Comments on: What I learned about Blogging from the U.S. Presidential Election

By: Michelle | The Biz Boutique

Michelle | The Biz Boutique — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 01:52:18 +0000

This is an excellent, inspiring article! Thanks for such a thoughtful approach. We recently launched our blog and are learning as we go. I guess everyone does, huh?

By: Valerie

Valerie — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:55:10 +0000

Trisha, this is an excellent article. I am a fairly new blogger (new but not young) and am also an introvert, so the social part of blogging is difficult for me.

I have been quite intrigued with the organization behind President Elect Obama’s campaign strategy so I found this post quite thought provoking and informative.

Thanks.

By: Michelle / chelpixie

Michelle / chelpixie — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:40:40 +0000

Obama’s story is remarkable from so many perspectives.

It’s not only an excellent from a blogging point of view, but also marketing, community management, evangelism.

Thanks for linking it up with blogging, it’s a story that everyone can relate to and easily apply to their own blogs.

By: Trisha

Trisha — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:03:50 +0000

Thank you all again for your comments! You are all so nice and encouraging! I don’t have that many regular readers, so I don’t get this many comments at my blog. I will have to print them all out so the next time I get frustrated with blogging, I will have something to encourage and motivate me!

By: The Geek Entrepreneur

The Geek Entrepreneur — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:48:04 +0000

Interesting way of looking at the past presidental race from a business perspective- especially in regards to the community aspect. Does a good job of illustrating the importance of building your audience and how important is to write for them- not necessarily yourself.

I did a similar post about what entrepreneurs can learn from President-elect’s Obama’s campaign which you can check out at http://geekentrepreneur.net/what-entrepreneurs-can-learn-from-president-obama%e2%80%99s-presidential-campaign/
which you might find interesting.

Wesley
The Geek Entrepreneur

By: Karen Swim

Karen Swim — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:19:20 +0000

Trisha, excellent parallels between blogging and politics. Blogging is our platform and like the candidates our supporters (readers) are looking to us as leaders. Each blogger must pick their issues and lead courageously.

By: Alister Cameron // Blogologist

Alister Cameron // Blogologist — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:15:52 +0000

Thanks for the link, Trisha.

You’re too kind :)

-Alister

By: uwak

uwak — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:58:46 +0000

great job….you can create nice articles from the fresh situation…and making it very valuable….thanks

By: Parth

Parth — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:44:19 +0000

Very inspirational and impressive post. I too have learnt a lot from this campaign. But I think what I really walked away was work ethic. Barack Obama’s life story is fascinating, and so is his drive, passion, and work ethic. I promised myself after election day that I would try to accomplish at least half of what Obama accomplishes in a day, and since then, my productivity has improved a lot and I have much greater mental clarity.

By: At Home with Kim Vallee

At Home with Kim Vallee — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:19:21 +0000

Trisha, others had said it but you never have too much compliments. I enjoy reading your insightful tips. I would add that as your blog evolves, you must take the time to update your story, while staying true to the original story.
Thank you Darren for inviting Trisha to be a guest blogger.

By: L.Singh

L.Singh — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:16:01 +0000

Great! Great and simple great article. I think this is one of the best article of this November 2008. Perhaps importance of the first point – 1.You need a story can’t be expressed in money terms. To the best of my knowledge it’s 100% true fact that all the successful politicians and blogger had their own story. Dareen Rowse story symbolizes “First Blogger of Australia making a great living by Blogging and earning in Six figure USD.” The Story of Indian Blogger Amit Agarwal is that “Founder and 1st blogger of India. Not even blogger but each and every successful webmaster had his own story, say it be the story of Orkut, You tube, Face Book or even the Great Google .Really story line matters.Anyhow My story is somethings like this “I am a cool guy, currently in the final year of graduation and blogging is my passion . I blog especially of content management system and on everything else which I feel is worth Blogging.”

By: 100 RSS Submission Sites for Blog Traffic

100 RSS Submission Sites for Blog Traffic — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 07:40:43 +0000

Interesting, I think a lot of things could have been learned from this historic election. Thanks for the great parallels!

By: Angel Cuala

Angel Cuala — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 07:27:34 +0000

I don’t want to create any malicious idea here, but this is fascinating. I made a post last Nov. 5 entitled – What Bloggers can learn from the 2008 US Presidential Election.

The content and subtitles are totally different, though. But it feels good that somehow, I can create posts that others can also think about.

Thanks!

By: Vinayak

Vinayak — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 04:56:36 +0000

“Accept that you will alienate someone. Step up and justify your opinions. Expect and respect opposing opinions.”

Absolutely true! If you don’t step up, there is a good chance you will end stop writing.

By: Ganesh

Ganesh — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 04:31:45 +0000

If the conversation gets too negative – try to turn it around and make it into a positive. When people booed as Obama mentioned McCain at a rally he told people not to boo – just vote.

Those were very great words. The same thing applies in blogging too. As Toma said, you can tell people why they should buy your product or tell them why your blog is better, but NEVER talk bad about your competition. That’s very important for a successful blogger.

By: Mike Martin

Mike Martin — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 04:31:44 +0000

Wow, this is an extremely interesting article. Great perspective on the election and how it relates to blogging. This is an extremely cool perspective and is essentially a look at human psychology. Great job on the article.

By: Juan Bielsa

Juan Bielsa — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 03:40:08 +0000

I agree basically on what you say.

But I’ll add another thing. Obama had a new mission, and he branded it very well: CHANGE. So Obama “was” (is) the future. McCain is an extraordinary person, no doubt, but he had inherited a “brand” in decadence (economic recession, the situation in Irak…) , he was the past, and his attempts to grasp the brand “Change” were obviously unsuccesful.

We all want to change for the better. Always. If the present is not so good, we absolutely want to change. In Spain, in the past, a very young Felipe González won an election with the same slogan: POR EL CAMBIO. CHANGE…

If you concentrate on a valuable mission (Obama), a new mission, if you focus all your efforts on it, if you know how to brand it effectively, if you can show absolute passion for your dream, then you can easily communicate that passion to people.

And I thing that applies to blogging.

From Spain,

Juan Bielsa

By: Jasmin Tragas

Jasmin Tragas — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 03:37:15 +0000

Thanks so much for this post. Your first point made me realise that my “about me” page didn’t tell my story at all! I’ve made a couple of changes already but you have certainly given me food for thought

By: FineandFrugal

FineandFrugal — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:28:28 +0000

Great thoughts on story. I’ve had lots of experience with story-focused newsletters, and people love how they can feel connected with story and even a larger narrative. For our new blog, the site arrises the commitment my wife and I to still have nice “dates” while raising three kids 3 and under and making less money than ever. It come out of a commitment to connection. You have other great thoughts which are extremely helpful to me as a new blogger.

By: Toma Bonciu

Toma Bonciu — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:55:33 +0000

Hi,

This article and what Obama did with his online activity are inspiring. It really shows the power that social media and a strong online community can have. The Obama’s presidential campaign was Positive and he never talked bad about his competitor.

He respected one of the golden rules on business blogging :”market your products, tell people why you have better products BUT NEVER TALK BAD ABOUT YOUR COMPETITION”. It will always turn on you.

I think that running a positive campaign both online and off line gave Obama a great advantage.