I have  a day job, and part of my job is to support the Media groups for TVO. I am what they term an Infrastructure Specialist, I liken it to being a plumber. TVOKIDS.com is the house that everyone sees and has all the curb appeal. But who would want to live in a house with bad plumbing, not many people. In the past few months I have learned a great deal about Drupal and Flash, the two core technologies that the site was built with.

I am happy and proud to be part of the team that published such an impressive website. Over the past week, we have put in a few late nights and thus I have neglected my own blog. I just wanted share with this part of my world, what I accomplished in another part.

I obviously have a blog and this blog is a new blog, but I have been blogging off and on for almost 9 years now. I was blogging even before it was called blogging (my first real website was what they once called an E&N – everything and nothing running on the nuke CMS). I read this post today from Darren on ProBlogger and wanted to chime in with my own two cents on these heated issues found within the blogosphere .

1. RSS Feeds - Full vs Partial Feeds
   I say full feed. I plan to post only 3 times a week (post launch) and it seems stingy to me not to include a full feed. I try to ensure there are links in the post, like related articles that I hope the reader will use to visit the blog.
2. Comment Sections – Comments vs No Comments
   Comments. This helps site credibility (social proof) and Google gives juice to dynamic content. Google just knows and recognizes that that page has changed, it can’t tell who changed it, and the Google Bot loves change.
3. Post Frequency – Post More vs Post Less
   I am in the post less, but post quality camp. I am an awful editor of my own work and need more time to proof than I do to produce.
4. How Many Blogs? – Focus upon One Single Blog vs Having Many Smaller Blogs
   I would have to go with fewer, I am personally focusing on 2 and 1/2 sites at the moment. This blog, a more traditional web-site (sans blog), and my photo blog to help define my online brand.
5. Domain Names – long vs short, hyphens vs non hypens, .com vs other extensions (like .net, .org), local vs global domain extensions
   I am a no hyphen kind of guy, and I prefer something catchy, easily remembered is more important to me than short… and dot com when you can, dot net is a close 2nd, but there is no third place.
6. Hosting – hosted vs self hosted
   Websites are assets, to me, hosted means someone else owns my work.
7. Post Titles – descriptive vs keywords
   Descriptive, SEO only matters in sales, first you need to build trust and a readership before you can sell them.
8. Content – Link content vs Original content
   Original content… even if it is derived (like this one).
9. Paid Reviews – Happy to Write Paid Reviews vs Not Doing Paid Reviews
   Depends if it is in alignment with my over all brand and mission.
10. Design – Professional Design vs Templates
    Thesis, professionally skinned (so both)
11. Links to External Sources – Should Open in a New Page vs Should Open in the Same Page
    Same page, if I am doing my job the reader will come back.
12. Ownership – Use Social Media vs Build Your own properties
    Use social media to promote my own properties.
13. Post Length – Long in Depth Posts vs Short, Sharp Posts
    Pillar content long (1000 word plus), Short being nothing less than 400 words, with a target of 600 plus words as a rule.
14. Topic – Niche vs Broad Topics
    A healthy proportion of both to help build reader loyalty
15. Dating Posts – Dates on Posts vs Non Dated
    This to me is a dodge to hide a stale blog from new readers. Post a schedule and keep the schedule. If you have dates it gives proof that the blog is up and healthy.
16. Blogger Name – Anonymous blogging vs Using Your Name
    Depends on the style of the blog, that to me is a statement of personal branding.
17. Subscribers – RSS is Best vs Email is Best
    I have no opinion but I feel that email is easier to make money from.
18. SEO – Writing for Search Engines vs Writing for Humans
    Humans
19. Personal Blogging – Sticking to Topic vs Injecting Personality and Personal details
    This to me is another statement of personal branding. Both answers are right depending on the style of the blog.
20. Comment Moderation – Highly Regulated and Moderated vs Anything Goes
    Another statement of branding, but as long as the comments are not personal attacks and are reasonably on topic… anything goes.
21. Social Media vs Search – focus upon social media rather than search engines as traffic sources
    I think you can’t choose just one anymore. If you don’t have a social media presence, it is beginning to hurt your credibility as a blogger.
22. LinkBait – Anything goes (e.g.. Personal Attacks) vs Strong Boundaries Around What is and Isn’t Acceptable
    Short of personal attacks… anything goes.
23. Bloggers Participation in Comments – Respond to Every Single Comment vs Let Readers Talk to Each Other and Don’t Interact
    Middle of the road on this one.
24. Blog Platforms – WordPress vs ((Insert Other Platforms Here))
    I use Drupal at work (day job) and WordPress for anything I want to get done for myself.
25. Monetization – Blogs Should Be Monetized vs Blogs Should Never Be Monetized
    I think focusing on monetization to early will spoil your content and hurt credibility. But having a post a week with some strong affiliate product will pay dividends as your readership increases.
26. Affiliate Disclosure – Disclose every affiliate link vs Site Wide Disclosure vs No Disclosure
    Site Wide.
27. When To Start Monetizing – From Day 1 vs Once You Have an Audience
    Day one, you should have a plan, but your plan may not to start monetizing until you cross a threshold of lets say 1000 subscriptions.
    
