I am writing about Wayne Sutton.

The Problem

From my previous article:

From a viewer standpoint, Wayne’s show was painful to watch because Wayne and his co-host were unprepared but most importantly, they had no control over the show. Wayne and his co-host are supposed to steer the audience in the direction they want their show to go.

Wayne (literally) is on almost every social network. It was almost impossible to follow what he was doing and saying online because he literally was everywhere. Just as a host has to guide his guest through a video or podcast, a “leader” in a niche or community has to guide their readers/followers. If the leader is all over the place, that leads to chaos.

I understand why people do this. With so many social media sites coming out it is very easy to get caught up in them, especially since they have the potential to be the next “big” thing. Being an early adopter on “the next big thing” has its advantages. Lack a focus is one of the main reasons why companies fail unfortunately.

The Change: Sutton vs. Scoble

To understand the change, I am going to compare Wayne Sutton and Robert Scoble’s presence at SXSW this year. I also wrote a critical piece about Scoble. Scoble recently announced he would not be making videos for Fast Company anymore.

Websites

Scoble: He made an announcement about his new venture, Building43.com, at SXSW during Gillmor Gang. People listening to the live stream or reading about the new venture went to the site, which is live but has no content. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to understand that a more effective approach would have been to make the announcement after the new site had content on it.

Sutton: Wayne started working on his sites before he left. When he reached SXSW his sites were in order and he was ready to go. He launched a new community portal prior to leaving.

Winner: Sutton

Content

Scoble: Robert and his cameraman Rocky are at SXSW. Perhaps they shot a lot of video and they will upload it later. There is nothing available now, while SXSW is going on. Nothing is on their new site.

Sutton: Wayne has been broadcasting panels and he archived the videos for later viewing. He has been taking fun pictures, and making new friends. Wayne seems to understand and grasp the idea of balance between performing and partying. He seems focused on achieving his goals. Wayne is loading his site with content yet still taking time to enjoy himself while interacting with people who reach out to him.

Winner: Sutton

Partners

Scoble: Robert and Rocky do not seem to be accomplishing anything productive to their new venture. Again, perhaps there are videos coming later but does anyone really care what happened at SXSW after it is over? It is hard enough to get people who opted not to go to care while it is going on.

Sutton: Wayne and Kipp seem to make a strong partnership because they have balanced friendship, work and “fun”. They can leave SXSW proud they had fun and accomplished something that will bring them closer to their goals.

Winner: Sutton

Reflection….

Wayne wrote about a conversation he and I had over a year ago. He said that conversation stuck with him along with other conversations he had with others. He took those suggestions and put his spin.

Let me be clear: my article is not about Wayne doing what “I” said. He is making moves that will strengthen his position to reach his goals. I spoke about the Suggested List on Twitter and how the list Twitter implemented skews the “Followers” numbers. The people or companies on the list were not added because of their accomplishments on Twitter. They are on the list due to their accomplishments off Twitter.

Social sites are great compliments to a blog/site. When a person places social media sites over their own, they are making a mistake that will catch up with them later.

In the End…

Let me be clear: I do not buy into Social Media Experts or even strategists because quality content (product or service) has always and will always dominate on the internet. People want to block the noise on the internet and focus on the content (whether it is fun, educational or business) that interests them. Which one you decide to be, the noise or quality, depends on what the decisions you make and your specific goals.

What I do recommend is positioning yourself so, if these third party sites die out, you are not dependent on them. I am looking forward to what Wayne does next. It is truly refreshing to watch the changes he is making. I wish him the best of luck and I hope he continues to have success.

Earlier this year I had a conversation with Tyme White about twitter and personal branding that had stuck in my head ever since I got off the phone with her. She brought up the fact that I had a lot of twitter followers but where or how would I stay connected with those followers if twitter goes down (fail whale) , twitter gets purchased by google & closed like Pownce or their business model just doesn’t work and everyone leaves the community. We talked about how some people who I admire like Robert Scoble and Gary Vaynerchuck have huge online followers despite twitter. Robert has a large following and readership on his blog before twitter and the same for @GaryVee but we do know they both have used twitter to extend their brand.

Towards the end of his article he disclosed his plan on how to extend his blog. Everyone will take a different approach and should do what makes them feel comfortable. However some thought should be given about how what you do today impacts you tomorrow.

