Hello World

I’ve run into John Saddington’s online presence on a few occasions. The latest was his blog on the effectiveness of sponsoring the Daring Fireball blog. While reading that post, I clicked into a few other posts (e.g.) and he’s convinced me to start blogging.

I haven’t consistently blogged for all the same reasons any of us non-bloggers haven’t — time constraints and fear. I’m busy and I’ve never been good at prioritizing writing over many of the other responsibilities I choose to spend my time pursuing. But, I agree with John’s belief that blogging can change my life through new connections, relationships, and opportunities. It will be with that idea that I’ll try to whip up a new post daily.

I’m also going to use Lift (I choose to ignore its new name, Coach.me) to help me make blogging a habit. I won’t be writing quality posts every day (props to @jason for his new habit), but I will be typing and publishing on a daily basis, even if only a few short paragraphs about how my kids are dorks.

Regarding fear, I don’t want people to judge me as dim and uninteresting — an immature fear, but a fear nonetheless. If I am to write a daily blog post, I’m certain some of my dim and uninteresting thoughts will leak into the blog so I’ve come up with a strategy to overcome my fear and get started blogging.

I will be setting up two blogs. The first blog will be a conventional one where I post writing that I think has some merit. In the first several months, I don’t expect to post often to this blog. But, I hope it will become my only blog in the years to come as I hone a craft that I’ve largely ignored.

Short term, I will host this blog on Medium. I’ve really enjoyed reading and posting on Ev William’s creation. I posted there a few times after receiving an early invite and was blown away when the site helped me get almost 2,000 readers for my first post. Once I find my blogging stride, I’ll crosspost on Medium and my personal website, jaredmalan.com.

The second blog will be little more than a private journal that I leave open. I’ll add a beta moniker to this second blog with the hopes that any readers will be patient with the inattention to grammar and over exuberance for my kids’ lives.

We live in a special time when our voices can be carried much further than the place where we stand. It’s a huge missed opportunity to not participate in the global conversation. If you’d like to hear what I have to say you can follow me on Medium and Twitter. You can also take a peak into my dim and uninteresting life on my (beta) Tumblr.