"Behold the turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out."
-- James Bryant Conant, former president of Harvard University
A paradox of social networking sites is that although there are often many thousands of members, we limit our participation to a much smaller subset that fits our personal comfort zones. Man is a social being; blogging ia a social activity. Yet even behind the safety of our monitors, we still follow our natural instincts to avoid controversy, unfamiliarity and pain. We seek commonality, support and validation.
Just like the turtle, we all need to 'stick our neck out' once in awhile, take a chance, explore new ideas and surroundings in order to grow. The beauty of the blogosphere is that we can do this all from the comfort and safety of our own keyboards. New sites, new perspectives, and new online contacts are just a click away.
One great resource within ActiveRain is the Week in Review group started by Neal The Real Deal Bloom, based on an idea from Mark Flanders. Each week a different Rainer posts their top picks from ActiveRain, Localism, or mortgage topics. Another fantastic group is Blog Tourists led by Maureen Francis. Join them for "tours of member's other blogs off of ActiveRain."
Feeling a little more adventurous? Want to see what others are doing in the great big blog world? That's where the Laurie Manny Challenge comes in. It's a collaborative activity where we can all help each other expand our horizons and grow, with a little friendly competition and some points thrown in to make it interesting. I'm honored to be chosen as a judge, and thrilled to participate. As a sample entry, here are my three picks:
ProBlogger - 31 Days to Building a Better Blog
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Darren Rowse has been blogging since 2002, and created his ProBlogger site in 2004. On the About page Darren says, "This site is dedicated to helping other bloggers learn the skills of blogging, share their own experiences and promote the blogging medium." After declaring August 2007 as "Build a Better Blog Month", Darren updated his original 2005 version of 31 Days. It's a series of daily tips that can be quickly implemented to improve your blogs.
Having written 7 Days to Discover Your Blogging Groove just last month, Darren chose to focus the 31 Days tips not on content, but in three areas: finding readers, building community/keeping readers, and monetizing a blog.
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Chris Garrett on New Media - 10 Reasons Commenting is Good for Bloggers
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Born in Calgary, Alberta and now living in Yorkshire, England, Chris Garrett describes himself as "a professional blogger, Internet Marketing Consultant, writer, coach, trainer and web geek." In "10 Reasons Commenting is Good for Bloggers", Chris talks about blogging as a conversation and lays out some great benefits to writing quality comments. He paraphrases John F. Kennedy ("Ask not what the blogosphere can do for you ...") and encourages bloggers to expand their perspectives with this insightful gem from tip #10:
"If you are always among the same crowd you will find inevitably the same thoughts being reflected back over and over. Break out!"
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Altos Research Real Estate Insights - The Bloggers Connect series
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Scott Sambucci, the new director of business development at Altos Research, shares what he learned from the panel discussions at Bloggers Connect SF 2007. In a series of brief, list-based posts, Scott gives highlights from these sessions:
Altos Research Real Estate Insights provides real-time research and observations on real estate. Altos Research's Market Widget won a 2007 Inman News Innovator Award for Most Innovative Technology.
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Take the challenge. View the contest rules here, and then submit your post by 10 PM EST on Friday, August 17. Winners will be announced on Monday, August 20. Good luck!!
(Photo of 'Tad Tortoise' from Tortoise Group - The Organization for the Protection of Nevada's Resident Tortoises, Inc.)
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