It is easy to build a Twitter audience (Facebook, MySpace…you get the idea). It is much easier than a blog because the tools are there to quickly send friend requests – which most people accept. Send out enough you’ll have people subscribed to your content. However, how many of those people are actually reading or are interested in what you are saying? It is common for people to only read what Twitter displays the moment they log on…they don’t scroll back to see what they missed. Same thing goes for a blog. Just because your FeedBurner stats state you have X subscribers doesn’t mean all of them actually read your content. Just because you have X amount of subscribers to your blog doesn’t mean everyone subscribed actually reads your articles.

That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t use third party services. They can be a great compliment to your site. However, if you have more subscribers to a third party site than you do your own site that might work against you in the long run. If those sites ever went out of business, blocked access to your profile (who often does that happen on Facebook?) or even worse had technical difficulties and lost your friends list what would you do? How screwed would you be?

Another problem is overextending yourself. If you are spread out amongst too many services it makes it very hard for people to follow you – to catch all of your content. Imagine telling your readers go to Facebook for this, MySpace for this, my blog for his, Twitter for that. I had a profile on Pownce but it is gone, update your records. My work record is on LinkedIn, I have Yahoo, AIM, MSN, ICQ and Skype – add me! See what I mean? It’s information overload on one person. Add more people and the odds are they aren’t tuning in as you’d like them to.

With my own audience I don’t put anything in between us. It’s me and them. That’s how we roll. For me, it works out. Sure, we drive each other crazy sometimes but I know they are reading what I say. Not necessarily expressing their honest opinion (we’re working on that) but they are reading and interacting with me. Not via Twitter or anywhere else but my site, my email, my IM…me.

I answered Wayne’s question in the comments section of his article. Head on over if you want to take a peek. Remember – social media sites are tools. Use them wisely.

The Root Issue

The core problem, in my opinion, is that Fast Company picked the wrong people to accomplish their goals. These people are probably “good” people (nice, kind, considerate, etc.) but they aren’t placed in positions where their strengths would benefit the company. There isn’t a system in place to overcome their weakened positions. It is my opinion if people were placed in positions they were more qualified to fill, these issues would not have happened in the first place and now that they have, they would be mitigated.

Fast Company Redesign: Bust

I wrote an article about my experience with the Fast Company redesign. I revisited today and I am happy to report that the spam I wrote about has diminished. This time I have 599 items in My Feeds and I’ve been auto-subscribed to Robert Scoble’s blog. I understand populating the user with a couple of Fast Company items to get the person going and show the features available. Why Scoble’s blog, out of all the blogs available, is the auto-subscribe is beyond me. His blog isn’t even business related. Why isn’t Fast Company TV the auto-subscribe? Place Scoble’s blog amongst the others listed and let the user decide the off-network blogs they want on their feed page. Plus Scoble isn’t updating his blog with the quality he once was; there’s another reason to take it off of auto-subscribe.

I called this earlier and I’m saying it now. There is no way Scoble will be able to continue this path of posting all over the internet, blogging, following 17K people on Twitter, etc. He’s going to say he’s burned out (again) and he’ll have to make a choice. Don’t be surprised if the blog wins since it draws an income.

Fast Company auto-subscribed me to Scoble’s blog and some Fast Company pages but my Contacts page was blank. Puzzling because one would think “someone” from Fast Company would be a contact, even if I decided to remove the person later. I suppose this shows the focus for the company. Loading up with feeds is more important than interacting with people in the company.

I stand by my original review and the site hasn’t changed much since I last visited it. I bet if I pulled a traffic graph it would show a decline in traffic since the redesign launched. My point being: there are very simple things that could be done to improve the browsing experience for the end user, eventually leading to a more traffic, more interaction, etc.

Robert Scoble – Managing Isn’t His Thang

I understand why Fast Company decided to launch Fast Company TV. I understand why they hired Robert Scoble to be a part of it. Scoble is the Managing Director of Fast Company TV. I honestly believe he’s too busy following the web to focus on “managing” the important things. For example, when Shel approached Scoble to do videos, why would Scoble pick Shel over an experienced person in video? Budget? Friendship? It does not matter, the blunt truth: Shel isn’t ready for video and as Managing Director (and friend) Scoble should have gracefully told Shel that and either nixed the idea or trained him.

