Ever on the search for examples of people who have taught themselves skills to greatly improve their earning power or quality of life, I came across this short profile of Mark Frauenfelder (co-creator of the boingboing.net blog) on the Wall Street Journal site. You don’t need to agree with the ideas and opinions on that blog to learn from his example of how to get knowledge and skills for greater income and independence. Here are some of the things I noticed about Mr. Frauenfelder’s approach to learning how to create, manage, and market a blog.
- He had to adapt his writing and publishing skills from a print-based to an online environment.
- He learned that more frequent blog posts generated more Internet traffic (which in turn leads to better marketing income opportunities).
- He learned that creating a lot of original content on his site was more effective than just being an aggregator site that linked through to other sites and articles
These turning point learning experiences could not have come to him through attending a class or reading a book. His success shows that you need learn quickly and effectively from your own successes and failures.