28. Text Links – To Sell them vs Not Selling Them
    Nope, not going to do it.
29. Outsourcing – Outsourcing content (or other aspects of blogging) vs producing your own.
    No problem as long as the editorial style and quality is not hurt by it. The should be one perceived voice.

photo credit: martinhoward

Internet & Tacos

Have you dreamed of being able to live and work anywhere you want to? What about traveling the world while earning a living with just a laptop and an Internet connection? Such is the life of a digital nomad.

If you’ve ever thought of becoming a digital nomad, I have, here are 5 photos that use to help inspire me to take the next steps.

Where are all these photos from? They’re all licensed under Creative Commons and sourced from the amazing artists who contribute to Flickr.

Just click on the image to see the larger version.

• Internet & Tacos by lecates
• December sand by ~jjjohn~
• I’ve reached the end of the world by Stuck in Customs
• wham:a different corner by visualpanic
• Alone by Giorgio Montersino

December Sand

I’ve reached the end of the world

wham:a different corner

Alone

The second month of my blog has gone well. I have posted once a day and I am actively commenting on at least three blogs a day, and have progressed from MOZ rank of 2 to 3, and have a Technorati authority of 91 and after two months already rank by Alexa in the top 1.3% of all websites. My inbound links went from 1 to 106. Twenty-two more months to go in my plan for world (blog) domination within my niche (social media and personal branding).

Blog

• Visits: previous (March) 749, last month (April) 2045
• Absolute Unique Visitors: previous (March) 364, last month (April) 1,578
• Pageviews: previous (March) 3,955, last month (April) 5,555
• Average Pageviews Per Visit: previous (March) 5.28, last month (April) 2.72
• Time on Site: previous (March) 00:06:46, last month (April) 3:00
• Bounce Rate: previous (March) 50.07%, last month (April) 67.92
• Google Page Rank: previous (March) Not Ranked Yet, last month (April) 4
• Website Grade: previous (March) 73, last month (April) 96
• Moz Rank: previous (March) 2, last month (April) 3
• Google Indexed Pages: previous (March) 157, last month (April) 256
• Technorati: previous (March) Not Ranked Yet, last month (April) 91
• Traffic Rank: previous (March) 736,737, last month (April) 412,516
• Blog Grade: previous (March) 69, last month (April) 85
• Inbound Links: previous (March) 1, last month (April) 106
• RSS Subscribers: previous (March) 57, last month (April) 105
• Email Subscribers: N/A, last month (April) 2

Social Media

• Twitter Grade : previous (March) 83.59, last month (April) 95.33
• Twitter Grade Rank:
  previous (March) 1,084,400 out of 6,670,342,
  last month (April) 323,859 out of 6,855,187
• Twitter Followers: previous (March) 147, last month (April) 595
• Twitter Following: previous (March) 273, last month (April) 258
• Twitter Updates: previous (March) 205, last month (April) 449
• LinkedIn Contacts: previous (March) 57, last month (April) 102
• Facebook Friends: previous (March) 924, last month (April) 948
• Facebook Fans: previous (March) 41, last month (April) 48

Google Volume Level

• Page 1: previous (March) 3, last month (April) 3
• Page 2: previous (March) 3, last month (April) 3
• Page 3: previous (March) 3, last month (April) 1
• Result count: previous (March) 1,780,000, last month (April) 2,230,000
• Over all Volume Number: previous (March) 534,000, last month (April) 520,333

photo credit: jhritz

( A re-post from my old personal blog  December 9, 2008 | It reminds me where I was, and where I want to be again… soon )

The words below have helped me cut through many meaningless boughts of deliberation and rationalization.

