Jason Murphy

Website Producer

Wow, am I ever faced with a dilemma. I use this site to talk about my views on business, marketing, and technology. I also write about personal issues and struggles on occasion. Sometimes, I just write what I feel.

This is fine and all for a personal blog. But as I continue to push my personal brand into a more focused set of topics, I’m often faced with the problem of deciding what content goes where. I have just completed a fantastic article for this site. I’m talking about highly linkable, highly baitable content here. This article came out of nowhere, and is a fantastic resource for affiliate marketers. But… I didn’t post it because I wondered if the message fit the purpose of this blog, or if it would fit better elsewhere.

True, I work for an affiliate network. So one could assume that an article on affiliate marketing would be a natural fit for my site. That would be a fair assumption as far as I’m concerned, except that I’m not sure I want my site to become a site that’s mostly about affiliate marketing. What do I want it to become? I’m still figuring that out. I don’t want it to be about a single topic really. I want it to be a place where those who appreciate my opinion can read about how I feel about different topics.

I’m in the process of launching a website about becoming successful. How you define success is up to you, but the website will incorporate tips and strategies on how to create habits that lead to general success. Success strategies about health, wealth, friendships, families, self help, knowledge, and a few others will be represented there.

This article I wrote about affiliate marketing, this HIGHLY VIRAL article, I feel will be better served as a springboard to help launch my new site. I actually have 4 additional high quality articles either planned or already started. They were originally conceptualized for posting here on my personal site, but will end up on this new site instead.

So what do I do with my personal site? Obviously I’m going to write about things that I feel my friends and family would appreciate reading. I’m also going to pass on things that I think are pretty cool, even if I’m just adding some noise to the blogosphere by writing about trend topics.

But my personal brand? What will people know me for when hear the name “Jason Murphy”? What about that? There’s a few ways I could go…
Seperate The Content

I think an excellent example of maintaining a personal blog alongside an industrial blog comes from Danny Sullivan. Danny keeps things personal for his friends and families (and fans) at Daggle.com, while remaining the authoritative voice for the Search Engine Industry at Search Engine Land. His personal blog covers everything from building tree houses, playing Xbox 360, and traveling. His industry site has a few staff writers, including himself, that write about anything to do with Search Engines, SEOs, and Social Networking sites. He maintains a respectable balance between the two different sites.

Another blogger who I respect that keeps it separated (isn’t that a song?) is Jarrod Hunt. To some, it appears this man wears too many hats. He has his personal blog where he discusses politics, his recent projects, marketing, technology, etc. Then he has several project sites where he either writes or is editor for specific industrial topics for each project.

Be An Aggregate

A almost opposite example of personal blogging comes from Jason Calacanis. He really only has one well known site that he provides an editorial voice on, and that’s Calacanis.com. His is a blog that blend’s his industry insider voice with his “day-in-the-life-of” perspective. He’ll be writing about good and bad business models one minute, while posting about his weight loss goals the next. He loves to strike up controversy with bloggers and social bookmarkers for the publicity, while providing follow-up content to help persuade a reader towards a new business venture he may be involved in (this pattern has worked with WIN, Netscape, and so far, Mahalo).

Another example of a blended personal blog would be ShoeMoney. Jeremy is also known for speaking his mind, and he has an audience in the tens of thousands. His next post may contain strategies to increase traffic to website. Or its just as likely to be about the latest UFC bout and who he thinks is going to win. Regardless of what he posts, you never doubt that he’s truly saying how he feels about a topic.

And my final example of a blended blogger would be Matt Cutts. He has the urge to write about his cat or what books he’s reading or the latest Linux trick he’s learned. But he also finds himself with a large responsibility of unofficially corporate blogging for Google. He’s often educating business and SEO’s on the dos and don’ts of proper SEO etiquette. He also is constantly presenting feedback from webmasters to different teams within the large company. But he loves his cat, and sometimes he just feels compelled to post pictures of it.

LOL, cat.

• Today is Day 18 out of 30 for My Own Thirty Day Challenge.