My blog has very little to do with my professional interests yet might become linked, is this fair, should I be concerned?

As a small business mentor my thoughts probably are of interest to potential clients, but my blog is a platform for sharing another of my passions, template design. So should I be overly concerned about crossover? Unfortunately I think I should.

A very quick search in one of the major search engines for my name will produce hundreds of pages that link directly to my non-professional life. I advise anyone considering a change of career or promotion to do the same, you may find that the decision maker is able to read your private thoughts, and they may very well not find anything offensive, but writing style and online behaviour seem to count for a lot.

In today’s world many HR executives and middle managers have grown up with Internet technology and use it themselves, they know how to use a search engine. Many of us create online nicknames to protect our privacy, then we casually mention it in conversation with potential employers or perhaps even include in our resume as our preferred email contact. Nicknames can be searched for just as easily as real names.

I guess we should all be aware the world is entering a new phase where privacy just doesn’t exist the way it used to.

I think the problem stems from everyone’s insistence on calling personal online publishing “blogging” no matter what.

The implicit assumption is that all blogging is of almost equal value, which it clearly isn’t. So if you choose to point out there are varying qualities of blogging, it is thrown back as elitism for the simple reason that it hurts other bloggers’ egos.

A big part of the reason why this style of personal publishing has become such an enormous success is because it enables everyone to feel as if their words and insights are important and valued. The horrible reality is that some people are very much better at assimilating information, analysing it and writing eloquently.

All a journalist really is is someone that has been focussing on that process for years – and nothing helps you focus more than having to make a living from it – and subsequently they are consistently better at it.

My blog is basically a chattier version of my journalism but at the same time it is more journalistic that what I would write if I wasn’t a journalist. Because people who I have professional contact with do read my blog, and it reflects back on my livelihood.

And so I agree with you. If you want the more solid explanation as to why journalists who have grasped blogging are better than people who have just decided to post their thoughts, it’s in the original content stakes.

Blogs that point to something and then give the author’s opinion is one thing. Blogs that point to one thing, connect it to another, put it into context, perhaps include a quote from a key person in that area and then include an author’s opinion is quite another.

The latter is – I’ll make up a term – “free journalism”. The former is blogging. I read the latter and skim the former.

Kieren

I keep trying to learn how i can improve my journalist skills as i was never a journalist before.

Cheers, Rohit

How do you define me and the thousands(?) of other bloggers that are paid to blog by a company? Am I a journalist or a blogger? Or some sort of hybrid “blogging journalist”?