On the Art of the Blog

I didn't decide to do this so I could hear myself speak or add more work to my already considerable workload - there's allegedly somewhere between 112 million and 250 million blogs already out there as we speak, covering every imaginable topic, any many of them are "ghost towns" (a colleague of mine used this term recently). We certainly don't need 112 million AND ONE blogs now, do we?

I am, however, interested in Tim O'Reilly's concept of the "Web as a global brain" whereby a collective intelligence can be increased when new voices are allowed to contribute to a given repository of knowledge.

So I thought I'd give this a go, and post as regularly as I can on topics with which I am familiar, and that represent that place where technology and communications meet, and where digital strategy can play a role in accomplishing business goals.

Merlin Mann just posted his thoughts on what makes a good blog and I especially have to agree with #7: "Good blogs make you want to start your own blog". I've been reading some good posts lately, and they do indeed motivate you to establish your own beachhead in the blogosphere. Starting a blog is the easy part - maintaining one of your own that remains current and relevant isn't quite so easy!

I archived this snippet about blogs a few months ago - I apologize for not recalling whose words these were, but I think they're nevertheless worth repeating:

"So what makes a blog work? Honesty. Immediacy. Infectiousness. If you have something to say that your audience wants to hear a blog can create tremendous buzz for you or your brand. But if you're only blogging because it's inexpensive, or you aren't posting at least one substantial message a week, then a blog isn't going to do much for you".

Stay close, and we'll see what happens.

-John G.