Comments on: Five reasons why I blog and my eight blogging recommendations

By: Elisabeth

Elisabeth — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:58:13 +0000

Excellent blog post. Picked it up off the comments from Six Pixels of Separation (Mitch Joel). Having only recently started blogging (2 months), I have to say that your advice is bang on. And yes, it did take me FOREVER to get started but: that’s me. I am a “scaredy cat” and, like you, couldn’t find a name that I liked (I eventually did and I’m happy with it.)
Considering that my blog has the word Passionate in its title, I agree very much with your comment about passion: if you are not passionate about the subject, don’t bother!

By: kiran

kiran — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:21:55 +0000

Good thoughts about blogging.Thanks.

By: gopalshenoy

gopalshenoy — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:27:18 +0000

Chris,

I totally agree. This is what scares the companies most – what if they receive negative comments via their own blog – the fact that these conversations are happening anyways and the blog helps them to know about them and act upon them is still a tough sell.

Gopal

By: Christopher Little

Christopher Little — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:18:47 +0000

Gopal,

I made the comment about CxO support and really shouldn’t have put it that way, that the CxO needs to be a blogger. That’ll be a rare animal indeed.

I should’ve said “full support” from the executive team or CEO because a good blog is going to get some attention and some of that attention will not be positive, regardless of the topics you choose to blog about.

Thx,
Chris

By: gopalshenoy

gopalshenoy — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:42:06 +0000

Casey,

I have tried vox and wordpress and like wordpress a whole lot better and hence would highly recommend it.

Gopal

By: Casey

Casey — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:50:52 +0000

What software package would you recommend to someone who is interested in starting a blog?

By: gopalshenoy

gopalshenoy — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:41:30 +0000

Chris, I don't think I agree with your first comment. CxO needs to be made aware of the fact that there is a blog and to get their blessing but it is not necessary for him/her to blog. As long as some of the employees commit to blog so that fresh content that adds value to the audience gets generated, it should be just fine. CxO are very busy and I would expect not many of them to blog regularly. I loved comment 4 - if all you are using a blog is to do product talk and not about how customers can get better at what they do, then it is going to be perceived as nothing but marketing BS by customers. I don't know if you know about Hubspot , they have some great tools for small businesses to do social media right. Gopal

By: Christopher Little

Christopher Little — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:49:08 +0000

Excellent summary to which I would add:

1) don’t blog as part of a corporate initiative UNLESS the CxO will be blogging. Companies that blog will always fail unless the driver has the power to “make it so”
2) for every post I put up on our blog, I have 3 more in the can ready to come out. If something newsworthy happens I post it immediately — pushing all scheduled posts out from there.
3) My blog must have 3 posts a week, which means I need 6+ new posts a week. That’s more than I would recommend for most blogs but its a very specfic blog (www.loftwareblog.com and it’s about GS1 and healthcare) but it’s a global topic, so coming up with that much content has proven easier than I had suspected because I didn’t restrict content to a single country.
4) Have a personality on the page. Blogging is not PR. If you write lifeless prose, stick to press releases and forget blogging.
5) be informative. Be knowledgeable. Be fresh and engaging.
6) Have fun but don’t do comedy unless you’re a blogging comedian.

Great blog BTW!

By: subrataalpha

subrataalpha — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:25:13 +0000

A free e-book from Seth Godin on blogging. Extremely Seth, extremely readable
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/09/whos_there_the_.html

By: davemikejohn

davemikejohn — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:10:58 +0000

Great ideas – everyone who is beginning to blog should read this.

By: therealsouthkorea

therealsouthkorea — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:03:04 +0000

Decent post. I wish I had more time to comment though. :)

By: danmurray01

danmurray01 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:26:46 +0000

Great info, I'll be coming back Dan Murray