//pearmarketinggroup.com/Pear/Blog/Blog.html iWeb 1.1.1 //pearmarketinggroup.com/Pear/Blog/Blog_files/image.png //pearmarketinggroup.com/Pear/Blog/Blog.html //pearmarketinggroup.com/Pear/Blog/5D548002-A142-4A55-BD02-25BCA9099612.html //pearmarketinggroup.com/Pear/Blog/5D548002-A142-4A55-BD02-25BCA9099612.html Fri, 21 Apr 2006 07:38:23 -0700 While blogging is an ever evolving medium, there are a number of good and bad practices I’ve seen since I first blogged five years ago. Whether you blog for work or just for pleasure, I believe these concepts will help any blogger have a more enjoyable time and attain whatever success they are striving to achieve.  The Three Rules I have three general rules for blogging. I think they are critical, and I find them lacking across large portions of blogs out there. These rules are: Authority Credibility Integrity Each one of these rules is so tightly tied together, that a good blogger simply must have all of them if they plan to survive over the long haul. Remember that what you write is out there forever. Authority, or why are you qualified to blog on a certain topic? Let’s look at the example of technology. You don’t have to be a hard core programmer to talk about technology. Plenty of great technologies have been created by people who couldn’t decipher a single line of code. However, if you choose to talk about this space, you should be able to back it up with some type of authority. This includes a bio or background.  I see a lot of bloggers who take up a cause and espouse on the value of this or that, and yet they have either no background in the subject, or even worse, provide no bio. If you are going to proclaim any type of commentary that borders on a professional opinion, you should absolutely provide some type of bio on your blog. Anyone can comment on practically anything, but at least tell me a little bit about who you are. --- Credibility or why should people believe me? Credibility is earned. It is backed up with facts and deliverables. It means you have a track record where you can say: “I deliver on my promises.”  There are two ways to gain credibility.  One, deliver what you say you will.  Two, if you aren’t sure you can deliver something, don’t make any promises. One of the main issues with credibility is that if you aren’t living up to your part of the bargain, then you shouldn’t go out in the sphere and be overly vocal. Stick your neck out too far, and some snarky person in the sphere is gonna chop it in two. And then lookout...everyone likes a good dogpile. Think about this especially if you are devising a corporate blogging strategy. While it is important to have a voice, be careful when using it too much, or it will fall on deaf ears. Integrity The dictionary defines this as: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness When you blog about something, you need to be fair, upright, and also be willing to disclose any possible conflicts of interests or biases. In addition, having the other two components of authority and credibility lend to your integrity as a blogger.  //pearmarketinggroup.com/Pear/Blog/6EDFA2E6-56E9-4533-8538-D1E776A9362B.html //pearmarketinggroup.com/Pear/Blog/6EDFA2E6-56E9-4533-8538-D1E776A9362B.html Thu, 6 Apr 2006 16:21:29 -0700 So why create a peer marketing company? Well since I was laid-off of my last position as Marketing Manager/Community Liaison of Feedster, I’ve had a number of companies approach me about reaching the blogosphere for marketing purposes. However, there is a right way to approach this and a wrong way...and the idea of manipulating bloggers didn’t appeal to me. After a lot of thought, I came to the conclusion that you could build effective pr/marketing services that worked with bloggers in a way that builds strong, trusting relationships between people and companies. Part of this is teaching companies to be good citizens of the blogosphere. The other part is listening to what people want and simply responding to their needs. I’ll be posting my thoughts on this experiment as I go along...so stay tuned. -Alan