tech-talk.biz

On blogging

March 21st, 2008 | by Jose Miguel Cansado |

I just read the New York Times article on blogs, So you want to be a blogging star?, with some advice for bloggers. Paul Boutin’s main bullets are:

- Don’t expect to get rich
- Write about your passions
- Fit blogging into holes in your schedule
- Just post it
- Keep the rhythm
- Join the community
- Plug yourself

No doubt you can not get rich with the $5 per post standard that apparently paid pioneering blog networks like Weblog, according to RWW post Is it Time for a Bloggging Union?.Well, on the other hand the same post mentions $25 million of VC money going into top blogs last year, which clearly confirms the key entrepreneur rule: “Entrepreneurship is about owning a business, not running it”

In any case, I quite relate to blogger Luis Villa on why he blogs:

“There are a lot of reasons, some of which are more important than others on any given day. Among them:

* I want to follow the advice that I gave the Wall Street Journal: the best way to control your online identity is to create positive information about yourself. (It works- not only is this blog the top search result for my full name, it was for a long time the first search result for “luis”.)
  * When I started blogging, it was an important part of my job description; it helped me communicate with partners and with the volunteers who I used to coordinate. This is no longer true, of course, but once you’re in the habit it is hard to break.
  * I have lots of friends scattered all over the world who read blogs, and so my blog is an easy way to keep them up to date on my life. (And even my mom reads it now. Dad is still resisting.)
  * I like writing in an informal but coherent manner, and getting a chance to clarify and discipline my thoughts by writing about them. I didn’t get much chance to do that in my prior life as a programmer and manager, and I certainly don’t get much of a chance to do that in law school, so this is an outlet.
  * Frankly, because occasionally other people post things like this. It never hurts to have your ego boosted from time to time, and blogging gives other people the opportunity to do that ”

Enjoy your Easter break.