Indium Blog

Throw Away Blogs

Category:
  • B2B Marcom

  • There has been renewed interest in my concept of Throw Away Blogs since Ted Demopoulos' hot new book hit the streets recently.

    In his book (after interviewing me and listening to me ramble on and on regarding throw away blogs), Ted writes succinctly:

    Consider starting a Throw Away Blog.

    A Throw Away Blog is a trial blog, to become familiar with blogging, blogging software, and quite frankly to see if blogging is for you. 
    It's a zero pressure blog - not permanent and not related to your business or profession.

    That's why he's the noted author! He gets right to the point.

    My very first blog was a throw away blog. I knew I needed experience and practice since, by definition, I had never blogged before. I picked a topic that I was passionate and knowledgable about (minimizing the variables) and applied something I was inexperienced in - blogging. I guessed (correctly) that I would make a mess of things, so the topic was far removed from my B2B arena - to minimize any collateral damage. That blog is a distant memory, and was only online for weeks. Still, the internet leaves a powerful legacy as we can see from this posting. This is someone else's blog, linking to my ill-fated throw away. Beware.

    As feared, my first blog was a train wreck. And I learned a great lesson. The lesson was that being passionate about a topic doesn't necessarily make for a good blog. In this case the topic was a winter festival, Snowfari, a community event and fund raiser for our local zoo. I love Snowfari, snow, and our zoo, but coming up with interesting and valuable info on a weekly basis for a strongly seasonal event that occurs one day per year proved impossible for me. In fact, this experience contributed strongly to some of the thinking behind the 4Ps of Blogging.

    B2B Marcom leaders who are venturing into the blogosphere should consider experimenting with a Throw Away Blog prior to involving their organization in the mix.

    Image: Me tossing a paper wad at my basket with one hand, wielding my trusty Canon SD600 with the other. It ended up taking 5 minutes when I thought I'd get it in one take. Ahhh, Marcom.