Joel Spolsky, of Joel on software fame, is giving up blogging.
So it seems as good a time as any for me to start. Thought truth be told I’ve been looking for a reason or excuse a long long time.
Funnily enough, Joel’s reason for giving up is the thing that spurred me to give it a whirl, and also the same thing that’s been making me hold off doing it for so long.
He makes the point that, when blogging, you should cater your material to interest your audience, not use it as a soap box to jump up and down about yourself. He makes this point talking about how his blog allowed his software company to become what it is.
I find this a little disingenuous, but I also see the point. As a reader, I don’t want to read about someone grandstanding, boasting and generally releasing enough hot air to raise the sea level. I want to read someone that’s interesting, thought-provoking and entertaining. Having the author cater his posts to fit into some perceived market space, just strikes me as a bit too much like copy writing as opposed to a true reflection of the person I am reading about.
However, you do see this in many blogs, for instance, Gary Vaynerchuck, is a very entertaining guy, his book, Crush It, is very inspiring in getting you focused on how to leverage your “personal brand”. Gary’s key bit of advice is to “be Authentic, be Passionate”, which runs counter to Joel’s points, yet, Gary himself made his fortune in wine blogging, not his true passion which is business development. He was of course authentic in his enthusiasm and character, but he still catered his posts to his audience of wine drinkers (or those interested in becoming wine drinkers).
Another person that is authentic about their personal life and has used their blog to promote and talk about their business is Penelope Trunk, whose posts range from career advice, to describing how she cries in bathrooms. Fascinating reading, but I’ve always found her to be more concerned with simply talking about whatever is bothering her than angling for business. Of course within the last month or so this has changed, since her CEO has asked her to start separating the business brand from her personal blog. So far this has meant she does more business webcasts that she plugs on her blog, so it has become less interesting.
I think that as long as you have something to gain from your audience the temptation is to make that gain. So if you initially start out with a blog, and you get a ton of traffic and you turn it into a business, is it wrong? No it’s not wrong, but churning out content to satisfy your market is not being genuine. If you make a ton of traffic turn it into a business and then get bored with it, you should simply turn your blog onto new things, things that are current for you. Not worry, as Joel has done, that your blog has effectively trapped you because it is too closely associated with your brand, business or product. The separate brand or business simply needs it’s own space.
For my part, this is intended to be a personal blog, perhaps this is because at this point in my life I am not angling for business. I don’t have a company (yet), so perhaps this is a luxury I will not be able to afford when I need something, whether that be new business or a new job, so this may come back to haunt me.
