One of the great things about collaborating is that it takes you outside of your personal zone … it makes you work and think in different ways. It exposes you and your ideas in (sometimes) quite confronting ways.
The Age of Conversation eBook has been an interesting exercise — through it I have come into contact with many more marketers, social media writers, activists and thinkers than I otherwise would have. One of these is Jim Kukral. And today, as I was reading through his site, I found a very interesting post on the Top 25 Marketing Blogs that Mack Collier puts together each and every week. I have been lucky enough to take out room and board in the Top 25 over the last couple of weeks so was included in Jim’s analysis … and here are my answers to some of his questions:
Names and branding — I don’t brand my name — in fact, my blog is more about the connection of ideas, stories and people than me, Gavin Heaton. I suppose I could have a blog about myself, but I would probably get bored writing it. Oh and I didn’t have a photo of myself here until I started contributing to The Daily Fix — and once it was available there I no longer had a reason to hide over here!
- Seth Godin — yes he is in my blogroll. One of my early blogging delights was receiving a short, personal message from Seth saying "Hi Gavin, thanks for reading". Goes to show how a little encouragement can make us all bloom!
- Advertising — there aren’t ads running on my site, though I did experiment with them for a while — mostly just to understand how they worked. I think I made a total of $7.
- Typepad — I started out running my own WordPress server but then got sick of it. Typepad seemed like a nice, stable and easy to use option. Now I am too deeply entrenched here to ever think about leaving … not a bad business model, huh? Goes to show those SixApart folks know a thing or two!
- Phone numbers — I don’t have my phone number listed anywhere. But you can email me easily enough — servant [at] servantofchaos [dot] com. I guess if you had a project that you needed help with you might want to call … but email is always a great first step.
You to, Gavin, are an encourager…just as Seth Godin urged you onward, you urge others. Keep up your outstanding work. Always a pleasure to see your brain rolling on! “connection of ideas, stories and people” – what a great way to state it!
Gav, you rock my world. You must know how special you are to me. Why not pick a fight with someone and then it will give me a reason to fly down under to kick their butt?
Seriously, I owe a lot to you. You set a model for celebrating others and the ‘sphere.
Thanks for the answers Gavin. I enjoy your blog.
So, would you put ads on your blog if it was worthwhile?