Some people fear uncertainty and would rather live a un-happy stationary existence, than to walk down a path that has a uncertain outcome.

The path my life is currently fallowing is filled with uncertainty. In the last six months (since I started my travels) I have made more mistakes than I have made success. I have learned more about myself and my place in this world than I have in the entirety of my lifetime before my departure from my previous path filled with all of its certainty and security.

I have never been happier.

I have not learned to live life without fear, but I have learned not to fear life.

—

“I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.

You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.

You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.

Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.

And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

You died when you refused to stand up for right.

You died when you refused to stand up for truth.

You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the sermon “But, If Not” delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church on November 5, 1967.

The only people who change the world are the people who want to.

And not everyone wants to.

People have this thing I call the “Dissatisfaction Gene”. It’s this little part of the human psyche that makes a person utterly dissatisfied with their spot in life, no matter how successful they have been.

This gene is there for a reason. Back in the early days when dinosaurs still ruled the earth being dissatisfied is what motivated us to get out of the cave and go hunting, so we would have something to eat for supper. It’s a survival mechanism. Damn useful then, damn useful now.

This “Dissatisfaction Gene” is primal. Wanting to change the world is primal.

When I am thinking about this blog, or helping one of my clients at work; the fact is I am just getting out of the cave and killing something for dinner.

Your job ether lets you go hunt or it doesn’t. Of course, like so many white-collar jobs these days, you might have been offered a lot of money to sit in the corner-office cave and pretend you’re hunting, pretend that you’re making a difference.

Are you making a difference?

How are you changing the world?

photo credit: kevindooley

They say the average person holds between 5 and 15 jobs in a lifetime. I have had 9 jobs and 11 business cards thus far in my career. I don’t know if it is funny or  sad that the last 21 years of my (work) life can be summarized in  in 11 simple pieces of paper.

I can see over the coming months and years having many more, with a few jobs being performed in parallel; all depending on what muse I am representing at that moment.

I can easily predict having 10-15 more jobs in the next 10 years alone, if I do it right 3 – 4 in the next year alone all comfortably co-existing with one another (hopefully).

–
photo credit: thinkpublic

Since witting the post “5 things I wish I had known 20 years ago”, I have been been thinking about what I learned in school, and have concluded most of my skills that are vital to my success were never even taught there! To be frank, the most valuable skill I learned in University was how to talk to girls, a critical life skill for happiness, but not what I was really there for.

Much of University gave me a real disdain for education. It made learning for me a very negative experience. I got through it (sort of, I never graduated) but it wasn’t until after school that my education really began.

So what do I think are the top 5 skills that should be taught to every man, woman, and child?

1. How To Network
   For a skill so essential to success that affects every area of your life: from dating, to family, to work. It’s truly amazing how little people know about this skill. Most people think that some people were just born with it and the rest of us were out of luck.

   There is great power in knowing you can reach out to your network whenever you have a problem to solve, to be able to reach key influencers at conferences and meetings, to make an impression on audiences, to project confidence and trustworthiness, and to make friends with other successful people.

   The shy folks lurking in the corners at cocktails parties will never reach their full potential as human beings because our school system didn’t place enough value on “being social”. George W. Bush Jr. is an idiot, and barely graduated from Princeton, but he knows how to network, and look where that got him.

2. Time Management
   Our school system doesn’t feel that this is worth teaching, but call me crazy, I think it’s important. The research that has come out lately is groundbreaking…everything from eliminating multi-tasking, using blocks of uninterrupted time where phone and email are turned off, prioritized to-do lists, urgent but unimportant vs. non-urgent but important tasks, etc.

   If you have ever found yourself being busy all day only feeling you have accomplished nothing at the end of it, then you need to learn this stuff. Understanding productivity will give you such an advantage over other people, it won’t even seem fair.

3. How to  not get taken advantage of (how to negotiate and use contracts).
   If you want to accomplish anything of significance you’re going to have to work with other people. Whether its contractors, outsourcing, employees, etc…there is an art to structuring contracts with people, knowing how to find good talent, measuring results, knowing even how to fire them, and not getting completely taken advantage of in the process. School teaches you none of this and most people have to learn it the hard way through the school hard knocks by get taken advantage of several times.

