Five Steps to Good Blogging

bloggingsign

As I continue to sift through Scoble’s blogroll and call for good blogs to read, I read a lot of blogs. In fact, I have read hundreds of blogs in the past few months. I have found a lot of interesting blogs, and I have seen a lot of blogs fall into the death spiral of neglect. I have seen some great designs and some not so great designs. I have added quite a few blogs to my blogroll. Many have stayed on there, some have fallen off.

I’ve made it a point to note what it is about a blog that makes me start reading it regularly and ultimately add it to my blogroll. Here are five steps to good blogging. There are other things that help make a good blog, but to keep it simple, I have settled on the big five.

1) Know Your Topics and Add Original Content

By the time I find a blog, I’ve already seen links to the hot topics of the day. I want to read an original perspective from someone who has thought about the topic for more than the 30 seconds it takes to add a link to somebody else’s post. I want to know why conventional wisdom on a subject is right or why it’s wrong. Make me think about something in a new or different way.

There’s nothing wrong with a quick link to a particularly interesting post or a regular posting of interesting links- in fact equal opportunity linking is a requirement (see Step 4 below). Link posts are appreciated, but original thought is what gets a blog on my blogroll.

2) Don’t Be too Narrow or too Broad

I like blogs that contain posts on a fairly broad range of topics. My dream blog is some combination of tech, music, humor, movies, family life and current events. But any good mix that includes some stuff I care about will work. A broad selection of topics provides more opportunity for me to find something on a regular basis that really interests me, plus I get to learn about new things.

On the other hand, Step 1 requires that you know something about your primary areas of focus, so you can’t try to cover everything. If your coverage area is too broad, your blog looks like a mini-USA Today (which is fine, but there’s already a USA Today). If your coverage is too narrow, there’s not enough variety to keep my full attention. Stated another way, I will scan the headlines of a blog that’s very narrowly focused to see if there’s a post I want to read, but I am less likely to read or even skim every post.

Try to find the sweetspot, but if you have to err, err on the side of being broad.

3) Don’t Act Like a Rock Star, Because You Aren’t

Nobody likes people who are abundantly self-important in the real world, and the same rule applies in the blogosphere. Look, blogs are great- I am writing on one this very second. But at the end of the day, blogs are merely turbo-charged, online, public versions of the diary my daughter writes in and then goes to great lengths to hide from her siblings (if you are irritated at me after reading that, you may be a rock star in training).

So even if you’re the greatest blogger who ever lived, you’re still someone who writes a cyber-diary to share primarily with other cyber-diary writers. Most people I know (and most people you know) either have no idea what a blog is or think blogging is for nerds. If you start thinking you’re a big star just because a lot of other nerds read your online diary, you need to aim higher. Go outside.

There are lots of popular bloggers who fully get this. But there are also some who think they are celebrities and consider returning an email an autograph and acknowledging another blogger a great blessing.

4) Lead Me to Other Good Places; Be an Equal Opportunity Linker

I love blogs that do my work for me. Review a new product, or a book or movie. Tell me about new software I don’t know about. Be my online newspaper and lead me to good content. Memeorandum is the best at this. Tom Morris is great at it.

But don’t link exclusively to the sites I already know about. I read Om (509 days now without a link to Newsome.Org). I read Scoble. I read Steve Rubel (I am getting close to getting a link from Steve by earning my way up the hill). I’ve already read those blogs by the time I get to yours. So show me something I haven’t already seen.

Give me a link to someone I don’t read every day who has something interesting to say. Be an equal opportunity linker. There are a lot of other smart and funny people out there- help me find them.

5) Be a Person, Not a Website

While I read most of my content via Bloglines, I still think there is a place for web site content. Through sidebar photo feeds, music lists and other content, the blogger becomes a person to me, not just a website. Write sometimes about the movie you took your kids to see. Tell me about you- your background, your family, your triumphs and your challenges. Become real to me. That’s the essence of community building and it makes people feel connected by more than the occasional cross-link.

Those are the things that make a blog interesting to me.

What do you look for in a blog?

