Actually these are items 1 and 2 on my list of goals – but as I live in a rural part of Ireland, quite attainable!

BTW, thanks for that tip about StumbleUpon; they sent me 153 visitors yesterday. Although those visitors didn’t stay long, I can say it’s definitely a good tool for new bloggers who want to get their posts in front of some people. It’s probably a good tool for established bloggers too, since they can easily get lots of stumbles.

Thanks alot for the mention….I would have commented sooner, but I have been preoccupied recently and have not been keeping up with my feeds.

Good job spreading the word about the importance of things like blogging and personal branding, etc. The ‘early adopters’ of these things will be in the best position to succeed in the coming years.

Keep up the great writing!

Conrad Hees’s last blog post..Differentiation and The Blogosphere

@ Catherine, those of us who work in an office also have difficulty meeting like-minded people! Of course, for every person we know, we almost certainly are like-minded in some areas, but we might not even figure this out because we just know someone as “the sales guy” or “the database gal.” Blogging makes it easier to connect with “the SEO guy” or “the world traveler gal,” or whatever kind of person you need.

@ Ian, that’s great that you’ve been able to use your blog to differentiate yourself so effectively. That post you linked to is a good one. He’s definitely right about deciding on a blog’s purpose up front, instead of doing it just to keep up with the Joneses.

That’s a great article. And a sagely forecast.

Especially in business, I think at the moment it’s a fantastic differentiator. I can’t comment very scientifically, but we have fewer than 100 small business clients.

Not one of them currently has a blog (and I checked a couple of weeks back).

Now our blog is relatively new. Less than 6 months old.

But it’s delivering. The language is different. We’re talking a little less formally.

We’re being ourselves. We’re self-deprecating. In short, we decided to get rid of the corporate-speak and produce a blog/site that tells it as it is.

We poke fun at ourselves in the About Us section.

And do you know what? We’re growing as a result. We’re in the low-volume game. So every new client is worth an awful lot to us.

I read a blog post today and I think it’s one you should take a look at. It’s by a guy called Mark White who is on a similar crusade – to persuade small businesses that a blog is pretty important tool nowadays.

Please take a peek – I think it echoes alot of what you say – Cath/Barbara – I think I may have mentioned this blog before, but it’s worth a look too – the guy’s a bit of a blog guru:

http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/corporate-blogging/3-key-blogging-questions-question-1/

Also, I love your comparison of a blog with Napolean Hill’s mastermind group. And I think that is so true. With many of us working from home, it’s difficult to meet like minded people that we can bounce ideas off, and blogging helps us connect.

Great links by the way – those are some of my favourite blogs on blogging.

Thank you so much for the kind words and link to my site. I feel honored to be mentioned in this great post.

You are so correct. We have come far with cell phones I think we still have our old “bag phone”-one of the first cell phones, and one of the old “brick” cell phones…..now they are so small, it’s unbelievable.

Blogs too, will become, maybe not a necessity, but a convenience. I like how you used the example of having someone be able to look at your blog in an interview. Doesn’t get much better than that.

I also like how we are able to meet people from all over the world, read their writings, and view their photos.

Blogs are a great social and learning medium. As great as the internet is, blogging makes it even better with the ability to communicate via comments. Although forums can provide the same type of information, blogs seem to draw similar personalities together.

Again Hunter, thank you for the link, and for your frequent visits.

Isn’t blogging great?