4. How to save and invest
   Robert Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad Poor Dad) is fond of saying that the rich teach their children how to read financial statements and the poor do not. Most people are never taught how to build wealth, which is why we have a nation in credit card debt. Moreover, they are never taught the power of passive income streams and how to really break free from the rat race of working 9-to-5. Tim Ferris’s book “The Four Hour Work Week” should never been received as such a ground breaking and thought provoking piece of work.

5. How to be successful in life
   Sounds sort of broad, doesn’t it? Yet some people have devoted a lifetime to understanding what makes people happy and successful. There are the big three: health, wealth, and relationships. People need to find what they really want to do with their life (something few of us ever really think about, we may consider career, but few look at all three and really understand how they work in concert). We need to figure out how to do scary things that would be good for us, break bad habits, how to let go of bad things in the past, etc. There is a lot to learn here!

Conclusion

I think its up to each of us to take care of our own education. That means reading, finding mentors, going to conferences, and of course blogs are a great resource.

What did you miss out on in school that you wish you had learned?

–
photo credit: pnoeric

I am now forty something years old, I have won more than I have lost, and I hope that I have given more than I have taken. I am not a believer in regrets, but if you don’t have any, I believe you really have not lived enough. I have tried to learn from every mistake and I think my life today is pretty awesome.

Lately I have been spending a lot of time in a online neighborhood known as Brazen Careerist. This community is geared toward Gen-Y, but there are a few Gen-X and even some Boomers poking about this social-network. My tour of Brazen and my interaction recently with these twenty something’s has left me wondering about what things I would have loved to have known twenty years ago, when I was just starting out.

Having known these things would I have changed things?

Really I am not so sure.

I might not have gotten into debt, but then I wouldn’t have learned the amazing satisfaction of getting out of it. I might not have gotten married, but then I wouldn’t have my daughter.

“Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” – Mark Twain

However, looking back there are some lessons that I would have loved to tell myself at twenty something. I don’t think I would have listened though, because back then I thought I knew everything.

1. All that stuff that’s stressing you out — it won’t matter in five years, let alone twenty. When things are happening, they mean all the world. I had deadlines and projects and people breathing down my neck, and my stress levels went through the roof. I don’t regret the hard work but I think I would have been less stressed if I could have just realized that it wouldn’t matter one bit in a few weeks let alone months and years down the road. Perspective is a good thing to learn.
2. The people you make friends with are so much more important than your job or the things you buy. I’ve had a few jobs, I’ve bought a lot of things, and I’ve made a few friends over these last two decades. Of those things the only thing I have today that still matter to me are my friends. I wish I could have spent more time with them than on the other things.
3. All that time you spend watching TV is a huge, huge waste of time. I don’t know how much TV I’ve watched over the years, but these hours, days and weeks I’ll never have back. Who cares what is happening on reality TV when reality is slipping by outside?
4. Your children are going to grow up way faster than you think. Don’t waste a minute. My daughter, is going to be 17 in a few short weeks (May 21^st). In just over 1 year she becomes an adult. My time with my daughter as a child has gone by much too fast.
5. Focus on being happy. There have been many things that have happened to me, professionally and personally, that seem like the end of the world. While these things were bad, they did get blown out of proportion in my head so that they became major drama. They caused me to be depressed. If I had realized that it was all in my head, and that I could be happy, if I just focused on the positive, focused on what I still had and what I could be doing … I could have skipped allot of unhappy, unproductive mopping around.

“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming ~ “WOO HOO, what a ride!” — Author Unknown

I think there are times when the idea of being with someone (in a relationship) seems nice. Then I watch people who are in relationships. I see them tolerate all sorts of crap from each other. I see how sick of making compromises each of them are. I see them roll their eyes and make faces behind each others back.

I am good at being single. I utilize my time alone and rarely get lonely. I have a awesome set of friends who never let things get dull, and I always have something going on.

I don’t think many people consider the sacrifices that they have to make to be in a relationship. Girls just watch too many ‘chick flicks’ and guys get lost in the idea of regular sex. I think most people devalue the benefits of living the single life, fear it and even pity those of us who are living it.

I have been single for over 10 years, with a few moments of faltering judgment here and there. I know something very important: These years are rare and need to be exploited. I know I will find someone at some point.

So the real question is how do I spend the time I have alone?

While I am single do I grasp everything I can out of the experience, do I do everything that I can to enjoy the freedom I have?