Chuquet

Laurence Timms sent me a comment the other day about his project, Chuquet, which looks like a great new resource in my never ending search for good blogs to read.

Memeorandum is the king of the content finders for me and the first site I read every day, but Chuquet’s straight forward design and its Flickr Wall has earned it a place on my daily reading list.

I am constantly looking for good blogs to read and write about here, so Chuquet is a welcome addition to my content finding tools.

Check it out. I bet you’ll bookmark it too.

Will Google Buy a Seat at the Music Table?

googlemusic After tossing up its Google Video store to less than rousing reviews, the latest rumor is that Google is about to enter the online music fray. I suggested the other day that Google buy Pandora, my favorite online listening spot.

But the perceived money is in downloadable songs. And while I am on record that I won’t buy any DRM infested music, a lot of people will. So unlike selling downloadable videos, which I think is a supply in search of a demand, I think there is something to be said for selling downloadable songs.

There are two ways to build an online music store. From the ground up, which may result in a better, more innovative product, but takes longer to develop and much longer to generate any meaningful market share. The other way is to buy and incorporate an existing store. Yahoo got music by acquisition when it bought Launchcast and then MusicMatch.

So the word on the web is that Google is thinking about buying Napster, the popular, but DRM-infested namesake of the once innovative and much maligned by the RIAA peer to peer music service. Or maybe not. Once again, we’re all talking about something that might be a creation of the blogosphere.

I think buying Napster is probably Google’s best avenue to enter the online music business. For one thing, Google can’t afford the fallout from another blown opening. Additionally, while I don’t use Napster, I’ve read pretty good stuff about it. Napster gives Google instant market share and music credibility. Plus we know what Napster looks like already, so there won’t be hundreds of “are you kidding” posts the day Google goes live with it.

I’d love to see Google change the world again by bringing forth a new, innovative online music store. But the legal restrictions, the RIAA-gone-wild problem and the somewhat mature market make that unlikely. Plus, if Google thought Google Video was going to rock the house, then I’m not sure I want it to try to reinvent too many wheels.

So buying entry might be the way to go. But Google must recognize and remember that online music is quickly becoming a commodity. Online music stores are no longer destinations. They are online gas stations, dispensing song files they squeeze out of the record label cartel.

As such, brand building is almost an exercise in futility and the online music stores will always be at the mercy of the record labels. Exxon just proved that you can make money in commodities, but to do so you must have an inherent advantage or learn to operate cheaply and quickly. One of the best advantages in a commodity game is the ability to predict where the market is going next. Predicting the actions of the granny hating, catless bag holding, all-in-a panic record industry sounds like a tough order to fill. So I don’t see much chance for an advantage.

Without an inherent advantage and with what most believe to be very thin margins that don’t leave much room for competing on price, Google has to compete on service and name alone. That’s harder to do. There’s a lot of demand for online music, but it is, at the end of the day, a commodity. Since people care less about where they buy a commodity, it makes sense to enter the game by acquiring someone who has market share. But the price has to be right.

All in all, it’s a good move for Google. If the price is right.

Technorati Tags:
google, napster, digital music

Technorati: I’m Open in the End Zone

Technorati

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I have become a customer evangelist for Technorati. I think it is the backbone of the blogosphere and use it daily to find posts to read on whatever topic I am thinking about at the time. I also use it to find inbound links so I can return the link via the Most Recent Inbound Links list on the right side of the main Newsome.Org page.

I’ve had technical problems with Technorati before. Dave Sifry threw me the 99 yard pass of tech support back in December. After that, things worked great, for a while. Then I noticed some hiccups. First, some of my own posts started showing up in my inbound links search results. Then my posts went away, and I thought the problem was fixed. Then about half of my inbound links just disappeared, with no links over 21 days old appearing in my search results. Then the list kept shrinking.

As of today, the oldest link that shows up is only 19 days old. My link numbers are less than half what they were a couple of weeks ago.

I wrote Technorati via the contact link several days ago. No response yet.

