Why spend your time contributing when you could be earning money? There are good reasons to contribute to the online discussion in your field without charging a fee as there are rewards to be had, both intellectual and financial.
With the Web 2.0 explosion of interactivity and the potential to make your voice heard comes a challenge for all to be involved with online communities in their particular academic or industrial profession. Quality contributions to an online discussion can get you noticed as much as print or web advertising [both being very expensive] if you target the right audience with the right message. Also, the web is more democratic as a medium – the theory being that, if everyone in a community has a voice [and a PC] then those with something to say that really matters will eventually get heard or discovered independent of their status in their individual interests or professions. That’s the theory anyway.
I recently created a short news item for the Drawing Research Network called 6 Digital Drawing Experiments. This was essentially a collection of some of the research I had done into drawing and online experiments. When I say research, I mean the kind of informal searching for new and interesting design related websites I find by subscribing to design related RSS feeds through Google Reader and other paths and other related sites this may lead me to – I regularly scour the web for new and inspiring methods of digital drawing to learn from.
Why give free advice?
Why did I volunteer to freely spend this time providing others with content? Well, its simple and can be explained in 3 points that apply to blogs, forums or simply commenting upon someone elses work:
Reference. There is nothing like getting your head around a topic and clarifying your thoughts by writing them down – especially when there is potentially a large readership should the web community decide it is of value. The article is written both for my own benefit and the benefit of others interested in this area too.
Status. Do people rate what I have written? Well, maybe they want to see more of the same quality and may click on my own sites to see what else I do in the field of design – therefore this is an investment in potential future clients as well as impressing current clients who want to see that you are actively keeping up with what is going on in the world.
Community. Are there others out there who want to form collaborations, swap ideas or share similar information? By contributing to relevant blogs you can help connect with others.
What guidelines should I apply to my contributions?
Quality. Only create articles that you know are accurate, informative and contain a reasonable level of detail on the subject you are describing – ask yourself “What do I expect my readers to gain from this article? What insight or new information am I bringing to them? Could I assist presentation by using video or images or should the text be the only medium to convey the message. This sounds like common sense but there are many blogs out there full of very bland uninformative articles. Simplicity is good – over simplifying the content is not good.
Quantity. Establish an approximate and suitable typical interval between your articles. I typically leave around 2-3 weeks between each article on this blog as I feel it is healthy to stop and think about design objectively at these intervals. I learn and I hopefully help people to gain insight from my experiences and knowledge.
Objectivity. Having a personal agenda, opinion and direction is good but watch what you say online as this can be misinterpreted or simply not understood – at worst you could gain a bad reputation or simply be ignored altogether. I always assume I am talking to one of my clients meaning that my focus is upon helping them to understand a design related concept, acting professionally and ultimately gaining their respect.
Where to start?
The best way to START contributing is to STOP. Stop and look around at the way others are contributing and the types of contributions they are making to online conversation. This is useful for gaining an idea of what readers find valuable, the conventions for writing for different audiences and for forums or Twitter rather than blogs [or other typical web technologies] and the typical style of content. Once you feel comfortable and passionate about contributing then go ahead. If you don t feel like writing a whole article you may feel inspired to write a short response in a comments box on the site.
Tip
Remember that the web has a good memory. If you decide to criticise others then this should be done in a professional manner and assume that your comments are permanent. Excessive or malicious criticism is never respectable and if you are that critical then maybe you should move on in your reading or remove the RSS feed from Google Reader altogether! It’s all about professional conduct and doing to others as you would wish them to do to you really – if it needs explaining further then you probably shouldn’t be contributing to blogs or forums 
Good Luck!
One Response
Nice article Pete! Thanks for sharing