Hugh, a clue, and blogging
I met a CEO two days ago who told me blogging was just as bad as email and web surfing from the perspective of wasting company time. He was thinking of putting out a policy on this stuff. Yeah, I know...
I wanted to write something about this but Hugh has a cartoon which sums it up nicely. He is referencing a "thoughtful post" that Steve Rubel wrote about blog bashing.
Hugh makes the point about people being wrong over and over again and it's a point not to be overlooked or understated.
Every time something fundamental to any status quo changes, there are always people that freak and dump on it, while another group of people fly way out in front testing every boundary and limit.
Eventually it balances out and the new/exciting becomes the norm/mainstream. It used to be the wired/tired analogy but I think that's even old now.
Hugh is probably one of the better case studies you can find when it comes to 'new business' rules as it applies to blogging from a business perspective.
It requires a bit of time, but you should head over to gapingvoid and read everything, including the comments, TrackBacks, etc.
Here's what I think you might conclude and if you don't, I'd love to hear why.
1. Hugh is very customer centric. He cares deeply about his products and product quality so much so that he can pull off two aspects of business that are keys to success: Pricing and Quality. He charges a good price for a "t-shirt" and said "t-shirt" is off the scale on quality, I know, I've got one. No discounting, no sales, no hype, just a solid quality product that is sold for a good price. And people are buying.
2. Hugh can speak his mind, disagree, bash, be obscene, be funny, whatever, and it totally fits him. His cartoons are excellent summaries of both his opinion on a topic and the collective thinking of many people.
3. It's not about him. This is important. He is very opinionated, widely read, and often quoted. When you read his material there is not much ego there. Pride of work? Totally, but not ego. I don't think Hugh drinks his own Kool-Aid which is a trait many others would do well to pick up. There's not much chest thumping or having to prove anything.
4. It's the real deal. I've never met the man. I've never had a phone call with the guy, never a private email message, but I believe he has established, for me anyway, a level of trust that's pretty good considering it's all based on a public persona and nothing more.
All of that summed up, at least for me, is that here is a trusted source and somebody worth paying attention to. He has an opinion that is carefully put out on topics that matter to him all the while remembering the simple stuff, i.e. saying thank you to customers; read his whole blog and draw your own conclusions.
He is able to get his message out, sell products, enjoy (I hope) a good living, and be successful. All from the comfort of his blog. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Remember, it's all about the conversation.
Thanks for the glowing reviews =)
Yeah, I'm just beginning to be able to make a good living doing what I do (and love, for the most part), but it took a while -years- for all the pieces to all fit together.
Better later than never. Heh.
Posted by: hugh macleod | May 22, 2005 at 06:40