Hi, my name is Vincent and I’m a group-blogger on Tech IT Easy. Today, I plan to talk to you about where I see Tech IT Easy going.

We can’t really say that Tech IT Easy is that much of a group-blog anymore. As far as I can count, 3 people out of 15, outside of me, are still posting occasionally. And that’s fine, this isn’t a job, we are a not-for-profit-just-for-fun organisation. And most of us have moved on in life since we started blogging here, me included.

Group-blogging is a funny animal. When you run your own blog or diary, writing is fairly easy. You experience, you think, you write, presto. In theory, group-blogging should be similar, but it isn’t. In a solo-operation, you develop relationships with your readers (and your words!), it ends up being a continuous back & forth, between your thoughts, their feedback, and your renewed thoughts.

In a group-blog, it is harder to maintain that relationship. Different topics, different writing styles, different types of readers, etc. all lead to an interrupted experience for authors and readers both. It’s like you give a presentation, but people keep jumping in with their own presentations.

I suppose I’m saying that group-blogging is bad. I’m not, but there are certain conditions that have to be met. For one, you have to respect the reader, your customer. Why is he here and are we constantly offering him value? Are we providing him continuous value or interrupted value? Are we competitive in our approach? Are we confident and clear? The four C’s of positioning: clarity, confidence, continuity, and competitiveness.

In my opinion, that is not the case. None of us compete, because we literarily cannot afford to. The Techmeme-leaderboard has been like a mirror to many a blogger like myself, showing us that the most read “blogs” are in fact professional media-companies with a business-model similar to newspapers. They serve adverts and pay their bloggers. We do not, which creates an imperfect opportunity cost situation. Do I make money in a job or do I blog here pro bono? Naturally, there are other rewards to blogging here, but I won’t go into that now.

Continuity and clarity are related. Continuity in groups is just like it is in organisations: a standard is set and met or else you are fired. Well that also doesn’t happen here and rarely will. Clarity is about how clearly you write about your topic of the day, are you making sense to the reader? Again standards can be set for that, I recommend learning Ogilvy by hard.

The most important one: confidence. This post I write is not confident. Well, I am confident in the sense that you all know me by now. But I am not at all confident about what will be written on this blog tomorrow or next week. That is something that is up to every author, pretty much.

Now, the original intent of this post is not to sound overly negative. Everyone here has qualities, or else they wouldn’t be a blogger. Everyone can write. But writing also takes following a voice that’s in your head and just going for it. And it requires you to say stop at some point. Around 175 words ago for me would be best.

A suggested approach to positioning

This is meant for our current authors, but also future ones. And to clarify, I am not the boss here, but a wise old guy at the very least.

• Rule 1: introduce yourselves. If you don’t put your name down, how will the reader know it’s you? Apart from Georgia, most of us don’t paint our identity (sometimes quite literarily) with words.
• Rule 2: explain your thesis in a sentence or two in the intro.
• Rule 3: use pictures or don’t, up to you.
• Rule 4: don’t write as much as me (400 is a good length)… and if you do write more, use bullet-points and headings.
• Rule 5: paragraphs are nice to read, around 6 lines at the most, I would say.
• Rule 6: Don’t be afraid to write about other things than tech. It’s you we are reading and the more you write, the more we get you. And honestly, I have little in tech left in me to write about.
• Rule 7: Don’t get too creative with text. Georgia is the exception to the rule, but even her posts I have to read twice, sometimes thrice to get what she’s talking about. Of course, the thesis at the beginning helps.
• Rule 8: write as if you’re applying for a job. Tech IT Easy may not pay you, but you will want to put it on your CV. And the only way to that is if it is a product that you’re proud of.
• Rule 9: Don’t be cheap with your content. I sometimes felt like just posting a video, because I was angry at the lack of feedback I was getting. That’s a bad impulse! Respect your readers and they respect you.
• Rule 10: the best blogposts that are at the tip of your head, just when you’re writing them. If you need to research your post extensively(!), while writing it, it’s probably going to be a bad blogpost.
• Rule 11: always end lists with an uneven number… to piss off that Digg-crowd.

Clarity, competitiveness, continuity, confidence, and not losing yourself in the middle, that’s what it’s all about.

The end,

Vincent

P.S. If you’d like to show us how a good group-blog is produced, click here.

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