David V. Lorenzo's Blog is now: www.careerintensity.com/blog

Why I Blog

I am a blogger. 

This means I host a website that I update regularly with whatever I want to say (actually I host three sites – but that’s not important right now).  People often ask me why I blog.  I blog for three reasons.  They Are:

1)      To help people.  I like helping people.  If one person reads one of my posts and it makes a slight difference in their business, I’m happy.

2)      It helps me think.  Blogging helps me crystallize my thoughts.  When I write something, I really need to focus on the topic to make sure my thoughts are “on point”. Focused thinking generates a lot of good ideas.  I like good ideas.

3)      It’s fun.  I enjoy putting my thoughts in a place that keeps them organized.  I also get great satisfaction out of seeing other people respond to something I have written.

Many people think that blogging is part of my grand integrated marketing communications strategy to sell lots of books. That’s not entirely true.

Don’t get me wrong, I want to sell books but that’s not why I blog.

In fact, I wrote a book for three reasons.  They are:

1)      To help people.  I like helping people.  If one person reads…………

Polish is Important

I’m not a first draft writer.  I have been known to agonize over a long blog post for hours. 

I like to think of myself as a “big idea guy”.  I have no interest in details.  Plus I think at least twice as fast as I speak and at least five times as fast as I write.

This is why I find typos so frustrating. In my head, the thought is fully formed and it makes sense.  On paper (or the computer screen) it sometimes comes out looking like a first grader wrote it.

As I blog more in 2006 (I have three blogs – SoHo Savvy, The Career Intensity Blog and this one) I vow to try to make each post free of mistakes that a youngster should catch.

Each post is an opportunity for people to get to know me.  I would like everyone to think that I am a smart and seasoned professional. I want my work to reflect the thought I put into it.

I hope this post is as helpful for you (the reader) as it is for me.  I have set a personal reminder to refer back to this post every few weeks.  I need to slow down and double check things.

Perception is important and polish influences perception.

The Top Ten

Gapingvoid brings us the top ten lies of a blogger. It is hysterical.  Here they are:

1. I don't consider myself an A-Lister. No, but I turn up for speaking gigs at all the big conferences anyway. Uh-huh.

2. I don't care about traffic. Of course I don't. Even though I'm a freelance consultant, and my blog is my primary way of marketing myself. Rock on.

3. I've read your blog. Yeah, well I read the "Musings of an unemployed tech consultant" bit on the title bar, before clicking off. That counts.

4. I started blogging back in 1999. Of course, back in 1999 a Flash-animated, brochureware homepage was considered a blog. Kinda sorta.

5. My blog has no commercial agenda. I'm far too sexy to care about money. Exactly.

6. I only have advertising on my blog as an experiment. That explains why the adstrip is right under the "Musings of an unemployed tech consultant" bit. Indeed.

7. I've never liked the unegalitarian term, "A-Lister". Even though I am one. Oh, the irony.

8. I'm proud to be a D-Lister. Even though I spend 7 hours a day writing the thing. Right.

9. He's a big hero of mine. He's got more traffic than downtown

   Mexico City

   and I'm hoping to God he links to me one day.

10. I really admire what she's doing for the blogosphere. I've noticed that she's currently single.

Why Blog? Five Reasons

Buzzoodle Ron gives us some great insight on why everyone should have a blog.  He says:

“If you read blogs, but do not write one yet. Start.

Once people start following what you have to say, even just a few people, it is fairly magical. The audience you grow will talk about you, link to you, email you and maybe buy something from you one day.

Imagine if 100 people expected you to call them on the phone three times a week and spend 20 minutes telling them thoughtful, interesting stuff. A blog is just a shortcut to have this kind of dialogue.”

Ron is right on the money.  Good things happen when you post good content on your blog.  Here are five good things that can happen to you if you blog:

1.         You meet new people – I have “met” hundreds of new people through my blogs.  People e-mail me and I e-mail them back.  The next thing you know I add them to my contacts and I have some new resources to call upon. 

2.         You can help people – This is probably my favorite reason.  I receive a couple of e-mails each week telling me how my posts have helped someone.  To me this is better than cash. 

3.         People offer you jobs – I have a good job. I like what I do.  I also like having options. When you blog people feel like they get to know you.  The more you post, the more they feel like they can relate to your thinking and they can see the value it can add to their businesses.  This is one of the key elements to getting to know people who you want to work with – will they improve the value of your company? Blogging helps them see that fairly quickly.

4.         You will focus your thinking – You write the way you think.  When you blog you need to get to the point.  You can’t be all over the place.  This is a great way to focus your thoughts.