I have been hesitant to even mention these problems because I figured Technorati would fix whatever the problem is and I couldn’t be sure that this problem wasn’t unique to me. Then I read this post at The Blog Herald, and the comments thereto. It seems I am not the only user experiencing problems.

I still love Technorati. And I believe these problems will be fixed. I just hope they are fixed soon so I can continue to rely on Technorati.

Dave, I’m open- hit me!

UPDATE: Once again, Dave comes to the rescue (via the Comments below). Technorati is growing fast, and there will always be growing pains when you have to scale at the speed of clicks. But they are building a ton of goodwill and a legion of customer evangelists by being a positive and responsive presence in the blogosphere. I really like this company a lot. Maybe when they get huge I can be their Scoble!

Dave indicates in a comment to The Blog Herald post that third party pingers may be causing some of the problems. I am going to take Dave’s advice and only ping Technorati directly from now on. I suggest that anyone having similar problems do the same.

Technorati Tags:
technorati

Scoble: Death by Risk Aversion

Scoble has a post today about the widespread corporate fear of the new. He says:

I present to a lot of corporations. Everywhere I go I smell the fear. People are scared to do something different.

His post was inspired by this excellent post by Kathy Sierra. Among many good points she makes is the following:

Sometimes managers are putting the best interests of the company first. That’s great–they’re often more experienced and have a better grasp of the bigger context. But (and it’s a really big but) sometimes they’re just worried about their own damn job.

Both of these quotes are completely consistent with my experiences. In fact, in one of my 2006 predictions posts I talked about this exact issue, oddly enough in the context of Microsoft Office’s move towards the web:

Yes, Microsoft Office will be more “web like,” which is a very good thing, but no major corporation (and certainly no law or accounting firm) is going to allow mass storage of documents online for two reasons: one, liability; two, the fear of a bad decision (“if it’s always been done this way and I keep doing it this way, I’m not responsible if it doesn’t work; but if I change how it’s done and it doesn’t work, I’m toast”- I’ve actually had clients say this very thing to me before on more than one occasion).

riskaversion Actually, I can’t count on two hands the times I have heard this spiel in one form or another. The safest decision for the fearful manager will always be the status quo. If the status quo isn’t possible, then the easiest choice will be the thing that is the most consistent with the status quo. With innovation or a change in direction comes responsibility and with responsibility comes risk. And many corporate managers are taught, not by the company, but through their experiences and observations, to be risk averse above all other things.

People believe that if they can get what they want while making someone else responsible for the decision, they are much safer in the corporate environment. At the crossroads of safety and innovation, safety wins almost all the time.

I agree that a company is better served by people who are willing to make decisions, seek innovation and take responsibility. But I think it’s going to be very hard to change this behavior without a significant paradigm shift in corporate training, management and advancement.

Kent’s Firefox Toolbar Wishlist

Mathew Ingram isn’t impressed with the new version of the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer. Mike Arrington likes it.

Having once idiotically said that I didn’t see what the big deal was about Firefox, I now use it exclusively. So I don’t get to try out the new Google Toolbar.

When Google does update the Google Toolbar for Firefox, here are 5 things I’d like to see added (the things I really want added, like embedded Delicious and Flickr searches aren’t feasible since Google fell asleep and let Yahoo buy those sites first):

1) Bloglines support. Build a plugin or let Bloglines build one that alerts me when my blogroll content is updated. Even better, let me read the new content in a pop up window, or click on a link to pull up my Bloglines page.

2) Technorati AND Google Blog Search support. Give me an option to search via Technorati and Google Blog Search from the toolbar and to easily see a list of other blogs that link to the page I am reading. Google may feel that Technorati is a competitor to its blog search feature. I don’t think so, but if Google bought Technorati like I’ve been telling it to, that would solve any perceived problem.

3) Give me multiple auto-fill options. I want to have my home and business particulars available at the click of a button. Multiple credit card information would be a plus too.

4) Wikipedia support. Let me search words and phrases in Wikipedia the way I can with Google and Google Groups, etc.

5) Embed a Pandora player. If Google wants to buy Pandora, fine. That would be a great kick-start to and advantage for the rumored Google Music site. But either way, give me a one click play button for my Pandora account.

