The Blog According to Zulkey

She is the creator, writer, and associate executive producer of Zulkey.com, and though the word "blog" is conspicuously absent from her nav bar, her site is, I believe, everything the forefathers of blogging dreamed it would be.

After years (represented here by "days") of research, I have found there are three kinds of blogs: bad ones (marked by a viewer's lightning-fast click on the BACK button), good ones, and educational ones, which are neither bad nor good but serve an occasionally useful purpose.

The good ones are a zesty blend of aesthetics, content and clever linking. Zulkey.com bats .1000 on all three, or if you prefer the Tiger Woods comparison, it's a hole-in-one. Take linking, for instance, an all too-overlooked component of the blog. A novice linker links because he can. He is so caught up in the act of linking -- the underline, the hand icon, the font color -- that his links lack focus. Given the proverbial gun above the mantel, the rookie not only links the gun, but the fire poker, the dura-logs and the chimney, to boot.

Zulkey links are a story within a story. They play off her narrative and grow with the blog, bobbing and weaving it all back together like a quilt, or something made with yarn. Zulkey smacks her visitors with fresh, fruity fun then gives them ample opportunity to dart around. Young bloggers, take note.

Content, too, is important and harder than it looks. Unless you are Kurt Cobain, you cannot simply publish your diary. There are apparently many people who don't know this. Though it would seem delicious to read someone's diary, try it sometime. Unless there are countless flattering anecdotes about you, or sex scandals about your boss, you will quickly tire. Zulkey is hip to this. Her je ne sais quois (gratuitous French idiom) is her supporting cast. She gives them the mike, baits them with stream-of-consciousness-inducing questions, and presto! Sensational prose.