Fine Art of Blogging

Years ago, I was chatting with a Red Cross nurse while donating blood. She asked what I do for a living. When I told her I’m a mediator and conflict management coach, she slapped her hand on my forehead, as though to check me for a fever. “Let me get this right,” she said, “you seek out conflict for a living?! That’s pretty weird, don’t you think?”

When I began blogging back in the dark ages, 2002, I got a similar response. Thank goodness times are changing and I no longer get strange looks from business colleagues and clients. Well, most of them, anyway.

I started blogging because I wanted a good online content management system for my library of articles for clients, newspapers and journals. Blog software was a far better mechanism for this than a static website, and once I had the software, it seemed logical to use it for all my writing. So my blog was born…but had essentially no readership other than former and prospective clients. It's nice to know that a lot of people read it now!

As with most everything, I Can’t Say That! has evolved over the last five years. I still blog primarily to serve as a resource to past clients and current clients and to serve as a resource and begin building a relationship with prospective clients. Future clients can get a “taste” of me, my personality and the way I work through my blog, and it’s proved a good venue for that portion of my marketing.

I primarily think of blogging as a conversation starter. I start a conversation by writing a post, or a reader starts one by writing in with a question, or both. I've met tons of people all over the globe through blogging and because, as a conflict management professional I value dialogue so much, I'm thrilled to have a chance to dialogue with folks I would not otherwise have met.

Truth be told, though, I also blog because it helps me get clarity on my own subject matter. My background as a college professor taught me that there’s nothing like having to help others learn a topic to improve one’s own clarity of thought. So, blogging and other writing I do help me be a better mediator, a better coach, a better trainer and teacher. I love that blogging is a two-way street in that way…I give a little, I get a lot back.

Because I travel a lot to work with clients, I tend to blog in chunks. I rise at 4 a.m. each day and write for two hours on my screened porch in the New Hampshire countryside during warm months, or next to a glowing woodstove in the winter. I get topic ideas from readers who ask me questions or suggest a topic, from questions my mediation grad students ask in class, or from my interactions with clients. I'll usually write 4-5 posts in a stretch, then set them up on the blog to be published 1-2 posts per week for a couple of weeks. If a hot topic comes up in the midst, I'll insert it and change the schedule of posts still scheduled to be published.

Some readers find my blog via search and I try to make reasonable use of keywords and other SEO practices while I write. A huge chunk of my readers, though, come to me from mentions on other blogs or from prior clients...word of mouth marketing is really important in my field, because the trust factor is critical. I work to build relationships (online and offline) with other business professionals and bloggers who serve the same client base I do, but don't compete with me for business.

I like to use humor when I can, because conflict is serious enough all on its own! I'm also an informal blogger, in that I'm more comfortable with a chatty writing style than a dry, academic approach. I try to balance stories from my own life with stories and advice from other people and places. You can tell my undergrad work was in literature because I highly value the power of a story to convey an idea!

I started on Blogger but moved everything to WordPress a few years ago when I knew blogging would be with me for a while. I'm a huge fan of WordPress, its power and its flexibility. I'm also a fan of Denis deBernardy's Semiologic theme, which I've adapted for my own brand and layout needs (I'm a closet php and css coder, knowing just enough to be dangerous).

I love hearing from people who read what I write, and I welcome your comments, questions, hellos. You can reach me via my contact page at I Can't Say That!