I am good at being single because I don’t get lonely. I think lonely people are unhappy because they are unaware of themselves; they need someone around to tell them how to feel good about themselves and what they have done with their lives. This is the person that becomes clingy and co-dependent in a relationship. I am good at being single because I know exactly what kind of girl it will take for me to be ok with making compromises for (long term, no faces behind her back). Remember everybody is willing to make short term compromises to have sex.

I am perfectly happy being alone till I trip over the right girl. When that moment comes, after she helps me up and apologizes for tripping me; not that it would be her fault because I probably didn’t see her standing right in front of me. That will be the girl I will think ‘a life with’, is better than the life I am already living.

The New Rich: A phrase you may have heard before, but many have not. It is a phrase possibly coined by Tim Ferris in his best selling book “The 4 Hour Workweek”. If you have read the book, then you know exactly what I am referring to. If you have not read the book, let me take a minute of your time and explain the general concept.

The New Rich is a group of people that are abandoning the typical “workplace mindset”. What is the typical “workplace mindset”: working 9-5, 40ty hours a week with two weeks vacation a year. A life deferring model, existing and contributing to a plan that defers the big life affirming payout until you eventually retire at age 55 or beyond. This “workplace mindset” defines wealth by the acquisition of things and money for the sake of money and things. The people who live to this ethic tend to appreciate work for the sake of work and value those who look busy but are not necessarily productive. The New Rich define wealth as the sum of two parts: Time and Mobility. The new rich can work anywhere at anytime, mostly just needing a cell phone, laptop and internet access to carry on their “business”. They make only enough money to accomplish what is necessary to live in the moment. They look at retirement savings as an insurance policy or tax shelter to mitigate the risk of someday not being healthy enough to work.

Tim did an excellent job on the “The 4 Hour Workweek”. The principles of the new rich shook the foundation of conventional thinking about how business should and could be done. He took concepts that had been around for years and brought them into the main stream. One of things Tim principles for the New Rich is the concept of Mini-Retirement. The base concept is simple, taking many smaller breaks through out your lifetime.

Retirement versus Mini-Retirement

Most people who have the “workplace mindset” plan to work hard for 20-30 years, save enough, and retire for another 20-30 years. Some extraordinary people are able to shorten the first phase – the accumulation phase to a shorter period of time, 5-10 years. This happens a lot in the Silicon Valley, where young energetic entrepreneur starts with a wild idea. He then materializes his idea, gets millions of funding from venture capitalists, then lists his company for a public offering, finally cash out for an early retirement.

Life Phase

The New Rich have a whole new set of rules and perception around the concept of retirement.

Instead of planning your retirement, this new rich plan on having regular mini-retirement spread out throughout their lifetimes. They chop up the time line, making each phase a lot shorter and cyclical. Instead of going through 20-30 years of the accumulation phase, they cut it shorter to becoming 3-4 months, or even 3-4  days. They may even work for two days, and œretire for five in any given week. They may work eight months, and then travel for the remaining four months of a year. This is the concept of mini-retirement.

Those of the “workplace mindset” often view retirement as the end-all, be-all objective, where you realize all the dreams you have been deferring for 50ty or 60ty years. The new rich view retirement as a necessity that should be enjoyed at present, not postponed until the future. The new rich are those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the before mentioned currency of the new rich: time and mobility.

Income Relativity

The currency of the new rich is: time and mobility. Relative income is the key to the valuation of this currency.

For example, Mr.A works 50 hours a week with a monthly salary of $5,000. Meanwhile, Mr. N works 10 hours a week but he only paid $2,000 a month. Who is making more money? If you compare only the absolute figure, Mr. A is making more money. In terms of relative income, we would need to calculate the hourly income of Mr. A is making $25/hour ($5000 / 50 hour weeks * 4 weeks in a month ), while Mr. N is $50/hour ( $2,000 / 10 hour weeks * 4 weeks in a month). Apparently, Mr. N is making more money with his time. As long as Mr. N is making enough money to sustain his lifestyle he has more time to pursue what is important to him, using the shortest amount of time to earn the income he needs.

