Business blogging tips and news for professional bloggers

As promised yesterday, here is my answer to the simple question, "What do you do all day long for work?"

I couldn't answer that question the same way every week.  The exciting (and sometimes scary) truth is that my job is always changing.  As an associate editor for Know More Media (KMM), my tasks seem to be growing as quickly as the network itself.  Fortunately I am blessed with extremely intelligent bosses and coworkers who make my workdays fly by.  It is a demanding but oh so rewarding job!

So what do I do all day long?  Well, here's typically how I spend my time:

1. Reading - I read a ton.  (I've got stories to tell about reading gluttony.)  First, I try to read every single KMM post and even the comments and trackbacks that appear at many of our posts.  This is not a passive activity.  We now have more than 30 authors spitting out dozens of posts per day.  I suspect that by the end of 2006 we may be publishing a few hundred posts per day.  Also, our conversation index as a network is quickly approaching the magic number of 1, meaning that we will soon have more comments and trackbacks in our system than blog posts.

Besides reading what gets published at KMM, I also go through a bunch of RSS feeds every day.  I currently use Newsgator and have around 300 feeds.  I haven't read through them all in a few days, so I've got a couple thousand posts to breeze through at the moment.

Why do I spend so much time reading?  Because I want to learn what is happening in the world that relates to Know More Media and its efforts.  It's not just reading; it's scanning or searching assiduously.

2. Tracking - I spend some time each day monitoring how our network is doing in terms of visitor traffic to our blogs.  I also try to look out for websites or blog posts that others at KMM might find interesting or important.  We've already had some fun experiences where a bunch of us hop on over to someone else's blog and leave comments that hopefully add to the conversation happening there.  And I prepare regular reports for our company that show how we are progressing over time.

3. Supporting - I sometimes make changes to a blog post for formatting or other editorial reasons.  I help my fellow KMM bloggers learn the ropes of Movable Type (which I am still learning myself) and otherwise become better bloggers over time.  We're always thinking of ways to help our bloggers out so that their job is as easy and smooth as possible.  The more we help them share their expertise with others, the better.  So I help prepare new KMM writers to make their first posts, and I field any questions they have as they go forth with their blogging.

My favorite part of this job is the people I get to work with.  KMM's leadership is fantastic and our growing contingent of bloggers consists of a diverse group of keen individual minds.  I'm grateful for my friends here.

I encourage you to continue your blogging efforts.  Remember that if you work hard and work smart and never give up, you can and will accomplish wonders.

Now then, I'm sure you have questions about what I do.  Feel free to ask me anything!