More Evidence of the Dirty Bubble

dbubble-748250 We’ve been kicking around the boom, bubble or bust thing for the past few days, and just when I started to believe that we had not actually forgotten the hard lessons we learned from the last bubble and bust, I read this article in the NY Times. If there was one perfect example of the bubble mentality of the late nineties, it is the story of Blue Mountain and the E-Card.

Here’s the part of that article that matters most:

Excite@Home, the ill-fated online portal and high-speed Internet service, bought Blue Mountain for $780 million in 1999, partly for its ability to give advertisers a way to reach a wide swath of the Internet audience. Excite sold Blue Mountain two years later for $35 million to American Greetings….

If we truly see a resurgence of E-Cards, then we know the dirty bubble is lurking somewhere. I realize that an E-Card in and of itself does not create a bubble, but the mere fact that E-Cards are mentioned in a major newspaper is a bad omen that should send us running for the hills.

Technorati Tags:
bubble, e-cards

I’m Having Some RSS Feed Problems

I’ve noticed on Bloglines that a few of my posts have been showing up as partial feeds. A friend of mine tells me he has seen the same thing when reading Newsome.Org there.

Be assured, I have my feeds configured to be full feeds. If you get any partial feeds, please send me an email by clicking here and let me know.

I want to make sure I get this fixed before I lose too many readers.

Thanks

Want to Join My Fantasy VC League?

Well, now that my fantasy football season is over (I had the best record in the league, again, and choked in the playoffs, again), it’s time to move on. In light of all the VC conversations we’ve been having lately, I’m going to play fantasy VC, based on the start-ups mentioned by Mike Arrington in this post. Everyone is welcome to join my league.

Here we go.

BillMonk:

“Anytime you feel the need to track finances with your friends, think of BillMonk.”

I go to lunch with the same group of guys several times a week. One guy is a vegetarian, so his food is always cheaper. When we just split the bill equally the rest of us call it the vegetarian subsidy. He hates it; we love it. But I don’t see a business plan based on tracking who owes who for lunch, or even who owes their half of the rent.

First of all, someone has to enter the data for the website to track it. Second, most of this stuff could be done with a spreadsheet, without the need to put it on the web. Most importantly, I don’t see how doing this stuff on the web, even with cell phones, is going to make my life easier.

Outlook: neat idea, but I don’t see a business here.

Would I Pay for It: no chance.

411 Metro

Truth is, 411 should be free. So, we changed it. By simply including short, relevant ad messages from local businesses, we deliver the best possible directory service experience for you, the consumer, and the businesses you’re calling.

My wife must believe 411 is free. Otherwise why would she call it so much. 411 Metro, which says it is ad supported, has a toll free number. The FAQ says they charge the business we call a fee. Well, OK, but does that mean businesses have to sign up (i.e., agree to pay the charge) in order for us to find their number via this service? A quick read of the website doesn’t provide an answer for this.

I see two possible problems. First, my cell provider doesn’t charge extra for 411 calls and if this service takes off (and businesses are willing to be charged for connections), what prevents the cell phone companies from doing the same thing? Second, to the extent I was required to listen to an add when I called to get a number, it would be a deal stopper.

Outlook: interesting concept, but I don’t see much of a barrier to entry for better positioned competition.

Would I Pay for It: not likely.

Standpoint:

Standpoint is a social encyclopedia of belief. It’s a place where you can share your perspective and learn about the perspectives of other people. It’s a tool for organizing the web by opinion.

This looks to me like a super-charged, improved version of the internet message board. Someone posts an opinion and others are encouraged to chime in. As we have talked about, I think message boards are still relevant, and this looks like a good Web 2.0 angle on modernizing the message board concept.

I can tell the developers from vast experience that policing the users, weeding out the disrupters and ensuring that everyone feels welcome will be a significant challenge. If that happens, I could see myself using this site some.

Outlook: I like the idea a lot. But online ad revenue as the only revenue source is a tough sell.

Would I Pay for It: unlikely.

