Step-By-Step Blogging Guide

Not everyone has the time or inclination to learn and search for everything you need to start a blog. So here are some the practical steps to get started with Blogspot (Google's Blogger).

Some Clicks and Some Text

Starting a blog is ridiculously simple. The hardest part is giving yourself permission to create something. Let me know if you need help with that part, but otherwise skim over this and choose your platform (Blogger or Wordpress are good places to start, I've used both).

Go to http://blogger.com.

Blog Recipe: Be Relevant While Sharing Experience, Passionately

I presented on blogging to Tridion professionals as part of SDL WCM's kick-off (yeah, I know you want to call it the "Tridion" kick-off).

Here's the blog post on the speech. This is the emotional sales pitch, come back if you ever doubt online sharing or community for Tridion professionals. Otherwise, skip and read my next post for the manual.

Key lessons for speeches or blogs:

• Be relevant. 
• Speak from experience
• Share your passion

Relevance
I can tailor a speech to an audience, but it's hard to connect with everyone in a speech. So it helps to add a picture and some facts. Is readership on your mind? Are you interested in money or career satisfaction?

977% growth in just one year! Actually some of that comes from Twitter.
Ironically my most popular post has nothing to do with Tridion, but lolcats.

Fascination with SDL WCMS and SDL Tridion

Tina Turner's "Simply the Best" pulls all the right fascination triggers, but it's really a song about love and trust.

I'm back from a team meeting and am compelled to say, "Yes! Validation!" My peers are fascinating, the strongest fascination trigger is trust, and I trust SDL's WCMS as an organization.

Fascinating People

I've learned only a fraction of how fascinating my colleagues are, in addition to the Tridion geekery: 

A few fly airplanes, fish for marlin, or partake in cheese and wine culture in the Napa and Sonoma valleys. One takes day-long motorcycle trips around the Napa and Sonoma valleys. One consultant has done everything from dance to multiple sports to multiple martial arts, but still admits to being somewhat shy. Hint: you can be an excellent public speaker and still be introverted (check out Networking for People Who Hate Networking).

Over the last few weeks I've heard some spine-tingly, scary childhood memories. I was impressed by a friend so passionate about a topic he had to switch to his native tongue.* I was intrigued by stories of what European travel means for Europeans. And I was enthralled by a friend's explanation of the grammar intricacies between Dutch, Spanish, and English using examples from Star Wars.

Seven Wins in Developing a Technical Community

To me, more "community" means a win for Support, Marketing, Sales, R&D, Services, HR, customers, and you:

1. More shared knowledge and improved support (a win for Customer Support)
2. More awareness and visibility of products (a win for Marketing and Sales)
3. Understanding of what challenges customers face and how they're implementing a solution (a win for Research and Development)
4. A chance to shift from a hands-on to a brains-intensive "expert model" (a win for Professional Services)
5. A chance to be transparent, showcase a company culture, and earn trust (win for HR, the market, and the organization)
6. All of the above for a win for the customer as they get more shared knowledge, more product understanding, an understanding of what to watch out for, expert consulting, and a product and company they can trust.
7. For you, a win for career satisfaction.