Maintaining Professionalism when Blogging

I was inspired by both Robert Scoble’s self-realization about his morale slump in blogging and Darren Rowse’s reaction piece 5 Lessons to Learn from Robert Scoble to share my thoughts about my own attitudes, writing style, and content when blogging with the intent of carrying an air of professionalism.

My first course of action was to tear down my post Web 2.0 Critique: iJustine as it stood in stark contrast to the notion of professionalism entirely for the following reasons:

The entry’s content deviated heavily in terms of content from the rest of my blog’s content; it is not my intention to blast companies that can be doing better on this blog, rather it is my intention to provide constructive criticism. The iJustine entry, while it did provide some sincere advice for improving monetization, was largely a potshot by me at iJustine’s fans.
Upon a second glance, my suggestions for earning money, while probably accurate, were not professional; they were yet another jab I made against iJustine’s fans.
Attacking fans or readers, as I have criticized Dave McClure for on both TechCrunch and TechDumpster, is not acceptable behavior from a blogger, ever. I didn’t learn that lesson until after I had written the post unfortunately.

Although I don’t think that post was widely read, I regret ever writing it. I didn’t hurt anybody, but in writing it I violated my own vision of writing a Professional blog meant to provide constructive, genuine advice to Web 2.0 developers.

The reason I wrote it was mainly because I enjoyed the style of Uncov and TechDumpster so much that I wanted to get in on the act; I’m still working on finding my blogging style so I gave their anti-hype style a try. It is not what is best for AjaxNinja.

For any bloggers out there who write an article that is snippy or bitter, I’d urge you to hold onto it as a draft for a couple of days, then read it again later; you’ll think twice about writing negative things about other people who have done you no wrong.

My second course of action was to write down AjaxNinja’s mission statement and purpose and share it with my readers.

It is the mission of AjaxNinja to guide aspiring developers participating in the Web 2.0 phenomenon away from the path of hype and “rock-star engineers” towards the light of designing applications with profitability, maintainability, and professionalism using the ASP.NET programming language.

This is what my blog stands for, and this is what we want to provide for you, the readers.

My third course of action was writing this post; explaining the disappearance of the iJustine article and sharing my newly phrased mission statement with you. Blogging is all about discussion and community; sharing the lessons learned from my mistakes is a good way to help you from repeating them. Lesson learned.

Stay tuned for my article on designing a great data layer in ASP.NET!

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Comments 4

TechDumpster (living in First Life) wrote:
Keep it up Aaron. There are far too many dumb bloggers in this world.
Posted 17 Aug 2007 at 1:22 pm ¶
dave mcclure wrote:
@aaron: i’m reconsidering my style of commentary & blogging based on your comments & introspection.

while i don’t feel uncomfortable stating my opinions (and occasionally my emotions) freely, i’m sure at times my “transparency” is viewed as offensive by others. i recognize that objectively, but my subjective behavior is not always so easy to change… that is, should i choose to do so.

in general, people who know me seem to enjoy my style of blogging / candor / swearing, altho a few are sometimes a little surprised at the level of intensity. i guess i’d observe that i tend to blog the way i drive — that is to say, a bit more aggressively than i would normally be in a face to face conversation. but even in person, i probably state my opinions & swear without feeling like i’m particularly attacking anyone. maybe the “attacking” part comes out more online, or maybe sometimes when i feel like i’m responding to being attacked. certainly that was how i felt about the TechDumpster stuff. i felt like i’d been punched, and i punched back.

perhaps this is due to my upbringing / family cultural behavior — my mother’s side of the family tends to call top-of-your-lungs yelling an “italian conversation”; my father’s side is just plain WV hillbilly — but regardless i’m probably quicker to anger and quicker to forgetting about it than most people. i also was taught to stand my ground for what i believe in, even if occasionally i need to later admit i’m wrong.

in hindsight, i could probably stand to benefit from turning down the volume on both the highs & lows. it’s always a tough issue for me, and i don’t like to think i’m compromising on my opinions by doing so. however perhaps it’s worth some occasional introspection & reflection.

in any case, thanks for the food for thought.

- dmc
Posted 17 Aug 2007 at 5:23 pm ¶
Aaronontheweb wrote:
@Jay,

Thanks for the comment! I love reading TechDumpster and Uncov so keep up the good work; I could never do it as well as you.

@Dave,

I’m flattered. Thank you for reading my post and I’m glad it was able to be of interest. Unfortunately I do not know you in real life so when I read your comments online the only thing I have to judge you by are those said comments. Bear this in mind if you’re looking to draw in new readers.

A habit that I myself have fallen into is writing for my friends rather than writing for my intended audience; I have to think about my writing style as I write the post and when I review it before I publish it. My “speaking” style which I use to communicate with my friends is not the same as my “writing” style, which I use for writing this blog; I don’t think I would be nearly as credible if I dropped a “dude” every two sentences like how I do when I’m surfing with my friends.

Regardless, I’m flattered that I was able to make a difference for you. Thank you.
Posted 17 Aug 2007 at 5:46 pm ¶
TechDumpster (living in First Life) wrote:
@ Aaron

Thank you.

@ dmc

We all know you’re a smart guy and aren’t Duncan Riley or Scoble so I appreciate you engaging others in dialogue. Thanks.
Posted 17 Aug 2007 at 9:44 pm ¶

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