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.
Lots of good tips. However, the comment about pandering to visitors dis make me pause for a moment. Like any product or media, you do have to cater to your vistors (your customers) to a certain extent. Is he talking about losing focus by catering too much?
I think he is referring to writing content just to attract a certain kind of visitor, while losing your uniqueness and brutal honesty.
I really liked Mark’s speech at the Expo, Mark’s a really smart guy. He’s right about being brutally honest and transparent, I’ve always thought that was one of the most important things about a blog.
It was good meeting you at BlogWorld, I hope you enjoyed yourself
I had a lot of fun, did you end up coming to PostieCon and Tao nightclub? It was a blast.
Hello Egonitron,
I greatly enjoyed myself. I made many quality contacts and meeting you was a pleasure.
I ended up spending some family time in lieu of PostieCon and the Tao nightclub. Unfortunately, I have not had much of that lately.
Thanks for introducing me to your blog at http://www.automoblog.net. (congrats on the digg) You have earned a place in my feedreader.
Great to hear you had a good time. Family time is #1, so it’s good you got to spend some time away from the computer; I don’t get that very often myself
I’m glad to hear you enjoy Automoblog.net – keep an eye out, we have some big changes coming up!
Anyway, Shoot me an email some time when you get a chance, I’d like to speak with you a little bit more in-depth about your services with ATL.
Thanks again
Very interesting… as always! Cheers from -Switzerland-.
I would certainly agree with the new OS thought. We need an OS that’s of this Internet age and robust. Surely, that would revolutionize on how people make use of computers. Good point!