Scoble doesn’t have the Manager mentality, which requires the very basic principle of thinking before reacting. Scoble and I had this discussion almost three years ago, and he hasn’t changed. Why would Fast Company place someone in a managerial position (without strict supervision) when it is not their strength? Managing is not Scoble’s strength and this is being proved by:

• The drama is still going on.
• Scoble doesn’t really know how to handle the situation (which isn’t bad in itself but nothing is being done about it either).
• He’s traveling all over the place, putting videos up on Qik while the site is not being properly updated. What exactly IS the video editor doing 8 hours a day?
• Companies are waiting a long time to get their videos aired and the companies receiving the Qik videos aren’t receiving the production quality or Fast Company “brand”.

A good person, placed in a position that isn’t his strength.

Shel Israel – The Branding Nightmare Begins

Yes, he doesn’t own the ShelIsrael.com domain. Yes, he’s being laughed at. Yes, his initial videos sucked. Yes, he’s improving. All of this was bound to happen because it was a nightmare waiting to happen.

Shel wrote Naked Conversations with Scoble. If you go back far enough it was called The Red Couch, that is where Shel’s domain URL came from (redcouch.typepad.com). The title changed to Naked Conversations, the domain was registered and parked/redirected to redcouch.typepad.com. New project, Global Neighbourhoods and Shel registered the .net version of the domain and redirected it to redcouch.typepad.com. Not once did the domains stand on their own merit, they were always co-mingled into redcouch.typepad.com, which Shel does not own. Before that domain it was ItSeemsToMe.typepad.com (and yes, redcouch.com and itseemstome.com were both registered by someone else when this went on).

Shel never had a clear brand in the first place. You can’t lose something you never had, can you?

Now would be the time to get one and he doesn’t need ShelIsrael.com to do it. Now would be the time to get his “house” in order, nip this stuff in the bud once and for all, and move on.

Shel seems like a nice guy, he really does. It’s time for Shel to create his own identity. Look at the video he did about Global Neighbourhoods. The first sentence, “Hi, I’m Shel Israel. I’m the co-author of a book I wrote with Robert Scoble”, like it’s his identity or the best thing he’s done (and yes he’s writing an e-book with Scoble and he’s at Fast Company TV because of Scoble so I can see why he makes statements like that – Scoble is every where). Right after that, he said that Global Neighbourhoods looks at the impact of social media on business and cultural. The goal of the project:

Global Neighbourhoods TV has very few of the answers, but it will continuously present to you examples of people, companies and institutions who are achieving some of the answers.

Well, the irony is that Shel is his own best story of how social media can impact a company and a brand. Yes, this issue impacts Shel’s personal brand but, because his personal brand is attached to his revenue streams, it impacts his business brand as well. There were hurdles from the start and it would have helped if the project had a stronger foundation.

Then Shel did something I can’t believe he did…he asked Loren for the domain back.

shelisrael : @1938Media You’ve had your fun at my expense. Why won’t you just give me the domaine? Why are you doing this?

The equivalent of begging. His friends are trying to come to the rescue and asked Loren to give the domain back. It’s really sad to see because Scoble and Shel are honestly baffled on how to deal with Loren.

Shel: You don’t need the domain.

Haven’t Heard a Word From Fast Company

Well, they’ve been pretty quiet about this publicly. Perhaps because they are unsure how to deal with the issue as well. Perhaps they thought it would die out on its own. It’s not that I expected an official statement or anything, but more like an iron fist. You know like:

• Scoble, we’re sending someone else to Israel, get the footage you need, while you straighten this mess – you created – out.
• There is no point in shooting more footage when things are backed up
• Why is there a work-flow issue? How can it be resolved?
• Is there a better way to shoot the videos so the editing process is easier?
• These videos are NOT up to our quality standards. Fast Company has a brand to maintain, never forget that.
• Shel, this is how you deal with Loren….

And the true irony in this situation? The latest Twitter from Scoble:

Scobleizer: I’m off to Israel. Will be on the 12:59 flight to London FLT:4490. Then on FLT:761 from London to Tel Aviv. See ya on the other side.

This Is Business – Stop Making It Personal

About the pleas for Loren to give the domain back. Time to join the real world. This is business and only the strong survive. The world doesn’t spin around the ShelIsrael.com domain. Let it go, it’s gone, and thankfully, Shel really doesn’t need it.

Perhaps Shel’s friends think they are helping by asking Loren to give the domain back but it only fuels the fire. Again, if people thought about their actions more instead of acting on impulse, the risk would not be worth it.

