What Mark Cuban Taught Me About Blogging

I had the pleasure of listening to Mark Cuban speak at Blog World 2007. He shared numerous insights about blogging which I have summarized here.

GENERAL THOUGHTS

• You should decide whether you will blog part time or full time and adjust your strategy accordingly. Same thing applies with business vs. personal blogging.
• Your competition includes non-bloggers, such as mainstream media.
• Does your blog effect you or a fictional persona.
• Realize that others will view your blog when researching you.
• Fight the F.U. urge and avoid writing material that you will regret later, since blogs are forever.
• Make sure you think about the consequences when you blog.
• Feel free to moderate the comments on your blog to only include those comments that provide value.
• Know more stuff about your industry than your competitors through hard work.

WHY BLOGGING IS IMPORTANT

• Raw truth (vs. the mainstream media).
• Source of alternative information.
• Creation of new streams of dialog through comments.
• Reaching a wider audience.

BRANDING

• The brutal honest truth is necessary.
• Do not pander to visitors, doing so makes you no different from mainstream media.
• You must put in the time and do your homework to create depth.
• Your blog can be used for pro-active communication about your brand.

MONETIZING

• Ads cheapen your site.
• Don’t do ads when your blog is just starting out.
• You may lose your ability to be brutally honest.
• Don’t allow the ads to detract from your site. e.g. Advertising links before the actual content of your post.

OTHER THOUGHTS

• He would buy Verizon (because of FIOS) and/or Facebook if he had the money.
• A new OS is what’s needed to revolutionize the industry.

Here is a link to a full transcript of the keynote.