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Dutch Problogger Ernst-Jan Pfauth

Let me help you blogging!

How the “nobody syndrome” costs us great bloggersNovember 16

When I introduce people to the beautiful world of blogging by telling them about all the indirect advantages like the enrichment of your social life, they often share the same doubts. Most heard questions: “Who am I to start blogging about this subject?” They feel like they’re nobodies and absolutely not in the position to write about their passion or profession.

The feeling that they’ll never be an authority or expert, holds a lot of people back to start a digital publication. What a waste! ‘Cause you know what? It’s blogging itself that turns you into the authority you want to be.

That’s why I’ve chosen to write this post. Not just because I want to get the word out, also to have a better answer prepared when I try to convert someone to the church of blogging.

The “nobody syndrome” is a big obstacle for a lot of potential great bloggers out there. I think I only need two arguments to convince you that this mindset is absolute nonsense:

• It’s starting a blog that separates you from the nobodies.
• You can be the authority you want to be

Don’t just consume, share

Just playing with the thought of starting a blog separates you from the nobodies. It mean

Self-obsessed gossip blogger: “blogging is dead to me”October 23

The blogosphere was stirred up by gossip blogger Paul Boutin. In a successful attempt for some linkbait, the Valleywag correspondent announced the death of blogging on Wired.com:

The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers.

He criticizes the immpersonal character of blogging and supports that with the following argument:

In 2002, a search for “Mark” ranked Web developer Mark Pilgrim above author Mark Twain. That phenomenon was part of what made blogging so exciting. No more. Today, a search for, say, Barack Obama’s latest speech will deliver a Wikipedia page, a Fox News article, and a few entries from professionally run sites like Politico.com. The odds of your clever entry appearing high on the list? Basically zero.

Boudin has also noticed that the Technorati top 100 list consists of blogs that have a bunch of professional editor

Paul Arden: “do not seek praise, seek criticism”October 19

One of my friends recently got one of the best birthday gifts an ambitious guy can get: the modern self-help classic It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be by former creative director for Saatchi and Saatchi Paul Arden. The marketing maverick died in April, but I think about his common sense lessons on a daily basis.

At first, the book seems kind of cheesy, like most self-help books. Yet as soon as you’ve started reading, it’s what you call a page turner. It will probably take you 30 to 45 minutes of your life to read it and I promise you, some of Arden’s one liners will stick with you a life time.

I for one, always act upon the following statement:

Do not seek praise. Seek criticism. [..] If, instead of seeking approval, you ask, ‘What’s wrong with it? How can I make it better?’, you are more likely to get a truthful, critical answer.

The creative genius himself, Paul Arden

The first time I read this, I must have been around 19 years old. Now, three years later,

A bad break-up, sleepless nights, and chopping woodSeptember 30

Just go with it, what do you have to lose anyway?

Maarten Besseling did the same. One of his friends, a singer, had a bad break up, so he invited him to come on a trip to a cabin somewhere and make music. Several years later Besseling releases yet another album in his music series “in a cabin with“. By now, he has traveled to remote cabins in Iceland, Greece, South Africa, Australia, Mexico, and fifteen other places.

That last cd happened to be recorded with the designer of this blog, Odilo Girod. Not only is he a graphic designer that can make blog designs which are ahead of its time, he also has a voice that comes close to Mark Everett’s rawness and the surrealistic sound of Thom Yorke. On top of that, he plays the piano and handles sample machines like Jamie Lidell. Talking about multi-talents…

The dream-like album presentation of Girod’s solo project Chop Wood, in the

Building a community on your blog with Yahoo PipesSeptember 20

During a very hectic Web 2.0 Expo week in New York City, I did luckily find some time to work on my Dutch ebook about blogging. Chapter two concerns blogs and communities and I figured social media guru Erwin Blom was the man to interview about this material. So while enjoying a couple of beers in an Irish pub, we discussed whether blogs are communities or not.

We had a hard time coming to a solid conclusion. Sure, if you follow Shel Israel’s definition - “communities are bodies of people loosely joined together by a common interest” - , most blogs are in fact communities. Like Erwin Blom’s blog, where new media adapts come together with every new post.

Photo credit: sillydog

Conversation leader

If you read my last sentence again, notice the part that says when the media adapts come together. That’s the problem. Whereas most online communities aren’t top down, on blogs there is a leader. Blom decides what the discussion topic is. Therefore blogs may not fit the definit