Beginning our look at the various Blog Entry Archetypes, we will start with the most prevalent type of post in existence, the Personal Entry.

Summary

The Personal Entry provides the user with a quick, convenient mechanism for communicating ideas and experiences close to their lives. Everything from the latest gossip, lunch menus, and personal rants can be found in these types of entries.

Format

Although usually short in length, there is no guiding rule that dictates how long the entry is. Formatting wise, personal entries are predominantly unstructured.

Effort

The generally reactive, free-flowing nature of the Personal Entry lends to a fairly effortless creation process. This is definitely not any indication of the specific time required for authoring, as longer posts will naturally require more time.

Editorially, these posts are not necessarily subject to extensive editing and research. It should not be assumed, however, that these posts are frivilous or unimportant. For many, the personal entries serve as the primary or only form of “upkeep” for a relationship. In other cases, Personal Entries provide context for understanding other statements and assertions made by the author.

Lastly, there is an intangible, yet definite, contract made between the author and the reader. The Personal Entry provides information that also explains or justifies the need for the author to test or, potentially, breach that committment (vacation reminders, workload announcements, child births, etc.).

Deployment

The Personal Entry is, by far, the most popular type of post present in the blogosphere. A recent survey indicates that as many as 50% of blog entries utilize this archetype. Interestingly enough, regardless of the blog focus, personal entries will be find their ways into the flow of the site.

Examples

I wish I had a better palette to choose from, but since I tend to NOT read mainly blogs which are focused on the personal entry, I’ve chosen a selection from the ones I visit regularly.

The following posts show several examples of the Personal Entry: