How To Blog Without Blogging

How To Blog Without Blogging By now, you know I think you should have a blog. But I hear your issues: It is a big committment It takes time I dont have I cant take on one more project (especially a long-term project) I dont have anything of value to say There are 55+ million blogs out there, Ill get lost in all the noise There are already though-leaders in my space and whatever other excuse you have ?? Seriously, you dont have to tell me why you cant or wont blog. I have a response for each of these excuses above I went through the same thing about a ten months ago, and took 3 weeks of hard thinking to finally decide to move forward with a blog. So in this post Im not going to respond to the ya buts, in fact, Im not even going to try and convince you to start your own blog! But check out this really cool, clever technique that I learned from my readers here on this blog. Its all about creating or expanding your online presence. First, create a LinkedIn profile and make sure the public profile is pretty complete (some public profiles have nothing in them, you have to login or connect with the person before you can see anything (think customer service if you make someone login they are likely to click away without learning about you)). Second, find blogs you like. I am starting to use BounceBase.com (its free) and saving my favorite blogs and topics. For example, Ill save the JibberJobber blog and Job Search as a topic. BounceBase is kind of unannounced right now but I have a good source there, and am using it right now (after trying a bunch of RSS readers this is more than an RSS reader). Third, find specific posts in that blog that you can intelligently comment on. Dont leave dumb comments like This is a great post. or something like that think of commenting on other peoples blogs as adding to the conversation, not patting the blogger on the back. Leaving an intelligent comment increases your credibility (think: personal branding) and will make others want to know more about you. Now, Ill be honest and tell you that I LOVE other bloggers leaving comments on my blog. There are reasons for that (has a lot to do with blog marketing (or personal vanity :)), I wont bore you with details). So it really is optimal if you have your own blog but the title of this post is how to blog without blogging, and Ive just let you in on the little secret ?? Bonus: here are some of the blogs that I recommend commenting on (you should have your own favorites depending on your level (executive, professional, small business owner, etc.) and industry): Kent Blumberg and/or David Maister if you are a CXO, concerned with leadership, etc. ServiceUntitled if you specialize in or care about customer service (um everyone that cares about customer service, raise your hand) Russell Page or Janet Meiners if you are involved in PR, marketing, etc. Mike Schaffner, Phil Windley or Jeff Barr if you are in IT (either strategic or techie) Adelino de Almeida if you are a marketing geek I think you get the point. Fastest way to get started go to BounceBase, choose Blog Search (on the left, in the drop down), and then type in a field, industry or whatever and start looking for blogs to comment on! Dont forget your LinkedIn public profile URL to leave on the comments! Note: Im going to leave a comment below so you can see what it looks like. How To Blog Without Blogging By now, you know I think you should have a blog. But I hear your issues: It is a big committment It takes time I dont have I cant take on one more project (especially a long-term project) I dont have anything of value to say There are 55+ million blogs out there, Ill get lost in all the noise There are already though-leaders in my space and whatever other excuse you have ?? Seriously, you dont have to tell me why you cant or wont blog. I have a response for each of these excuses above I went through the same thing about a ten months ago, and took 3 weeks of hard thinking to finally decide to move forward with a blog. So in this post Im not going to respond to the ya buts, in fact, Im not even going to try and convince you to start your own blog! But check out this really cool, clever technique that I learned from my readers here on this blog. Its all about creating or expanding your online presence. First, create a LinkedIn profile and make sure the public profile is pretty complete (some public profiles have nothing in them, you have to login or connect with the person before you can see anything (think customer service if you make someone login they are likely to click away without learning about you)). Second, find blogs you like. I am starting to use BounceBase.com (its free) and saving my favorite blogs and topics. For example, Ill save the JibberJobber blog and Job Search as a topic. BounceBase is kind of unannounced right now but I have a good source there, and am using it right now (after trying a bunch of RSS readers this is more than an RSS reader). Third, find specific posts in that blog that you can intelligently comment on. Dont leave dumb comments like This is a great post. or something like that think of commenting on other peoples blogs as adding to the conversation, not patting the blogger on the back. Leaving an intelligent comment increases your credibility (think: personal branding) and will make others want to know more about you. Now, Ill be honest and tell you that I LOVE other bloggers leaving comments on my blog. There are reasons for that (has a lot to do with blog marketing (or personal vanity :)), I wont bore you with details). So it really is optimal if you have your own blog but the title of this post is how to blog without blogging, and Ive just let you in on the little secret ?? Bonus: here are some of the blogs that I recommend commenting on (you should have your own favorites depending on your level (executive, professional, small business owner, etc.) and industry): Kent Blumberg and/or David Maister if you are a CXO, concerned with leadership, etc. ServiceUntitled if you specialize in or care about customer service (um everyone that cares about customer service, raise your hand) Russell Page or Janet Meiners if you are involved in PR, marketing, etc. Mike Schaffner, Phil Windley or Jeff Barr if you are in IT (either strategic or techie) Adelino de Almeida if you are a marketing geek I think you get the point. Fastest way to get started go to BounceBase, choose Blog Search (on the left, in the drop down), and then type in a field, industry or whatever and start looking for blogs to comment on! Dont forget your LinkedIn public profile URL to leave on the comments! Note: Im going to leave a comment below so you can see what