Friends and business usually do not mix and this is a very good example as to why. Feelings, compassion, etc. get in the way of making wise (and unfortunately tough) business decisions. To resolve this situation one has to do the very tough job of detaching, looking at the big picture, and forming a long-term strategy to address the branding issues that were there long before this puppet drama ever started. To step back and see how Fast Company TV can come back strong and thrive.

Contrary to popular belief, all publicity isn’t good publicity. If you felt that way, put yourself in Shel’s shoes. Would you feel good right now? Being the butt of the joke (people laughing at you) is different than telling the joke (people laughing with you), isn’t it?

What Now?

There are ways out of this for them, it’s not that difficult. I honestly wish Shel the best of luck, I hope everything works out for his show and Fast Company TV. But let me be clear: there are ways to turn this negative situation into a positive even if Loren kept the domain.

1) They have an unrealistic goal they couldn’t achieve unless a miracle happened.
2) They don’t accurately determine what their true goal is…and stay truth to that path.
3) They don’t have the consistent determination to make the goal a reality.

An unrealistic goal is a dream – something that’s not going to happen. Wishful thinking. A waste of time that ends up in frustration. But guess what? If you don’t accurately determine your goal you’re chasing your tail…a dream, that will leave you frustrated.

You know this is where I give you an example, right?

This weekend while I was in the store, a woman decided to pass the time talking to me about whether she should stand in another long line and play a lottery number. She was thinking if she went with the long-term payments option she would increase her odds of winning, but she said she’d love to hit and be rich, talking about some celebrity that was on the cover of a magazine in the isle. If she took the payment over time option she would have disposable income but she would not be “rich”. Sure, she could sell her rights to the payments and get a lump sum, losing a ton of money in the process. If she wants to be rich payment over time doesn’t achieve her goal does it?

Let’s put this in terms of blogging. I hear all the time a person state the desire to have a successful blog or someone describes their blog as successful. What makes a blog successful? How well known it is? The amount of traffic it has? The amount of times it was linked to? Where it comes up in search results on Google? The reputation of the owner? When someone says they want a successful career is it the income they make, their reputation, or their title in the company that makes them successful? Robert Scoble wrote about a woman he bumped into who just loves Fake Steve Jobs (FSJ):

Last week I was getting an iced latte at the new Peets in Half Moon Bay. I was wearing a Blogger T-shirt. Old school. There a lady came up to me and asked “is that the Fake Steve Jobs T-shirt?”

I remembered that FSJ published his blog on Blogger and figured the Blogger logo was confusing this lady who assumed it was FSJ’s logo. Blogger, as you know, is the blog service from Google which was started by Evan Williams, er, evhead.

Anyway, I explained to her that the logo wasn’t really Fake Steve Jobs, but rather the tool he published with. Demonstrates that there’s a lot of brand power in Fake Steve Jobs.

As she walked away she said “I love Fake Steve Jobs.”

FSJ has an audience. He has traffic. He even has a reputation as FSJ. Is he successful? Sure…if you call having a large group of people “loving” you but not knowing who you “really” are (even when it was disclosed on your site), while you help build the brand of another company successful…yes indeed he is. Seriously, he has a book, with his name on it and the woman still didn’t know who he was. For kicks I started asking people if they heard of FSJ and if they had, what his name was. No one knew his name (but many heard of FSJ) and the reality: many people would be happy having the traffic and “success” even if people didn’t know their name. On the flip side, many people would not be satisfied.

When a person wants to own a Porsche 911 Carrera S Carbriolet do they want the car, the status the car brings, or to have enough disposal income to afford spending $94K on a car? If a person wants the Porsche bad enough they will work four jobs and will streamline their expenses (in other words do whatever it takes) to get the car. Realistically, it might take a couple of years to get it but the hard work and consistent focus pays off with the joy the person feels driving it off the lot.

A person wants to lose weight but when it comes to doing what needs to be done to lose the weight they fail. Why? Lack of determination. A person with a goal without determination is dreaming. The goal of losing weight becomes a dream. Or wants straight A’s but hanging out with friends took priority over studying. Or wants to write 3 articles a day but only two a week are published.

