DISQUS

Steve, thanks for highlighting this event... much appreciated :-)

I think writers of personal blogs could think of themselves more like editors too. It helps you to see your blog through a slightly different filter, and engages a different part of the brain. Adds to the fun of blogging!

Danny, your post arrived just at the moment I was thinking about heroes and online communities which was just a little spooky. Wonderful mixture of words, images, music and positive, powerful intention. Thank you.

Mike, what a wonderful fascinating post (and book). Thank you for your kind words... it's been quite a journey hasn't it?

Danny, I'm with you on this one, the whole point of twitter is that we get to follow who we want. If we don't like what they're tweeting then all we need to do is click away. And as Kim says that might include incessant tweeting of 'shoulds'!

David, only just caught up with this sorry - and now entertained to realise what a small world it is... We met briefly at the Edtwestival on Thursday - you were good enough to watch my drinks at the bar. Thanks!

Oh that's great Chris - much better for the environment, and much better for your sanity too. Plus we get an extra post from you!

It's a good tip Chris - I certainly never knew that function existed - but I follow @ replies from you and many others to go down new avenues and meet new people - I wouldn't want to stop.

Agreed, absolutely. I do think some people do it out of good intention, as a way of saying thanks but I'd encourage everyone to drop the practice - thanks are not required for a twitter follow. (And if you really want to say thanks, pen a personal tailored message)

Sorry to go from the sublime to the ridiculous - just to let you know that the text next to the tick-box for email sign up for the comments just says "a"

Knowing what it is, knowing that it'll pass, being able to write this post... doesn't necessarily help when you're in it.

Take care of yourself.

Thanks for sharing some of the results and reflections Chris. I find all of this area a mystery so it's good to learn from the efforts of others!

One thing - as an RSS reader I do sometimes find it visually distracting to see the ads at the top - I sometimes start reading the ad works by mistake, or get confused as to what I'm looking at. I think maybe this is worse if there's a photo near the top too.

I would much prefer you put them at the bottom (so I could ignore them!) but maybe that reduces your income. I know it has affected my reading though, and means I'm skimming over more of your posts than I used to in order to avoid the visual clutter.

I don't think anyone 'should' be on Twitter. I'm there because I enjoy it, it works for me and it helps me to feel creative and connected.

I'm not sure it matters what Seth Godin does and doesn't do by way of social media practice. That isn't what he's teaching us. He's teaching us about leadership, and business, and new ways of thinking about things.

I'm more than happy that he channels his energy into bite sized posts and bite sized books that anyone can pick up, understand, and action.

Chris, great post and follow up conversation - definitely one to keep for future ref! Actually I think the post itself is a great example of how to build interest - I know your book is already on my must read list because of the posts (and tweets, as someone else mentioned) you've written as you've gone along.

I've just finished reading The Well Fed Self-Publisher - lots of great ideas in there about how how to promote your book and turn it into a income stream (or rather, your income).

You might pick up some ideas there.

Chris, thanks for sharing the point, and the pics! I've made some wonderful connections with people on flickr, twitter and my blog by sharing photos of Scotland. It's partly the 'you' that emerges from the taking of the photos (your frame), the sense of connection with place, the desire to learn and share about other parts of the world. Plus in my own case a lot of people have a love and fascination for Scotland - which is lucky for me!

Chris, this is brilliant, and should be required reading for all bloggers. One thing I'd add - maybe as an extension of 25 - respond to your comments. Particularly when you're building community up, respond individually to each and every one. It makes a huge difference to the way people feel.

When the conversation gets bigger and that's no longer so feasible, keep commenting to groups, or dip in and respond to some comments (as you have just done) and find other ways to keep on connecting, through twitter, other social media, group writing projects, competitions etc

I would also encourage people to study in detail the *practice* of people like you, Liz Strauss, and Darren Rowse as there's so much to be learned from the implementation as much as posts like this.

Here's to your continued success

My pleasure Angela - thanks for the gratitude!

Thanks for sharing this great resource Chris. I could hear 'you' coming through in everything you wrote - which is another powerful aspect of personal branding. Will spread the word during the week

Joanna

Mike, I'm so glad to hear that you're getting there. Was a wee bit worried about you there for a while. Don't worry about the apologies - focus on the celebration of life :-)

Joanna

Hi Mike!

It has been a great series hasn't it? And I loved the way it helped us to learn about the cameras we all carry inside. What a wonderful way to put it.

Thanks for mentioning the work of JJL. Rosa will be smiling!

Joanna

PS Like the non-Typepad comment box. I'd ask you how... but about to desert ship and move to WordPress...

Exciting stuff Roland. Good luck with your move

Joanna

Hi Chris

Here I am just feeling gutted I didn't get an e-mail from you!

Thanks for opening this up to comments here. A lot to learn from the different inputs.

I hate using e-mail lists for fear of bugging someone or breaching the line. It inhibits me totally. It's why I prefer to put out material via the blog (+ other means). It's totally permission based.

I wondered here the other day what the benefits were of newsletters by e-mail vs blog. I think this conversation has answered the question for me!

Joanna

I'm curious Chris, as to what drives your subscription drive? What kind of connection you can build through that route rather than on your blog. Maybe you've explored it already somewhere, but might be an interesting topic for a post (for me anyway!)

Joanna

I haven't tried friend feed, Twitter is such a great system I'm loath to get distracted with something else, or turn my attention away from the people I've got to know there.

But the last few days have been extremely frustrating and will risk people turning away from it.

There are so many people invested in it - people who know how to make this kind of stuff work, how to make it better, how to turn it into a model that's sustainable for the people who run it and the people that enjoy using it - are the folks at Twitter tapping into the community they've got sitting around waiting for them to get it fixed?

joanna

Chris, I think you could have expanded the headline to read "saying no to say a more powerful yes". You are saying yes (yes, yes) to the things that are priorities. I don't think you need to apologise, and I bet you anything there are lots of other people reading this who will learn a lot from what you're doing.

Best wishes

Joanna