Had an interesting conversation with Mike O’Brien and Nick Jimenez at climber.com a few days ago and when I asked them how I can improve my blog, they said ‘transparency’. They wanted to know why I blog — so here it is:
Why do I blog?
- My primary motivation is that our DiversityJobs.com
customers are job boards and I believe that it’s better in the long run to develop an
audience than pay for advertising. Later this year, we will also launch a new similar project. However, if reaching potential
customers were the only benefit, I probably would not blog because nothing is quite so effective as telesales.
- But blogging is also a useful way for me to organize, process and share important information with my team.
- It also helps me build relationships in the job board industry. I missed the
train a couple times in my Internet career which I attribute to working
like a hermit. So I am also compensating for earlier
mistakes.
- I experiment here with search engine optimization. Don’t think I have learned much other than ‘it’s not easy’ but I keep trying.
- If I ever want to teach a class or write a book, the raw material is waiting for me here.
- Someday, I hope a reader passionate about job boards will want to work for my company. It’s also useful information, when I am interviewing a candidate to know if they have found my blog or not.
- And then there is this:
All paths are the same,
they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In
my own life I could say I have traversed long, long paths, but I am not
anywhere. My benefactor’s question has meaning now. "Does this path have a
heart?" One makes you strong; the other weakens you.The trouble is nobody
asks the question: and when a person finally realizes that they have taken a
path without heart, the path is ready to kill them. At that point very few
people stop to deliberate and leave the path.A path without a heart is
never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a
path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it.For my part there is only
the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I
travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length.And there I travel
looking, looking, breathlessly.-Carlos Castaneda
I’m on a path with a heart and enjoy talking about it.
{ 3 comments }
Good post Eric. Insightful and honest. I for one enjoy your blog and I’m glad you’re blogging. Keep it up. -Rick
** es ** Thank you Rick! I forgot to mention another important reason for blogging — just the fact that you and other top job boarders like Rony read me is almost motivation enough, lol. It’s a bit circular, but true.
I couldn’t really respond better than "insightful and honest". I dropped the ball with a growing internet project a while back which I am trying to revive and recently had some completely unexpected events that have unfortunately set me back a bit. I read a post like this and it reminds me of why I keep plugging along. One thing I know for sure, I am always on a path with heart. Again … great post!
** es ** thank you Amy and great work with MountainJobs.com! I’m glad you wrote because I am looking for job boards with blogs right now.
Thank you Eric. I think it can be challenging to write a blog for business at times … sharing opinions to keep it interesting without turning off the employers and/or job seekers you are trying to help… balance(not sure if I explained that right). The market I am dealing with is quite different than the city market I recruited in years ago. This is all about lifestyle. Although Boulder is a city, I am sure you get a taste of this concept there. My experience has shown that if they don’t love the lifestyle, they are not even going to like the job … not worth the move. It is definitely a fun challenge working on building this network. Thanks again.