At one time I wanted to have a nightclub. My parents had one, I enjoy dancing and having my own business…seems like a good fit doesn’t it? One problem: I enjoy being mobile. I enjoy not being attached to a specific location. I need a computer and an internet connection…I’m good to go. A club, well, that’s different isn’t it? I would have to delegate responsibility, oversee people, I wouldn’t be mobile and I wouldn’t be having fun on the dance floor if I’m the owner, would I? Of course not. I might enjoy my “work” but there is a difference enjoying yourself as a consumer and enjoying yourself (ie: on call) as the owner. As a consumer when I want to leave, I get in my car and go. As a responsible owner my job isn’t over when the club closes. My true goal? I want the socializing that a club brings (and other forms of socializing) without the overhead (expense, responsibility, etc.) a club would bring. Zeroing in on the true goal opened the door for me to start working on what I “really” want…and guess what? I’m still mobile.

An unrealistic goal can be altered to a realistic one. With time one can accurately determine what their true goal is. A person without consistent determination usually has to make a life change to achieve their goals.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if every certified A-lister, by convention, didn’t blog during the third week of every month. What if that idea caught on?

Yes Dave, that would be interesting…in an amusing but disastrous type of way.

1. Memeorandum wouldn’t update for a week (and sites like them).
2. Many non-bloggers would have nothing to read. Imagine no Boing Boing (they are all A-list bloggers), Scripting, Tech Crunch, Robert Scoble, Om Malik…;the list goes on.
3. Bloggers wouldn’t have anything to write about and would *gasp* have to create some original content. Not that many don’t but the vast majority point to…;you guessed it, A-listers. Hell, if Dave hadn’t written his entry, I wouldn’t be writing this one.

That’s the way it works.

The above scenario doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be quality content to read. Good luck finding it though. Technorati’s top searches would be filled with “how the internet went dead”. Think about it…;if they “really” stopped blogging for a week – there goes a big chunk of content for sites like ZDNET, CNET, Slashdot. And it would only get worse with services like BlogBurst, taking blog content and pushing it to traditional publishers.

This caused me to look at my entries a bit to see how this would affect me. I have a good balance of linking to A-listers, small blogs and creating original content. Keeping it real, that was not always the case. Looking back there are many entries where I looked in FeedDemon, something an A-lister wrote sparked my interest and I wrote about it…;like the A-List Shuffle entry. Almost a year to the day people were complaining that Dave is stingy with links.

Hello! Black woman, non-A-Lister was linked to by Dave. Again. Sorry, couldn’t resist.

I’d like to see the A-listers stop blogging just to see the impact it would have on the net, but it’s highly unlikely that would happen. Too much money would be lost that week.

I miss my RSS reading. Reading RSS makes me smarter, not snarkier. Why? Cause I choose who I’m going to read. Pick smart people to read and you’ll get smarter.

Hint, the smartest people in my RSS are usually the least snarky. Why? Cause they could give a f**k about all the traffic.

Welcome back Robert.

Don’t get me started on snarky writers. I dropped every snarky blog from my blogroll a couple of weeks ago. I love to learn and I noticed the only thing snarky people create is drama. I detest drama. I also detest traffic whores. I don’t write for traffic, I write because I have something to share. I understand from a business standpoint where monitoring numbers is necessary. I found that when I focus on the content and enjoy myself the traffic comes, no matter how much I shy away from it.

Another problem I run into (and why it’s time for another blogroll shuffle) is my definition of “news”. Some sites stray from their subject category, one of the reasons why I put hard sections on NTG. I have a large blogroll (playing with Newgator Outlook Beta 2 right now and it says 750 and I don’t have them all in there yet) so if a small percentage of sites stray off topic that’s a lot of noise per day.

I subscribe to Memeorandum, Digg, Newsvine but I will never give up my RSS feeds. I don’t need a service to filter my content and I’m pretty good at finding new blogs to read…or they find me. That’s the way blogs work.

It seems a kid was real enthusiastic that he got his hands on a Xbox 360’s developers kit and decided to brag about it, then post pictures for proof. When the validity of the pictures were challenged he decided to post his step-father’s business card. His step-father is (was – not sure if he still has a job) the new Regulatory Compliance Manager for Microsoft. It will be interesting to see if the step-father keeps his job.

UPDATE 7/21/05:

Robert Scoble confirmed that the kid who posted pictures of himself playing his step dad’s Xbox 360 are real:

I have a few friends over on the Xbox team. It’s real, turns out and was not a “planned PR event” as one of them put it to me. As of last night the kid’s dad still had a job.

