Thoughts On Why I Blog

Now that I have been blogging for several months I took sometime this morning to step back and really think about why, my plans for the blog, what I like about it, and what things I do not like. I thought I would share a bit of what goes on inside this head of mine when it comes to my blog.

First off I am not a writer, a journalist of any sort, or anyone that pretends to be. I write because it helps me get my thoughts out. In many cases my blog posts are really just me trying to get my head around how I feel on a certain topic (legacy media failing, rural broadband stimulus and how it affects domaining, etc) or trying to give a bit of info to those starting out in this industry that may not be finding what they need on the forums or do not relate to those in the industry that were able to grab names in the early and mid nineties (or even 2000). Even though I had been around domaining for many years it was not until a few years back that it became clear that alot of advice on the forums was not worth much and that in many cases people that had sold zero dollars worth of domains were giving advice to people on what to buy and how to sell or giving advice on appraisals of a domain that was either ridiculously high or ridiculously low.

Based on all the above I started blogging. So now that I blog as part of an almost daily routine here are things I really like about it or things that concern me at times, first off the likes:

• Networking - Without a doubt one of the things blogging has done for me is grew my network in the community. I am a rather social person and this has really been a nice side effect of blogging, getting out in the community.
• Feedback - Whether it be good or bad I really do like the comments and feedback from the readers.
• Helping - You will never hear me say I am an expert at anything, thats the first step to failure, but I do like to give tidbits that have helped me, if it helps someone be more successful that is great.
• Marketing - Lets be honest, it would not be much good to have a blog if there was no value on the business side too. It has been great to have both the intangibles (networking, etc) and the tangible (contacts about Localtek/Missouri.me) based on this blog.
• Clearing the head - Read the post Where Did Professionalism Go and you will get my point.

Now the bad:

• Responding to comments quickly - I have always prided myself on responding quickly to various types of communications. And in many cases blog comments need to be approved or responded to rather quickly. Unfortunately in many cases I post and then head out to meetings or I post late at night and then head away from the laptop. I once had someone claim I was censoring their post, and in reality I just had not had time to make it to a laptop to properly respond. So, all that said, forgive me if I am slow sometimes:)
• Always needing to be on - We all make mistakes, but when you are blogging people are more than happy to point out an inaccurate point, a typo, etc. I am good with criticism, anyone that knows me well knows that, but when you are blogging there is a feeling that every time you make a post it really does need to be spot on. This alone keeps me from putting a lot of posts out. This may change though, as much as I like to plan I find it more productive at times to be Fire, Ready, Aim and there is a lot to be learned from that as long as you balance it with some sort of a strong foundation to make gut decisions.
• Not being able to blog about non-domain related topics - This will be fixed in other blogs that will be launched fairly soon, but there are a lot of things going on in the world or just funny stuff I see that I do not post about here since either a) politically people would be alienated or b) its just not related to the industry this blog focuses on.

Now there are a couple things that did not make the list and people that deal with me everyday will point these out immediately. Competition, I am VERY competitive in most things, probably too much so. When it comes to blogging though I do not see the point. I know people that blog in a few different industries and they obsess about the bloggers around them. I just do not see the point, I read almost all the other domain blogs and consider a good portion of the other bloggers friends.

And the big one missing off my list is money, now do not get me wrong, in the very near future revenue will become something I focus on for this blog but it is not the only thing I will be focused on.  Look for a change in the blog layout in the near future that will make it more user AND advertiser friendly.