The Business Blog at Intuitive.com

Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is widely recognized as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written twenty business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed. Dave maintains three weblogs, The Business Blog at Intuitive.com, focused on business and industry analysis, the eponymous Ask Dave Taylor devoted to tech and business Q&A and The Attachment Parenting Blog, discussing topics of interest to parents. Dave is an award-winning speaker, sought after conference and workshop participant and frequent guest on radio and podcast programs.

Are Blogs the Digital Equivalent of ADD?

I've been trying to put my finger on what makes me have a love/hate relationship with weblogs, blogging and even RSS feeds, and beg your indulgence in consuming some electrons to share my thoughts...

First off, a true confession: I really like blogging and am delighted at how easily I am able to manage my Web site and focus on what I'm saying rather than how I'm producing it. It's creating a completely new communications paradigm, a complete change in what a Web site is all about, and my hat is off to the visionaries who have brought us to this point.

Given that, what's to hate about blogging?

Well, I think that there are two rivers flowing through the blogosphere and it's the tug between them that causes me much heartache: one group of bloggers are people who are deep in thought, contemplative, and expanding the horizons of online communications. They're what I'll call the strategic bloggers and are characterized by their long, infrequent articles. They're the river of deep thought.

The other group of bloggers are more like individual drops of water than any coherent flow of liquid, immediately recognizable by their frequent, short weblog postings. Tracking one of their Web sites can keep you abreast of the news in blogland, but can also be intellectually exhausting. They're the digital attention deficit disorder carriers that I reference in the title of this weblog article. To contrast with the strategic bloggers, this group is completely tactically focused, covering the here-and-now with minimal contemplation.

And therein lies my challenge as a blogger and consumer of over a hundred different weblogs via RSS aggregator: how can I keep myself swimming in the river of deep thought when all around me swirl the droplets of tactical, reactive water? I'm not averse to writing shorter entries and sharing interesting news, but I want to dip my toe into the tactical while still ensuring that everything I blog is consistent with my long-term strategic vision and thinking.

It's just darn easy to get sucked into the flowing droplets, to spit out yet another quick two-liner instead of spending the time and effort to ensure that my weblog postings are signposts on my intellectual journey, heading in the direction I want to travel. There's a siren song of blogging, an ease of posting lots of reactive, thought-free (or "thought lite") articles, a vast ADD playground.

For some of us, having weblogs characterized by up-to-the-minute postings and no sense of historical interest or useful archives is cool and works great, a sort of digital ephemera, but it's the bloggers that have more focus, that are pushing the edges of their field, those are the people I seek to emulate.

Blogging is just a tool, and RSS is just an information distribution mechanism. They're neutral and different people approach them differently. You, dear reader, might well prefer weblogs that offer one, two, even a dozen or more 10-50 word briefs throughout the day, and more power to you.

As for me? I'm going to continue exploring why rather than just what, working on longer, thoughtful articles, swimming in the river of deep thought, trying to keep from being sucked into the swirling eddies of the digital ADD, the phosphorescent lure of the shallow, the tactical, the reactive.

Before you leave a comment, a tip: If you're interested in blogging, you should sign up for my Blogsmart News so you can stay up to date on the latest insider tips and ideas for your Internet business and marketing efforts. Sign up right now and you'll get a free copy of my "Insider's Guide to Blogging" ebook too!