Book Report – the Blogging Church by Brian Bailey w/Terry Storch

Well I finally got a chance to finish this book and I’m so glad I did. Thanks to Pastor Kim Pagel (Associate Pastor of NCBC) for getting this book for me. The book started a little dry and that may have been why it took me a while to read. I started with a question that I got from the book and then picked up two big ideas. Here they are:

The question – In chapter 2 it looks at some key questions to answer an overall question – Why Blog? One of these key questions, “Is it a tool or a toy?” I agree with this idea and have asked it a number of times. It gave an example of how to do this, “we talked about this great new toy called a blog. We decided to wait. We continued to ask the tool-versus-toy question over the next couple of years until the answer started to change.” Now this is where my question came up – Why did they “continue” for a “couple of years” to ask this “tool-versus-toy question?” If I have a “toy” I usually think about it once in a while but I can’t think of a time that I moved something I thought was just a toy into a tool. This just intrigued me into thinking how many other things have I defined as a toy (or a tool) and now it might be a useful tool (or just a toy).

Big idea 1 – Link, link, link – and if I haven’t said it enough – LINK!! This was a big one for me. I’ve linked somewhat but not with a clear reason why except I thought it was the polite thing to do. Now I’ve learned that, “In the blogosphere, however, the primary currency is links…” I’m really excited about this one as I want this blog to be useful to my readers and myself. “Readers are loyal to blogs that introduce them to new ideas and cool people.”

Big idea 2 – If links are the currency – posts are the life blood of blogs. The need to post and to post often is important. “… the more frequently you post, the more traffic and readers you will attract.” I want to work on this more and get into a rhythm. I’m doing some of that but not “frequently.” With posting I need to be solid, transparent, and careful at the same time. Solid – my post need to be of good content, useful, and readable. Transparent – I need to share my life, let my readers see who Mark Eades is. I also need to be careful - “remember that posts are public and permanent.”

I like to blog and I want to get better at it. I hope that as I blog my skill at writing will improve and that this blog will become a tool in other’s hands and mine. My prayer is this.