Tino Buntic’s What Do Bloggers Look Like is an interesting post.

Although we blog in isolation, we’re part of a larger blogging community.

Even if you choose to be a ‘deviant’ or ‘social outcast’, you have a ‘social outcast’ cliche too.

Which is why the montage is interesting. It bring together different bloggers from different segments together.

You get to see a whole cast of different people, all churning out their thoughts on a frequency ranging from daily to weekly, to be archived by the search engines, as our entries get indexed.

A sort of virtual immortality if you will.

But what’s more interesting is the fact bloggers develop followings.

You might have readers who come back as often as five or ten times a day.

Face it, you could be more influential than MTV or CNN combined.

I see a widening gulf: between those who ‘get’ blogging, and are able to churn out content effectively, and those who’re doing their best, but not getting results.

Here’re some information strategies I’ve seen.

• At the Speed of Light:

If you’re merely pointing to an announcement, or a news source, your value-add lies in your… speed?

How fast you get your news out? News is only as good as how new it is.

Many news agencies and oldline media compete on how fast they get their news out.

Were they the first to clue you in?

Then they’ve succeded.

But speed is a dicey issue.

• Content Aggregation:

Beyond doing piecemeal reporting of information, aggregating related content helps bring various threads together, especially if there’s a link between them.

As your readers see how something develops, it gives them a sense of continuity and relatedness, as the pieces of the puzzle fit together.

Aggregation will increasingly be an important trend, just like it’s been for the news networks, especially as readers become more demanding and move towards a preference for ‘news packages’, rather than individual ‘news items’.

It takes a sense of intution to patch seemingly disparate items together.

A lot of times though, there can be a significant ‘domino effect’ between different events.

Being able to link it together helps enhance understanding and meaning for your readers.

• Analysis, Opinion, Editorial:

Beyond a factual account of what happened, going below the surface helps the reader interpret the news, especially in this age of information overload.

As you merely telling the news, or are you giving the implications of the news.

As some bloggers become part of the news distribution system, bloggers will need to develop stronger analytical skills to cut and go below the surface.

Is that new computer really that good? Does it live up to the hype?

Does it function in an everyday environment and go beyond what those benchmarking tests tell us?

As our blogging sphere of influence increases, and gradually supplant old line media, bloggers face a new set of challenges, and face lots of obstacles, as they strive to up their game.

But that’s what makes it so exciting, isn’t it?