LiketyShip:

No information available from the website, so I’ll rely on Mike’s description:

It is an ecommerce service that can deliver purchased goods within two hours of placing the order. The magic? They combing local retail shops with the apparent over-capacity in the local courier market. Couriers pick items up at retail shops and deliver them immediately.

Very similar things have been tried before (remember Kozmo?). Yes, a lot of people have items shipped overnight or 2-day by Amazon and other retailers, but many people (including me) pay yearly for Amaazon Prime which makes 2-day shipping free. Amazon Prime was a stroke of brilliance by Amazon. If Amazon discontinues Amazon Prime, I might use a service like LiketyShip once in a while. But it assumes that what I want is available in my town for the same price I can get it online, and that’s not always the case.

Outlook: new implementation of an old idea.

Would I Pay for It: maybe once in a while, if the delivery add on is reasonable.

Flagr:

Share your favorite places with your friends or the world right from your mobile phone.

They are only collecting emails for an upcoming beta, so there’s not much I can tell from the website. Here’s Mike’s description:

The company promises to allow people to send tips on real world stuff in via a text message on a cell phone. Type in the title, address and comments, send it to Flagr and broadcast it to your friends or everyone.

Maybe, but what’s better about this than an email or text message? There may be more to this that meets the eye, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Outlook: too early to tell.

Would I Pay for It: no, unless there’s much more than meets the eye.

PlaceSite:

PlaceSite introduces a new way of using wireless networks — to create digital community services by, for and about people who are together in the same physical place.

OK, now we have something that grabs me. This sounds like a modern, anywhere version of the old Area Code restaurant I went to a few times in Florida back in college. Each table had a unique “area code” displayed on a big sign above the table. So you could ring up the table of girls across the room and chat them up.

This seems like an online, text messaging, chat room version of that. I’m far too old to be interested in this, but I can imagine a huge market for this sort of thing.

Outlook: very good.

Would I Pay for It: no, but if I were a 20-something I would certainly frequent places that had this service running.

Box.Net:

Box.net is your personal online space (or box) where you can store your documents, photos, music files, video clips, and more!

Box.Net is a player in the fast moving online storage game. For $2.99 a month you get 1GB of online storage. Mark Cuban is funding this venture, so you can be assured there’s a good business model in place.

I have not yet concluded that I need any online storage, but if I did, I would certainly consider Box.Net.

Outlook: competitive space, but they may be far enough down the road to be a long-term player.

Would I Pay for It: not yet.

Skobee:

Wondering what your friends are up to this weekend? Wanna get some co-workers together for a happy hour? Trying to find tonight’s hot spot?

They are only collecting emails for an upcoming beta, so there’s not much I can tell from the website. Here’s Mike’s description:

Skobee [is] focused on event planning (as opposed to an evite which looks at organizing people once the event specifics have been finalized). One thing I really like about Skobee is that users just email back
an
d forth, cc’ing a unique skobee email address. Based on the live demo the service seems to be quite good at turning natural language into structured text.

I get Evites all the time for stuff, and I think it’s a good service, because it lets you see who’s coming and it makes it easy to RSVP one way or the other and to change your response if something changes. I know Skobee is focused on creating the specifics as opposed to sending invitations, but sometimes doing something on a computer is more cumbersome than just picking on the phone. I can see some people using this, but I can’t see it taking the party planning world by storm.

Outlook: too early to tell, but I’m not blown away by the concept.

Would I Pay for It: no chance.

NeuroSky:

Neurosky has developed a non-invasive neural sensor and signal processing technology that converts brainwaves and eye movements into useful electronic signals to communicate with a wide range of electronic devices, consoles, and computers.

This sounds too Jurassic Park for me to understand, much less comment on, but if it works, it could be very big. I’m naturally skeptical, so I am a little…skeptical.

Outlook: interesting.

Would I Pay for It: I don’t know.

Anybody else want to join my Fantasy VC League?

The VC Debate: Boom, Bubble and Bust

We were in Galveston at a wedding this weekend, so other than my cautionary post on Saturday morning I missed a good bit of the big VC Debate.

