a lot of former (and not so former) journalists go this route, in my own field as well as others. It's disturbing, because they (and sometimes others) think they gain some sort of credibility through popularity, as though if they grab a large enough mass of readers they will, by this fact, be important.

It's a chimera, of course. The keys to blogging (if not being Prom Queen) are honesty, integrity and meaningfulness. You will gain much more if you just write what you need or want to write and let the audience fall where it may. Even if you have only three readers, if you are able to connect with and really engage with them, then no number of hangers-on will replace them after the switch from substance to dross.

Again, I would have to say it depends on your motivation.  There are blogs with many different motivations and then there are personal journals.  Consider your purpose, write what you are passionate about, make it visually appealing, use an appropriate and interesting headline, refer to your sources and Viola!  You have a blog that you can feel good about!