Use the shortest time to earn the income you need

Surfing around the internet I found myself a prime example of a new rich success story. A British couple bought a sailing boat and travel around the world. They even had two children in Malaysia. How do they sustain their daily living expenses? They have a house back in England that they rent out for regular rental income . The husband does some day trading via the Internet. They all have lived for several years on the sailboat. I would say that they are technically retired. They might have a very small home (the sailboat), but a very large swimming pool (the ocean).

photo credit: ronnie44052

Being location independent is a concept, a lifestyle and a mindset.

It’s a lifestyle based on the freedom to choose. Whether you choose to live a nomadic life, you want to spend more time at home with the kids, move to an exotic location or you simply want to be able to work from the coffee shop down the road, the location independent lifestyle gives you the freedom to choose a lifestyle that works for you.

Location independence is a growing trend among knowledge workers that has been popularized by blogs like Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Workweek blog, LocationIndependent.com, Workshifting. A location independent professional or digital nomad is someone who leverages technology and the internet to work wherever they want. These nomadic entrepreneurs use their laptops, cell phones and a positive open attitude ,  to earn an income wherever they live or travel.

Location independent professionals frequently work as freelance writers, photographers, affiliate marketers, web designers, developers, graphic designers, and sometimes they simply pick up odd jobs as they go. Social media makes it much easier for anyone with enough motivation to share their ideas with a global audience and build a successful business these days, and with the increasing availability of free and cheap wifi internet access all around the globe, it’s becoming increasingly possible for anyone to work and vagabond their way around the globe simultaneously!

photo credit: Seattle Miles

I am member of Generation X, and I believe from many perspectives that the tools of Social-Media and the communities being created within the Social Networks like Brazen Careerist are elevating individuals who “get it” to the status of Linchpin within this new connected world of ours. Generation Y “get it” more than X and the Boomers combined. Brazen is a place where a multitude of young Generation Y adults who care about changing the world, turning their passions into careers, and advancing themselves congregate. It was co-founded by Penelope Trunk, a well-known author and columnist in the area of careers, along with Ryan Healy and Ryan Paugh.

Brazen Careerist is all-out social network, focused on flipping the conventional wisdom surrounding the resume by focusing on “idea feeds.”

While you’ll find general information – followers, following, groups, interests, social media accounts, etc. – what makes Brazen different is the Ideas Stream and their unique concept of the Social Resume.

The Social Resume is a one-of-a-kind, interactive showcase of an individuals top ideas. A resume reads like a eulogy of a person’s past, where top ideas are discussion points of current perspectives and aspirations. A social resume, lets an individual organize their most important thoughts so employers, colleagues and friends don’t forget just how smart they really are.

I am learning a great deal from these millennials and highly recommend this community to anyone from any age group.

–

If you are already a member of Brazen, why don’t you promote it on your blog or website?

Here are 8 badges to link back to your profile, courtesy of Brazen:

http://www.brazencareerist.com/sites/default/files/images/bc_badge8.preview.png

http://www.brazencareerist.com/sites/default/files/images/bc_badge7.preview.png

http://www.brazencareerist.com/sites/default/files/images/bc_badge6.preview.png

http://www.brazencareerist.com/sites/default/files/images/bc_badge5.preview.png

http://www.brazencareerist.com/sites/default/files/images/bc_badge4.preview.png

http://www.brazencareerist.com/sites/default/files/images/bc_badge3.preview.png

http://www.brazencareerist.com/sites/default/files/images/bc_badge2.preview.png

http://www.brazencareerist.com/sites/default/files/images/bc_badge1.preview.png

I have been stating indirectly that the social-media and social-search is the future for finding work, be it as an employee, contractor or business owner operator. People, recruiters, companies are going to source people and people supplied services via the web of interconnected people online. When it comes to getting your next job (ok maybe not your next job if you’re looking in the next 12 months but the one after that for sure), the resume is a relic and your blog is the future. You won’t be able to give someone a piece of paper that will say enough about your current voice. A resume reads like a eulogy outlining what you have done in the past, but the format gives very little room to talk about what you’re thinking about today and where you are going tomorrow.

