Why isn’t everyone blogging?

That’s the question raised by Seth Godin in his 5000^th post.

All knowledge workers have something worth sharing.

Mr. Godin’s biggest surprise after 11 years of blogging?

That more people aren’t doing this. Not just every college professor (particularly those in the humanities and business), but everyone hoping to shape opinions or spread ideas. Entrepreneurs. Senior VPs. People who work in non-profits. Frustrated poets and unknown musicians… Don’t do it because it’s your job, do it because you can.

Audit CPAs – read through your management letters. I’ll bet you can find lots of ideas that lots of people in your target market could learn from to make their organization better.

Tax CPAs – how many thousands of little tidbits are there in the tax code that need a short explanation? Make things above the tidbit level a multi-post discussion. Something moderately complex could produce material for a dozen posts. Include all the disclaimers you want, keep the discussion generic and you could write for years. You’d never run out of “now if you change this variable…” discussions. 

Professors – you don’t have to expand the boundaries of professional knowledge with every post.  I’ll bet there are one or two ideas in every lecture that could be expanded to a 400 word discussion that would help your students.

Consultants – how many dozens of tips could you share that would help organizations improve? Would also show how many other things you know.

Anyone in the business world – open today’s Wall Street Journal or Economist or Financial Times. Tell me with a straight face there aren’t at least three articles for which you have a considered professional opinion that would expand the discussion.

Anyone in the nonprofit world – you know your sector better than anyone. There are lots of stories of the challenges, hurting people, healing, changed lives, and great results that no one else knows about.

Not every post has to be a touchdown. Just move the ball forward.

Just talk about your field of expertise.

That’s all blogging is – talk about what you already know.