It also will make comments unnecessary. Why? Because there are systems coming that’ll match up – in minutes – a main post and all the comments being made about that post.

Then he made a post requesting input for those who are blogging badly.

Turning off comments would be blogging badly – it stops the conversation. Of course, if he turns off comments in my opinion, his blog is no longer a blog, it’s a website. So I hope his blogging book has the difference between a web site and a blog in it.

And yes, blogs are about conversation, which Robert would be slowing down without comments. Even with the technology he’d be slowing the conversation down because unless this new technology addresses people without web sites, that leaves out a large number of people being able to express their opinion.

And that is what makes no sense to me. Robert said on his blog:

But, when you see this thing (probably a couple more months) you’ll see that all you need to do to leave a comment on my blog is to have a blog yourself and link to it.

Don’t bloggers (and especially businesses) want to hear from people who don’t have web sites? There are more people without web sites than have web sites…so it makes zero sense to me why he would want to shut these people out. Their opinions are valuable.

Unless he’s banking on people like me who believe in comments and perhaps might write about what he said and he can read the comments elsewhere. Very different though that talking directly to the blogger. That was the appeal – it’s what made him popular:the ability to converse directly with a Microsoft employee.

I just find it ironic how many contradicting statements were posted in one day.

I agree with what Cameron wrote, Robert has a lot of value and the employees who haven’t heard of Robert “should” have. Well, developers and PR employees should know him, no real excuse why they shouldn’t. I could see how non-technical employees might not have heard of him. That is not what this post is about though. It’s about Robert’s worth to Microsoft.

There is no doubt that he is valuable but this is what most corporations fear…an employee having that kind of power. Why? What if the employee leaves the company? If Robert left Microsoft his readers would continue to read him and the new company instantly gains a valuable employee. Corporations usually don’t like to put their eggs in one employee, which is why ad agencies are a neutral solution. Microsoft’s most popular voice would be gone and it would be hard to find a replacement. If a replacement was found it would take time for the new blogger to gain a reputation and more important earn the respect and trust of the readers.

Honestly, Microsoft can afford to take a hit like that because there are so many sites devoted to writing only about Microsoft. Most companies don’t have that advantage. A smaller company experiencing the same dilemma could be devastated. It’s too big of a risk to take. Especially since it is much easier for a smaller company to lose their blogger to a bigger company offering more money.

As the blogging phenomenon continues it will be interesting to see how many companies allow one or two employee to have that much power. if they do, it will be interesting to see the impact on the company.

1) I put all FeedBurner feeds in their own category. If FB goes down, I can ignore that folder.

2) I put all link blogs in their own category.

3) I cut out any feed that uses an excerpt of their post as a indication of what the feed is about. 90% of the time the first 20 words don’t cut it. Heck on a lot of blogs the first 100 words don’t get it. Make a description on what the post is about, with a proper heading. If I must deal with feeds that are not full-feeds, then a description works for me better than the first X lines.

#3 dropped my blogroll down considerably. Made room for me to find more goodies!

4) If there isn’t a identifiable name (blogger) on the site I toss it. It doesn’t have to be a real name, I understand the need for anonymity, but I will no longer refer to a blog by blog name unless it is a group blog.

5) If a feed does not properly attribute the source of the information, I unsubscribe. Which meant quite of the Weblogs, Inc. blogs got dumped. They give attribute on the site but not on the RSS feed – which means anyone reading the RSS can never click over to the source unless they go to the particular blog. That’s low down to me, sorry…and I won’t help other blogger lose out like that.

6) A feed that had ads on anything but full content. Ads on descriptions or teasers don’t work for me, sorry.

7) With very few exceptions (like niche blogs for example trade show blogs) I deleted feeds that were not updated within 30 days.

I’m still not done. It surprised me how many blogs I read but really didn’t know the person by name. The information was there on an about page or something but because the name is tucked away somewhere, I don’t associate the blogger’s name with the blog, I associate the title of the blog with the blogger. That’s not good. Now my blogroll will have the person’s name…that’s what is important right?

I also noticed that the quality of my feeds improved. I didn’t realize how much stuff I didn’t read because it wasn’t presented properly (to me). I feed as though I enjoy reading the categories I’ve completed.

That’s the beauty of RSS – I can subscribe/unsubscribe and tailor my reading list exactly the way I want it. What works for me might not work for you.