In Defense of Blogging AND In Self-Defense vs. Flashy Hares

Ken's Blog

I just read the following article in WIRED, titled...

"Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004"

The title pretty much says it all, but the article is worth a read (not for the content, but for the lessons we'll talk about). As I read it, it reminded me of when I was a medical student.

There were certain classmates of mine who really rubbed me the wrong way. Super-self-absorbed, always (subtly) bragging about the latest and greatest procedure they had done, about some big-name professor who "loved" them, always self-portraying as very, very cool and authoritative. Meanwhile...

Most of us just went about our business of learning our profession, feeling somewhat intimidated and impressed by these amazing hares.

At the time, I didn't quite realize that they were the same as me, basically a no-nothing medical student moving ahead. "Know-it-all hares" tend to be very impressive, at a first-glance kind of level. And we tend not to get past first glances, you know?

Luckily, around that time I found a book by Robert Ringer...

He later renamed it, "To Be Or Not To Be Intimidated" because the book was really not about intimidating. It actually showed us "tortoises" how not to be intimidated by those flashy hares as we move ahead in our lives.

Impressive self-promotional hares can be very damaging to both one's financial and mental well-being. So it was an important book for me at the time, as were the rest of his books.

-----SIDEBAR-----
If only every person had read Robert Ringer's books. The
world would not be in the financial crisis it finds itself
in today. But I digress. Then again, it is a SIDEBAR.
-----SIDEBAR-----

OK... Fast-forward 30+ years. <sigh, where'd that go?>

Well, it suddenly hit me...

I won't name names, but if you ever find yourself amazed at how these people twitter at Twitter, spend their lives on Facebook, claim to be making a zillion dollars at "the latest and greatest" (and will, incredibly, sell it to you), upload truckloads of photos to Flickr, remember that they are only building content for someone else.

As a newbie, I would genuinely be stunned and amazed by someone who is supposedly following and being followed by tens of thousands at Twitter. How can they make 20+++ posts per day to Twitter, for example?

And then it hits you... I'm getting nothing out of this! Not only that, but if you could see the reality of that person's existence, I can almost guarantee you it falls way short of its portrayal. So, what about those folks on Twitter with a gazillion (140 character) posts and followers?...

Twitter sure is building one heck of a lot of traffic which they sell as advertising. And folks do seem to be having fun, I guess, assuming it's not a fad, and people go back to real-world socializing when they're not doing business. (Who knows? I don't cover the "social" part of the Net, nor do I pretend to except as it may apply to business.)

And a few may even be working Twitter, by hiring a Virtual Assistant at $700 per month to misuse Twitter and "follow" tens of thousands of other Twitterers, who return the favor and follow you. And none of them read each other, leaving you with the original folks who knew you anyway.

So...

If you find yourself intimidated by a nonsense article, you will have found another "super-cool hare." Ditto it you're amazed by some super-Twitterer.

So...

Beware of the "perennially cool-authoritative" individuals who are self-absorbed with being two steps ahead of everyone else, with being smarter than most and quite determined to show it, over and over and over again. They really are quite smart and what they do might even work for them. But they are not using solid, reproducible business models.

The truth is there are immutable principles to life and business that don't go away. Blogs are not dead. They are just another form of Content Traffic PREsell Monetize and are still useful for certain business models. I cover that here...

http://blogorbuild.sitesell.com/

Many saw that page as being critical of blogs. No, blogs simply have their place. They are a type of Web site with a particular purpose. A great blog can still break through today, assuming that person does many things correctly.

A great Theme-Based Content Web site, which must be "so 1999" by their standards, also breaks through today and the future, even more so. Because people will always be searching for information. And great, evergreen information will, when properly done (and that is SBI!'s job), will always rise to the top with momentum (as opposed to a blog).

Bottom line...

There is simply no such thing as being "so 2004" or even "so 1999" when it comes to e-business. There are only business models that work, or models that do not. And there will always be people looking for what's new (blogs) and what is evergreen info (Web sites, whether about Anguilla or solar power). Most people are not searching for "what's new" (i.e., blogging).

A very small number of truly talented people, programmers and marketers, are able to create something like Twitter that pulls in millions of people to build content for them. Or to create Google. But let's not discuss those examples as realistic business models for "the rest of us."

And then there's SiteSell, a talented group of 60 or so people who've built Site Build It!. Would I recommend that most people try to "build a SiteSell" in their sphere of interest? Only if it moves you. Only if business grows toward that direction.

SBI! was not the original plan with SiteSell, merely the recognition that came to us, that most people could not do what I wrote about in Make Your Site SELL! ("MYSS!") (and subsequent books), even though everyone loved the book(s). I couldn't teach you to build a SiteSell, though, only offer one piece of advice. Know when to delegate.

On the other hand, Site Build It! does enable most people to change their lives by building a successful e-business. It does so in the most time-effective, ongoing, momentum-building way. And while you can add a "full-fledged blog" to your SBI! site, remember that every SBI! site is automatically a blog, with content properly organized, and with everything taken care of behind the scenes.

And most of us do not have the time or inclination to do full-blogging. Personally, I do like to post to the SBI! Forums on a regular basis. I do it because I love to do it. However, most of my posts are meant to help SBIers, not to comment on the state of whatever part of the world concerns me, nor to cover and comment on the latest news in my niche. And I don't like to discuss the "theory" of business-building because I've been there, done that with MYSS! and know that....

People need tools, a process, and guidance. Remove the needless technical barriers, provide practical and relevant guidance (such as what happens in the SBI! Forums), and now you're not just "chewing the fat." You're enabling people to do the truly amazing things that lie within. That is exciting and rewarding stuff!

So I don't consider myself a blogger, even though this blog post is a repurposed forum post for "Ken's Blog" since it has wider interest. But if I ever felt that I have to blog, if I ever felt that my business depended on blogging, I would feel a weight that would drag me down. The "monkey on the back" that Chris Anderson spoke about.

On the other hand, I could easily see myself building anguilla-beaches.com with fun and passion well into my 70s. Why? Because it's fun. It's a passion. There's no obligation to report on the day-to-day noise. Just deliver content that people want.

And yet... here I am, defending blogging. Why? Because this guy calls it "so 2004" and because blogging truly does have a place in the small e-business world? Yes, but...

Nope.

It's to help you recognize that feeling of intimidation that used to knock me into a state of unresponsive acceptance. Instead, sit back and realize that these people are merely super-cool hares looking for the next latest-and-greatest to impress us with, to show us how smart they are.

Because the simple, immutable laws of building a business are just so boring. For hares.

Not for tortoises.

Thanks, Robert.

All the best,