it looks like. How To Blog Without Blogging By now, you know I think you should have a blog. But I hear your issues: It is a big committment It takes time I dont have I cant take on one more project (especially a long-term project) I dont have anything of value to say There are 55+ million blogs out there, Ill get lost in all the noise There are already though-leaders in my space and whatever other excuse you have ?? Seriously, you dont have to tell me why you cant or wont blog. I have a response for each of these excuses above I went through the same thing about a ten months ago, and took 3 weeks of hard thinking to finally decide to move forward with a blog. So in this post Im not going to respond to the ya buts, in fact, Im not even going to try and convince you to start your own blog! But check out this really cool, clever technique that I learned from my readers here on this blog. Its all about creating or expanding your online presence. First, create a LinkedIn profile and make sure the public profile is pretty complete (some public profiles have nothing in them, you have to login or connect with the person before you can see anything (think customer service if you make someone login they are likely to click away without learning about you)). Second, find blogs you like. I am starting to use BounceBase.com (its free) and saving my favorite blogs and topics. For example, Ill save the JibberJobber blog and Job Search as a topic. BounceBase is kind of unannounced right now but I have a good source there, and am using it right now (after trying a bunch of RSS readers this is more than an RSS reader). Third, find specific posts in that blog that you can intelligently comment on. Dont leave dumb comments like This is a great post. or something like that think of commenting on other peoples blogs as adding to the conversation, not patting the blogger on the back. Leaving an intelligent comment increases your credibility (think: personal branding) and will make others want to know more about you. Now, Ill be honest and tell you that I LOVE other bloggers leaving comments on my blog. There are reasons for that (has a lot to do with blog marketing (or personal vanity :)), I wont bore you with details). So it really is optimal if you have your own blog but the title of this post is how to blog without blogging, and Ive just let you in on the little secret ?? Bonus: here are some of the blogs that I recommend commenting on (you should have your own favorites depending on your level (executive, professional, small business owner, etc.) and industry): Kent Blumberg and/or David Maister if you are a CXO, concerned with leadership, etc. ServiceUntitled if you specialize in or care about customer service (um everyone that cares about customer service, raise your hand) Russell Page or Janet Meiners if you are involved in PR, marketing, etc. Mike Schaffner, Phil Windley or Jeff Barr if you are in IT (either strategic or techie) Adelino de Almeida if you are a marketing geek I think you get the point. Fastest way to get started go to BounceBase, choose Blog Search (on the left, in the drop down), and then type in a field, industry or whatever and start looking for blogs to comment on! Dont forget your LinkedIn public profile URL to leave on the comments! Note: Im going to leave a comment below so you can see what it looks like. How To Blog Without Blogging By now, you know I think you should have a blog. But I hear your issues: It is a big committment It takes time I dont have I cant take on one more project (especially a long-term project) I dont have anything of value to say There are 55+ million blogs out there, Ill get lost in all the noise There are already though-leaders in my space and whatever other excuse you have ?? Seriously, you dont have to tell me why you cant or wont blog. I have a response for each of these excuses above I went through the same thing about a ten months ago, and took 3 weeks of hard thinking to finally decide to move forward with a blog. So in this post Im not going to respond to the ya buts, in fact, Im not even going to try and convince you to start your own blog! But check out this really cool, clever technique that I learned from my readers here on this blog. Its all about creating or expanding your online presence. First, create a LinkedIn profile and make sure the public profile is pretty complete (some public profiles have nothing in them, you have to login or connect with the person before you can see anything (think customer service if you make someone login they are likely to click away without learning about you)). Second, find blogs you like. I am starting to use BounceBase.com (its free) and saving my favorite blogs and topics. For example, Ill save the JibberJobber blog and Job Search as a topic. BounceBase is kind of unannounced right now but I have a good source there, and am using it right now (after trying a bunch of RSS readers this is more than an RSS reader). Third, find specific posts in that blog that you can intelligently comment on. Dont leave dumb comments like This is a great post. or something like that think of commenting on other peoples blogs as adding to the conversation, not patting the blogger on the back. Leaving an intelligent comment increases your credibility (think: personal branding) and will make others want to know more about you. Now, Ill be honest and tell you that I LOVE other bloggers leaving comments on my blog. There are reasons for that (has a lot to do with blog marketing (or personal vanity :)), I wont bore you with details). So it really is optimal if you have your own blog but the title of this post is how to blog without blogging, and Ive just let you in on the little secret ?? Bonus: here are some of the blogs that I recommend commenting on (you should have your own favorites depending on your level (executive, professional, small business owner, etc.) and industry): Kent Blumberg and/or David Maister if you are a CXO, concerned with leadership, etc. ServiceUntitled if you specialize in or care about customer service (um everyone that cares about customer service, raise your hand) Russell Page or Janet Meiners if you are involved in PR, marketing, etc. Mike Schaffner, Phil Windley or Jeff Barr if you are in IT (either strategic or techie) Adelino de Almeida if you are a marketing geek I think you get the point. Fastest way to get started go to BounceBase, choose Blog Search (on the left, in the drop down), and then type in a field, industry or whatever and start looking for blogs to comment on! Dont forget your LinkedIn public profile URL to leave on the comments! Note: Im going to leave a comment below so you can see what it looks like.