Send Me Your Blogs, Yearning to Breathe Free…

My two boys, ages 3 and 8, enjoy doing many things together – including battling with lightsabers and watching sports with their dad (for a little while anyway). But what they enjoy most lately is taking hundreds of tiny plastic pieces of varying sizes, shapes and colors and turning them into amazing and creative Lego masterpieces.

They build things that roll, fly and shoot with an ingenuity that both impresses and makes me jealous. I usually end up building things like walls and towers. They are always kind, though, and encourage me with a “Wow, Dad, that’s cool,” as they buzz around me with a reasonable facsimile of the Millennium Falcon.

What is incredible to me about their creations is how a pile of seemingly random pieces can be combined to create something that inspires a young imagination. As we learned in high school, it is the principle of Gestalt in action – that the whole of something can be greater than the sum of its parts.

It is that principle that is driving my desire to create a Web site that serves as a launching pad for our area’s many blogs, most of which are relegated to relative obscurity. I would offer this blog as an example. With a regular readership of around 100, it is reaching some people, but I have received just enough positive feedback to convince me that more might be interested if they knew about it.

And I am not alone. There are local blogs on life as a state worker, movies, Seminole sports, clipping coupons, politics, raising children, marketing tips, recipes and many more. But how do people find them? For most bloggers, readership remains stagnate because they barely have enough time to write them, much less aggressively promote them.

My idea is simple. I am creating a Web site that connects Tallahassee-area residents to the dozens of smart, insightful and creative bloggers in our area. The concept is based on the idea that the collective strength of the small, faithful readerships of each blog listed will create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Readers will be exposed to a new universe of possibilities on the site, which will increase readership for all.

To be fair, the Tallahassee Democrat offers blogging opportunities on its site, but there is a fundamental difference. I am not asking anyone to create a new blog on this site, only to allow me to point people to your already existing blog. You don’t have to change anything. I will even give you some advice on using one of the free services to start a new blog, if you are interested. Just email me. Blogs are a great way for business people to share expertise, comment on timely issues and offer best practices – all while building your brand and increasing awareness of what you do.

What I ask in return for being listed is that bloggers encourage their readers to check out the mother ship with a link that I will be providing so they can read other local blogs of interest.

As of today, everything will start from here while we work on building the site, which will be at www.blogahassee.com. I will let you know when the new site is up and running. So please send me your blogs (dave@salestouches.com) and forward this to your blogging friends. I am willing to consider all blogs that are written in good taste and are appropriate for a family-friendly site.

Thank you in advance for your help in making blogahassee.com a success.