To blog or not to blog? Joel Spolsky says no to blogging

Don't take Joel's advice. I mean that in a good way, that is, don't take it at face value.

You see, Joel is driving 2 main points (1) he doesn't need to blog anymore because he has all the exposure he needs, and (2) most startups do it wrong anyway, with blog posts about internal startup matters, etc that no one cares about.

The overall point is if you are going to blog, make it engaging so people keep coming back. For example, tie your startup to colorful commentary about your niche. But don't steal time away from building your startup.

It completely depends on what your objectives are for blogging.

SEO benefits within a company site, yes.

Dynamic communication with your customers and prospects, yes.

Ability to have somewhat of a conversation with customers/target audience, yes.

Help build yourself as an expert in a space, yes.

Differentiate from competitors, potentially yes.

Creative outlet for yourself, yes.

Magic "silver bullet" that's going to suddenly catapult your company to a leadership position, no.

Look at the benefits for your specific company in your industry and prioritize with all else that's got to be done for your business to succeed. If there are resources to get down on the list to where it resides, great. But I say don't just do it because everyone tells you that you must have a blog. Bullocks!

Best success,

I think the point that what's right for Joel now and you now are not the same has been covered; so let me come at this from a different angle: If you (and presumedly your startup) have value to share, are passionate about what you are doing and can help people, why not blog?

Approaching blogging as only an SEO tool won't work. Generously sharing what you're care about, and helping people is sustainable, enjoyable and from an enlightened self-interest point of view, works great.

I read Joel's post in Inc. magazine and I took it another way. He didn't say that blogging wasn't helpful, he said that blogging wasn't helpful for where he was currently in the growth of his business.

His blog was a great help to him when he was starting up his FogCreek business. It helped him connect with the community that his software was targeting. Most of his business was generated from his blog. However, as a result, his product became popular only among his readership, which were mostly tech professionals. That lead him to believe that since he focused on his blog other things suffered, such as marketing and sales. To fix that he believed that he should stop writing his blog and focus his attention on growing his company and product outside of the tech community.

My take away from this was that blogging makes sense when you're starting out. It helps with press relations, product release information and connecting with your community. I think at Fog Creek's status, it may not necessarily help any longer. Most tech personnel already know who Joel Spolsky, Fog Creek, and Stack Overflow are.

Fogbugz wouldn't be that popular, not even close if Joel wasn't blogging. nuff said?

If having a blog was useless for Joel, he'd delete it instead of leaving it up.

It's not useless.

Blogging about stuff no one cares about without a new voice and without purpose is, of course, useless, and sadly most blogs are like that.

But if you have a point, you have something to say, and you know what you want to get from it (and therefore can measure that to make sure you're making progress), then almost by definition it's a good idea!

It's "how" and "why," not "do/don't."

If you want to blog then do so, dont "not" do it because another blogger who happens to be known within a certain area of the web says that he wont be any longer.

At least with blogging (self hosted) you have control over it, unlike twitter, facebook etc.