Here are 10 more reasons Why Having A Blog Matters More Than Ever

1. Correct traditional media – is something that was written or reported about you (or your company) wrong? Well, because of Blogging you can set the record straight.
2. Search - as powerful as Universal Search will be in the coming years, human beings will still always search for content using text. Search Engines love Blogs. Having your content available and present when someone is doing a search with your keywords is critical, and will become even more important in the coming years as more and more Consumers first brand interactions happen at the search box.
3. Empowers people to respond - we love Blogs because people can leave a comment or link back to your thoughts. The medium is one that not only encourages people to respond, it was built with that as one of its core purposes.
4. Very niche segments – It is amazing that there are multiple places where you can get perspectives on Personal Branding and Social Media like this Blog? The power is not in producing a Blog that had wide mass appeal. The power is in creating a Blog that has niche appeal. Then, all of the Blogs combined make up a mass amount of content that has appeal to all.
5. What you’re saying isn’t half as cool as what people are saying back – Your Blog acts as a spark to the conversation. So, if you’re Blogging for Business or as a Marketing tool, the real “win” is your ability to hear what’s coming back and helps make you better person if you listen.
6. The signal to noise ratio is worthwhile – sure, most of the comments and feedback you get are self-serving, but there will always be a handful that are insightful, thoughtful and will change your previous conceived perceptions.
7. Community can help you solve problems – this needs no explanation. By constantly providing insights and a platform for communication, there is now a community of people who are ready, willing and able to help and contribute.
8. It’s all about honesty – honesty brings success. The more honest you are, the better the Blog is. I believe this to be one of the major reasons why the Blogs I love most are the ones that are not relying on third-party advertising or major industry support.
9. Legacy - Whatever you Blog about becomes part of our global and collective history. It’s out there forever. While that will scare some, I think it’s one of the coolest things ever. It forces me to think long and hard about what I’m going to post and, more importantly, how that post is going to look in two-three years time.
10. Blog = Personal Brand – it’s your channel to get your message out. It is how people will see you. It is what people will think about when they hear your name.

photo credit: Annie Mole

I was participating in a discussion today on Brazen Careerist about privacy concerns with regard to resumes posted online with or without proper email address or phone numbers. In this debate I quoted a related post by Dan Schawbel on his Personal Branding Blog that discusses among other things the lack of privacy over personal data on Facebook.

This discussion was very interesting on many fronts. It highlighted many different places people could be on the spectrum of the amount of personal information people are willing to share online. I look at myself on the far side of the spectrum of information sharing. I like to think of myself, as what is termed by Chris Brogan in his book Trust Agents (co-written with Julien Smith) a Digital Native.

Digital Natives, are people like myself that have become accustomed to a new level of personal transparency. I operate online and off with the assumption that everything I do, say or write will eventually be known online and tied to me through Google. I realize that I can hide anything, and this choose not to try. Instead I leverage the way the Web connects me to everyone and all of our information is intertwined and linked. I look at my comfort with personal transparency as an asset for myself and the personal and professional relationships I have. I believe transparency leads to trust and consistency in all my relationships.

As a result of this debate I conducted a little experiment to prove my point that we are all out there (on the Web), if we like it, or not.

(a portion of a comment I made on Brazen )

I just did an interesting experiment, I just Goggled my various email addresses over the years, then my current phone number. They were all linked to my name, and then I Goggled my current address to see if it was linked also. It was. Then I tried my 74 year old father’s phone number and address who has never had a web page or a social-media account of any kind, ever… bingo. In my vanity search of my father, I also discovered a link to a debate in the Saskatchewan legislature over my Father’s salary from June, 1988, and a few press releases about him from the 80tys and 90tys… I found that cool, I don’t think he would, he thinks this sort of stuff is big brother. It is now, just the way it is… Google is “Big Brother”.

Just look up Richard within the PDF:

Can the minister responsible confirm that the new president and chief executive officer of Develcon, whose name is Richard MacPherson, has been given an employment contract which sees him collect the following: a base salary of $150,000 a year; a minimum $75,000 a year bonus; a minimum salary of $225,000 a year; plus $50,000 in relocation costs and a Cadillac with all expenses paid and up to $50,000 for leaving his former employment early, and a $225,000 severance package — all this to head a company which receives $7 million in taxpayers’ money from SEDCO (Saskatchewan Economic Development Corporation) and then turned around and laid off 32 employees. Is this in fact, Mr. Minister, the compensation package signed between Develcon and Mr. MacPherson, and how in the world can that be justified.

( a portion of another comment I made on Brazen)

I was really surprised on how much information I could find about my Dad. I have searched myself often, but never thought to search my Dad, because I thought I would not find anything. He has been retired for over a decade and is so so paranoid about being “out there”. He is not out there deliberately, but he is out there.

photo credit: bennylin0724