Your Voices

This is a call to all those out there who are intentionally silent or just don't know better.

It is surprising just how many people do not understand what a blog is or how easy it is to start one. It is not surprising, however, the number of blogs popping up everywhere. You can start a blog for free, using any number of tools: Blogger, WordPress, Tumbler, LiveJournal, and the list goes on. They each have their limitations and benefits at the free level, but for starting out, most of them will easily do the job.

Ok, so about this Blog thing. What exactly is a blog? The short answer goes something like this: it's a place for you to speak to the world. I know that is pretty broad. Think of it as your personal newspaper column, your very own magazine, or maybe your public diary. It really is anything you want it to be. On your blog, you can share your thoughts, your knowledge, and your ideas. You can speak your opinions or share your faith. You can share pictures, website links, music, software code, recipes, videos, or whatever else you can think of. The neat thing is you don't have to answer to a boss. Your blog posts can be daily, weekly, monthly, or anything in-between. They can be short one-liners or book length(although I would discourage extremely lengthy blog posts). Think of all the things you could be sharing with the world.

So what are the benefits of blogging? The greatest benefit is networking. By blogging, you attract people with similar interests. You build a community of people who want to talk about the things you are interested in. You get ideas from other people. You contribute to the knowledge of others. Simply put, you make your mark on the world. After a while, blogging can even become an earning opportunity. If you have a product to sell, a blog would be a good way to promote your product through community involvement. Or, you can sell advertisement space on your blog. Either way, it takes some time to get to that point.

I'll discuss more about blogs in later posts, but in the mean time, get out there and get started blogging. Please share your experiences below in the comments.

REWORK by 37signals

I have thoroughly enjoyed, on multiple occasions, reading Getting Real by 37signals as well as following their blog, Signal vs. Noise. Their simplistic views on business and life in general are easy to understand and just plain make sense. I am certain that their new book, REWORK, will match and exceed the simplicity and usefulness of their other works.

Go check out a writeup and excerpts from the book courtesy of Tim Ferriss.