Blogging Heroes : Excerpt on Steve Rubel

Generally, I wouldn’t advise taking a look at a book billed as covering the ‘world’s top 30 bloggers.’ A blogs import is determined by the value it offers its readers, whether their be 45,000 or 200 readers.

But reading the chapter on Steve Rubel in Blogging Heroes made me realize there’s much to learn from those who have staked their livelihood to blogging. Like me, Steve put it all on the line back in 2003 believing that blogs were going to have a very big impact on business.

In all things it’s good to have someone you can model yourself after in your effort to succeed. One of the guys I followed was Steve – still do. And reading the chapter on Steve this morning reminded me of my roots in blogging. Started to get my juices going. You can download the chapter here.

You could do a lot worse than Steve’s keys in starting a new blog.

• If you want people to come to your blog, you must offer them something of value.
• Bloggers just starting out must post in high volume to build an audience.
• Sometimes it’s easier to go where people are than to get them to come to you.
• With competition among news bloggers being so strong, and bloggers filling every available subject, the best option for new bloggers is to find a niche.

Steve also drives home a leading benefit of blogging. Learning. Learning is the primary reason Steve blogs. Having heard the same from Mark Cuban earlier this week, I realize it’s the same for me.

Everything I have learned about Internet marketing, social media, blogs, and virtual communities, I’ve learned from others on the net. In the mid 90’s it was through conferences, books, and the limited time I had to talk with authors and conference presenters. For the last 4 years it’s been blogging – reading, networking, and writing. Blogging is learning on steroids.