Read Stuart's account of how his blog won over his job, at his post titled My Blog Rules.  Where the thrust is not on his story, but on insights with respect to benefits a company can get by hiring a blogger, and warning signals and 'rules' that you might wish to consider when being employed by a company.

From his post :

"After spending the last 10 days with my head applied to strategy in the Arizona desert for DiamondWare, I found that each day was another day where not blogging irked me. In the end my blog rules and both parties are going our separate ways. I found myself in a situation which was effectively taking my blog and voice away from me. That was never my intent, and my interest remains with building innovative new products at the intersection of social software, collaboration, VoIP and mobility......

....... If you were blogging and see yourself in a situation where the environments takes you away from it then consider what it means. Less accelerated learning, reduced access to external experts, and reduced profile. Blogs also test companies. Do they want to be closed rather than open? Will they run scared rather than lead? Etc. ......

.........I'd add there are enormous benefits for the organization that has the guts to acquire a free thinking dedicated blogger.

1. You will get someone who is likely to promote the category and the industry.
2. They will provide expert insights and capture inquiry and information from external sources.
3. They will 'play' with the thought leaders in the category in a trusted environment. Result - accelerated learning and access that can eventually lead to some level of promotion for the company's products
4. They bring visibility to the company's products and brands. As an employee you are likely to highlight strengths of your products. Robert Scoble does it so well. It does not stop him from commenting on and learning from other products or brands in the category. Benefit - tease and ease the process of truly communicating your offerings step by step, rather than a one-shot corporate webpage.

Blog Rules:

• For blogs to work there must be trust. Let it be a warning to you when an employer is critical of your blog, or implies that they must approve every post you make first.
• Blogs are strategic, but the messages must be personal. Planning out a blog strategy and topics in advance fails to account for the immediacy of the daily events and the need for responsiveness.
• Make sure the company is large enough to have "personalities" blogging --- otherwise own the company. The blogger is likely to become an important public face.
• Think through where the blog should be on what URL. Is it better at blogperson.com or under the corporate banner? What is best to harness the blogger and readers?

Warnings to other Bloggers:

• Your blog may be perceived as a personal asset and not a corporate one. You personal blog can become a corporate asset but only if the conditions above apply.
• Corporate positioning is a must. If the company isn't mature enough or is afraid to enable the blogger to talk about "category" developments then blogging will be difficult.
• If topics and content are limited then you may lose your friends, lose access to thought leadership and potential partnerships and associates for the company - or even simply good press.
• If the company fears balanced perspective on other products then you will find life difficult.
• Blogs require a time commitment, if you are not getting it or there is no time left over for it then it is not valued. My target has always been in the ten hours a week category. That includes the use of my newsreader. Make sure your employer signs off on the time commitment to the blog.
• If the company asks you when you will transfer your blog URL to the company then they really don't get it. "

Robert Scoble and Microsoft - one example, perhaps one of the most prolific of bloggers today - and his blog is at his personal url.  There are many others in this community who have retained their personal blogs after having joined organisations - Ton, Martin Roell, Lilia (not sure which came first the job or the blog in your case:)) or the case of Seb who needs funding from his organisation for sharing his research notes and insights through his blog (as i go to his blog to link his name to his url at this post - i find this neat quote staring me in the face - "In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."- Al Rogers).

Would be great to hear how they handle their personal blogs, what 'rules', what learnings.

Meanwhile, am happy my blog buddy is back :).  Missed the stories, insights and vision Stuart !

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