The award for the worst article about blogging this month goes to Forbes


Times are tough in the mainstream media, but this tough?

Tara Weiss at Forbes writes in Blogging Your Way Into A Job that you should “Set yourself up as an authority on the work you do” because “It’s easy”…. and I should mention, that’s before the first word in the article.

Some of the gems she shares include (paraphrased unless indicated), my response in italics:

  • Times are tough for jobs, so you should start a blog where you make out that you’re an expert to give yourself an edge
    if you’re out of a job, anything is worth a shot. But making out your an expert when you’re not has risks.
  • Blog posts should be “short and conversational.” No more than 500 words, 3-4 times a week
    Yep, because nothing says expert like short posts on a subject
  • I can’t paraphrase this :”It’s a small amount of work that will likely impress recruiters and hiring managers, because it shows you to be enthusiastic and engaged with your industry. It also makes you look like an expert in your field.”
    see point one. Anyone can write, it doesn’t make them an expert.
  • Doing this means you’ll come up first in Google (wait until the next part for context)
    No it doesn’t
  • You should set up a free blog on WordPress.com or Blogger. If you can afford it, consider a paid TypePad account (no mention of buying a domain name)
    Because nothing says expert like a Blogger blog and Blogspot URL.
  • “For the blog’s title, use your name exactly as you use it professionally, unless someone’s already taken it.” (no mention of buying a domain name)
    So if someone already has it, how will you rank for you name exactly?

Then we get in to SEO territory.

  • On SEO: “Make the blog as visible as possible. Search engines tend to list blogs high up in search results, usually within the first few pages in a search of someone’s name. That’s because blogs tend to have links to other blogs or news stories, and links influence search ranking. So link to other blogs.”
    Um…no. Incoming links are the primary driver of Google juice. Linking out is part of a strategy to get links in, but doesn’t deliver No. 1 in Google.
  • Insert the expert: “Other bloggers will find your blog, and they will in turn link to you,” says Demopoulos. “Bloggers love to link to one another. Google takes every link as a vote of confidence.”
    Yes, bloggers do like linking, but if you’ve got nothing interesting to say….

Content

  • “…set up a Google news alert to receive e-mails about stories with keywords from your industry. That way, you’ll get news about your field in your inbox automatically. Link to those articles on your blog, and write about whether you agree with them and why. Describe relevant professional experiences of your own. Predict how the matter at hand will affect your industry in the future.”
    because nothing says expert more than a blog that only rehashes external content
  • Insert expert: “”If you can write an e-mail, you can start a blog,” says Lynch.”
    true, but that won’t make it any good.

There’s more, but I don’t want to make this post too long.

As a general idea, what Weiss is trying to relate isn’t wrong. Blogging about something you have expertise in is a great way to promote yourself online. Setting up a blog is easy as Weiss suggests, but that’s where the accuracy stops.

Establishing a blog, having it read, and finally getting it to rank high in Google is NOT easy for someone entering the space for the first time. It takes work, experience and experimentation to get it right. The idea that this could be done on a Blogger blog without a domain name is just bizarre and possibly one of the worst lines I’ve ever read in an article about blogging, at least in the mainstream media.

The biggest part missing was the most important part: the need to promote your blog. There was mention of sharing it on social networking profiles, but that doesn’t cut it if you’re looking to establish yourself as an expert. Linking out to other blogs when you’re only rehashing news from other sites alone doesn’t cut it either. My sincere hope is that not too many people read the piece and take the advice seriously without at least doing some other homework first.

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