I’ve been catching up on my reading, and here are my thoughts on what some folks are saying:

Mark Evans: Makes a good point that, while there are some bubble signs, we need VCs to shepherd the companies through the monetization process and provide a level of comfort to outside investors. I agree with this as long as the VCs don’t get caught up in the madness of the greater fool theory and rush a bunch of companies to market that have no way to turn their ideas into a profit. This happened far too much leading up to the last dot.com bust. And as an aside, online ad revenue by itself does not a business plan make.

Mathew Ingram: Says that the VCs didn’t create the bubble and that as a practical matter, we can’t simply take the middleman away under our current system. He also says, and I heartily agree, that the smart investors who might otherwise serve as a balance against another bubble in Dave Winer‘s new market proposal didn’t exactly distinguish themselves the last time around. They didn’t, although the people who really got killed last time around were the retail buyers of stocks and mutual funds. Most of the insiders and big players made out like bandits. And while I technically agree that bubbles are built on the demand side, there is a huge machine in place designed to create that demand- both at the IPO and before. So while the VCs are not the creators of the greater fool theory, they certainly profit from it. And a greater fool will do wonders for a bad business plan.

Scoble: Points out that there is more access today via the sort of communication engendered by free conferences, blogs and other new media. I think that’s true but the roads out of all those small meeting rooms still lead to the existing market structure. Things may be better now than then, but the system to turn an idea into a ton of cash is the same as before.

Rick Segal: Good, thoughtful post on the place, purpose and challenges of the VC industry in 2006. I like this quote (other than the fact Kent Newsome isn’t in that list smallicon-793225 ).

My working theory is that a Capital firm with Esther Dyson, Mark Evans, Shel Israel, Doc Searls, Robert Scoble, Dave Winer, or some combination, might have value that, along side my money, could bring ideas into the mainstream in a much different fashion with great returns for all.

AS LONG AS the all includes all the retail buyers should the deal go public. Too often those folks get forgotten about.

Anne 2.0: Says that Web 2.0 won’t give the super-sized returns needed to get the attention of traditional VCs. This is the best point yet, and I hope she’s right about this. Because if a bunch of people get in a room and try to engineer some of those returns, the traditional way to get there is to sell to someone else based on projected growth, etc. We are the someone else, as we learned last time around.

Jeremy Wright: Talks about the need for passion in the VC arena. People who build these Web 2.0 applications have passion for the application. The VCs have a passion too, but it’s usually a passion for making money- that’s precisely why they get hired. I agree with Jeremy that you should strive for a passion for both, but too often the two passions can conflict with one another. Much like a musician who is passionate about her music dealing with a record label whose job it is to commercialize and monetize that music.

Phil Sim: Talks about the launch of his start-up, without traditional VC money. More importantly, he talks about the need for a good business plan. I love this quote:

My original business plan didn’t suddenly start to suck because the bubble had popped. I think about what we might have done differently with MediaConnect had we had venture capital and realistically, I think we’d have been far less worried about ensuring everything we did was monetised and our business model was profitable and I’m not convinced we’d have come out the other side. Bootstrapping is a wonderful way to ensure you’re focused on what should really be the core concern of most every business – getting profitable.

Fred Wilson: Recommends this approach:

Be the entrepreneur’s partner. Help him or her. Be there for them. Support them. Counsel them. Share the risk with them. Have fun with them. Laugh and cry with them. And make boatloads of money with them. It’s a time tested formula and it will work forever.

The most important word in that quote is “forever.” It can’t be a slash and burn (the retail stock buyer). There has to be first a real, sustainable product. Then a real, sustainable profit that can be grown over time. Do that, and I’ll buy your stock all day long.

Obviously, there are other ways to make money without going public. I talked a little about that yesterday. But as someone who made a ton of money and then lost a ton of money during the last tech boom, bubble and bust, and as someone who created and developed a product that got into the VC pipeline the last go around, I think we have to proceed thoughtfully and with caution this time around.

The cliff is out there somewhere. Just beyond our view perhaps, but it’s there. If we hold hands, maybe we can help each other from wandering too close.