5.         You’re self-esteem will improve – You will feel incredible satisfaction as you look back over your last month’s worth of posts.  You will reflect on the time you put into your work and you’ll realize that you have something valuable to add to the big conversation in the blogosphere.

Start blogging today. You’ll be glad you did.  It will help the perception others have of you but more importantly it will help the way you feel about yourself and you may just help someone else.

New Blogs

In order to better meet the needs of my readers I have started up two new blogs.

As announced last week, The Career Intensity Blog is up and running.  This blog is dedicated to providing individual development insights for people trying to climb the corporate ladder or become successful entrepreneurs.

This past weekend I started SoHo Savvy which is a dedicated resource for everyone who works in a small office or home office. The focus of this blog is on starting and building a business.

Please bookmark both sites and visit often.  During the next few weeks I’ll be moving some of the original content posts from this blog into their appropriate categories in the blogs above.

Thanks for reading.

Name Dane’s Kid

Dane Carlson wants help picking out his baby’s name, so of course he turned to his blog readers for help.  Click here to submit a name.  Here are Dane’s rules:

1. It can’t be popular. Our first son’s name, Emerson, is number 755 on this list.

2. It shouldn’t start with an E. Don’t want to start a trend.

3. It shouldn’t end in “son”. Don’t want to start a trend with this, either.

4. No cities names. I have a set of cousin’s named after cities, so it’s their trend.

I’m not sure if he’s serious but I’d like to give Dane and his wife a hand. I’m posting my choice in his comments section.

Lack of Free Speech – For Your Own Good

A private school in New Jersey has forced students to dismantle an online community.  The thinking behind the removal of the Myspace.com accounts at Pope John XIII Regional High School in Sparta, NJ is that the forum serves as a feeder pond for pedophiles. This edict extends the school’s reach beyond its doors and into the homes of the students.  The school is not just restricting access to Myspace.com from school computers, it is threatening to suspend all students who keep active accounts on the service.

Sites like Myspace.com and Xanga.com are primarily diaries and gossip sites. They are valuable because they help kids (and young adults) learn about creating an online community.  This is a necessary tool for modern socialization.  Restricting access to this community is analogous to restricting playground time. 

A better answer to the exposure of children to predators in an online environment is to teach them to look for some of the warning signs that a “cyber friend” may have harmful intentions.  Children should be taught which information to disclose to the world on the internet and which information is not appropriate for public dissemination.  You can call it the modern day version of teaching the kids “don’t talk to strangers”.

Ultimately, Pope John XIII Regional High School has done three things:

• Created scarcity.  The kids will want to go to these sites even more.  They will want to do it because it’s restricted. The forbidden often becomes the most popular activity with teens.  Some kids may push the envelope and even look for trouble on the internet to prove that they can handle themselves.

• Given kids yet another reason to distrust adults. Technological Paranoia on the part of adults creates a rift between the teens and their adult role models (parents, teachers, coaches, clergy etc.).  If the adults took the time to work with the kids on exploring the technological environment and discussing some of the dangers they would be creating a foundation of trust.  Instead, this knee-jerk reaction comes across to the high school students as ignorance or a power play on the part of the adult.

• Missed an opportunity to teach. Kids today face danger and predators in all aspects of their lives.  The opportunity to educate a teen about the good and the bad on the web is as important as educating them on the dangers of riding public transportation in a big city. 

My point:  Restricting access creates more problems than it solves. This was a lazy way out by a group of educators who do not understand the value of technology in society. 

To read more about this issue visit the Asbury Park Press.

Trackbacks and Typepad

My blog is experiencing problems accepting and sending trackbacks.  I notified Typepad of the issue but I have been receiving limited responses.

Please keep trying to ping me.  I understand your frustration and hopefully this issue will be resolved soon.

Beware the Blog

Even Dilbert is warning you about bad mouthing your company in your blog.  Here is the post from Blogwrite for CEOs.

"You know this topic is mainstream when you see it in Dilbert. See last week's comic strip here. The strip touches on the thorny legal issues related to employee blogging. (Thorny, that is, for the employer. In most states, a company can fire an employee for any reason... but you really don't want a rep as a company who fires your bloggers.)"

 

Don't be a Dilbert. Never bad mouth your company on your blog. Anything you say can and will be held against you in your office.

Blog Power

A recent BBC Survey reports that more than three quarters of consumers are using blogs to assist in making purchase decisions.  In addition, 83% of people who were influenced by blogs were in the 25 – 34 age group. 

These are staggering numbers.  More and more communications strategists will be turning to blogs as a way to market to shoppers.

To read the entire report click here.

Thanks to Corporate Engagement for the link.