Scott Gould and Friends: A Whole New World

I’ve been thinking for some time about how to make a blog more social. The ‘I write and you read’ strategy works for well-known names like Seth Godin, but it doesn’t have the richness, application or networking value that blogs can have.

On the other side, you have community sites that are guest post after guest post, with a lack of any evolving narrative.

Hence, welcome to a middle ground: Scott Gould and Friends.

Whilst I write the posts, I do so from the comments that come from the friends who participate here. My role is to guide the conversation that happens here. And whilst there’s conversation happening on your blogs too, the people making this what it is are the Friends.

Not followers. Friends. We are not just mutually connected – we’ve entered into something that resembles genuine friendship, and that is a precious thing.

The core ideas behind this:

1. More emphasis on the community, because that is the real asset
2. A ‘Friends’ page where regular contributors can introduce themselves
3. Guest posts from Friends who have something to contribute
4. Comments treated as equal to blog posts in terms of value

This blog has always been ours. That’s just made more explicit now.